Taking my girlfriend whitewater canoeing | Intro to whitewater canoeing

Oh, can I do a cross drop? There's a little more, yep, there we go, that's good, that's good, that's enough. Draw, not back pedal, draw. Forward, forward, forward. Thank you. Oh, we're good. Thank you. Yeah, we'll find out soon enough. What's going on guys? It's Alex here with Northern Scavenger and we are out here today at the Bronte Creek in Southern Ontario and we're going to be paddling from Lowville Park down to Lake Ontario. It's April 2nd, it's a little chilly out today but we're pretty fired up and I am out here taking my girlfriend on her first ever white water, kind of white water, trip. Wish me luck. How you feeling? Good, confident. I thought I'd be more nervous than I am. That's because you're wearing the full immersion gear. Yeah, I am working a look right now. It's a look for sure, it's a vibe. So ideally in these conditions we would both be wearing full dry suits but I only own one right now so I am being a gentleman and letting my girlfriend have it. I don't have one so I have brought a full change of clothes in a dry bag so that if, I'm not suspecting we will, but if we were to tip we have like a full change of clothes so that I'm able to get warm again after and lots of food to eat to get calories into my body if I was freezing or if Sydney was freezing. So best practice here would be for us both wearing dry gear and that's what we would recommend for you. Alright, so let's work on, let's do some warm ups with some draws and cross draws. Let's start off by doing some draws. So if we wanted to move the boat to the left, I'm going to get you to pull some water up the front there towards the nose. So no, you want to be, remember what you were doing on the, yeah there you go, that's it. Nice. Okay, that was good. So now let's go to the right. So we want to do a cross draw. There you go, that's it. Nice. That's exactly it. Alright, so now what we were also just doing here in the midst of all of this, we're facing upstream right now. So you've heard me call out a ferry before, right? So ferrying is basically what we were just doing there. The only thing that I wasn't really letting you be aware of is the tilt of the boat. So when we're going to the right, we want to basically tilt right and show the bottom of like, that's enough right about there. We're paddling forwards. We're going to the right side of the river and we're going to have that right tilt, right? So we're right tilt and just paddle forwards lightly. We don't need to go too strong in this kind of current, but we're showing that left side bottom of the canoe to the river and we're just slipping over to the other side. See how that works? Yes. If we were leaning left, there's a chance in a stronger current that it would grab that side and we would flip. So now same kind of idea when we're going left on the river, we want to have a left tilt. Just paddle nice and light and we're tilting left. Nice. Yeah, that's a nice tilt there actually. You feel comfortable there? Yeah, I'm good. Those knee pads help, eh? Definitely. So stop paddling for a sec. Look at this. The canoe is kind of just doing it on its own. Yeah. So that's a ferry. That's nice. Like we've got a good angle right now. Now I want to do some back ferries. So that's where we're basically doing the same thing. We're just doing it backwards. So we're going to back paddle. So paddle backwards, right, because we want to slow down and we want to be slower than the current. Yeah. So now from here, I'm going to have us on an angle. We want to be kind of tilted left for this because we're going left. Now back paddle. So do you see how we're going to slowly shift to the left side of the river now? See that? Yeah. So that's how that works. How'd that feel? Good. So now let's back ferry back to the other side of the river. So nope, back, just paddle backwards. But now we've got the right tilt on because we're going right. There you go. How's that feel? Good. Look at us just navigating right now. All right, so before we get on the river here, we're actually going to walk down a little bit because there's a set of rapids, a small set just ahead here that we want to just take a quick peek at, make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into before we jump in the boat. Here we go. It's okay. All right. Paddle forwards. And now some cross draws. Yep. Okay. That's good there. Okay. Do you see that rock down below that we don't want to hit? So we're going to kind of drop in just right at the, see this rock at the very top? We're going to drop just to the left of this rock and then you're going to do those cross draws to keep us to the right. Okay? So get ready to cross draw. There you go. All right. That's enough. Now draw. Nice. Yo, that was perfect. How'd that feel? My heart is racing. Yeah, it would be. That's good. Hey, you got to paddle slap that. I think I did a little bit. Nice. Sid, that was awesome. You