Discussion about Trips, Events, etc.

At a WCA Board meeting earlier this year, we discussed the importance of growing our membership through attracting and conserving new members. It was recognized that many people who are new to paddling do not have paddling partners or even canoes when they first get involved in the sport. We felt that it was very important to make ourselves welcoming to new paddlers, and increase their opportunities to become active with us. Often outings organizers are contacted by such new members, who are anxious to get out on outings but lack the requisite partner or boat. The organizer will try to help the person out. If there is another would-be participant who also needs a partner or gear, the organizer will suggest they get together. However, that process acceses only a very limited pool of prospects. Plus it puts the onus on the organizer to be a matchmaker, which is a responsibility not everyone wants.

Consequently, we are exploring the idea of adding a subsection to the Outings section of this website called tentatively the Outings Partners Match Program.This would allow members hoping to team up with other potential participants the opportunity to advertise their need more widely. The member would fill in an electronic form that would include the outing name, and a full profile of what the person was looking for. For example, that Bill needs a canoe and stern partner to do the April 5 Black River trip. Submitting this would post the name and date of the outing under the Partner Match Program list. Other members interested in the outing and wanting to team up with another paddler could click on the entry and get the full details. Responders could reply to the person's email address or phone number,as preferred.

Once the date of the outing was past, the posting would be deleted, both to remove outdated material and to preserve the poster’s privacy.

This program is designed to increase accessibilty and participation in the WCA Outings Program. Members looking for partners for private trips, would continue to post on the Bulletin Board.

Such an enhancement to the website is a significant job, and our outside IT consultants who manage our website have quoted us a possible cost of $800. To be safe, let's work on the assumption it may cost us $1000.

To help us better determine if such an investment may be reasonable, assuming funds were available, we would appreciate your feedback on such an additon to the club's outings program.
Could you see yourself personally using this?
Do you think it would be widely used?
Do you see it as a signficant value-added benefit for members?
Would it increase our attractiveness to new members, and improve retention and participation level of current members?

Your thoughts on this would be very much appreciated, and will help us serve you better.

Thanks,
Bill Ness
WCA Outings Committee

See Fall Nastawgan page 13 for article on the Ashton family outing on the Grand River.

We had another wonderful weekend at the Madawaska Kanu Centre. I will discuss the whitewater events and post some pictures sent to me by Dave Robinson. Hopefully someone else can post on the flat-water and hiking events.

Friday night saw people arrive and share conversation around the fire. On Saturday following breakfast the whitewater gang set off to paddle the lower Madawaska. The weather was great and we had good water levels, which made for a fun day. We returned in time for sauna and snacks before a lovely supper. Before and during supper a DVD made by Matthew Eberly from a summer trip on the Chapleau River entertained us. Following supper we gathered to honour two recently deceased members - Jay Neilson (tribute by husband Frank) and Bob Bignell (tribute by Allan Jacobs). William Sleeth did an excellent presentation on the Moisie River, a trip he recently completed in Sept 2013. The next day, the whitewater gang paddled the middle Madawaska. This time the weather was not as cooperative but I think everyone still enjoyed the paddle despite being rather wet by the end of the run. Thanks to Jon and Dian (the organizers) and MKC for making our Fall meeting so much fun.

So far, there has been four wonderful day outing trips on the Lower Madawaska River located east of Quadeville in Renfrew County in central Ontario this year. I would hope that I will be able to continue to lead more of these trips in the upcoming years since there have been so enjoyable with lots of humour spraying around after each of these day outings. Some have capsized with entertainment including rare sincere jokes and stories that we never heard of. With our last one, we tried something different in order to save gas, "wear n' tear" and maybe time on our shuttle? Its so rare to see a regular vehicle with three boats on top with the highest loaded kayak at least eight feet above the ground as we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. Well anyway, here`s a unique photo of three quarters of our group. I`m the minus one for taking this image. Posing are Erica Cresswell, Janet Kuzniar and Dave Tourchin. The missing one is myself (Andrew Craig). There is still one more posted day outing trip on the Lower Madawaska on Saturday, August 17th for this year.

