Friends of La Vase Portages celebrated its 15th annual Canoe Day with a paddle down the historical La Vase River.
Paddlers left from the La Vase Portages Conservation Area access on Highway 17 East making their way along eight kilometres of waterway and three kilometres of land to Lake Nipissing.
The La Vase river was an important travel route for First Nations and later by explorers, missionaries and fur traders.
The heritage plaque located on-site lists among the famous men who passed there Etienne Brule, 1610; Samuel de Champlain, 1615; Father Jean de Brebeuf, 1626; Jean Nicolet, 1634; Pierre de la Verendrye, 1731; Alexander Henry, 1761; and Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 1802.
Members of Friends of La Vase Portages guide people along the route once a year in July.
“There is actually less portaging than what there was when the fur trade and the voyageurs were coming through because of all the beaver activity. However, there are quite a few short portages. I think our longest one is 14-hundred metres,” said Darren Patey, chair of Friends of La Vase Portages.
Recent hot weather had an impact on this year’s event.
“We postponed our trip this year for the first time in 15 years because of the heat that we had last weekend. We were under thunderstorm advisories and that heat dome, so we put it off a week. And here we are again under some wicked heat,” shared Patey.
“The water level was low a couple of weeks ago. I don’t expect it rose too much with the amount of rain that we had. But we’re out here to have a good time and portaging is in the name.”
What was once an all-day adventure is now done if far less time.
“Basically, these days it is three 10-minute portages, and a really pretty paddle. I would compare it to Temagami. To me, the sections at the north end are still in their original pristine condition. If you enjoy canoeing, it is just a beautiful route to paddle through,” said member Chris Mayne.
Zack Perkin and his grandfather Fred Ritter have been doing the day trip for roughly eight years.
“I enjoy spending time with my grandfather, getting out in the canoe and learning the history of the area. It is fun and the lunch is good,” grinned the seventeen-year-old.
Jane Lagassie works with the Algonquins of Ontario as a cultural heritage project assistant and is a board member with the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority.
This was her first time paddling the route.
“I just wanted to see the routes travelled by my ancestors and how they went around through the mud and imagine how it would have been like in their birch bark canoes,” Lagassie.
“Also, I’ll be looking for possible sites where they would have made tools along the shoreline.”
Mayne says the group was formed to help preserve the area.
“There were some issues around the use of the La Vase, be it private property or construction companies proposing to blast and basically destroy some of the shorelines and change it into aggregate,” explained Mayne.
“The group was formed to continue the work of the Restore the Link group that was active in the late 1990s. The idea is to keep this little historical canoe route open, to brush the trails, to protect it and encourage other people to find out where it is. The trails are well maintained.”
Patey says the group recently launched a membership drive for people interested in supporting its conservation work, and to purchase equipment to brush and clean trails.
“It is wonderful to be able to visit a museum and see all the artifacts, but also in the core of our city are the landmarks. We have the opportunity to guide people through and point to actual places where there were footsteps taken hundreds of years ago, and now we’re taking the same ones.”
