Widgeon Creek: The Opening Trip of Canoe Season
It was canoe season once again. Last year we did our first ever overnight canoe trip to Widgeon Creek and decided it would be good as a first time this year as well. The evening before the trip we decided to check some information online and we discovered that the campground was actually marked as closed. Oops. We decided to still go and hope for the best.
It was a cool June morning and we met up with friends in the parking lot. Like last year they still hadn’t installed a bathroom in the parking lot which I found very odd (and disgusting). After pumping up our inflatable canoe and loading the gear we were ready to go. Our friends had already noticed a cool nest not too far away on the lake so we checked it out first. Then we crossed the lake easily – luckily there wasn’t a lot of wind or motor boats.
We noticed that the water level was very high compared to last year and after a while we started wondering if we’d manage to find the cute island where we stopped for a break last year. It finally showed up with a shoreline a bit smaller than we remembered. The kids enjoyed running up and down the island, even announcing that they had found a snake.
At that point Neil switched canoes so he could sit by his friend and Kai stayed with us, happy to have the whole middle seat just for himself. The creek became narrower and the views grander. When we reached the campground it didn’t look closed at all. In fact the toilets were well maintained, most sites were clean and aside from two sites that were affected by a mudslide, everything else seemed to be intact. There were far fewer people than last year and we grabbed two sites close to the water and a picnic table.
The kids passed the afternoon by paddling the canoe on their own and going down the stream for a bit. After dinner we wanted to canoe a bit farther up the creek but after a few minutes we reached a dead end. A big branch had fallen into the water and blocked the way. We turned around and went quietly back to our tent. Our friends’ son had already gone to sleep and the kids did a good job of keeping quiet.
The morning was a weird mix of rain and sun but finally it cleared up and we hiked to the waterfalls. It’s a beautiful hike through the forest till you reach the very impressive waterfalls. There was no one else there and the kids had a blast in what we called a natural water park. Their excitement was contagious and each one of them tried going down a “slide”. Kai did really well hiking there and back about 6km altogether.
Back at the canoes Neil decided to go with our friends again, and Kai was exhausted. He actually fell asleep on the bottom of the canoe by my legs. I was surprised he didn’t wake up when we crossed the lake again. This time the crossing wasn’t so calm – it was windy and a few crazy boaters didn’t help. I actually started worrying that we might capsize. But we reached the shoreline safely and Kai woke up suddenly when Gili went out of the canoe and the puddle of water in it drenched him… He didn’t like waking up all wet and wasn’t so happy for a bit but quickly calmed down. We packed everything back in the car and headed back home. It was an excellent start to the canoe season.
