On the Hodge River

I had been looking at this river on google earth, that starts near Ocean Pond and flows to Whitbourne, coming out near the pump house not too far from my house, for a long time. This past weekend, I was finally able to check it out. The forecast was terrible for Saturday, rain and/or snow, with winds NW 50 gusting to 70 gusting to 90 km/h. So again, not much of a day to paddle on the ocean, so we decided to try out this river route. Its been constantly raining for weeks, so we figured the small river would have enough water for us to paddle in.

It started off kinda rough, and we contemplated turning around, as the river was too shallow and rocky. But after the first km, it opened up a bit to more of a boggy/marshy river. It took us about 4 hrs altogether, and only had to get out of our boats once or twice because it was too shallow.

We saw 2 grouse, and 4 Canada geese. And a lot of wind and rain. Most of my pics came out very blurry, but here are a few.

Trent setting up the pontoons to carry his dog

Rooster enjoying the ride

The start of the Hodge River

Road block along the way

There were a lot of beaver lodges and dams along the way

Remembrance Day

Yesterday was Remembrance Day here in Canada. Its very important to never forget the sacrifices made by our soldiers during both world wars, as well other conflicts. I hope everyone took a minute out of their holiday to think about this and be grateful for all they have done.

This past May, my wife and I visited Buchenwald Concentration Camp, near Weimar, Germany. Its hard to put into words what we saw there, and even harder to imagine what the people there went through.

Lest we forget.

A Newfoundland Tradition

November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, aka Bonfire Night, is a long standing tradition in Newfoundland that seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. When I was a kid, my friends and I would spend weeks preparing for Bonfire Night, collecting tires, trees, and if we were lucky, and old dory or speedboat.....anything that would burn, for Bonfire Night. Nowadays it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal, but me and my neighbours are trying to keep the tradition alive. Although we don't burn tires anymore :-)

Dark Evenings

Day light savings time has come and gone, so now when I get home from work in the evening at 5pm, darkness has set in. So this past friday, to celebrate my last evening of daylight I went for a short paddle around the pond behind my house. Now I'm left to paddling on the weekends, and given the Newfoundland weather, those will probably be few and far between until spring, especially given my limited skill set.