Ocean Pond

On September 17 my wife and I dropped Heidi off with the grandparents so we could get out for an afternoon paddle. Hurricane Maria had come through the day before, and they were warning of a storm surge, so we decided to stay off the ocean and go to the next best thing, a pond named after the ocean. Its only a 10 minute drive or so from our house, so the location was perfect as well.

The biggest issue I've found with these ponds and lakes in cottage country is finding a place to launch, as most of the land around the ponds are privately owned, with little or no public access. We found a short path down to the pond at the entrance to Ocean Pond so we pulled over. The gentlemen who owned the cabin across the road from the path came down to check us out, so I asked if it was ok for us to launch our boats there and if our car would be in the way parked where it was. He said it should be fine, and for us to be careful around his wharf. I told him not to worry, that we wouldn't be using his wharf, just launching from the bank. We didn't drive anywhere else, so I don't know if there are any other public accesses but from what we saw from the water, weren't any.

Launch spot marked X

It was a great paddle, nice warm September day. We paddled to the far end of the pond, where there is a cabin and small beach area, where we stopped to have our lunch. The return trip was 15kms. This could have been made much longer if we followed the perimeter of the pond and poked around the islands and inlets. We were a bit limited with time, so we did pretty much a straight route.

One of the few launch spots

There is a lot of boat traffic here, seadoos, speed boats, paddleboats, canoes, etc.. Its a very popular cottage area, so it can be pretty busy. Even for a September day it there was a lot of activity. If you are planning on doing this paddle, I'd recommend you take a map. Not that you'll get lost on a pond, but it can be confusing with the low lying land and all the islands and inlets. A map makes it much easier to navigate.

Looking down the pond

Angie making her way

Our lunch spot, not bad

A happy couple on a happy day

Summer's Gone

Summer, or what there was of it, is pretty much gone now. The temperatures are starting to get pretty low in the evenings. There was even a frost warning last week! Ouch!

For the past 2 weeks, my sister and family were home from Winnipeg for a visit, so I took my brother-in-law, Rob, out for a short paddle in Spread Eagle. It was his first time in a sea kayak, and the first time I'd been on the ocean in 3 weeks, so I was more than happy to take him out.

The stretch of coast from Spread Eagle to Marley's Cove is pretty nice, with lots of little nooks and crannies to poke into. I even got to practice a few rolls and self rescues...but just to show off mostly :-)

Squeezing between the rocks

Rob posing at Wigwam Rock

I've been getting in a bit of pond practice behind my house lately, which is great. Trying to nail down my offside roll, sculling brace, etc.. But daylight is getting less and less every day, so my time for this is getting short. Summer's gone :-(