voyageur canoe brigade

An Historic Summer Holiday
by

An Historic Summer Holiday

Hail Brave Hearts

The memories of summer holidays filled with fun and sun, swimming and boating and  our great escape to the Canadian wild.  This is the life!  So full of warm summer waters and warm summer sun.  A life of frolicking on beaches, camping and cottages.  The great Canadian summer holiday.  A life style to fulfill.  There’s no life like it.

Grab your canoes and head to the water.  The footsteps of travellers in the past, mark routes of undeniable beauty.  Maps and compasses, campgrounds and hotels.  The small town oasis of civilization along a path of well travelled waterway.  The iconic Canadian water transportation routes of waterway highway.  A path of rivers and lakes joining one part of Canada to another.  The rivers, waterfalls, rapids and portages.  Pack you bags, fill your canoes,  join in the adventure of Canadian travel that has marked our history with holidays from coast to coast.

The Historic Trent/Severn Canal System.  Glorious!

Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site (canada.ca)

Grateful are we to have this grand opportunity to visit this historic waterway, in historic voyageur canoes.  A fun and fabulous holiday in the middle of the summer.  A canoe brigade.  The fortunate few who participated in this endeavour, which leads from Georgian Bay to  Lake Ontario.  following rivers, locks, canals and lakes.  A historic waterway of magnificent scenery, birds and wildlife, lily pads and rushes.  And the locks.

Up and down, up and down, it’s the easiest paddling ever! And the locks are a marvel of engineering.  Different styles of lifts picking us up the rapids and waterfalls to a new level of water.  Spectacular!

The Severn River to Lake Couchiching, to Simcoe, the Trent Canal to Balsam, Cameron and Kawartha Lakes, Otonabee River, the Trent River and on to Lake Ontario.    It’s an historic route for an historic paddling group, or for anyone with a boat and a licence to pursue this holiday adventure.

Canadian Voyageur Brigade Society | coordinate and support big canoe brigades

This 386 km of historic waterway was first started in 1833 and completed in 1922 with 45 locks connecting Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario.  This  ambitious idea was appointed by  Sir John Colborne of the the inland Water  Commision who constructed the first lock at Bobcaygeon.  Now a National Historic Site, this waterway is a path of boating delight.  In it’s early history, the canal was hoped to be a passage for steamships plying these waters with trade, but the canal had several setbacks, which delayed it’s progress.  By the time it was finished, the steamboats were too large for the locks.  Now this historic canal is used by thousands of tourists in pleasure craft from May to October each year.

The iconic canoe, a favourite of many family outings and wilderness adventure, is part of Canada’s  historic lifeline to survival.  The canoe has been with us for centuries, as a transportation vessel and a pleasure craft.  From it’s aboriginal routes to the fur trade, to modern day vehicle, the canoe has been a valuable and necessary part of Canada’s wilderness history  With this in the past and so much enjoyment today, the canoe is a classic pleasure craft.

 

written by Dr Louise Hayes

October 21, 2023

The Water Highway
by

The Water Highway

Good day Bravehearts

Feel the rush of the wind as it sweeps across the land, bringing the scents of summer fragrance to fill your mind. The aromatherapy of the earth. Pine, juniper, spring meadows and wild grasses. The smell of the forest with mosses and flowers. The cool shade of trees and the rich, enticing landscape. Venture forth, oh brave ones, the wild calls you.
The dance and play of rushing streams, the life force of rivers, and the clean, superb, land, with it’s sport and leisure. The health of the nation lies in this landscape. So much to do, in sport, in leisure, in adventure and in education. Out into the great land, for health and fitness, for rest and for meditation.
The wild! Every day adventure for the uncommon lives of the people of this country.
The rushing rivers cast their spell. The voyage by raft will take you into the great unknown. A wild river, a rushing torrent, a wet and wild and chilly adventure. The current sweeps you into the middle, to rapids and whirlpools and eddies. The diving and swirling craft dips and heaves as the pounding water floods its sides and plunges it into holes and narrowly past rocks and waterfalls.
Fun!
The whitewater raft ride of todays enjoyment is a link to the waterways of yesteryear. David Thompson, with his raft piled high with furs, transported his earnings through the Canadian waterway highways. A nation of river exploration. A nation of wilderness exploration. A nation of markets and trade.

