“Gin Clear”: the Upsalquitch River

The Upsalquitch River

May 8 – 10, 2010

the dawn of a new adventure

This trip began just as the one last summer down the Patapedia and Kedgwick Rivers did, at a campsite along the Restigouche River. Well, actually, it began on Friday night with a broken down trailer a half hour outside of Fredericton, a tow-truck, a trailer swap, and then the remaining five hour drive. But the trip began, in my mind, with this scene of my hammock hanging in the trees by the river on Saturday morning, with anticipation hanging in the air for the first paddling trip of the season.

breakfast

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day, and had breakfast, which had been laid out for us by the earliest birds. Breakfast was a spectacle! The bubbling percolator was constantly being emptied and refilled, and there were oranges, pitas and hummus, and breakfast burritos.

We all hopped on Andre’s bus and Roland once again led us down to the 20 mile of the Upsalquitch. You wouldn’t want to start any higher than we did, except in very high water. This whole river was “new water” for me, but the top few miles, were new for almost everyone here.

Justin provides some entertainment for the bumpy bus ride

the "before" crew

So, sunscreen was applied, and boats were loaded. We’re going to the wilderness!

another beginning

And in this way, another trip begins.

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The Magnet of the Tobeatic

I am slowly working through a backlog of photos that I want to share.  This post, I feel, is my first attempt to actually bring us up to the present.  From September 27th – October 3rd, I was on a men’s canoe trip with nine other men in the most mystical of places, the Great Tobeatic Wilderness.  Quite by chance, we traced the identical route taken by myself and the Whynots in April of this year, but I could trace it a thousand times over and still find wonderous new things, and discover that sense of adventure all over again.

Day 1: Jim Charles Point

Jim Charles Point

We started our trip, interestingly enough, on Jim Charles Point.  The next morning, we drove around to Eel Weir instead of crossing Kejimkujik Lake because of high winds.

Day 2: Eel Weir

High Winds on Keji

It was noon before we set out from Eel weir,

The Magnet of the Tobeatic – Part III

Day 5 – Junction Lake

We start our day on Junction Lake and as we set out, Brian gives us an inspirational reading from the shore.

Thought of the Day

We visited the point where the current county lines (Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queens and Digby) converge. 

Magnet of the Tobeatic – Part IV

Day 6 – Mink Lake

My Solo Spot

Patapedia, Kedgwick and the Mighty Restigouche

Patapedia River

(Kedgwick and the Restigouche too!)

May 21-25, 2009

The Patapedia Crew

We started out in Fredericton with a crew of six.  We loaded up the trailer with our packs and canoes in the hot spring sun and headed North.  We drove for four  hours to a campsite in Kedgwick where we stopped for the night by the river.

Patapedia River Sunrise

In the morning we got up and headed literally around the corner to where our journey began: André Arpin’s place – Canoe Restigouche.  There we met our skilled guide, Roland.  We got back in the truck and drove on the back roads now for another hour and a half.  The road itself was in good shape, but the recent wind storm had knocked down many trees that bullied us to one side of the road or the other.

Road Less Traveled

Patapedia River Part II (The Kedgwick River)

Patapedia (Continued)

On to the Kedgwick River

Once we got back to Arpin’s we rendezvoused with Kathleen and Patrick who would be joining us for the Kedgwick portion of the trip.  We reloaded te trailer with four canoes and all of our gear and all seven of us piled into the Land Cruiser and once again, hit the dusty trails.

Reload

Roland's Fluffy Companions

Close Quarters

Our put in site on the Kedgwick River was at the Kedgwick Forks, where there was a spacious loading area.

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 1

Boundary Rock Expedition 2009

April 11 – 15, 2009

Paul “Tetris” Maybee

Cody “Eddie” Whynot

Rob “Scout” Whynot

Ryan “Rhynot” Whynot

The now five-day trip in search of Boundary Rock starts in Liverpool at the Whynots’ residence -well… on the way to Liverpool that is.  We drove from Halifax to Liverpool in the afternoon of Friday, April 10th – Good Friday.  We got as far as Blockhouse when I realized that I had forgotten the dehydrated broth to my chicken stew.  This may seem like a small setback, but I had spent days on my broth, and it was pretty important for me to get it back.  One solution would have been stopping somewhere and picking up some chicken bouillon, except that it was Good Friday and everything was closed, not to mention it wouldn’t have tasted anything like the broth I had worked so hard on.

