Last revised: June 15, 2022.

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Day 8 – From Fox Bay CS726 To CS804 W of Whitefish Bay

• Distance: 15.4 km
• Time: 8:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Portages/rapids: 0/0:
• Weather:  a drizzly morning with some sun in the afternoon; a strong wind (25+ km) from the WSW
• Campsite: CS804 (old #723) – good shelter for 1 x 4-person; possible for 2-3 x 2- person tents; on the cross-channel side of the delta; there is room for more, depending on how fussy you are for a ‘flat’ or sheltered spot.
• NRC topo sheet: Key Harbour 041 H 15
• Our GPS tracks – 2019 French River (3.2Mb Dropbox file)

The big rainstorm we had been expecting the afternoon and evening before never did happen. Instead, we got more of the low-grade drizzle of Day 7 with one added element – a strong wind blowing from the southwest.  We had planned to spend a couple of days in the Bustard Islands, but the whitecaps on the waves we saw rolling our way made us change our plan.

The crossing at its shortest (i.e. from Cantin Point to Tarpot Island)  is 1.7 kilometers. There are some smaller rocks and shoals that shorten this distance to about a kilometer. Given the 25 km.+/hr.  wind and the waves, even a half-hour in an open canoe to do the crossing was taking a needless risk.  There certainly wouldn’t be any passers-by to help!

So –  a new goal! Instead of a couple of days out on the Bustards, we’d aim for the westernmost campsite in the Park and use the many islands en route to provide us with some shelter from the wind.  As we headed west from CS920 in Fox Bay, we paddled past the abandoned Georgian Bay Fishing Camp.

The Fishing Camp – quite the complex consisting of a marina, lodge, restaurant, cabins, a store, and boat rentals – closed in 2016, two years after the owner’s death, Dave Bulger.  Bulger had owned and run the camp since the 1980s.  His son Matt tried to keep it open, but things did not work out.  It had been in operation since 1928.  [The Bulgers had purchased the property after the death of its previous owner, Tom Beaudry.  When he passed away unexpectedly in July 1984, his wife Joy sold it to Bulger.]

With its demise, the closest similar camp is probably Camp McIntosh on the French River’s Main Outlet below Dalles Rapids and across from the location of the once-French River Village. (See here for a topo map view.)

In September 2017, we had paddled by Dock Island just a half-kilometer NE of the Fishing Camp.  Sitting on the south shore of Dock island was a dock, and I made a wrong connection between the dock and the island’s name.  A reader of that post (see here) did email me that the dock actually belonged to the Fishing Camp and had drifted across.

Our brief paddle visit along the Fishing Camp shoreline brought home the transient nature of all things. If time itself is not the ultimate destroyer, then a changing culture and different notions of leisure time make casualties of things like fishing camps and, I hate to say it, wilderness canoe tripping and camping!  Other than maybe ten fishing boats, we saw no one on our ten-day trip down the French and across the delta!

We would spend the next hour and a half dealing with a strong WSW wind by deking behind a string of islands and making our way along the Georgian Bay coast to the bottom of the French River’s Main Outlet at Bluff Point. The reward: 5.5 km. of forward movement!

Crossing the Main Outlet to the west side, we took advantage of the protected passage provided by the long narrow islands which run parallel to King’s Island.  Once past Sand Bay, a couple of times, we got blown into bays that looked like channels.  By 1 p.m., we were just west of Whitefish Bay and at CS804 (old #723).

We have used this site before and like the tucked-in and sheltered nature of the tent site combined with the easy walk to the exposed shore of Georgian Bay.  Thanks to this year’s high water, that walk was much shorter than it was two years ago!  The wind continued to blow hard all afternoon.

In my hands, I have a Sony HX80 with a 24-720mm reach!  I bought it at Henry’s for $160 CDN for a trip I took to Tanzania.  It came in handy there on the short safari I did after my walks up Meru and Kilimanjaro.

On this French River trip, I left behind all the heavy gear – the Sony A77, even the Sony A6000 — and just took the HX and my Sony RX100.  I kept the RX100 in a Pelican 1010 case and the HX 80 inside two medium-sized Ziploc bags. Max also had his Canon SX280 with its 25-500 reach in a Pelican case.  Maybe like the Fishing Camp, my huge DSLR has seen its day!

