{"id":7606,"date":"2018-09-10T00:40:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T00:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7606"},"modified":"2020-08-03T23:18:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T23:18:20","slug":"the-rideau-adventure-an-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7606","title":{"rendered":"The “Rideau Adventure” – An Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1535276745593<\/a><\/p>\n

I saw no\u00a0naked lady on the Rideau<\/a><\/em>…<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: I had to go back on August 3, 2020, to redo this post. As often happens, some photos – and especially my<\/em><\/strong> photos – from an old post get transformed into a box that says things like “image may contain: outdoor.” Or in my photo at the bottom of the page, “image may contain: one or more people, outdoor and nature.”\u00a0I was able to fix that fairly easily, but for the photo above I had to settle for this tiny photo from the “add media” link in the dashboard.<\/p>\n

So what follows is the original post from September 10, 2018, with two differences in my photos at the top and bottom of the main text. And by the way, the full caption to the photo above: “I saw no\u00a0naked lady on the Rideau<\/a>, but there\u00a0was<\/strong>\u00a0this fetching blonde at\u00a0Smiths Falls<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Locks<\/a>\u2026”<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Last Saturday evening – September 1st – I got back home from my “Rideau Adventure.”\u00a0 (Which included passing through the\u00a0<\/em>Poonamalie<\/em><\/a>\u00a0lock station – at left and discussed further below.)\u00a0 <\/em>That adventure involved canoeing the\u00a0Rideau Canal<\/a>, from Kingston – on Lake Ontario – to Ottawa.<\/p>\n

I previewed it in\u00a0Next adventure: Paddling the Rideau \u201cCanal<\/a>.”\u00a0 Also – from July 31 – \u201cNaked Lady\u201d \u2013 on the Rideau Canal<\/a>?<\/p>\n

In a nutshell<\/a>, I didn’t<\/strong><\/em> see a\u00a0naked lady<\/a>\u00a0on the banks of the\u00a0Rideau<\/a>.\u00a0 I did<\/em> <\/strong>see a fetching blonde in a power boat, explained in the notes below.\u00a0 And incidentally, “Poonamalie<\/a>” is the station just before the\u00a0Smiths Falls<\/a>\u00a0three locks.\u00a0 (We followed “Yvette’s”\u00a0Fuego<\/strong> on the first two of three locks…)\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And now for the\u00a0overview<\/a>:\u00a0 The guide books say it should take from six to ten days to make the trip.\u00a0 They also say the prevailing winds are “generally” from the southwest, but to be “ready for anything.”\u00a0 We ended up taking 11-and-a-half days – and 11 nights – but two of those nights we spent in relative luxury in a rustic cabin in\u00a0Portland, Ontario<\/a>.\u00a0 (Nine days “actual canoeing.*”)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"1534935865425\"<\/a>That was after taking a wrong turn padding north from\u00a0Colonel By Island<\/a>\u00a0on the morning of Wednesday, August 22.\u00a0 That overnight campsite included a violent rainstorm and raccoons breaking into our plastic food containers and taking our supplies of breakfast bars, crackers and trail mix.\u00a0 That in turn was preceded by us paddling through a veritable monsoon, on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 21.\u00a0 That morning we made 10 miles, but in the afternoon – after leaving the\u00a0Narrows (Lock 35<\/a>) – we made four miles before stopping at ”\u00a0Colonel By<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

But such is “the stuff of legends<\/a>.”\u00a0 And<\/em> <\/strong>we digress…<\/p>\n

Getting back to those prevailing winds.\u00a0 For the first few days the prevailing winds were from the north, in our faces.\u00a0 Plus we had to delay our start – by one day – because\u00a0The Weather Channel<\/a>\u00a0predicted heavy thunderstorms on the afternoon of Friday, August 17.\u00a0 That forecast wasn’t accurate, but the one for the afternoon of\u00a0Tuesday, August 21, was<\/em><\/strong> accurate.<\/p>\n

We got the predicted heavy rain.<\/p>\n

Which is another way of saying the trip featured\u00a0highlights<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0lowlights<\/a>.\u00a0 “Yvette” was a definite highlight.\u00a0 The heavy rains of August 21-22 were lowlights, as was taking a wrong turn after leaving\u00a0Colonel By Island<\/a>.\u00a0 But that was followed by deciding to take two nights off – resting and refitting – in beautiful\u00a0Portland, Ontario<\/a>\u00a0– a definite highlight – on August 23 and 24.<\/p>\n

“Thereupon<\/a>,” on leaving Portland our main goal was to get off<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0“all those big-ass lakes.”\u00a0\u00a0With<\/strong><\/em> their unpredictable winds and a constant threat of being swamped by inconsiderate big-boat drivers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Speaking of that, on the afternoon of\u00a0August 24, we were<\/em> <\/strong>in the process of getting off Lower Rideau Lake<\/a>.\u00a0 (The last of the “big-ass lakes” in the Rideau system, which is actually further north than\u00a0Upper Rideau Lake<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Big<\/strong> Rideau Lake<\/a>\u00a0– with Cow Island – lies in between.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We were heading for the Poonamalie lock station, and my brother was sitting in his canoe, minding his own business and checking our bearings on his big book of charts.\u00a0 Some jerk in a big-ass boat came zooming out from the river to the north – where we were headed – making a huge wave and yelling out, “GET OFF THE F’ING CHANNEL!<\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 Which just goes to show that\u00a0life is like a box of chocolates<\/a>:\u00a0 “You never know what you’re gonna get.”<\/p>\n

