JOURNEY #15 - July 20, 2002

PICTURES

Keenan In Almonte
Julie In Appleton

TRIP REPORT

   PART A: "Nice, But Impassable" (Mississippi, Blakeney South)
   PART B: "16km Of Fun In The Sun" (Mississippi, Almonte To Appleton)

Blakeney South

This was supposed to be one trip, but it turned into two, when the planned Blakeney-Almonte route came to a premature end with a series of impassable rapids.

The Blakeney trip would be great for an evening. It's just over 3km to the base of the rapids, and the 6.5km round trip took us about an hour and twenty minutes, not including our stop at the turnaround.

We took the backroads route to Blakeney after leaving the 417 at exit 163 (alternatively, you can simply head up County Road 17 from Almonte). You head west down Panmure Road. Look for Ridge Road on your left, and you will soon be in Blakeney and heading over the bridge. To the left after you cross the river you will find the launch site with room for about four cars. This is a sheet rock launch, which is on an angle and a bit slippery. When the water is higher, you can probably slide in from the grass.

We saw a couple of blue herons along the way, and there were lots of fish jumping for flies. The water is shallow most of the way. As you approach a small island to the left, you see the rapids up ahead. The water was very shallow below the first set of rapids, and we could not get very close. We went to the right and beached the yaks in a marshy area to take a closer look at the rapids. There is a flat rocky section where you can walk into the water and watch it cascading over a shelf. There were a couple of pooled areas here that might be good for fishing.

As we explored along the bank, there was a kayaker approaching another set of rapids further south, but he or she turned back towards Almonte. When we returned to the launch we were told by some canoeists that the one-way trip from Almonte to Blakeney is fantastic in May or early June, when it is possible to run the rapids. We don't imagine you can go through these in the upstream direction at any time of year.

Just below the launch are the Blakeney Rapids. There is a walking trail and a parking lot. It appears a popular place for fishing from shore or just enjoying the view. You can launch below the rapids as well, and head towards Pakenham, but we were told there are a few impassable shallows along the way, but you can probably just get out and walk through them.

The same folks that provided this information also suggested the trip from Almonte to Appleton, an excellent afternoon journey which is described below.

Almonte To Appleton

This is an excellent full afternoon round trip of about 16km, approximately 4 hours if you take a couple of breaks. To get to the launch site, take the 417 to exit 155 and go west on 49 into Almonte. Opposite the fire station is Water Street where you find the Almonte Fairgrounds. Drive into the fairgrounds and there is a small sandy beach which makes for an ideal launch. You can park within a few feet of the beach, and away you go, heading south. Do not go north past the bridge, as just on the other side is a big drop where the river runs through the old mill.

After just a few minutes heading south you will be out of the city. There is a trailer park on the east side, but don't be discouraged, once you are past this spot, there are few signs of humans on either bank until you get to all the way to Appleton. The river gets quite wide in a few places, but it is mostly shallow water, thus discouraging large powerboats.

Some of the wildlife we saw included a pair of gyrfalcons that moved up and down the river, sometimes flying low, and sometimes circling so high in the wind currents that they made us dizzy. At least, we think they were gyrfalcons...the only other possibility would be osprey, but the tips of the wings came to a relatively smooth point, which combined with the amount of white in the body seemed to make a gyrfalcon identification the most accurate option.

A number of boisterous kingfishers followed us along the shoreline, and we were lucky enough to run into a mom, dad, and baby loon. The chick was pretty mature, but was still receiving protection from dad, who attempted to lure us away by diving and calling to us (we had a similar experience on a prior Clyde River outing). We don't enjoy disturbing them, but the cries sure are beautiful. And of course we saw blue herons, about a half dozen. They were mostly very shy, although more vocal than those we have encountered before. There was somewhat of an amusing moment as one particular heron kept trying to evade us by heading south. The problem was, that's the same way we were going. Eventually he picked a landing spot that was already occupied by another blue heron, and a bit of a ruckus ensued, until the accidental interloper took off (south - again!) squawking as he flew.

It was a very hot day, and as we paddled into the bay at Appleton, we were hoping there might be a corner store in town for an ice cream or to replenish our water supply (we downed two litres by the end of the trip), but a helpful gent ("Frank") at the boat launch (a good one, by the way) who was just pulling out his canoe informed us that such amenities were not available until the next stop along the river which is Carleton Place, which would be a fairly short paddle from the other side of the dam. The Almonte side of the dam is pretty interesting, there were a number of people fishing and exploring the rocks in the area.

Frank had been fishing himself, and he said he caught 16 fish, mostly bass, but none longer than a foot so he did not keep any. We spotted a number of large bass jumping for their dinner, and also saw someone landing a three pound pike. At one point not far from Almonte Keenan was almost startled out of his yak by a HUGE snapping turtle. Frank told us these beasts can be found in enormous proportions in this area, and that they are best avoided.

We paddled a few hundred feet down towards the bridge just to complete the entire stretch before returning to the beach. Our total distance for the day between the two trips totalled somewhere around 23km, so we were grateful for the easy exit. Keenan's long legs were not cooperating so he simply tipped himself out of the cockpit until he unstiffened.

Almonte to Appleton is a perfect afternoon trip. The only thing we would do differently is bring a nice snack to eat at the dam in Appleton. We actually completed the round trip in under three and a half hours, but we were really moving on the way there as we usually like to make good time on the upstream leg, and we were really moving on the way back as we were out of water and getting a bit hungry.

Before leaving town we stopped in at the former site of the Peterson Ice Cream factory. If you haven't been into Almonte for a while, the factory is gone, and there is just a parking lot on the site. There is a small temporary structure selling good ice cream that comes from the Laurentian in Deep River. Apparently suggestions are still being accepted for a new structure to be built on the site, which backs onto the Mississippi and the old mill, which is now home to a restaurant.