Ottawa Middle Channel
Trip Start
Aug 18, 2008
1
5
22
Trip End
Nov 27, 2008
Pembroke,
Ontario,
Canada
Friday, August 22, 2008
I went kayaking on the Ottawa Middle today. It is BIG. Much bigger than I'm used to. Karine and Karine looked after me very well and talked me through it all. There was also a guy called Gavin (an RMP Officer from Ottawa) who was also kayaking along with the rafting trip. When he found out where I was from he told me he had kayaked at Hurley.
I portaged Little Trickle (not so little) and carried on down to Angel's Kiss. That was fun, and "small" (more like the rapids I'm used to). Onward to Elevator Shaft - this is not good for kayaking so I watched the rafts go through. Gavin helped point out the lines to me, which was interesting. The next one was Upper Olstroms. This (in my mind) huge, it's actually smaller than Lower Olstroms though, which comes after. For some reason Gavin thought I was up for some surfing. I don't know why. He told me to follow his line and led me into a huge wave. Oh dear! I was over almost immediately and did not want to wait for a rescue (the next rapid is straight after this one more or less) so I popped my deck and swam. I managed to hold on to boat and paddle until Gavin and Karine were next to me then I dropped the boat and swam for the eddy. Karine let me hold onto her boat and we managed it between us. Gavin chased the boat and brought it back to me. I think he felt quite bad for leading me into a wave, but it was only a misunderstanding. I think that the more times I swim, the easier it gets and I will gradually lose my fear. It was a good day.
WILD started in the evening with an all you can eat pizza buffet and lots of paperwork, rules, information and getting to know people. I think everyone has arrived now, but there are 25 so it's hard to keep track. They all seem very nice and I have been assigned a very small tent with a girl called Cailyn.
*Still no Davidson. :(
