For those of you who couldn’t attend, the WECCC 2020 Family camp was held August 9th thru 16th. At the Charleston Lake Provincial Park, Shady Ridge Campground. This park is 6 ½ hours from Windsor, just past Kingston, then north of the 401 for 20 minutes.
We had 16 members join us this year as well as a few friends who joined us on some paddles. Our numbers were down this past summer, we missed many of our regulars due to precautions with the pandemic and the curveballs life throws at us. I hope you will be able to join us this coming year.
The campground wasn’t as large as most, which was nice. But the sites were rather wide open. The weather was great. We had a little rain on the first evening and on one other night. It was hot during the day and that made a cool swim even more enjoyable and it cooled down during the night. The camping was a little more rustic than usual this year as the showers were not open. But we just encouraged our fellow campers to take a swim whenever they were up wind of us. The flush toilets were open, as well as a tiny camp store with ice, wood, and a few treats.
For our first group paddle, we all gathered at the camp beach and headed north out of the bay, then headed for the east shore. We went around a few Islands on our way to Huckleberry Hollow Bay. It was about an hour and half to reach a nice public dock at the start of a trailhead that we could have hiked. We had a nice long lunch before we headed back to camp. Luckily, we had Karen Mitchel with us, with her good map sense we made it back around several islands to see our homeland on the far shore.
Our second group paddle was north, just out of the bay then west into Slim Bay. There is a long floating bridge into Slim Bay with a raised section for us to go under. The bridge is part of the (East) Tallow Rock trail. The bay is long and slender with steep sides on the east. On the way back we took a swim and ate lunch on a ledge of rock near the bridge. Where the water was cool and crystal clear. This was where we saw a meter-long snake swim up to our swim spot and try to land, so he could swallow a fish it had suck in its mouth sideways. The last leg of this paddle proved to be quite the work out for our two solo-canoeist, Hugh Carey, and Mike Alexander. The wind picked up to gusts of 25 mph. But these seasoned pros just put their heads down and carried on.
There were many shorter paddles done by various members of the group.
A few days later a small group of us did the Tallow Rock trail. 12km long steep and rocky with an off shoot to a quiet little shady beach, to rest and cool my feet. On the return loop I was looking forward to swimming from the same ledge of rock near the bridge we had swam a few days earlier. As we sat on the ledge to dry, we saw a 2-foot turtle, quickly swim by, near the bottom of the crystal-clear water. There were many other trails done by other small group or couples as well.
My last long paddle started with a group of 9 of us driving 22 km west to Seeley’s Bay. We launched from this small town onto the Rideau Canal and went through White Fish Lake and then on to Jones Falls Locks. After finding the Hotel at the locks closed, we walked to the Locks. There were two of them in a row and then a third a hundred yards away. It’s always interesting watching boats rise and fall in them. We then had a bathroom break, a swim and then lunch. The paddle back to the launch seemed a little quicker since we now knew where we were going. At 16 km, it was a full day of paddling.
Every evening there were several campfires to join. With card games, Giant Scrabble, and a few refreshments.
If we can get the Covid restrictions back to where they were last July. I hope you will join us for this year’s Family camp. Please book your campsite. The parks made it very easy to cancel at the last minute. But not so easy to get a site. After a year of this. I need to get away.
John Lesperance