My first introduction to canoeing was with the Rideau Canoe Club which still exists today (near Hogs Back in Ottawa). Back in the day, the club was strictly focussed on racing with 2 person, 4 person, 8 and war canoes (the precursor to Dragon Boats).
My sister Maureen belonged to the club for a number of years and I remember Dad selling raffle tickets to make money for the club during some of their summer races. I also remember helping to tear down the old clubhouse one summer.
I was probably 14 or 15 at the time. I learned how to paddle and started racing in the war canoes in Ottawa and later at Toronto Island. Then I went away for a month (a trip to Nova Scotia with my parents) and came back completely out of shape.
When I returned, I got back in the war canoe to train again. After about the 8th “give me ten”, I was exhausted, got out of sync and ended up in the water – lying on my back praying that they wouldn’t notice and just leave me there. Of course they didn’t and dragged me back into the boat. That’s when I decided that maybe canoe racing wasn’t my thing.
My next experience was when I was 16. In those days, the Ontario department of Lands and Forests had a program you could apply for called “Junior Forest Ranger” where you lived in a camp and cut county lines, did road work and serviced camp sites. The year after I went, one of the junior forest rangers was killed in a forest fire and they cancelled the program.
My camp was north of Sioux St Marie. It was a long train ride from Ottawa and I couldn’t sleep on the way so when they showed me my cabin, I immediately fell asleep on my bed. That’s when I found out that the others in my cabin were a bunch of pranksters. I woke up with my bed being carried out the window.
Towards the end of the summer, they sent us off on a one-week canoe trip. There were no sleeping bags – just a couple of blankets and pine bowes for “comfort”. You were expected to fish for your supper and I also remember a number of us going down rapids (where we weren’t supposed to go), putting a hole in the bottom of the boat and then trying to fill the hole with spruce gum with dubious results…. more later.
WR Foster 