Packing

So I called my wife Mikey to see if she could get the broth to a bus station.  The website was useless and the office was closed, but still she managed to find a bus heading down and got the broth on board.  My hero!  The bus came in just after 8 and once again, all seemed to be going according to plan…

Parcel for me!

Broth

We finished up packing and played a few rounds of pool and went to bed.

Pool game

Bed

Goodnight Moon

An excerpt from my journal, April 10th, 2009

“The 8 day trip is now 5 days and goes down the Roseway instead of back up to Keji, but I’m feeling prepared and I think it should be a beautiful trip.  There will be some wild water, but we’re not taking any chances.  Here’s to Finding (or at least searching for) Boundary Rock”.

Day 1

Saturday, April 11th, 2009:  Liverpool, NS

Load up in the rain

We start day 1 in Liverpool, and in true Nova Scotia fashion, it is raining.  So we gear up and pack the truck.  The next thing we realize is that we’re short on paddles.  It seems at this point that we’ll never be on the water.  We go to every hardware store around looking for paddles and eventually find enough to head out.  We load up and hit the road.  FINALLY!  But we’re only 45 minutes behind schedule, which isn’t too bad, I guess.

The Intrepid Explorers

We couldn’t get to George’s Lake because of a gate, so we set out from Merrymekedge Beach.  Here’s the last photo of us before we set out across Keji Lake.

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 2

Day 2

Sunday, April 12th, 2009: Peskawa Lake

Good Morning Peskawa

Windy Lakes

High Water

The Decision

An excerpt from my journal: April 12, 2009

“Today was a real turning point for the trip. I woke up at 6:30 and stoked the fire while outside, the wind howled through the bare trees. The news outside was not promising for this trip. There were white caps and a strong wind blasting us from the North West. We took our time with breakfast in the Warden’s cabin and savored the luxury of being warm, dry and safe from the storm outside.”

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 3

Day 3

Monday April 13th, 2009: Sisketch Lake

Allow me to just show again what the campsite looked like when we arrived, just to make very clear the contrast to what we saw when we awoke the next day.

Sisketch Camp at arrival

Sisketch Camp an hour later

Sisketch Camp this morning

So that’s what I saw when I woke up the next day. A far cry from the starry night we saw last night. I eventually won the long battle with the wetness and got a fire going (as I was the first one up again) and looked around at the snow covered world that awaited us. What would this mean for our search for the rock? What about canoeing? I’ve never been canoeing anytime other than the summer. At one point the clouds were thinning and I did get a glimpse of the sun trying to beat it’s way through the clouds.

Boundary Rock Expedition – Day 4

Day 4

Tuesday April 14th, 2009: Junction Lake

This morning we wake up to what would appear to be- though I’m hesistant to say so this time- a very nice day.  Since I am the only one who enjoys the early morning I get the fire going again and make some coffee and cardamom buckwheat pancakes with real maple syrop.  We got a text from Mr. Whynot saying he would pick us up at Upset Falls instead of Indian Fields, which buys us some more time, and so the plan this morning is to take a few hours to look for the rock before setting out for the bottom half of our trip.  That’s right, we got a text.  Rob’s phone was able to send and receive text messages even from Junction Lake, the middle of the Nova Scotian wilderness.  That’s good to know for future reference, but not something anyone should count on.  The good news is, we’ve got a little more time and it’s all downstream from here.

Junction Lake Morning

Breakfast in the Sunshine

Overnight, something interesting had happened.  We got a really cold snap because of the clear night and all of the dead branches seemed to be freeze dried in the morning.  They were easy to just snap off or the morning’s fire.  This was the easiest it’s been to keep a fire going yet.  With the first day being rain, and the two days after that having constant snow, this was a real treat.