An Account of a Journey down Ontario's Grand River
By Adam Shoalts
The dispute has simmered on and off ever since, and has frequently turned violent---with police SWAT teams being called in, attempted murder charges laid, major highways and bridges barricaded by protestors, mob violence, and even the hydro knocked out in the area.
Accordingly, as a historian and adventurer, I resolved to research this dispute and its history further---and what better way to do that, I thought, than to canoe the whole 211 kms of controversy from the Elora Gorge to the waters of Lake Erie. I had visited Caledonia and the Six Nations reserve on several occasions during the dispute
I will admit that the prospect of canoeing down the Grand River and through potentially hostile native territory held a particular allure to me. It seemed like a truly unique chance in the 21st century to experience the same circumstances that confronted the first European explorers of North America centuries ago.
I had originally planned the canoe trip for the fall of 2007, however, due to low water levels it had to be postponed until April 2008---when the water was dangerously high and cold. All the better, I figured.
For a companion on my trip, I was reunited with my longtime friend Wes Crowe, of Sense of Adventure fame. Wes and I set off from the picturesque Elora Gorge on a Saturday afternoon. It was somewhat difficult portaging our cedar-strip canoe (built by my father) and all of our gear down the steep rock walls of the gorge. But we managed and soon set off, running a lot of rock filled rapids in the Gorge that left us soaking wet and my canoe a little worse for wear, but otherwise fine. Deep in the shadowy Gorge, even though the
Just pass the gorge, Wes and I ran into our first trouble. A fallen cedar tree blocked our path across a narrow river channel we were paddling, and propelled forward by the swift current, our canoe slammed into the fallen tree. Of course, it wasn't the first time this sort of thing has happened to Wes and I. Pinned against the tree by the rushing water, it soon lapped over the gunwhales and inundated our little vessel. We were swept away downstream for a ways, now entirely drenched. Fortunately, Wes and I managed to recover all of our gear and the canoe---except for our only map! No worry though,
Without a map, I simply imagined us to be even more like all the glorious explorers who went before us centuries ago. On the first day, since we left rather late in the afternoon, Wes and I only covered approximately 20 km before making camp on an island for the night. (My estimates of distances are as accurate as possible, but as one can imagine without a map of any sort it is difficult to be precise.)
The next morning we watched a lone coyote and a flock of wild turkeys on the opposite shore. The steep rock walls of the Elora Gorge seemed a world away: the Grand River now flowed meanderingly through flat fields and forested lots. On this second day, we made excellent time and canoed over 60 kms. Our pace was slowed by a lengthy portage around the large dam in Cambridge, a beautiful historic town that straddles the river.
The third day we encountered more white water rapids, on a nice stretch of mostly wooded river between the towns of Cambridge and Paris (where we had to portage around I believe our third dam.) We again journeyed well over 60 km, and were fortunate enough to see plenty of wildlife: deer, muskrats, large schools of trout in the shallow water, a wide variety of birds, and groundhogs on the banks.
We paddled until late into the night, even though our arms ached and our feet were frozen (from wearing wet boots due to lining the canoe through shallow stretches of rocky river), but with a full moon, we decided it was best to push on. By midnight, we had arrived in the heart of the Six Nations native reserve, (we had to portage around another dam earlier, of course), and set up camp on the banks in a forested area.
The next day we broke camp at the crack of dawn and continued our journey through the reserve, until we reached the small town of Caledonia---which was otherwise a sleepy, quiet little out of the way place before becoming the focal point in the still unfolding Aboriginal land claims drama. (Caledonia also has a dam, which meant another portage.)
From there, it was long day of hard paddling on a now slow-flowing, and very wide river with muddy banks to the town of Dunnville and Lake Erie (just pass Dunnville is the Lake, the world's 11th largest freshwater body of water.)
It was an exhausting trip due to our intense pace, but also a rewarding journey down one of Ontario's most historic rivers. The trip did enable me to see first-hand how serious an issue urban sprawl has become in the Grand River watershed, and how this river's natural setting is seriously threatened. However, I remain convinced that the Six Nations protestors, by invoking a hostile reaction amongst the wider public through their protests, have ultimately done more harm than good when it comes to protecting our natural environment. The disruptive protests have evaporated what good-will and sympathy there was towards those people fighting against urban sprawl in the area. In the end, only be working constructively, through legal means and perhaps most importantly of all---in the court of public opinion, can we hope to save our rivers and natural places from urban sprawl and development.
Copyright Adam Shoalts 2008.