Unfortunately, the Bustards were not a part of this year’s ramble. However, if you find yourself anywhere near the islands and the wind and waves are agreeable, the time you spend there will be among the highlights of your trip. See the following post for some background on the Bustard Rock lighthouses on the west side of this group of islands.

Canoeing Georgian Bay’s French River Delta:: Day 3 -The Bustards To Eagle Nest Point

It is 3.5 kilometers south from CS804 to the Bustard Lighthouses. Then we walked to the east end of the island we were on and were amazed to see something else.  Well, we could barely make anything out of it, but here is what popped up on our camera viewfinders when we zoomed in!

We counted about fifty wind turbines (of a total of 87 planned) on the Henvey Inlet First Nation land some twenty kilometers away!  It was the turbine construction crew working on this project in July 2018 that caused the massive fire labelled Parry Sound 33, thanks to their continued blasting in tinder-dry conditions in mid-July.

While in the long run, the energy generated by the wind turbines will be a “plus,” for some reason, the notion of corporate responsibility for the costs of the fire has never become an issue.  See this CBC report by David Seglins for more background –

Why it’s difficult to make industry pay when it’s accused of starting costly wildfires

Day 9 –  To The West End of French River Prov. Park

• distance: 17.7 km
• time: 8:20 a.m. to 3:35 p.m.
• Portages/rapids/linings: 3/1/1: 
  • 22m – empty the canoe, lift over, and repack
  • 60m – over the hump around Devil Door Rapids
  • 40m – short 20-meter  La Petite Faucille portage; repack canoe and line for a few meters
  • 40m – high water level meant very fast water, lined short section to by-pass worst of it.
  • 130m – fast water section above the real ride!
  • 230m – all in less than 2 minutes!! looks rough but rides nice; vigilance still required
• weather: sunny all day
• Campsite: CS838 (od #822) – last ‘official” campsite at the west end of FRPP; lots of room for multiple 4-person tents; a couple of nicely sheltered spots; the rest are more open.
• Natural Resources Canada Topo Sheet – Key Harbour 041 H 15; Collins Inlet 041 H 14.
• our GPS tracks – 2019 French River (3.2Mb Dropbox file)
• Unlostify: West French River covers the river from a few kilometers east of Highway 69 to Georgian Bay. It has all the official park campsites indicated.  Click on the title for access to a free digital download – or buy the $20. waterproof copy.  Note: do not rely just on the Unlostify map – make a paper copy of the relevant bits of the topos above for the detail you will need.

The French R. Delta East Cross-Channel:

Just a couple of kilometers from the Georgian Bay shore is an interior passage that allows you to make progress on days when the full force of the wind and waves is hammering the coast.  It presents few difficulties and some incredible scenery to paddle through.

• The 4.4 km. East Cross-Channel goes from Whitefish Bay to the bay below Devil’s Door;
• The 3.2  km. West Cross-Channel stretches from Devil’s Door Rapids to Black Bay.

We had done the entire Cross-channel before from west to east; now we would be doing at least a part of it – the East Cross-Channel in reverse. At Devil’s Door Rapids, we would be at the bottom of the French River Delta’s three Western Outlets:

1. the Bad River Channel
2. the Old Voyageur Channel
3. the Voyageur Channel

The plan was to go up the Bad River Channel via Lily Chutes all the way to the beginning of the Old Voyageur Channel.  Then we would come down the Old Voyageur Channel to the end of the West Cross-Channel and paddle down the Voyageur Channel to Batt Bay and our campsite at 838 (old #822).

And that Plan B  – Plan A had been a visit to the Bustards – is what we ended up doing!

The map below shows the East Cross-Channel route from 804 (old #723) to Devil’s Door Rapids and Portage and then the turn into one of the Bad River Channel’s sub-channels.

Fifteen minutes into the day’s paddle and we just had to stop. We were paddling through a very scenic section of the cross-channel when we spotted what looked to be an excellent campsite somewhat elevated from the surrounding terrain.  A minute later, we had assigned a grade of A to the site and agreed that if a quieter interior site was what you wanted instead of our CS804 of the night before with its access to Georgian Bay, then this would be an excellent choice.  [Note: I have since learned that camping at FRPP sites other than designated ones is illegal and subject to a fine. Proceed with caution!]

