Retracing Champlain’s footsteps

Photos provided by Chris Mayne.

It was a day full of rain, mud and history as a hardy group of North Bay voyageurs retraced the gruelling footsteps of Canada’s first visitors Saturday.

The group of twenty adventurers paddled through rain and waded through mud to copy the historic La Vase Portages of the voyageurs as they crossed the height of land portage between Montreal and Lake Huron.

The journey took the adventurers about six hours to cross the 10 kilometre route, but that included a stop at lunchtime favourite Billy Bob’s for a rest and pickerel fry lunch.

“The Friend's of La Vase having been working towards maintaining and protecting the route and trying to stay as true to the historical canoe route as possible,” explains event organiser Chris Mayne.

“Thank you to the Rotary Club of North Bay for sponsoring this year's canoe day event and almost authentic voyageur guides Bernie Stockerman's, Cliff Moulder and John Wipprecht for guiding this year's group through.”

For more pictures or information on La vase Portages please see www.lavaseportages.com.