actually like picked that up really quick. Did I? Yeah. I'm glad we did that lesson up top. Yeah, definitely needed. You're going to make some mistakes, but it's like, we're just trying to limit what we're trying to like limit what those are. Are your sunglasses polarized by chance? Like how well are you able to kind of see rocks right now? Like can you kind of see them in the water up ahead? Okay. Paddle forwards here. We got to get to the left side of this. There's like a stick. Do you see where we want to go though? The V? Yeah. Look at that. Um, okay. So can we like kind of like get out on the beaver dam there or like, do you want to get out on shore over there? Like where do you think would be your easiest place to get out? Okay. Is it the best place though? Not expecting you to know the answer. I'm just like, this is all part of it, you know, like problem solving, like, or would it be better to, yeah. So do some draws. You're on a stick right now. So it's going to be tough. Nice. Yo, there's like legit icicles on that stick. But that one big log there, like how do we get over to that side? You know? I mean, you know what? I guess we could go up higher and just do a full portage down. Yeah. That's good. Okay. Well, let's, uh, do some cross draws here because now we got to spin us right around. All right. Stop there for that. All right. Now paddle forwards. All right. Okay. Nice. I'm just going to pull myself up here and we're going to try to go through this way. In this little path here? Yeah. You think? I think I can see it. So go to the right side of that small tree. Okay. So I'm pretty excited because we made it through the first set of rapids and this was Sydney's first ever rapid. How did that feel? Good. My heart was pounding, but it was exciting. I feel confident. I'm ready for the next one. I can't wait for the next one. That's awesome. So we're all fired up, but we got to another set of rapids that just didn't make sense for us to hit. It's pretty shallow. A lot of rocks and there's some other troubles in there as well, but I'm going to let Sydney update you guys on what troubles we're looking at here. A bit of a tight squeeze up there, that nice big boulders that we hit up. So what did we do? We foreshadowed. Bushwhacked. That's a bit of a bushwhack. It was. All right. Time to paddle on. So do you see where that water is kind of folding at the top right? We kind of want to go in just to the left of it. So I'm going to see where we're at right now. Perfect. And then you're going to kind of use those cross draws to get us to the right. Nice. Okay. That's good. Now draw. So there's another rock down here. We're going to stay right. Do some cross draws. See that? Nice. Okay. Now draw. Okay. Watch your head here. Nice. Do you see the line down there? Kind of just want to stay left and then do a draw. Keep us close. No, draw, draw, draw. You know what? What are you thinking of the right side? It looks like more water is flowing. There is that rock down at the bottom so we'll have to go left of that rock. So you're going to... Actually straight. Let's just go straight. Do a draw. Yep. There's nothing we can do for those rocks there. Scouting another line. Oh that's shallow. Yep. What's that bagel? Delicious. We've got another portage here around that tree. So we just pulled over at the side of the river for a little snack. It's been pretty... It was a slow start to the day. We had lots of really, really shallow sections. Like the river was up a little bit a couple days ago and it's really dropped off. So it's been a bit of a challenge to get down and it's taking us a little bit longer than we were expecting. So we might not actually be able to make it all the way down to Lake Ontario. We might need to call for a ride. So anyways, we're just going to keep heading down. Like the last kilometer or so has been pretty quick moving. So maybe we've gotten through some hard sections and maybe it will open up and we'll actually cruise for a little bit here. So just kind of wait and see what we have ahead. You having fun? So much fun. I needed this half a bagel. Yeah, same. Alright, let's have some fun. Do some cross draws to keep us to the right. Keep at those. Alright, that's good. Draw. Nice. That was awesome. Okay, now we're just paddling forward. Look at that. Forward paddle. Oh, do you see all the fish? Yeah. Okay, do you see our rocks? My bad, we got a little too close to that one. So let's get you in cross draw position but don't do any yet. See this rock here? We're going to wait until after that and then you're going to start doing them now. There you go. Nice. Okay, that's good. So there's a trout chilling right in that little pool there. Right there. See if I can get a little closer. You can see a trout right there. Oh, yeah. That is so cool. Oh, there's one right out in the middle over there. Right about there. Oh, see the one up there? Yeah, they are big. So cool. Okay, that's good. We're just