We also paddled over to the other side of the channel from the above ‘campsite’ location and found another pretty decent one.

Shortly afterward, we faced our first mini-portage of the day – a 10-meter lift-over which the image below somewhat captures!

Here is a satellite view of what it is we were lifting over. As the GPS track above indicates, we had initially turned south and into that small bay before we realized our mistake. We had done the lift-over a couple of years before coming from the west.

Devil’s Door Rapids

As we approached the bay below Devil’s Door Rapids, we saw our first bit of graffiti since Gibraltar Point on Lake Nipissing.  We did not go up to look closer, but some of the letters already seem to be fading.  Hopefully, next year it will be all but gone.

And then it was a paddle into the bay before Devil’s Door Rapids. As we came to the end of the east cross-channel, I noticed a No Camping sign on the NE point, a first anywhere in the park. Perhaps it is aimed at sailboaters or larger watercraft that might park in the bay for shelter? A sailboat was anchored in the bay as we paddled by, but no one seemed to be around.

We approached the bottom of Devil’s Door Rapids. There was the 1.5-meter drop we remembered from our last time there.  Then we headed to the north side of the bay for the take-out spot for the 40-meter carry around the rapids.  The higher water level meant the landing we used last time was under water!

The portage trail was somewhat overgrown, and we spent a few minutes trimming the junipers to make it more obvious for the next crew coming through.  Typical for the park’s portages, neither end of the trail is indicated by a portage marker.

There is a stupendous viewpoint on the rock overlooking the rapids, and we spent some time up there taking in the neighbourhood.  Here is a view looking east to the rapids, the bay, and that anchored sailboat.

We turned around and looked west up the cross-channel; it goes all the way to Black Bay and the south end of the Voyageur Channel.  However, this day’s plan was to head north up one of the Bad River Channels – the one with Lily Chutes at the bottom. The map below shows our route.

The voyageurs probably named the Bad River Channel as such, thanks to the larger number of rapids and chutes they would have had to deal with, which explains why they avoided its various options.

———————-

The Old Voyageur Channel

We did a lift-over, lined the canoe up Lily Chutes, and then paddled up to the top of the Old Voyageur Channel.  Along the way, we encountered some stretches of fast water coming our way that required a few intense bursts of paddling to make progress.  We rounded the corner (see the map below) and began our descent of the Old Voyageur Channel.

The Old Voyageur Channel runs 3.2 kilometers from top to bottom with only one portage.  Along with the French River’s Main Outlet to the east, it would have been the one most used by the voyageurs of old.

Toni Harting’s The French River: Canoeing The River of the Stick Wavers (1996, Boston Mills Press) is by far the best book out there on the French River. It takes you from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay and covers everything from geology to history and canoe-specific topics. Included are useful maps and some excellent photos, both colour and black and white.

Of the Channel, Harting writes:

…the Old Voyageur Channel was probably only used by the voyageurs at quite high water levels and by the big brigades of fur trade canoes. Smaller fur-trade canoes and specialized big canoes carrying only passengers, mail, and other important cargo would also have used this channel. These express or light canoes had less weight to carry and therefore enjoyed more freeboard to run rapids and shallow parts. [110]

———————-

La Petite Faucille

At the top of the channel are some swifts. A bit more than halfway down, you come to a set of rapids named La Petite Faucille.  These rapids were until recently mistakenly identified with the set of rapids depicted in a Paul Kane painting titled “French River Rapids.”  Harting writes:

The existence of the Petite Faucille is mentioned a few times in the notes of the old travellers. The artifacts found in the late 1960’s on the river bottom below the drop are another indication that this route was used by the fur traders. In his 1845 painting, French River Rapids, Paul Kane gives a curious artist’s impression of what presumably is the Petite Faucille. [109]

Harding’s use of the word curious is fitting because the location does not really look like the one that Kane painted!

[In 2006, Ken Lister located the actual site some 830 kilometers to the west in northwestern Ontario between Lake Superior and Rainy River. See here for his account.]

Here are a couple of shots of La Petite Faucille – the first is the section below the rapids, and the second continues the view up to the top.

