About Paddles, Bikes and Hikes

ABOUT PADDLES, BIKES AND HIKES

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, August 31, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

An Ottawa gentleman e-mailed me just last week to tell me that he and his 12 year old son had just completed canoeing the 202 km Rideau Canal. As he explained it, the trip was something his son really wanted to do. Determined to be purists, they started at Kingston, and didn’t stop until they had descended the flight of 8 locks at Ottawa and ended up in the Ottawa River, where they were picked up. Thousands of paddle strokes for 10 days, at a time when some kids his age would be spending their summer months playing video games.

It has been refreshing to see the current interest in walking, hiking, bicycling, paddling, and enjoying the outdoors without benefit of a motor. A few evenings ago, I glanced through the trees in our front yard after hearing an unusual noise, to see someone clip clopping by on horseback, something we don’t see a whole lot out our way.

During my several kayak tours on the Rideau Canal this summer, we have met hundreds of people. While most in their pleasure boats are courteous and friendly, and happily waving, they can’t help but express some astonishment when they see us, physically, propelling ourselves along to our destination. However, we have noted with great interest, that several huge cabin cruisers have been seen, carrying either kayaks or bicycles on board, and sometimes both.

Someone commented to me the other day that the majority of Ottawa residents always look so fit. It is little wonder if what we saw four years ago is any indication. While camped at a lock station across from Carleton University, we had difficulty getting to sleep from the hum of bike tires and jogging of feet which continued through the day and well into the night.

The bikers on our roads, and engineers accommodating them with paved shoulders of their own on many of our highways, the brisk business that most bike shops enjoy today, and the e-mail requests that I receive annually about places to bike, are all good signs. We are becoming a more outdoor oriented society, and one that yearns for exercise. One fellow I know from north of Madoc, travels all over eastern Ontario to cycle different routes with fellow cyclists.

The popularity of the hiking and paddling events I offer is another example of the interest that people are taking today in wanting to keep fit and enjoy the outdoor experience. In 1996, when I first introduced a program of Monday evening interpretive hikes, I managed to drag out only a half dozen nervous, but mildly interested residents, for the first effort, despite heavy advertising. Even they appeared suspicious, not sure about this fellow in the Tilley hat who was about to take them into the woods. Today, this 18-week series which commences in May, is booked solid by late February, and the hikes routinely get over 30 outdoor enthusiasts every Monday night, even during the heat of July. On two separate occasions, a total of 47 attended each night, resulting in the need to purchase a portable public address system in order to be heard. And they now follow me, without question, wherever I take them, even into the woods.

Those who enjoy physical exercise, see many things which to them are baffling. The popularity of drive throughs is one of them. On numerous occasions, I have parked, run into Tim Horton’s for a coffee and donut, and left the parking lot, long before someone in the drive-through had made it to the window to pick up their purchase. Drive through banking, drive through pharmacies, drive-through churches, drive through liquor stores – there’s even a drive-through marriage chapel in Las Vegas. In Pensacola, Florida, there is a drive-through funeral home providing relatives with a chance to say farewell without leaving their car! “Yes, I will miss you old friend, but not enough to bother getting out of the car.” And, if the thought had crossed your mind at all – yes, in Pennsylvania, there is even a drive-through “gentleman’s club”, a strip club where you pay your dues and drive through for a quick view.

Although drive-throughs will continue to explode in number, there are those out there who will continue to shun such conveniences, in favour of walking to get from place to place. While I regard walking the entire 50 km Millennium Trail two years ago, both ways, a feat for my wife and I and two dogs, I know of many who have done the same trail, several times. I know of some who have walked the 106 km Cataraqui Trail from Strathcona to Smith’s Falls, and the 387 km Rideau Trail from Ottawa to Kingston – in winter. And who can forget the couple, one a retired school teacher from Picton, who walked to Florida.

To hear about a father and his 12 year old son paddling their way by canoe from Kingston to Ottawa, is truly an inspiration to us all. It wouldn’t surprise me if this ambitious couple decide to take on the 18,000 km Trans Canada Trail, the very moment it is finally finished.