Hi WCA members:

I am a Guelph Ontario resident and I have an interest in Aboriginal issues and the promotion of Aboriginal Culture and the "building of bridges" between our two worlds.

As part of this vision, myself and the Southern Ontario Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative (SOADI) and most recently, the Innu Integrated Diabetes Initiative (IIDI) in Labrador as well as Guelph Diabetes, are working toward forming a partnership to promote a program called PADDLE (Paddle Against Diabetes Display Love for Earth).
There are two components: one is to promote community paddles.
This aspect of PADDLE would be similar to walks or runs for diabetes or cancer etc.

The second is to raise awareness and to help out on a local level. This is what I would like to address at this time.

Last summer, I initiated my first PADDLE and canoed (solo) the Kattawagami River to James Bay and went over to Moose Factory. I managed to raise a small amount of money for the Weeneebayko Diabetes Unit in Moose Factory.
This summer, I am once again going solo and taking on the very remote Notakwanon River and Atlantic Ocean in northern Labrador. I will be attempting to raise money for the Innu of Labrador and the Natuashish Diabetes Health Unit. I am (with help of course), constructing a website for this PADDLE and for future PADDLE's.

I would gratefully request that you please take a look at the "still under construction" website:

paddlingagainstdiabetes.wordpress.com

I would ask that you consider possibly donating to this cause, through the Pay Pal Donation button. We are in the process of designing a T-shirt and every donation $25 or over will receive a T-shirt, acknowledging your support and the journey.
I am meeting again with my webmaster and we will be designing levels of donation packages.

I would also appreciate it if you could link me up in any relevant websites and please feel free to pass this on.

Thanks for your attention to this.

Any advice etc will be appreciated.

What a fantastic weekend. Thanks to Andrew for organizing it. Here's a link to a little slideshow I made of the weekend on Kayaking For Women dot com.

Emmy I'd love to see that video of our water fight (where I was unarmed!). I'll also post the video Mary made of you and Janet on the Mad.

Check out the photos: http://www.kayakingforwomen.com/blog/wca-weekend

So here's the link to a post I made about a recent trip to the Black River: http://kayakingforwomen.com/?p=94

And here's the link to the Black River slideshow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8ZbHun0VU

So I've started a community site for women paddlers. I'm trying to find other women to paddle with. The site is a place for women to share videos, stories, photos, recent trips, upcoming trips, etc.

I am not a very experienced web designer so the site isn't hugely functional now. If anyone would like to work with me on it that would be great. I'm considering hiring a web designer. Ultimately I don't want to be the only one running the site - so looking for another partner. If you like blogging, kayaking, canoeing (even though it's called kayakingforwomen.com "we" are open to all paddlers of all experience level) come check it out!

It's www.kayakingforwomen.com
On Twitter: @kayakforwomen
On YouTube @KayakingForWomen

Happy Paddling everyone!

On Saturday I drove with Derek Vink and Ellen Lin to Walkerton.
We met up with James Fitton on Hw 9 and drove behind each other.
Arriving in Lobies Park, we met up with Eugene Furchner who was already there.
and Gary and Luanne Wolfe and Jaromir Zubicek came soon after.
Unloading the cars and loading the canoe for Ellen and Derek, who left before us, we drove up to South Hampton to Denny's Dam.
Gary was kind enough to shuttle us back. The shuttle is about 1 hour and a half up and down. But because we did it ourselves it was faster then the usual Thorncrest outfitter I use for the shuttle.
Back at Lobies park we waited for Karonne Lansel to arrive and we got ready to leave.

It was a gorgeous day, water level was higher then usual for this month, which encountered for fast floating.We were on the water very fast.
Within the first hour we encounter a little rapid.
As some of our team had not any or little experience with moving water, I decided we pull out before the rapid and scout it out.
Due to the high water levels, both rocks that could create hazards were completely submerged in water and just creating high waves, for a lot of fun.
Jaromir went down with no problem at all and tried to eddy out with expert skill, but there is not really an eddy.
Jim went after him, and he did really well until he tried to turn in the waves too and tipped his canoe.
Without a life jacket on, he hang on to his canoe instead, and got some scratches.
Jaromir was luckily quickly there to help him out.
In the mean time Eugene came down, easy and relaxed
Gary and Luanne did a great job hitting the waves, for their trip down the rapids.
I went up and joined Karonne and we both hit the waves full and had a nice cooling splash.