\"1534674220192\"<\/a>Also speaking of that:\u00a0 To avoid the often-contrary prevailing winds, we started getting up at 4:00 a.m.\u00a0 Which leads to the picture at left, of one of the benefits<\/em> <\/strong>of getting up at 4:00 a.m. and stumbling around in the dark while breaking camp.\u00a0 Aside from the water being much smoother – which was especially important on those “big-ass lakes” during the first half of the trip – you also get to see some beautiful sunrises.\u00a0 (As seen at left.)<\/em><\/p>\n

So all in all we spent 11-and-a-half days on the trip, but that included two nights in a nice cabin in Portland Ontario.\u00a0 And aside from primitive camping the first two nights – “dig a hole and squat” – most of the rest of the nights we camped at the lock stations themselves.\u00a0 They featured nice level lawns, hot and cold running water in the nearby “washrooms,” and every once in a while a nearby pub or restaurant with hot food and cold beer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Which led to my conclusion that this Rideau trip was “more of a Camino than the Camino.”\u00a0 That is, last September and October – on Spain’s 450 miles of the Camino de Santiago<\/a>*\u00a0– my brother and I kept meeting up with flocks of fellow pilgrims, all or most greeting us with “Buen Camino.”\u00a0 In other words, the Rideau trip was more of a\u00a0pilgrimage<\/a>, in the truest sense.\u00a0 That is, a “journey<\/a>\u00a0or search of\u00a0moral<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0spiritual<\/a>\u00a0significance.”\u00a0 Or consider the words of John Steinbeck in\u00a0Travels with Charley<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>Speaking of long-distance driving – at least in 1962 – he wrote:<\/p>\n

If one has driven a car over many years [one] does not have to think about what to do.\u00a0 Nearly all the driving technique is deeply buried in the machine-like unconscious.\u00a0 This being so, a large area of the conscious mind is left free for thinking…\u00a0 [T]here is left, particularly on very long trips, a large area for day-dreaming or even, God help us, for thought<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, there was precious little of that on the Camino.\u00a0 (Or for that matter, on any modern long-distance driving trip, what with Sirius, GPS, iPod Shuffles or the new “Sandisks,” not to mention “books on CD,” none of which were available in 1962.)\u00a0 <\/em>On the other hand, there was plenty of time – paddling up the Rideau river system – for “God help us, thought<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

In my case, on the Rideau I spent plenty of time – along with Steinbeck – thinking about the past:\u00a0 “And how about the areas of regrets?\u00a0 If only I had done so-and-so, or had not said such-and-such – my God, the damn thing might not have happened.”<\/p>\n

Which is another way of saying there weren’t that many other canoeists or kayakers on the Rideau.\u00a0 In fact I can only remember one, the\u00a0lady kayaker shown below, portaging – carrying her kayak – at the\u00a0Burritts\u00a0Rapids<\/a>\u00a0lock station.\u00a0 Whereas my brother and I paid extra to take our canoes through the locks, this younger lady chose to do it the “other way.”\u00a0 She’d carry her kayak on one trip – from one end of the lock station to the other – then go back and get all her gear, stacked what seemed to a mile high on her backpack.<\/p>\n

The point being – in case I’m being too subtle – that the dearth of fellow paddlers meant there was plenty of time “for day-dreaming or even,\u00a0God help us, for thought<\/strong><\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Which seems to be what makes a\u00a0pilgrimage<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0pilgrimage<\/a>.\u00a0 (Though it helped to find the\u00a0Lock 17 Bistro<\/a>, a short walk from Burritts\u00a0Rapids<\/a>, where we camped the night of Sunday, August 26.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

