Credit River
Water Level: frickin low
Well it is officially the first day of winter. The snow and ice are here to stay. I really wanted to get my day of paddling in December. This would get me closer to being in the 12 month club which is 12 months of paddling outdoors in Ontario. I missed it last season by missing February,
Everything up my way is frozen over. The only place left to maybe paddle was the Credit River. Greg was quite certain that it was low but runnable and a trip was therefore planned for today. I ended up crashing at Greg’s on Friday night. There was no sense in wasting gas for a trip home Friday night just to come back down to the GTA Saturday morning.
We met at the put in at 11:30 in Streetsville. The open boat paddlers would be Greg, Neil, Rick, and myself. The kayakers would be Bill, Len, and Wayne. And then there was Dan who decided he would paddle for the first time in a C1.
Some of us decided to slide down the big hill in our boats where the kids were sledding. Greg went first as was down before I could take pictures. Dan did two runs. One by himself where he did spins down the hill. The second run beside me. We started off together. I thought he was going to hold onto my boat all the way down and then he let go. I started spinng and all I though of was $h1t I am going to hit the big friggin post and decided to swim out of my boat. Neil did a run down in Dan’s C1.
After that we went back to the parking lot to see if the others were ready yet. Now for the hard part. We had figure out where the open water was as the river was iced in. We had to go across the ice and put in below the dam.
Here is a short video looking at the ice http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=7X2iYXkS8L0
The trip down the river was pretty un-eventful. The water was low but according to Greg it was lower when he was paddling it a few weeks ago. There was lots of ice along the shoreline. There is nothing like avoiding concrete slabs and garbage while paddling.
My epic move of the day came when we had to get out of our boats in order to get around the ice that had formed underneath the bridge. Neil walked along the shoreline first and dragged his boat under the bridge. I think :en was next and then it was my turn. I paddled up to the ice and threw Len my painter line and he started pulling me up. I stood up to put my foot on what I that was thick ice near the shore to only have my foot go through it and I fell over. I had one hand on my boat and one on the ice. I ended up carving out a fair chunk of ice as I was shimmying above the ice. I then grabbed Len’s hand after letting go off my boat and got up on shore. Thanks Len and Neil. The area I carved out made it easier for the others to get up onto the ice.
We managed to see quite a bit of wildlife. We saw two hawks, six deer, and a whole bunch of stunned fisherman. The most scenic thing of the whole day was a picnic table in the river with a snowman on top of it.
The takeout was also interesting as the normal river right exit was iced in. We ended up having to get out on river left and scale the block walls and then all hell broke out. Neil and gang decided to have a snowball fight.
After that we dragged our boats back to the cars. I am pretty sure everyone had fun. I know I did. I just hope I can now get a day of paddling in January and February.
Here is a link to the pictures http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76108&l=6fb72&id=679800461