We stopped on the banks and dried up and had some lunch or snack, while enjoying the groups coming down floating and tripping the canoes with big coolers and lots of beer cans, barbeques etc.
It was quite funny, but luckily no serious incidents as the water level was high enough to be safe.

After this excitement, there are only swifts, that is just fun to go through and play in.
The Saugeen is a rural river flowing throught the scenic country side of Huron county.
We canoed the river from Lobies Park in Walkerton to Denny's Dam in Southampton in 3 days. It is about 90 km. This is a great river for beginners to be done in a nice relaxed way. Short days, time to enjoy the country side, eating ice cream, checking the floats out, camping on crown land and at the Saugeen Conservation Area where there is a great look out point on the Saugeen River and the bluffs.

For keeping track of where you are on the river you can use your GPS, but I am used to just count the bridges, as these are the access points on the river.
Nowadays the signing on where the access points are from the road are excellent signed by the local community.
But there is also great signs on the bridges as to how far the next bridge is and how long it will take approximately to get there. Please note that most people float the river.
So for paddlers it is about half the time.

We arrived at our intended campsite quite early already. The beach was wet and muddy, but the camp on the edge of the farmers field with a great view of the river was ideal.
And even though it was early and only a relative short paddle, we all enjoyed the afternoon/evening, with a great dinner provided by Jim and a relaxing campfire.
The bugs were not that bad and I enjoyed just sitting on the shore and writing my journal.
The river was less busy then usual as not many groups passed by.

Sunday, after a great sleep, Luanne woke us up as breakfast was ready to go, bacon and eggs.
We took our time and enjoyed each other company.
For lunch we stopped at the dr. Milne Park, first stop in Paisley, close by the water tower and Gibby's Grub where we went first for ice cream
Jaromir and Jim had met up with Derek and Ellen at the 3rd stop in Paisley near the light house. So luckily for cellphones and texts, they joined us at Gibby's Grub for ice cream.
It was only a 10 minute walk for them
A small ice cream was big enough and delicious in this warm weather.
A nice tradition that I do every year with groups I take on the Saugeen.
Then Luanne and Gary had organized the lunch for that day, great dried sausage, cheese, pita's and bread

For our second night we stayed at Saugeen Bluffs, this year we got a campsite further on the river, which was actually quite nice as landing was much easier then the steep muddy hill near the canoe sites. Plus it was closer to the Outlook point for a hike.
And sitting on the grassy shore and leaving our canoes there was also very nice.
We had 2 campsites next to each other.

I was in charge of dinner. I had prepared a big pot of chili, hamburger meat, variety of beans, salsa sauce, tomatoes, applesauce and vegetables and all dehydrated. So for dinner I only had to boil water, add the dried chili and boil and hydrate it again.
A nice relaxing evening with lots of trilliums on our campsite.
I even found a Jack-in-the-pulpit on our campsite and March violets.
Some people took a shower and/or went for a hike to the look out point.
I enjoyed a glass of wine and the sunset on the grassy shore line writing in my journal and seeing other canoers come by.

Monday after a great pancake with fruits (and some peanuts and chocolate) breakfast organized by Eugene, we packed up for our last day on the river.
We noticed several float along the shores that went on Saturday on the river.
The new bridge is completely ready now and the old bridge was taken down completely just passed Saugeen Conservation Area.

We were pretty fast, even with our relaxed paddling and floating, and exploring the delta of the river at our lunch area at the Port Elgin Bridge.
River right was quite muddy and there was a lot of debris from the floaters still, so we ferried over to river left and had lunch there under the bridge in the shade.
Karonne had fish, bread and cheese for lunch for us and a ginger drink.
Jaromir finally opened his snack bag with carrots, tomatoes, paprika and sausage that we could snack on too.
Derek made hotdog chicken noodle soup, that I got a cup from too.
It was very entertaining seeing a group of 10 people moving a boat/float back in the water to pull it up again on to the shore a bit further where they loaded it up on a trailer to move it away.