\"1535303307094\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A lady kayaker at Burritts\u00a0Rapids<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The upper image:\u00a0 My photo from our passage through\u00a0the first two of three locks at Smiths Falls, Ontario.\u00a0 I wrote that\u00a0we got to the lock at 8:30 and they didn’t open til 9:00 a.m., so my brother walked to a close-by convenience store and got some REAL coffee and a chocolate-chip cookie.\u00a0 Then the lady in question – I’d like to think her name was Yvette –<\/em>\u00a0“and her old-guy SO” – whatever that meant – “went off into the Rideau.”\u00a0 I also journaled: “The point being:\u00a0 This trip has been mainly pleasant.\u00a0 Early stops, lots of breaks, a two-night stay in Portland…”\u00a0 (Portland Ontario that is.) <\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 My not seeing “a\u00a0naked lady<\/a>\u00a0strolling the banks of the\u00a0Rideau Canal<\/a>.”\u00a0 The reference goes back to the August 2016 post,\u00a0\u201cNaked lady on the Yukon<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 (Where\u00a0the \u201cmighty Yukon River” was the last place on earth I expected to see a lady\u00a0sun bathing<\/a>, “In the altogether<\/a>” as it were.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0\u00a0Portland, Ontario<\/a>:\u00a0 “The Landing on Big Rideau Lake, which is now the community of Portland, lies at the heart of the Rideau Canal System and is central to the history of the canal and to the early development of Canada.\u00a0 Portland is on Highway 15, midway between Ottawa and Kingston, Ontario.”\u00a0 See also\u00a0Portland, Ontario\u00a0–\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 Distances on the canal system.\u00a0 Using the figures from\u00a0Rideau\u00a0Canal\u00a0–\u00a0Distances\u00a0between Lockstations<\/a>, it is 125.6 miles from the Lasalle Causeway in Kingston to Ottawa proper and the last several lock stations leading to the Ottawa River.\u00a0 But we stopped at Hartwells lock station, 4.9 miles short of the Ottawa River, for reasons including there was no apparent take-out available, at which my brother could park his car and trailer, and we could unload the canoes.\u00a0 Moreover, we put in at the small but better-suited “Elliott Avenue Parkett” – at the water’s end of John Counter Boulevard – some two miles north of the Lasalle Causeway.\u00a0 Thus we arguably covered some 118.7 miles on the trip.\u00a0 On that note, in an email post-mortem dated September 4, my brother noted this:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

…to set the record straight, the entire Rideau is 125 nm (nautical miles), of which we did 120 nm.\u00a0 That works out to 138 statute miles.\u00a0 And, we started Saturday, August 18]. around 11 am and finished at about the same time on Wed[nesday, August 29]., 11 days total, two of which were, going backwards to Portland and a day spent in Portland.\u00a0 So 9 days total actually canoeing.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Re:\u00a0 “Our’ 450 miles of the\u00a0Camino de Santiago<\/a>.”\u00a0 For more on that\u00a0pilgrimage<\/a>\u00a0see\u00a0\u201cHola! Buen Camino!\u201d \u2013 Revisited<\/a>\u00a0and\/or\u00a0\u201cBuen Camino!\u201d \u2013 The Good Parts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another note:\u00a0 For the next canoe trip I’m getting a bigger tent and a cot.\u00a0 (No more sleeping on the ground for me.)\u00a0 But that trip won’t happen until at least 2020, as next summer my brother, his wife and I plan to hike the\u00a0Portuguese Camino<\/a>.\u00a0 That hike will involve a “mere” 150 miles, from Porto to Santiago de Compostela.\u00a0 This route is said to be a “fantastic route for pilgrims looking for a more rural experience on the Camino de Santiago.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The quotes from\u00a0Travels with Charley<\/a>\u00a0are from the 1962 Penguin Books edition, at pages 94-95.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lower image:\u00a0 My photo of a lady kayaker, portaging – carrying her kayak – at the Burritt’s Rapids lock station. My brother and I paid extra to take our canoes through the locks – resulting in the previous picture of “Yvette,” bending and stretching, but this lady chose to do it the “other way…”\u00a0 (“Oh\u00a0 to be young again!”\u00a0 Or not, once was enough…)<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Also of note:\u00a0 In\u00a0Geezer\u2019s guide to supplements \u2013 Part II<\/a>, I wrote of supplements for “men my age,” that is, 67.\u00a0 One of the recommended supplements was\u00a0Selenium<\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u201cNo other single nutrient appears to prevent cancer more effectively…\u00a0\u00a0It basically forces cancer cells to self-destruct.\u201d\u00a0 The good news was that “Nature\u2019s selenium supplement is the\u00a0Brazil\u00a0Nut<\/a>, which measures 100 mcg per nut.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>So you get your daily dose by eating two Brazil nuts.”\u00a0 But that presented a problem in accounting:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

I bought a 9.5 ounce container at the local\u00a0Fresh Market<\/a>\u00a0for $12.95 on July 15.\u00a0 I\u2019ll update this post when they\u2019re gone \u2013 at the rate of two or three a day \u2013 but …\u00a0it\u2019ll be awhile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the record, I had my last two Brazil nuts from that batch on September 7, 2018, less than a week after I got back from the aforementioned Rideau Adventure.\u00a0 I took the supplement from July 15 to August 17, for a total of 63 days.\u00a0 I didn’t take the supplement while on the Rideau, from the 18th to August 30, when I left for home.\u00a0 I then took it from August 31 to September 7, eight more days, or 71 total.\u00a0 Thus the cost of this supplement rounds up to about 19 cents a day.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw no\u00a0naked lady on the Rideau… * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * Editor’s note: I had to go back on August 3, 2020, to redo this post. As often happens, some photos – and especially my photos – from an old post get transformed into a box that says things like “image may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7606"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9461,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606\/revisions\/9461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}