Wind & Waves

As I tucked myself into bed, I felt as though my inner organs were bruised, that they had been pummelled by the up and down rollercoaster of waves. Everything hurt.

But I was happy, nevertheless.

In truth, it was good practice. DW and I could be facing similar conditions in a few weeks and we needed to be prepared.

Two Sundays ago, we took our kayaks to Morris Island. It’s a conservation area along the Ottawa River between Arnprior and Fitzroy Harbour, upstream from the massive Barrage des Chats, a hydroelectric dam. We planned to meet with our Paddlefolk, Nina and Brian, but Nina’s shoulders were giving her grief so she bowed out.

We were still glad to have Brian come along.

As we headed to the parking area—it costs $7 for four hours—we noticed that the wind was a bit blustery. Our initial plan was to paddle across the river where a rail-bridge-turned-multi-use-path spanned it and explore the islands toward the village of Pontiac Station.

DW and I had paddled this area a couple of years ago. I have some video footage from that day, which I might turn into a retro video for my YouTube channel. DW and our Paddlefolk crossed the river a bit downstream almost two years ago when we explored Baie Black.

Unloading our kayaks and gear, DW, Brian, and I agreed that the wind might be a bit strong for a river crossing. As a Plan B, we decided to stick to the Ontario shore and make our way to the Mississippi River, which empties into the Ottawa River a few kilometres downstream of Arnprior. We’d have to round a peninsula, cross a bay, and enter the Mississippi with some headwind but hoped we’d have a nice tailwind for our return journey.

Take a 13-minute break and have a look at our journey.

As you can see, the wind kicked up some rolling swells. But the video doesn’t actually show how high the waves could get. At times, I could see DW’s and Brian’s kayaks disappear from view.

Because the wind was blowing from the northwest, but mostly from the west, we only had a tailwind when we entered the Mississippi River and when we rounded the peninsula on our way back. Most of our paddling was either into the wind or with a strong crosswind.

DW and I were grateful for the rudders on our kayaks. Brian made good use of his skeg. Had we been using our old Delta kayaks, we would have turned back shortly after paddling away from the put-in spot.

But the waves gave us a good feel for how it could be on Lake Superior, which we’ll be visiting in a couple of weeks. It let us know what we can confidently handle and showed us when we’d bow to our limits.

We could handle this amount of wind and waves but wouldn’t venture out with worse conditions.

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Happy Monday!