PHOTO BY HAP WILSON / ECOTRAILBUILDERS.COM
Paddling the route of canal explorer By Sheila Ascroft
DAMN BLACKFLIES. Damn mosquitoes. Damn bears. Damn portages. Damn the idea of trying to find suitable places to build canals. But our predecessors did it by canoe in the 1800s, over territory that today encompasses the waterways of Muskoka River X’s “Coureur des Bois” event. They found their way with maps full of blank spaces (no GPS of course), sustained by mouldy food or freshly shot squirrel or rabbit for dinner. Canoeing in 1800s Ontario wasn’t so much an adventure as plain hard work. Following the War of 1812, British expeditions made their way into the Muskoka watershed with the goal of finding routes west that were safe from American guns along the St. Lawrence River. Explorations in 1819 by Lt. Joseph Portlock and Lt. James Catty first made their way there, followed by Lt. Henry Briscoe, who recorded his 1826 expedition so historians can piece together his route.
"Canoeing in 1800s Ontario wasn’t so much an adventure as plain hard work." Without Gortex raingear, DEET bug repellent or lightweight Kevlar canoes, life was hard for those early British paddlers. And after their work was done, the final kick in the teeth was rejection of their recommended routes by the powers that be. According to the Muskoka River X website, this vast watershed was part of the territory of the Algonquin First Nations, uncharted when war broke out between the British and Americans.
06 | OTTAWAOUTDOORS
Photo from the 220km Coureur des Bois-Muskoka River X Classic adventure marathon canoe race. Canoeing the Muskoka River, Briscoe travelled north from the Severn River into the Algonquin Highlands via the South Muskoka and Oxtonge rivers, then up to Big Porcupine Lake in what is now Algonquin Park and east to the Madawaska River. After several more expeditions throughout 1827, the British military finally decided the route just wouldn’t work for the construction of a canal. In 1829, Alexander Shirreff began another expedition, paid for by a private company, to build a canal west from the Ottawa River to Georgian Bay. Shirreff made his way along the Petawawa River to Tom Thompson Lake (Algonquin Park) and west to the Oxtonge and South Muskoka rivers. Although Shirreff found no useful canal route, he did find a vast inland waterway of navigable lakes and rivers. David Thompson led the last and best-known canal expedition in 1837. All this action shed light on the Muskoka watershed, resulting in expansion into this area with railroads, logging, frontier towns, steamships and holiday resorts. This activity continues to this day, and Muskoka River X is part of it. For more details, read Gary Long’s This River the Muskoka, published by The Boston Press in Erin, Ont. Φ
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