I knew there was a eagle's nest on the shore, but thought it was between Paisley and Saugeen Bluffs, so by the time we arrived at Port Elgin bridge I thought that I had missed it, or maybe it was not there any more. Plus Derek had teased me that he had seen it and that I had missed it.

But just past Port Elgin bridge we found the eagle's nest on river left.
Gary had binoculars and it was amazing to see the bald eagle hopping out the nest on the branch and partly spreading its wings to make itself bigger.
It was muddy to climb out of the canoe, but it was so worth it, to get closer to the nest and enjoy this magnificent bird and its young in the nest.
It was definitely a highlight of this trip to see this bird again.

As we passed the double bridge, I felt sad to leave, enjoying the last couple of bluffs and nature and this awesome river.
Even though I come here year after year, it is very nice river to relax on for a weekend.
This year was special with fellow paddlers of the Wilderness Canoe Association.

Thank you Karonne for the use of your canoe, while my son took my canoe,
Thank you Eugene, Jim, Jaromir, Gary and Luanne for joining me on this trip.

The link has all my pictures of our trip.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104477673238900710374/SaugeenRiverMay18192…

A nice warm day, I drove up to Washago with Janet to go paddling.
At the bridge where more paddlers were, we got immediately attacked by a lot of black flies and that was at 10.30 am in a nice sunny spot.

Bill Ness had organized this trip to play in the water.
There were about 20 WCA members and some paddlers from Peterborough and Kawartha Canoe Club.
It was hard to believe but last week it was cancelled due to extreme high levels of the water, what caused a lot of flooding in this area.
While the water this week wasn't that high or dangerous.

Both Janet and I decided we would not put on a wetsuit or any special gear as we would not go swimming. We are both strong paddlers. :)
But once everyone was in the water, it looked like we were really 'underdressed', but the weather was nice and sunny, so with confidence we paddled on.
The river is flat with a few rapids in it, where we played in the waves, surfed and had fun.
Most of the participants were in play boats and kayaks, only a few tandem canoes were here.

The river meanders through different arms with different opportunities to play. We would go in circles and find other areas with a nice rapid to have fun in.
It was at times busy at a rapid and we had quite a large canoe. So my apologies if we 'pushed' you aside, but we for sure had a good time.

At one time we surfed on a wave, but either didn't had the right angle or tried to hard to push us in the right angle. A big wave under the boat pushed us over and we went swimming.
and what a relief it was, we were both okay, and the water was actually quite refreshing.
We laughed, came out okay and tried to figure out, how in the heck that happened.

After a nice lunch on a rock in the middle of the river, sunbathing and drying and enjoying the groups company, we paddled and played some more.

There was another tricky rapid, and we were worried that our boat was too long to make the turn and not hit the rocks on the side. After removing a big tree that was partly blocking the stream, the guys discussed the rapid and the angle and went in their boats. I enjoyed seeing the play boats from Scott, Brian and Jon going down the rapid and maneuvering their boats in it.

Going around the corner was another fun rapid. After a great explanation from Jon, and the camera trusted to Eugene, Janet and I went to the top of the rapid, taking it slowly and enjoying the ride and turning into an eddie. High fiving with our paddles, we decided to do it again.
Portaging and pulling our canoe back to the top of the river, we went down the rapid again with a bit more confidence.

What an awesome experience.
It was a great time to be with other fellow paddlers, playing and enjoying the river and the nature around it.
Everybody was in kind of a hurry to leave, so Janet and I decided to go for an ice cream and head back home too.
I realized that my canoe is hard to balance sitting in the bow, either it is too pointed or the seat is too far to the front, but spreading your knees or reaching was not easy in this position.

The understanding link are pictures that were taken with my camera during this trip.
Thank you Janet for being my paddling buddy
Thank you Bill for organizing this trip.
Thanks to Jon, Eugene, Sarah, for your support and guidance
Thanks to all the other paddlers that I forgot the name from.

https://plus.google.com/photos/104477673238900710374/albums/58782219789…

Emmy

This is a real pic heavy report.
Here is a link to myccr
http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=41395&p=380981#p3…

Jeff