JOURNEY #11 - July 7, 2002

Petrie Island (Ottawa River): "Beauty And Beasts"

PICTURES

Heron In The Reeds

TRIP REPORT

Petrie Island has been in the news a lot lately as it is undergoing a number of changes, most notably, plans for a public beach. There is also a company that is dredging sand from the river, so there is long boom with a large hose on it that cuts along the eastern tip of the island and stretches far out into the river where it connects with the dredging device.

Getting to the island is a snap, you just head east on the 417 and turn left at Trim Road and it goes right onto the island. There are many places to launch a boat, we chose one that wasn't busy. There were a lot of people here. We can't imagine what it will be like with an official public beach.

We launched to the east and headed south, and decided to cross over the peninsula that was there through a narrow channel. There was no particular reason, other than the fact that when you have a kayak you tend to go through tiny channels just because you can. At this point, Keenan was startled by a huge fish that splashed right next to his boat. It was quite long, so he guesses it was a pike near the surface.

As we crossed through the peninsula we headed west towards the road and the two large culverts underneath. This area was thick with people fishing. As we crossed through to the other side, things cleared up. This is known as the South Passage. We headed north into what is called Canoe Bay and followed it west back into the South Passage. We did not go into Turtle Pond or Muskrat Bay, which would be fun places to explore next time.

As we continued west in the passage, there was only one boat in sight, and we were enjoying ourselves with a nice breeze in our faces. As you move along there is an opening out into the main body of the Ottawa River, but we continued past it towards a large beaver dam. It was hard to believe at this point that we were just a few blocks south of Place D'Orleans shopping centre, because suddenly we found ourselves surrounded by wonderful wildlife. This included no less than FOUR blue herons. A beaver also dropped in alongside Keenan's kayak. Julie spotted him, but before Keenan could take a peek he slipped under never to be seen again. There was a strange bird (most likely a male kingfisher) hovering by flapping his wings quite furiously...we assumed he was going to dive for fish, but he never got around to it. Once he did start a dive, but changed his mind. We hung around in this marsh for quite a while, just enjoying the sights and sounds.

As we headed back east, we decided to go north to the main part of river. As we headed up the channel a truly enormous fish jumped out of the water near Julie's yak. Keenan things it was a smallmouth bass, but it was an awfully big one!

Heading east along the shoreline there was not much to see, and lots of boats roaring by out in the river, generating some major wakes. We passed a kayaker in a purple Storm heading in the other direction. As we got back towards the main section of the island we passed the picnic area which is already being used as a public beach, and further along where the sand from the dredging operation is stored, we were startled to find perhaps 20 powerboats that were on shore, and there was plenty of drinking and partying going on.

As a boat roared by in front of us without slowing down, we were happy to turn the corner into the area where the long boom extends eastward. We were getting a bit tired and did not feel like going around it, so we managed to limbo under it and we were almost right back at the launch site. As we got out of the water, the mosquitos came alive and feasted on us in furious fashion.

We would come back again, but not on a weekend, and we would not bother with the main river at all. It would be fun to poke around in the two small bays that we missed, and of course we would revisit the large marsh at the end of the passage.

This trip took us about two hours. When we were in the main river we were paddling very fast. Next time we would come back in the passage and take our time, so something like three hours would be likely, if you were to explore all of the available areas. There might also be some interesting spots to the east along the shoreline away from the island.