Am I Okay? Wild Family - E.1 - 10 Days & 110kms Canoe Camping on Northern Ontario's French River

Well here we are on the beautiful French River in Northern Ontario. Tori and I are just enjoying this beautiful campsite for the last few days. We are planning on paddling the rest of the French River all the way to Georgian Bay and then paddling along the Georgian Bay coast for a short stretch to head back up the French River on another channel to where our truck is parked at Hartley Bay. Okay, so we have another week on the water here. We're super excited about it. We think we have our plans and strategies for travelling with the kids pretty dialed in. Huddie just turned one, Wesley's four and of course Wesley has some disabilities that make things more challenging but he is having a blast out here and he's really thriving which is so happy to see. So yeah, we are super pumped for this family journey. It's going to be our longest canoe trip to date by far as a full family with the introduction of Huddie. The weather has been incredible which, you know, this is early September. It's not always like this in Northern Ontario so we are truly lucky and we're hoping to bang off about 17 clicks a day depending on how the kids are handling things. Good morning! Hey, it's a new day. We're in the French River. Okay, Huddie's going for a hike with Mama. These are dehydrated raspberries that we add to Wesley's oatmeal. Apparently these aren't the ones we picked but we did pick a whole bunch of raspberries from our property and dehydrated them so we have an awesome stash of wild raspberries that we picked ourselves. And then this is honey, locally sourced at Costco in Orillia. So we are just about to load up the canoe and head on our way. We've got some rapids to deal with. We might have to portog. We may be able to line, run, wade, we don't know. We'll see when we get there. Hoping to catch some fish today too. Primarily we're going for some walleye or pickerel as we call them here in Canada. So super excited to get some fish on the table and to continue this adventure. Here we go! Baird family out! 12 o'clock. Is it? Yeah. I can't remember this world being here. Huddie, I think today's the hottest day yet. What do you think, Hud? How are you feeling, Hud? Really? I want you to describe to me what you're feeling. Do you want me to paddle stern? And you can just rest or whatever? You are worried you're having a heart attack? Really? What do you want to do? Paddle the woods, lodge the pine cove and get some help? You okay, Hun? Okay, so why don't we pull over? Really? Okay, pull over here immediately then. Okay, Hun, we need to pull over. No. If you're going to faint, we need to pull over here. Yep, tell me about it. Take your time. It's fine. Take your time. Well, so we have made it maybe a kilometer from our campsite and Jim is not feeling well. He is extremely lightheaded and feeling tingly hands and he thinks he has heat exhaustion. He needs to take a break. He was feeling extremely faint, like he was going to faint, which is pretty worrisome. So I forced him to pull over just so that we can wait it out and see what happens. We're kind of deciding if it's safe or makes sense to even continue the trip if he's feeling this way. He said he doesn't feel pain in his chest but a little bit of tightness when he breathes in really deeply. Can I get you anything? No. I'm worried that this is concussion. Yeah? Yeah. Well, it might make sense. No. No? Let's just call it. What? We've worked so hard the last four weeks, you know, with all these people here. Maybe this is just too much. If you want to blame it on me, I'm okay with that. So why don't we paddle to like lodge at Pine Cove or somewhere and figure out how to get to our vehicle. You know? Okay? Stay there. Stay sitting for a bit. I feel extremely, extremely lightheaded. Yeah. So I'm calling it, okay? Okay. It's just not safe. It's one thing if it's you and me but with both kids with us, like it's stupid. You know? Okay. Let's go stay with Alex. Do you want to do that? If I feel okay tomorrow we can... Well, Tori has moved me to the bow. And put a support behind me. I don't know what's happening to me but I feel like fainting. Like I'm just extremely exhausted. But Tori's basically called it. She doesn't want us to go on. She's paddling in the stern. And what we're going to do is we're going to paddle to a lodge that's probably about four or five kilometers away from here. See if they have a room potentially. I'll go get medical attention. And if I see how I'm feeling tomorrow. Well, I'm feeling a little better. Tori was just going to paddle us to a lodge. But then we actually missed Woosley Bay and discovered we were in the North Channel. AKA Tori was trying to rescue me and got sort of lost but not really. And we had a bite to eat and I started feeling better. Tori's really worried about me because at least in this area there's road access. And after the next portage there won't be for some time. But it seems that I've convinced her that I'm going to survive. And I'm paddling. She's in the stern managing Hudson who's woken from a nap. And who is a wee bit grumpy. So she's got to steer and parent at the same time. It's no easy feat. But we paddled out of our way because we were going to try to stay at a lodge. And then we got into some cell reception. Called. They didn't have any