Leave it to me to go to a canoe and kayak festival, and not be able to find any of either in the water! That’s right, none. I got up and headed to Marmora to attend the Mackfest (Marmora Area Canoe and Kayak Festival) orientation and get some info on places to watch the kayakers and was pretty amazed by the number of people there. There were campers, tents and boats everywhere. So I got some info on the two best locations and times to go watch (and take pictures of course) and headed over to Tim Horton’s to wait until everyone was ready to go and to study the maps (and get free WiFi).
When the time came, I hit the road… and promptly got lost…. multiple times. Then I headed back to Tim Horton’s parking lot (more free WiFi) to check Google maps. That clarified the paper map confusion, so I hit the road again, got lost one more time, and then made my way to the first spectator location. After a drive down a dirt road, and short walk on private property, I did manage to find the small bridge and a scenic pond and the entrance to the river. Just no kayakers.
So, I got back into the car and headed to my second location. Amazingly, I did not get lost once! I found the bridge and section of water with rapids that looked much more promising. Now, all the only thing missing was boats. But I was told that most people would probably run a river, then come to this area to “park & play”. I knew I may have to wait a while, so I settled in and started playing Temple Run on my phone (I need to download a new game). I watched with excitement as every car came across the bridge, looking for boats on the roofs. Nothing. Car after car went by. No boats.
After a couple of hours of waiting around, I was about to call it quits. But that’s when my new friend Steve came along. Finally, a car with a boat! Parked next to the river! I watched him get out, let his dog out… and go for a walk. But that boat on the roof gave me new hope. When he came back, he came to my window to ask if I was there to paddle. I said no, and he explained that he was hoping others would be around since it’s not safe to paddle alone in case something should happen.
So we made a deal: I’d watch him in the water (and take pictures) and panic like a little child if something should happen to him. Win win.
I asked Steve what he did with his dog while he was paddling. He explained that she didn’t like being tied up, but was usually quite co-operative and just ran up and down the shoreline while he was in the water. As you can see from the photos above, the dog (I forget her name, but I’m gonna call her Houdini. You’ll see why in a second) had different plans on that day. As soon as Steve got on the wave, in came Houdini, and she promptly got taken downriver by the current. So Steve would go get her and start all over again.
After four attempts at trying to get going without Houdini following, it was finally time to get the leash. Problem solved. Houdini tied to the tree, Steve in the Kayak. Ready to go. But then this happened. Notice how Houdini’s life jacket, attached to the leash, is up in the tree, while Houdini (see what I did there?) is back in the water? That dog liked to swim.
At this point, I was getting ready to cross the bridge to see if I could help keep the dog on dry land for a bit, but luckily another spectator beat me to it! So Steve went for a couple of more runs before calling it a day, and I managed to get a few more pictures, without the (albeit cute and funny) dog.
So, when I said I didn’t find any boaters, that wasn’t quite true. I didn’t find any Mackfest boaters, but luckily my persistence paid off. I didn’t get to shoot a lot of different paddlers, but I did get a few laughs and some interesting photos thanks to Houdini (and Steve).
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