going to drop in here. Get ready to cross draw. Cross draw. Yep, nice. That was one of your weaker cross draws but it worked. Nice job. That was a fun little draw. Yeah, they're fun, eh? Okay, so get us in the middle by doing some draws. Yeah. How's that? Some nice big waves in there. How do you feel going through those? Good, honestly. Yeah? Yeah. That's nice. All right, so the last little while we've actually been cruising down the river, making some really good time. The water levels have been a little more in our favor anyways, and there hasn't been as many fallen trees, so we've been pushing some good distance. Sun's out. My feet are a little cold because they got wet and I don't have dry pants on right now, but my neoprene booties are kind of keeping me a little bit warm. Yeah, we just had a little lift over, over that log, and we're going to have a little bite to eat. Lunch is served. What's on the menu? A little ham and cheese sandwich, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Courtesy of? Timmy's. We were in a bit of a rush this morning to get out here because it was kind of a last minute plan to come paddle this, so we just swung by Timmy's in the morning, grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a sandwich for lunch, and we were good to go for the day. That's good stuff. Hitting the spot. Wow, this is amazing. There's like icicles all along the shore. Oh, come on, rock. Come on. Be kind, be kind. Little bump and grind. Yeah, you think you can duck under that? Yeah. That's low. Nice, limbo, limbo on the river. That's technically like in a faster current, that would have been a really bad idea. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely. If I got crunched in that. Feeling pretty good though. That was a fish, eh? Oh, they're jumping all around us. Nice. Okay, forward. Might bump a little. I think we're good down the right side here, eh? Yeah, I'm up ahead there. You're good, you can go to the other side now. If this was summer, I'd be putting you right through the waves. All around here, eh? Draw, draw. Draw, not back pedal, draw. Forward, forward, forward. Okay, forward. Good to the last drop. Want a sip? Yeah, I'll take a sip. It's been an absolute grind today. It's around 5 o'clock, and we've just been doing a bunch of liftovers the last little while. My feet are very cold. Turns out not wearing dry pants and just wearing neoprene booties underneath has not necessarily kept me the warmest. So I'm looking forward to heating those toes up. Other than that, we are getting very close to the takeout. It definitely took us a little bit longer than we expected today. I think maybe one lesson would have been bringing sunscreen. I'm a little curious how much sun we've gotten today. Another lesson would maybe be we could have probably packed a couple extra snacks. I'm starting to get a little bit more hungry now. Maybe it would be good to have one more snack kind of thing. All in all though, I'm feeling pretty good, and I think we're going to be feeling pretty accomplished by the end of all this. I literally thought this was going to be a two-hour trip. How are you doing now? This is one of the hardest things I've ever done. I learned a lot. I'm excited to get to the other end. You've been doing really well. Thank you. Learned from the best. But yeah, I'm excited for a good dinner. Yeah, me too. We've earned it today. Oh, man. That's for sure. Yeah, guilt-free eating tonight. Definitely. I like to see you still smiling though. I am. You've been a champ. I am. And your paddling skills today have really developed. Yeah, I feel like I've definitely advanced in that category. I might say I'm a skilled paddler now. There you go. Maybe not quite there yet, but hey, you had some good moves today for sure. Yeah, definitely. All right, what do you say we finish up here? We've got like two kilometers left. Yeah, let's go. All right. This is so cool. There's literally trees just growing out of the shale here. Absolutely beautiful. Yo, Sid, where are we? Oh, we made it. I thought we were going to have to- We crushed it. We did. Time for some celebratory beers and food. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe we made it. Like, I can. Like, this was the game plan the whole time, but at the same time, that got really tough there at the end. It did. Long day. That was really long. Satisfied though. I'm so satisfied. I'm so glad that I can say that we did that. And not do it again. Yeah, like that's not something that I would maybe do again. I would do a different river with you. Yeah, you've done that river already. What's the point of going back? I don't need to go back. Yeah. So I seem to recall that trip down Bronte Creek. I've done it once before with Noah. Maybe I'll link that right up here. But I don't recall it being that difficult and not taking that long. But, you know, for only being 24 kilometers, that was a grind. Hopefully Sydney still wants to date after this.