http://www.cbc.ca/sevenwonders/ canoe

The waterways were the highways of trade. Plied for transportation, for convenience, for travel and for adventure. The past time of canoing and boating serves us well, as we venture deeper and deeper into the heart of the land.
Summer! The pristine blue lakes of summer fun. The cooling, quenching waters of joy! The days of lazy dreaming in beaches of sand and grass, the pearls of seashells washed ashore, the endless waves, lapping the shore. The joys of clean, cool water as is soothes the hot and tired body. Fresh water for swimming. Clean water, for a cool summer swim.
The water. A gateway into the heart of the land and a pathway to endless summer fun. Ply the waters with your sturdy craft, maneuver into the surging current. Your paddle dips to the rhythm of your partners beat and the drums of your heartbeat set the pace. Onward. Onward. The constant motion moving the craft. The skills of your paddling, pushing you on. The lakes, the rivers, the water trade routes. A past time of pleasure, where yesterday meets us. The voyage of discovery to new lands, new people, new trade and new wealth.

http://www.birchbarkcanoe.net/video-canoe.htm

A home of opportunity waiting for discovery.
The ancient art of boats and river travel, of discovery of land and people. We travel with our forefathers in a journey that never ends, to a destination that stretches on. We fill our days with summer fun, in a land of sweeping landscapes and the water. The water highway.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
June 29, 2014

A Hand of Friendship
by

A Hand of Friendship

Good morning to you Brave hearts.

Hail the moral almighty human, whose words and deeds resound in peace. Oh moral human from ages past, with intellect of humanity, sharing and courage. Rise to the daunting challenge of the new world as it encroaches upon you. Brave hands extended in friendship, in peace, in mutual prosperity. Brave strangers, who dared peace not war, who dared conversation and negotiation. A peaceful assimilation, a marriage, an entrepreneur.
The voices of our ancestors call to us. We saved you, oh brave hearts, we became the almighty human. Legends are made of our feats of daring, of our collaboration and of our courage. Our prosperity and privilege from honest words and honest deeds and honest labour. The exchange of nationalities, the intertwining of spirits, the flesh of the mortal man, cast in iron and honed to steel.
The land has no mercy, conquer the land, the peoples are saved.
The brave accepted a challenge of rigorous duty. The call to nationhood in a land so vast and uncompromising. The stalwart rising each day to fulfill a quest of enterprise and trade. Mutual sharing, mutual trust, a negotiation so appealing to win the sides of the earthly human, to win the war without a battle, to win the fight for nationhood, to win the rights for freedom, to win the adventure of your lives.
The lives saved by skilled exchange, the communication for mutual prosperity, acceptance, dignity and trust. The contracts signed, mutually held. A bargain of trade, the prospect of riches, a business of grand proportions and a nation won and saved.
The hand of friendship extended in trust.
Worthy brave hearts whose daily toil was the hardship of the land. To rise each day to the battle of the elements, the hardship of the weather and the uncompromising, tedious toil and endless, difficult land. The dawn of nationhood carved from the elements of cold and snow, all for the beauty of the fabulous beast.
Adorn yourselves, you earthly spirits. Capture the heart of the European world. The new found gold is a treasure for us. A ready commodity of wealth and prosperity.
The land calls us, beckons and entices and the peoples are friendly. They extend a hand in friendship, no arrows cast or mean disputes. No terror and no war.
Come to the new world, calls the land, come to the adventure, you daring human. Rise to the challenge of the harsh endeavour, rise to the glory of this one day. For this is the day when time stands still, awaiting in anticipation, the outcome of change. The awesome human in conquest and daring, rose to the challenge of this day. For might was right among the negotiators and the powerful decreed the peace of the land.
Peace. Our fashion dictates the merchants greed and our people spy the valued need. Fur and trade, mutual sharing, compassion and kindness.
The land itself will take it’s toil in injury and lives lost. The inclement weather, the frostbite and the cold. Hearty human, gather around, our story of nationhood will unfold.

https://www.nfb.ca/film/voyageurs

written by Dr. Louise Hayes
March 1, 2014