Page 10 - FOREST HILL Lifestyle Magazine Oct 2021

Paddling the French River
By Elliott Katz Photos by Mark Mietkiewicz
Watching the sun rise over this island. We would be paddling against On the French River, we dealt with rapids
the Canadian Shield forest and rock outcroppings and reflect on the still
water of the French River – inspires me for the paddling ahead of us. There is nothing in city life that is so breath-taking. It’s like being in a painting by the Group of Seven Canadian landscape artists.
And then what could be more Canadian than canoeing a wilderness river? The canoe played an integral part in Canada’s history. It was by canoe that fur traders travelled into Canada’s interior. The French River was part of their route from Montreal to Lake Superior. The Ojibwa named this river the French River because it was used by French explorers like Etienne Brulé, Samuel de Champlain and Pierre-Esprit Radisson.
About 300 kilometers north of Toronto, the French River is considered the boundary between northern and southern Ontario. In 1968 it was the first river designated a Canadian Heritage River.
In August, five friends and I set out by canoe from the community of French River. Near here, Eighteen Mile Island divides the French River into the North Channel and the Main Channel. Our goal was to canoe for six days in a loop around
the current going out on the North Channel and with the current coming back on the Main Channel.
Our trip was wilderness canoe camping. No glamping (glamourous camping). Our canoes were loaded with food, tents, sleeping bags and other equipment. We camped in wilderness campsites, cooked on portable stoves and wood-burning fires and slept in a tent. Each morning we packed up the equipment, loaded the canoes and paddled until late afternoon and then set up camp again. We found wilderness campsites by looking for a fire bowl of rocks left by previous campers
Part of canoeing is portaging – where one carries canoes and packs over land. One of the differences in paddling a river as compared to canoeing a trip of mostly lakes – such as many of the routes in Algonquin Park – is the portages. In Algonquin Park most of the portages are on land connecting lakes. On the French River, the portages are around fast- flowing rapids.
Portaging can be a challenge – but I look at it as part of being in the wilderness. There is a good feeling of accomplishment when you reach the end of the portage.
in several ways. We portaged around them -- carrying everything. We portaged the packs and paddled through the rapids with no packs in the canoes. If the water is high and the rapids not difficult, we paddled through them. We also lined the canoes -- where you tie a rope to the canoe and from the shore use the rope to control the canoe through the rapids.
Most of the rapids on our route were near the eastern end of the North Channel. We lined the canoes at Cedar Rapids. At Little Pine Rapids, we portaged the packs and canoed through the rapids. And we paddled through Little Parisian Rapids and Crooked Rapids.
We then turned south and then west to the Main Channel of the French River. Here the water was quiet and we paddled the river through forests of stunted windswept jackpine trees and rock outcroppings.
After a long day of paddling, it was a thrill to lie on a rock and look up at the night sky so filled with stars, the Big Dipper and shooting stars. I wondered how the fur traders who paddled here centuries before felt about the beauty of this rugged place.
10 FOREST HILL Lifestyle OCTOBER 2021
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