Other than the short 20-meter or so portage around La Petite Faucille, there is little to deal with.  Above these rapids are some swifts; below the rapids is a 100-meter stretch of fast water known as La Dalle before you reach the West Cross-Channel.  We enjoyed the ride as we zipped down, hitting a top speed of 11 km/hr. for a few seconds, according to our GPS track data!

We stopped for lunch on the southeast corner of the island at the bottom of the Old Voyageur Channel and then continued our way westward along the southwest end of the channel referred to as the Voyageur Channel.

———————-

The Fort – Ambush Location

Not far from our lunch spot, we passed by a landmark identified by Harting as The Fort, a supposed ambush site used by Indigenous pirates to rob the voyageurs of their trade goods.  The site is a jumble of rocks that may or may not look like a fort depending on how much you want it to be one!  Again, to quote the best book written about the French River:

On the south shore of the West Cross Channel, close to Black Bay, there is a peculiar collection of tumbled-down rocks where several circular openings seem to have been constructed. This was possibly used as a shelter by Natives lying in ambush for the treasure-filled fur-trade canoes that would pass down the channel, which is quite narrow at this point. This could well be the “Fort” talked about in some old reports and after which the Fort Channel is named. [Harting 32]

The story itself left us skeptical.  How often could it have been used as an ambush site before the fur brigades realized there would be trouble up ahead? It is no more amazing an ambush site than many others they could have picked.

Furthermore, just which Indigenous tribe would be doing the hold-up? If it was an Algonquian (i.e. Anishinaabe) people, they would only be ticking off their many fellow tribesmen who worked with the French.  If it was an Iroquois tribe from the upper New York State area, it would seem a long way to come to steal goods that could be taken much closer to home. It would also date its use to the 1600s when the Iroquois were still a military power. By 1700 various Anishinaabek (i.e. Algonkian) peoples controlled southern Ontario.

Two Fur Trader Accounts of the Fort 

1. John Macdonell 1793

The  Journal of the fur trader John Macdonell – found in a collection titled Five Fur Traders of the Northwest–  has this entry from June 26, 1793:

See here for a 9.7 Mb pdf file of Macdonell’s Journal.

Macdonnell’s account puts a different spin on the story than Harting’s. For one, it sounds like a one-off ambush and not an oft-used spot; it also makes clear who the attackers were – and also how unsuccessful they were! It would date the attempted ambush around 1740, long after the military power of the Iroquois had been defeated by an alliance of  Algonkian-speaking tribes. By 1740 all of southern Ontario was controlled by various Anishinaabek peoples, and it is quite unlikely that the upper New York State Iroquois would have dared venture all the way to the French River Delta.

2. Daniel Harmon 1800

The fur trader Daniel Harmon has yet another account of the indigenous pirates who ambushed westward-bound voyageurs with their trade goods. His May 24, 1800 diary entry reads:

Download a 19.7 Mb pdf file of Harmon’s A Journal of The Voyages And Travels In The Interior of North America.

His account leaves unclear whether the bandits were Anishinaabe or Iroquois but implies that the spot was used for an extended period of time before “the Good Indians” decided enough was enough. While Macdonnell places the incident(s) in the French period, Harmon’s mention of the NW Co. puts it post-Conquest sometime after 1770. The Montreal-based NW Co. was established in the late 1770s.

As for a photo of the jumble of rocks – as we passed by, I figured we would get one the next morning on our way back.  The next morning we amazingly missed it!  Lesson: get the shot while you can!

If you have a photo of the site you’d be willing to share, I would love to insert it right here!  Email me at true_north@mac.com Also, we have another reason/excuse to revisit the Delta!

———————–

Given the still-blowing southwest wind, we made as much use as possible of the numerous islands in Batt Bay as we headed to CS838 (old #822).  Along the way, we passed by another voyageur landmark identified by Harting. It was known as La Prairie. As with the Fort, we did not stop to take any pix. Unlike the Fort, we did spend fifteen minutes at the site the next morning! [See the next post for what we found!]

CS 838 is the westernmost campsite in French River Provincial Park.  It is easy to imagine it as a stopping place for the fur brigades at the beginning or end of the French River part of their journey.  There is ample room for many tents.  Behind the flat rock outcrop are many sheltered spots. We could peg our tent down, a novelty at a Georgian Bay campsite.

Next Post: Days 10 & 11 – From Georgian Bay To Hartley Bay Marina Via The Mills Channel