JOURNEY #14 - July 19, 2002

Rideau River (Long Island/Black Rapids): "Nice Evening Paddle"

We only had a couple of hours after work on Friday, so we decided to try a new section of the Rideau. There is a very nice launch site at the junction with the Jock River. You take the southern entrance to the Carleton Lodge senior's home (or follow the paved road around from the northern entrace) and take the gravel road down to the launch area. There is a circular road and parking right at the water's edge for at least four vehicles. This is a decent spot for launching a kayak, although we were initially impeded by a mother duck and her ELEVEN ducklings, who settled down right next to a young man's tackle box. Although we made an effort to leave them be, mom finally decided the ruckus was too much, and they headed off to quieter surroundings.

We first paddled north as Julie was aware of the interesting stone construction that comprises the large wall alongside the Long Island locks. The construction dates back to Colonel By himself. This leg is only about 3/4 of a kilometre, or 1.5 km to return back to the Jock junction.

With the senior's home barely out of sight to the west, we spotted a blue heron on the west bank. He was perched on a washed out log, and Keenan only noticed him out of the corner of his eye when he shifted positions. There are a number of walking paths along the west bank, with people using them. There were quite a few people fishing from shore as well.

This was a perfect evening, warm but not oppressive, and for whatever reason, it smelled great too. There were not too many powerboats around, but one idiot towing a water skier came within about 10 feet of us and gave us an interesting wake to handle.

We had visions of making it all the way to Black Rapids (which we could have done easily without the necessity of returning to the car) but we ran out of time with darkness approaching, so just past the Merivale Road area (about 4km from the launch) we turned back. It was here Keenan spotted a second blue heron, this one perched about 10 feet up on an extended branch. The colourings were more black and white than normal, so we were not sure at first what it was. Keenan floated down towards the creature to get a better look, and ended up not more than 3 feet away before what was indeed a blue heron decided to take flight.

We covered a total of about 9.5km in under two hours which was a fine evening workout. Next time we will try to get on the water with four hours to spare which should be more than enough to go from the Jock to Black Rapids and back.