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Travel & Adventure Guides

Past stories ------ Summer 2006 ------ Table of Contents Canadian Winery Destinations Otters of Kyuquot Sound Fishing in the Prairies Moncton - 3 Great Day Trips Sylvia Forest - Mountain Guide Yukon River Quest Path to Paradise A Century of Summits Mina Hubbard's Journey Tent Buyer's Guide Climbing Della Falls ------ Winter 2005 ------ Table of Contents 10 Best Mountain Destinations Affordable Adventures Spa Holidays Snow Shelters David Marra - The Ice Man Adventure Travel Insurance Tempest in Tofino ------ Summer 2005 ------ Table of Contents Dealing With Mosquitos Search for the Freshwater Sea Girls On Top Journal Astronomy Ottawa - 3 Great Day Trips Seabound Grasslands National Park Sugar Bush Country Hallowed Home of the Haida ------ Winter 2004 ------ Table of Contents Cross Country Skiing Snowshoeing Dogsledding in the Yukon Snowmobiling Winter Photography Mountains as Water Towers Knapsacks Explained Contributors ------ Summer 2004 ------ Table of Contents Thor Peak Rocky Mountain Teahouses Canoeing in Northern Sask. Fantastic Fundy Destinations Summer Stargazing Kayaking the Great Lakes Adele Frizzell - Adventure Racer BC Mountaineering Hiking Shoes Explained Exploring Nootka Sound

How a 17th-century French explorer came to spend
the summer on Georgian Bay

Then they saw the great expanse of blue water spreading across the horizon, dotted with countless shoals and rocky reefs and lined by an ancient shore. The expedition leader was Samuel de Champlain, lieutenant to the viceroy of New France. As early as 1603, Champlain had heard rumours about a great freshwater sea, but it wasn't until a dozen summers later that he finally navigated the French River and gazed across what we know today as Georgian Bay. Perhaps he'd found a navigable route across the continent.

Champlain's journey was part reconnaissance and part relationship building. Although he did not discover a route to the Far East, this trip helped pave the way for an expanded European fur trade in the New World. To secure a trade monopoly, he had pledged France's military support to the Huron Nation, whose mortal enemies, the Iroquois, controlled the trade routes along the upper St. Lawrence River.

Champlain, two colleagues and 10 Huron warriors had set off on July 9 from Sault St-Louis near present-day Montréal. Overpacked canoes, violent rapids and rigorous portages were only a faint glimmer of the hardships that lay ahead. There would also be food shortages, inadequate hygiene and clouds of ravenous insects that feasted on the unsuspecting explorers. Most challenging of all, their aboriginal guides set a blistering pace, covering some 40 kilometres each day.

The party had pushed its way up the Ottawa River and across Portage-du-Fort before turning west to face the roiling Mattawa River. The water was fierce, and they spent much of their time carrying their canoes over a five-kilometre trail crossing the divide at Trout Lake. Food was scarce, and the explorers could have starved had the Huron guides not been on hand to introduce them to the wild blueberries that cloaked the riverbanks.

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After 17 days, Champlain and his crew found themselves standing on the shore of Lake Nipissing. Here, they met a large settlement of Nipissing Indians, known among the Algonquin peoples to be great sorcerers and traders who travelled west to Lake Superior and north to Hudson Bay to trade furs. Every year, they also bartered fish caught from Lake Nipissing for a winter's supply of corn from the Hurons of Georgian Bay.

Photo: Doug Hamilton/Firstlight.ca

Farther on, at the mouth of the French River, Champlain encountered a group of 300 "High Hairs," as he described them in his journal. Their coiffure, Champlain noted, put the courtiers of France to shame. The men also had ornately tattooed bodies, their faces were colourfully painted, their nostrils pierced and their ears decorated with beads. Champlain presented their leader with a hatchet. The grateful chief of the Ottawas (Odawas) responded by tearing off a piece of tree bark and drawing a map of his territory, which encompassed Manitoulin Island.

When Champlain reached Georgian Bay, he travelled southeast, and after three days of tireless paddling through the coastal maze of peninsulas, channels and islands, he arrived at a Huron village at Matchedash Bay, near present-day Penetanguishene. It was Huronia, the home territory of his First Nations allies.

Wilderness travellers can still follow Champlain's route today, fishing for muskellunge on Lake Nipissing, sea kayaking in the Thirty Thousand Islands or hiking along bluffs in Awenda Provincial Park. Challenge awaits those who canoe the French River or whitewater raft the mighty Ottawa. Whatever your interests, here are some options for exploring the territory that Samuel de Champlain first saw in 1615.

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WHITEWATER RAFT THE OTTAWA RIVER Join OWL Rafting for full-day, whitewater-rafting excursions down the Ottawa River's legendary Rocher-Fendu rapids, stretching along 12 kilometres of river not far from Foresters Falls. The trips run from mid-May through September. Family trips and two-day adventures are also available. Toll-free: 1-800-461-7238 Telephone: (613) 646-2263 Website: www.owlrafting.com FISH ON LAKE NIPISSING On Lake Nipissing's sheltered West Arm, you will find bass, walleye, northern pike, jumbo yellow perch and muskies. There are outfitters and guides on the lake, but Saenchiur flechey, a fishing and ecotourism lodge, has it all: a bait-and-tackle shop on site, fishing licences, motorized boats for rent and a fish-cleaning hut. Toll-free: 1-866-855-5137 Telephone: (705) 898-2660 Website: www.sf-nipissing.com HIKE AWENDA PROVINCIAL PARK Awenda is a stunning little park jutting into the Thirty Thousand Islands just north of Penetanguishene. There are plenty of campsites and several scenic trails, including the Brûlé Trail, named for one of Champlain's companions. The most famous footpath is the 13-kilometre Bluff Trail, which rises up to 60 metres over Georgian Bay, and Giants Tomb Island, which sits a few kilometres offshore. Telephone: (705) 549-2231 Website: www.ontarioparks.com SEA KAYAK ON GEORGIAN BAY Two possibilities for sea kayaking along Georgian Bay's east shore include The Massasauga Provincial Park (between Parry Sound and the Moon River) and Georgian Bay Islands National Park, accessible from Honey Harbour. The parks take in hundreds of windswept islands and are ideal for sea kayaking from late May until early October. Massasauga is less sheltered than Georgian Bay Islands but has several portage routes to inland lakes. Both parks are accessible by water only. The Massasauga Provincial Park Telephone: (705) 378-0685 Website: www.ontarioparks.com Georgian Bay Islands National Park Telephone: (705) 526-9804 Website: www.pc.gc.ca

17th-CENTURY CULTURE Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, near Midland, re-creates the lives of Jesuit missionaries and their aides who came at Champlain's encouragement to live and work among the Wendat Huron people. The mission is a fascinating architectural reproduction and an enduring testament to the early collaboration between the French and Canada's First Peoples. Telephone: (705) 526-7838 Website: saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca Photo: Gary & Joan McGuffin/Firstlight.ca PADDLE THE FRENCH RIVER The French River is an intermediate wilderness trip, with several sections of rapids and portages. If you are not an experienced canoeist, consider joining The Great Canadian Adventure Company for a multi-day canoeing adventure. The upper French River takes six days to navigate, while the lower French River is a five-day paddle that will take you right onto Georgian Bay. Toll-free: 1-888-285-1676 Telephone: (780) 414-1676 Website: www.adventures.com

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