availability. I started feeling better. And now we're just going back with our original plan more or less. And hope all is well. So yeah. Interesting chain of events here today. But I'm thinking I'm going to be okay. I don't know what the hell came over me. Some sort of weird heart attack or something. One of those weird heart attacks. So Huddy, Wesley and I are sitting next to the first set of rapids of our trip. Little Pine Rapids on the French River. Jim is going to line the boat down. Just like that. Sorry Huddy. How are you feeling by the way? Let's just try to take it easy you know. Go beast mode all the time you know. Well Huddy, Wesley and I are once again sitting rapid side. Waiting for Jim to navigate this set of rapids. This is Big Pine Rapids. He is planning on lining the first drop and pulling the rest of it. It's really shallow and kind of rocky. So it's something that would be similar to what we did on the Bonaventure. So yeah, we'll see how he does. Huddy's barely holding on to his patience. Food. Food is a great distraction. Wesley on the other hand is being such a good little boy as usual. Hey Happy. Hi Wes. You're so sweet. These look stressful. Oh it's a f***ing beauty wallop. No way. Holy s***. Oh that's a net. Oh my goodness. Hello. Dinner. Absolute beauty. Nice. Hell yeah. Wow. Beauty eh? Just a beauty. Yay. Good job hun. Thank you. We made it to camp Huddy. Woo hoo. Huddy. Yeah. Bear family mission completed. What a day. Yeah. Wesley. We're at our campsite Wesley. Rejuvenating. The view was kind of cooler and the canyons were cooler last night. Would you like me to feed Wesley or anything? I got some Cajun fish crisp in here with the walleye fillets and cheeks. I just added a bunch of air to this bag and I'm just giving the fillets a nice coat. I'm going to throw them in the hot oil. Chef's kiss. I'll get you this fish first. Do you want yours like extra crispy? Extra crispy. How's that hun? Look. Done? Yeah. Yeah, actually it's pretty good. Now that we're here and I have a beverage. Right. But still, what was happening to me? I mean it's actually all bad. It's like after packing up and it's so hot and I'm breaking. It's like why? Why do any of this? Right? Yeah, but why? But like this is why. Right this moment. Fish. Wash your whole body. Oh, it's so hot. I just want to eat it anyway. There's mosquitoes out here. There are mosquitoes. Well, just finished up. Well, actually I have a little more left, but I ate some delicious walleye. What a treat. Gorgeous campsite and it's mosquito feeding hour. Bugs aren't usually so bad at this time of year in early September at all. But the kids are getting eaten a little bit here. And we're going to just take this chance to spray some musk all family and kids on them. Totally non-toxic when used as directed. Spray on hands and wipe on. So here we are on day five of our family French River adventure. It's only day one of our filming for my YouTube channel. Today was an interesting day. It turned out OK, but for whatever reason, probably just from exhaustion. Just a concussion that I got in a few days earlier. I was feeling extremely lightheaded. It was extremely weird. I felt like close to fainting. Pins and needles in my hands. And Tori started paddling me to like a lodge. And we're going to stay in a lodge and then see how I felt tomorrow. If we'd even continue, we might have to pull the ripcord on this. But as I just kind of sat there, as Tori beast paddled this fully loaded 18-foot prospector. And actually, it was probably for the best, but she actually missed the turn off to Woosley Bay. And ended up going into the north channel of the French a little bit. Before we pulled over to grab a bite to eat and realize what was going on. But by that time I started feeling OK. I kept paddling and then I sucked up enough energy to line and pull a couple of rapids. Which was a blast, Big Pine and Little Pine. Pike, I think, bit me off at the top of Big Pine, a big old pike. Later on, I managed to slam a nice size pickerel or walleye using a Rapala minnow lure. I think they're the Husky Jerk, I believe. Awesome lure. Bam! Slammed one just doing a little troll. Beauty, beauty fish. Just cooked that up now. And ended up finding a great campsite. Make camp around five and it turned out to just be a beautiful day. Hot, like unseasonably hot today. But the evening was perfect. Took a much deserved swim. And I'm feeling a lot better. I'm going to take it easy. I feel like maybe a lot of serious, serious exercise might be a little jarring for me right now. But yeah, it was kind of getting a little scary. But managed to pull through, thankfully. Kids had a great day. They're just thriving out here. It's amazing to see Wesley develop while he's out here. And Huddy as well, just from walking all over the uneven ground. His motor skills are improving like crazy. Challenging, but you know, it would just be too easy without them. And this is my first actual trip, canoe trip, on the French River. Yeah, I've been here on a lodge. I've been motorboat camping on the French. But I've never done a canoe trip on the French, let alone pretty much the entire thing like we're doing now. So super exciting and I'm like, why haven't we done this? It's so beautiful. Incredibly gorgeous. Fishing's good. Camping is amazing. Just all around awesome and I can't wait to see what tomorrow has to bring.