Soon we will have a report of the Escalante camping trip when the pics come, but until then I'll show you our latest mode of urban canoe portage.
Our house is about six blocks to the Byward canal that runs through downtown Ottawa. Our point of access is a widening of the canal where it runs through Dow's lake, a small pond just south of our house. On a sunny day people kayak, paddle boat, and park their big motor boats on the lake and eat at one of the many bad floating restaurants that line the lake.
To go the six blocks, we used to hassle with lifting our huge canoe on to the top of our car and parking it in a pay parking lot by the lake. This seemed like a huge hassle, so recently we purchased a small trailer for the boat that balances at the middle. Now we do a much simpler portage while Imogen is delivered to the launch in the jogger/stroller. At some point I will engineer a hitch on my bike for an ultra-fast portage-du-velo.
We used a U-shaped breasfeeding pad in the bow of the boat to support Imogen on her first paddle.
It started to sprinkle rain, so we only paddled for a short while, but Imogen was in to it, sort of.
Thanks to our paddling friends Gwen and Borden for their foresight in getting us an infant life jacket for X-mas. Its good to have friends that think this way when it comes to babies. If the weather holds, we plan on getting out for a proper paddle-camp trip to the islands of Lac Poisson Blanc in Quebec this weekend.
