with a 120-metre portage marked to the right. Tired and sore, we pitch our tents at an inferior campsite near the take-out for Rollway Rapids. This is one of the most technical rapids on the river, and the low water levels make the run a shallow, sloppy mess littered with unseen rocks. We decide to carry the canoes through the 840-metre portage before dinner. There is still enough evening
light to search for the side-trail that leads to the Blair Fraser memorial. The bronze cross set into cement commemorates the journalist and member of “the Voyageurs” who drowned here during a springtime trip in 1968 when he missed the landing and capsized. The Ottawa press corps coined the group’s name after well-known paddler, Eric Morse, founded it in 1951. Fraser’s comrades on his ill-fated journey, which included former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, erected the cross in his memory.
BILL MASON’S FAVOURITE SPOTS With Rollway at our backs next
morning, we come to a double set of rapids called the Natch. Both sections have portages of 275 metres and 250 metres marked on the left bank; the first one is more rugged. The campsite close to the take-out of the first portage was a favorite filming location of the late Bill Mason. The artist, canoeist, and filmmaker banked lots of footage at the Natch for his contributions to the National Film Board. And it was here, under the overhanging cedars opposite the impressive cliff, that Mason’s cover photograph for Song of the Paddle was taken by his son, Paul.
Mason’s first book of the series,
Path of the Paddle, provides a horrific account of an accidental drowning on the Petawawa:
26 ottawaoutdoors
“As I was scooping a pail of water
from the river I looked up and saw a bright orange object at the base of the rapids. I groaned aloud and said to Ken (his cameraman), ‘There’s a packsack out there that some poor guy’s lost. I better go out and get it before it sinks.’ As I neared the object, my heart nearly stopped. The orange packsack took on the shape of a life jacket and the purple shape within it became a man’s face. For a split second, all the energy drained out of me.”
Mason and some new arrivals
at the scene spent hours trying to revive him. He recounts the ghastly story to emphasize proper landing procedures at a portage at the top of a rapid. Drowning can occur when paddlers try to avoid running the rapids by pulling up bow-first at the portage. When the stern swings out hard into the current, the rear paddler can lose his balance and dump into the cold water. The river quickly sweeps the victim into the centre and the avalanche of whitewater below sucks them under. Our fate, however, is much more
fortuitous—downstream from the Natch is pure bliss! Even where the water appears flat, it is slowly and surely propelling us toward the finish. A four-kilometre section of flat water features two small swifts, the first with a 135-metre portage to the right and the second with a 160-metre portage to the left. Next is Schooner Rapids and Five Mile Rapids. Schooner has two portages of 2,305 metres and 1,400 metres on the left bank separated by a calm section just past a bridge and under a hydro line. The Five Mile Rapids portage of 3,400 metres is on the right, with the put-in on the southwest end of Coveo Lake. Not to worry—the lengthy portage trails are used most by hardy canoeists who shirk convention by making
their way up-river. The beauty of this eight- kilometre stretch of whitewater and occasional swifts is the level one and two rating over the entire section; they are easily negotiated during both high and low water conditions. During low-water years, however, some sections may come to resemble rock gardens and force paddlers to become waders. It is generally known that
large portions of the Petawawa can be unforgiving, so we are amazed to meet people on the river who are canoeing novices. It quickly becomes apparent they are taking on too much too fast. Our most memorable encounter with neophyte paddlers occurred during our second evening on the river. Settled in at the first site marked along the Five Mile portage just before dusk, four bedraggled canoeists strolled into our camp. They had misjudged the ominous haystack waves during the first 300 metres of the rapid. All four were catapulted from their
17-foot aluminum Gruman canoe. While they were still airborne, a pile of jagged, widow-maker rocks punched holes through the aluminum like cannonballs. When they found us, they had left their canoe for dead and were sharing a bottle of dark rum on their walk back to the nearest road about 10 kilometres downstream. Dave, who is a veritable duct tape artist, helped repair their smashed canoe and we offered them room to pitch their tents. Come morning, our neighbors were still in high spirits as they set out in the wallowing Gruman. Much of our last day on the river is spent wading in the cold river. Overnight, the water level dropped to almost drought conditions and we’re forced to haul our craft along grassy banks and over gravel riffles where rapids should be. Eventually,
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