Caught in the headlights A voice for those who don't have gas

Another form of Human Power

I know for the most part there seems to be an over abundance of bike news on this site but honestly we are interested in all forms of public transportation. It was why we jumped at the Chance to take a couple of canoes to toronto island and have a picnic.   We met our paddling compatriots down at the canoe rental space on the Queens Quay.  It wasn't actually on the street, but nestled in behind just by the police marine unit.  Our team consisted of Sarah, Emma, Katie, Nikko, Linda and yours truely.

As with everything somewhat new, have never paddled in Lake Ontario, I was nervous to say the least.  Like sugar plums dancing in my head, I couldn't get the image of me flailing around in the toilet known as Lake Ontario after a super tanker had tipped us in its wake.  But I was willing to give it a try.  I don't wear a helmet when I am riding a bike, but I was going to wear a life jacket.

We started the day by going to the canoe remtal we had to wait a few minutes to get the canoes happening but before lomg we were taming a ccouple practise runs up and down the slip and then we were out into the green brown yonder.

The crossing was kind of kike crossing a highway but with slower cars. There were all kinds of different sailboats, big boats , small boats fast boats, well i think you get the idea about what i'm going on about here I think.  So, although I thought we were going to be capsized by every large wave that came our way, it was soon apparent that we were going to make shore.

We entered the canal system to the west of the Islands.  All I have to say is that it was gorgeous.  If you ever get a chance to paddle to the Island, this view is breathtaking.  Of course there was the garbage floating in the water and the swans mooning us, but really it was quite spectacular.

We made our way through the maze, not really a maze cause there is only one way to go, but doesn't that sound more claustrophobic and spooky?  Anyway we made our way to the other side of the island via the canals.  It was nice to paddle over the site of the Ice Race we use to hold out here in the nineties and to see all the island from a complete different perspective.

The one thing that amazed me was the amount of people who were actually out on the Island with no ferries running.  We finally came to shore by the small beach by Ward's Ferry dock.  We were going to paddle around to the beach on the south side, but decided that we were weak and we had heard rumours of horrible salad dragons waiting hapless adventurers on the way there.  So we flipped the canoes on one beach and walked across to the other beach.

The first thing we saw were army soldiers and a ninja, but soon found out that it was a film student doing his film.  Quite elaborate.  We lucked out and found the only shade on the entire beach and set up.  The ladies decided to go swimming but me and Nikko declined.  If  I wanted to swim in a toilet, I had an almost perfectly functioning one at home.

Afterwards we hunkered down and ate a huge picinic lunch.  We must have misunderstood how many people were coming to our picinic, or how long we were going to be out there because there was enough to feed the entire beach.  We of course did not offer because who knows really how long we were going to be out there on account of salad dragons and the like.

It wasn't soon before everyone had to nap and I was left alone on the beach with a hundred other people.  I kept myself busy by moving around the tree to get away from the sun, which evidently does move around the earth and not the other way around and by watching a huge mover of large things slowly make its way into Toronto harbour.  I forget sometimes that Toronto is still a functioning port for goods.

Eventually we had to pack it up and make our way to the canoe rental place.  We decided that we would retrace our route and we made it back with five minutes to spare.  On our way back we encountered a lot more traffic and much larger waves.  It was a race to get into the harbour because of the giant wave that was heading our way, but we made it.  Take that oversized pleasure craft.

It was an awesome and the day was made better by the company that was kept.  Special thanks to Sara who made the trip cheaper with her frequent paddler card.