Paddling Petrie Island

It's somewhere we've been meaning to go pretty much since we first ventured out with our original kayaks, in 2020.

In our very first kayaking video, where we put our red and yellow Deltas into the South Nation River, at Jessups Falls, we drove past the turnoff for Petrie Island, on the eastern limits of Orleans, in Ottawa's east end. DW and I mentioned that it would be nice to check it out—and in fact, we once drove onto the island to see about putting in our kayaks but didn't have them strapped to the roof of our Niro at that time.

But we never actually returned with our boats.

So far, this kayaking season, we seem to be making decisions almost last-minute about heading out on the water, and at that, we haven't really had places in mind. Our paddle out at Burritts Rapids was almost improvised, though we're glad we went. We thought we might go to Petrie Island on that day, but by the time we got moving and were able to mobilize our Paddlefolk, I felt it was too late in the morning. I had the impression that you had to get to Petrie Island before the crowds flocked to it.

So we held out, and made the last-minute decision to try this spot on the following weekend.

Surprisingly, there was already a lot of activity on Petrie Island when we arrived before 8:30 on a Saturday morning. We discovered, when we reached the parking lot that's closest to the put-in spot for canoes and kayaks, that there was a race that was being held by several of the canoe clubs in the Ottawa area.

We had no problem getting our kayaks in the water on the docks that are in this bay, but race officials warned us to not go left when we exited the bay, as there were lanes marked out and canoeists were racing along that area. There was still lots of public space if we paddled to the right.

Not being familiar with Petrie Island, we didn't know where various channels around the many islands led, whether we'd take a bay into a dead end or find a narrow channel that would keep us moving westward. But that was part of the fun of exploring somewhere new.

DW and I were thrilled to see so many Delta kayaks on the water, from recreational crafts to long, touring vessels like ours. Seeing a Delta gives us the same sense of excitement that we imagine a Ferrari owner gets at seeing another Ferrari on the road.

I almost feel that way when I see another Niro drive past mine. There aren't a ton of them on the road.

We spent less than two hours and covered more than six kilometres. And surprisingly, we performed one portage—something we didn't expect to do when going around a set of islands.

Check out the video. It's 12-and-a-half minutes, so give yourself a break.

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