It was a cold, damp and grey Good Friday morning when the six of us met at Wolseley Lodge at Wolseley Bay to start a three day trip along the French River camping along the way and hopefully running the rapids that we would find. The locals wished us well, and sent us on our way with a smile and a note of hope that the weather was supposed to get better later on in the weekend.

Some of us decided to paddle with wet suits on in case of a dump or upset. This ended up being quite cumbersome at pit stops, however. We paddled along quite nicely for a couple of hours before deciding to stop for a bite to eat. Barry was a saint for digging out his stove so we could have some hot chocolate and coffee. That hit the spot. During the lunch break, Nicole had quietly gone off with the map and assessed the surroundings. Her report was, that we weren't where we thought we were, and needed to backtrack just a bit. She convinced the group easily, and she was dubbed the navigator.

By late afternoon we arrived at the Big Pine rapids which looked runnable, but the day was still grey, and the water looked black and cold. We scouted the rapid, portaged some of our most precious gear: sleeping bags and cameras, and then ran the rapids. There was lots of water and not too many dangerous rocks. An island sat in the middle of the run, which needed to be avoided. We talked a bit about the speed of the flow and the possibility of steering away from the island in the middle. It was doable, and we got our first taste of the rapids before heading into the bay to find a campsite.

The next day we were surprised by a beautiful bright blue sky and the day was warming up quickly. It was a day of fun and games in the rapids. We played around in the last set of "rainy rapids" to update our skills and then went back to Big Pine. It was great! We all tried different things and different ways to run the rapids. Later in the afternoon we had a quick bite to eat, packed up and went for the Blue Chute downstream. There was lots of water and the rapids were a lot better than I expected. We ran the Blue Chute a couple of times before heading for a campsite at the top of Big Parisian Rapids. There we had our supper and later that evening a nice sauna to relax our tired muscles (we were well equipped!).

The next morning we were on the water at 10 a.m. and right away at the top of the Big Parisian. It looked wonderful with lots of water. It was just a matter of bracing hard to stay up in the roller coaster at the bottom.

It was a bit like the Blue Chute. Not too much play, but still lots of fun. We ran it twice and then paddled for about an hour towards a nice lunch spot. Meanwhile the wind had picked up quite a bit and was blowing pleasantly in the back, so we made pretty good time. That wasn't really necessary, because we had only 19 km to go for our last campsite. While Glenn and Johanna played around taking pictures of canoes in front of icy/snowy shorelines, Barry and Nicole were being very industrious rigging up a sail using two paddles and a ground sheet. They flew across the water to our lunch spot.

After lunch Barry and Hennie decided that it was worth a try to build a Catamaran because of the heavy wind. So we took an hour and the result looked impressive....but didn't work. One reason was that by the time we were done, the wind was gone. Too bad! The other reason Nicole and Johanna will discuss with you at a later time...

It was still fun to try. For the next time we will design a more practical sailing-device.

Hennie promised everybody that we would arrive at our campsite at 5 p.m, despite the hour delay after lunchtime, but nobody (as usual) believed him. And they were right: we arrived at 5.12 p.m. still 40 minutes earlier than the most optimistic bet (Hennie made coffee to pay for his "error"). After supper we enjoyed our campfire and we all were in bed quite early, partly knocked down by wicked spanish coffee and other booze, partly just because of being tired of sun, wind and water. We had another great day behind us!

Monday morning we woke to more clear skies and a bit of a breeze, but nothing serious. Most of the group were very efficient about packing up and getting breakfast over with. The spot was so calm, so picturesque and so quiet and still, because cottagers hadn't ventured out on the water, that it was hard to leave. It was an easy paddle to Schell Fish camp where our shuttle was.

Dianne, Nicole and Johanna unloaded gear, (poor planning) while the guys went for the vehicles. Then it was time to say our good-byes, and move back on the road, visions of white water still in our heads.