Last Paddle of the Year!

The Pigeon river

Ok so I haven't posted much this summer. In fact I haven't posted at all. I have been busy with a variety of projects and haven't done a lot of my usual summer outdoor activities to the level that my wife and I enjoy. No camping at all! A few reasons for that but mostly because Jake, our youngest has been getting us up every couple of hours at night. The burden for this has fallen mostly on my wife and I marvel at her ability to function on the broken sleep she gets. However it is one thing to have a baby awake in a multilevel house and quite another to deal with one in a tent or trailer. Next summer will be different.

Jake's first paddle!

Anyways to make a long story short we did day things when we could and did get Jake out for a kayak ride. He isn't impressed with wearing a life jacket! He'll learn to love it!
Yesterday the weather looked good and who knows how many more days we will get like that so I threw the canoe on the roof of the car and drove up to the Pigeon River. I had heard from a coworker that the section near Golf Course Rd. east of Highway 35 was a wild stretch of river. His words were that it felt like you were "way up north!"
I had never been to this place so I went to Google Maps and found the intersection of Golf Course Rd. and St. Mary's Rd. On Google Maps it shows a place called Mt. Horeb. Here the Pigeon River shows up on the map as it flows northeast toward Omemee. This is about a half hour drive from my place in Bowmanville, and when I got to the place there wasn't a single house, nor any mountains so I don't know what the Mt. Horeb refers to! There was a small wooden bridge over the Pigeon River and on the southeast side of this bridge was a place to launch a canoe. There is not much in the way of parking though. The road has deep ditches on either side and no real pulloff, so you have to be careful parking. On the plus side there is not much traffic in downtown Mt. Horeb.

The bridge on St. Mary's Rd.

The river is about twenty feet wide at the bridge and widens as you go downstream. As you can see on Google map or satellite it is a meandering stream with lots of curves.

The Pigeon River southwest of Omemee

The river runs through a swampy forest and there is no sign of humanity to be seen. As I rounded one of the myriad of bends I flushed a group of about ten or so Wood Ducks. Other than that though there was very little in the way of life to be seen. There were lots of small fish to be seen in the river, species unknown. It would be very different in the spring time though as swamps are generally very full of birdlife and wildlife in general. I did see a single frog(Leopard?) that was so cold he could barely move. He should have been in hibernation already, I think. After about a half hour of paddling downstream I decided that I didn't want to go to far and have to fight the current on the way back so I headed back toward the bridge. As I got nearer I was followed by a Great Blue Heron that passed over my head at about 20 feet and settled on the side of the river about forty feet ahead of me.

Great Blue Heron in flight

I think he was looking for that frog! Upstream from the bridge the river is smaller but still plenty navigable by canoe. I continued upstream for about twenty more minutes and the river is still twenty feet wide at least. The terrain is very similar and the only sign of man is the bridge on St. Mary's Rd. I will definitely be back to explore this area more in the coming year, but I will probably put in at one of the crossings farther downstream on Mt. Horeb Rd. and paddle back upstream until I get tired and then float back down to the put in with the current. Hopefully the parking may be better as well.
When I got home I hung the canoe back up in the rafters of the garage until next year. For now, the water is cold and there is lots to do on land and snow! I might even post a little more regularly!!

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Summers Botanical Jewels

One of the great things about being out and about in the outdoors of Ontario is the beauty that you tend to happen upon on a regular basis. In fact if you are outdoors and have your eyes open you run into beauty everywhere. It can be fireflies along a stretch of swampy road, a doe and spotted fawn in the forest near the trail, or a beautiful bird in the bush or tree in front of you. This post is about the wildflowers that adorn this provinces' woods and meadows. Obviously, Ontario has thousands of species of plants, the majority of them flowering, so to narrow this down I am selecting a few "spectacular" species. Who decided what is spectacular? Hey, I am writing this, so I get to choose! The choice is purely arbitrary and really the list could go on and on! In fact I have chosen only a few for this post but may revisit this subject down the road.

Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa

The number of truly orange flowers in Ontario is surprisingly low and this speccies of Milkweed is the showiest of the oranges. It is found across Ontario in areas that have dry sandy soil and can be seen from the 401 in places. The Pinery is a good spot, the area around Camp Borden, the Oak Ridges moraine in various spots. It will grow to about 2 ft tall but is usually shorter and can be in open woodlands or open fields. I will admit this is a sentimental favorite of mine and therefore it goes first!

Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata

As a canoeist I love seeing this close relative of the butterfly milkweed growing along the shorelines of lakes and streams as well as in wet spots and some ditches. This species gets up to four feet tall. This photo was taken along the Nonquon River in Seagrave, ON. This particular specimen was occcupied by a Monarch. Monarch caterpillers feed almost exclusively on the milkweed family.

Fragrant Water-Lily, Nymphaea odorata

Who doesn't love this one seen in all our quiet rivers and lakes. The water lily, white or yellow is a spectacular flower and a delight to paddle among!

Black Eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta

Ok this is a common roadside flower over much of the province. I still think it is one of the nicest roadside flowers going. It is a ray of sunshine as you drive along!

Cardinal Lobelia, Lobelia cardinalis

This one is definitely not your average roadside flower. This beauty is found along wooded streams. I have seen it in the Niagara region, along the Nonquon and in Bon Echo park. This photo was taken at Bon Echo, along the road to Joe Perry Lake. Can be 1 to 4 feet tall. One of my all time favorite wildflowers!

Harebell, Campanula rotundifolia

This is one of those delicate little beauties that often go unnoticed in the sunny forest floor. I like it because of its delicate blue color and because it seems to be to delicate to survive, and yet it does in some way survive in heavily used campgrounds such as the Pinery where this one was taken

Showy Ladies Slipper, Cypripedium reginae

This is our largest, showiest, native orchid, found in swampy areas and wet woods. It is not a common sight but there are places to see it. Purdon bog is one area that is famous for the massive show of these beauties. They are found in other parts of the province including the Bruce and Manitoulin. This is one of those plants that prove it pays to keep your eyes open when driving the backroads. I took this photo today just outside of Port Hope, ON, at one of two colonies that I found within five miles of country road.

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Nonquon Visit

Friday was a nice day in the morning so I threw the little canoe on the roof and drove up to Port Perry with Isaiah. We launched our canoe in the Nonquon River on Old Simcoe Rd. just south of Scugog Line 10. The Nonquon goes under Old Simcoe at this point and there is a little area where you can safely launch with out fear of your vehicle being a traffic hazard. Isaiah is just four years old and has his own paddle so I put him to work paddling us downstream! His paddle blade spent a great deal of time in the water, and some times it even was moving us forward. He has an idea of what he is doing and at this stage that is all I care about. Amazingly, the entire hour and a half that we were out he never dropped his paddle once. The Nonquon is about fifteen feet across for most of the section we paddled and not far from roads, but for the length of our paddle we didn't see another boat or person or man-made structure. What we did see was beaver lodges, Canada Geese on their nests, Red-winged Blackbirds, Blue Winged Teal, and Great Blue Herons. As we were launching we heard the kidik,kidik call of a Virginia Rail. It sounded to be only a few feet into the marsh grasses. At a point where a beaver had built a dam at some point in the past, there was a small riffle that dropped about three inches. To Isaiah this was whitewater canoeing at its finest. I am sure he felt like an early explorer did crossing America in the eighteen hundreds. To a four year old it was grand adventure, and best of all we shared it together. I like to think he will remember these times together for the rest of his life. If you have kids go exploring together somewhere outdoors with them.




As we neared the end of our paddle and were returning to the launch site a Sora Rail stood on the bank about five feet from us and watched us go by. I was impressed, as you don't see rails very often. Isaiah was just as impressed by the Barn Swallows and their nests, under the bridge at Old Simcoe Rd. It really doesn't matter to a child how rare a site is to the rest of us, he is as happy with the barn swallows up close as a Sora Rail. What really matters is the shared experiences that will turn your child into an outdoors person. So this weekend, grab your kids, and your canoe,pack,bike,whatever and find a patch of nature to share with those you love.

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Spring has Sprung

White Trillium, Trillium grandiflorum

It was a beautiful day for walk in the woods and I even took my camera with me. For me the Trillium is one of the highlights of spring in Ontario. There are five or six different species of trilliums in Ontario but only two that are widespread and common. The white trillium is the one we all know and it is is the one that will carpet the hillsides in deciduous forests. I had passed this woodlot a couple of times lately, and saw the splash of white on the hills. I decided it was time to explore the woodlot and these are a few of the photos!

A hillside of trilliums

A "flock" of trilliums!

Red trilliums and white trilliums

Red Trillium, Trillium erectum

Early Meador Rue, Thalictrum dioicum

Large Flowered Bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora

The woodlot had a variety of other spring flora with good showings of Wild Ginger, lots of May-Apple, and some Jack in the Pulpit. This lot was right in the city of Oshawa, beside a major road. The next few weeks will bring lots of other spring flora out for your viewing pleasure. There is nothing on TV!! Go for a walk in the woods!

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