Camelot Island Kayak Camping

 Camelot Island

1000 Islands Kayak Camping

Note: click on images to see larger.

June 21 - June 23

My friend Pat and I decided a good way to celebrate my birthday was to do a two night camping trip to my favourite campsite of the 1000 Islands, namely site 1 on Camelot Island.   So we meet at Clark's Marina in Willowdale about 2 km west of Gananoque off Hwy 2.   I have used this marina many times over the years as a good place to leave our vehicles, parking is reasonable.  We unload the kayaks and set them at the outer edges of the ramp so hopefully not interfering with any power boat launches and begin the loading of gear.

Boat loading at ramp

 Boats loaded and our cars parked in the transient parking area we set off to follow the channel from Clark's down to the Bateau Channel which will lead us out to the Admiralty Island group SW of Gananoque.  Weather is hot with almost no wind so flat calm.   Before exiting the Bateau channel you cross the path of the Howe Island ferry which this day seemed quite busy.  After passing the ferry you are in the Admiralty Islands and we swing by Beau-Rivage a park island then the south tip of Lindsay island then around the north tip of Bostwick island home to Half Moon Bay where church services are held for island boaters.  Somewhere around here we pass a tour boat from Kingston in the design of a paddle steamer which is fake.

Kingston tour boat

From here we aim for Huckleberry Island then set our sights on the Navigation light at Barge island at which point we can see Camelot to the ENE of us at approx 1.25 kms distance.   On arrival at Camelot we pull the yaks ashore and begin the unloading then hauling the gear uphill to site 1 where we set up the tents and get our bedding organised.  I have a cot (Helinox Cot 1) which has made all the difference to the quality of sleep I get, in fact I think if I didn't have it I probably wouldn't be camping as I had found just sleeping on an air mat was way too uncomfortable and gave me a sore back.  Our camp set-up can be seen below.

Kayak landing at Camelot

Camp set-up site 1

First thing we do after set-up is have our lunch as we had been running a bit late we opted to wait until arriving on site before having lunch.  Then we purchase a bag of firewood and pay for 2 days of beaching permits which is over and above the cost of site rental.  Beaching permits allow you access to any of the park islands and is paid for on site.    No more paddling for today so we spend some time gathering twigs and prepping the fire for this evening and then it is time to make dinner, my responsibility for the first night and it is my old staple spaghetti with meat sauce and a ceasar side salad.  After dinner we light our campfire and sit around and just enjoy the evening.

Campfire

Then it is off to bed after a very pleasant day.  Before retiring I dump a pot of water on the embers just to be on the safe side, we certainly don't need any more wildfires there has been quite enough of them around this year!

A little tardy getting up, 7:40 but what the heck it's my birthday I'm allowed to sleep in!   Another lovely day and I'm making today's breakfast; pancakes with bacon and syrup plus O.J. and coffee.   After breakfast we will head out for a paddle.   With breakfast over it is down to the landing to stow some gear in the yaks before heading off for today's paddle.  Just before we leave our camp we have some surprise visitors, a gaggle of Canada geese with this year's young have come up to wander around the grass looking for something to eat.

Today's visitor

We decide to head NE towards the Fleet Islands and along the way we spot yet another of the many Osprey nests to be seen in the 1000 islands.

Osprey nest

Today's paddle

Our course takes us NE following the line of the Fleet islands passing to the east of Prince Regent Island before turning left through the Gananoque Narrows to go NW towards Gordon island which is a park island so we can land there and have our lunch.   I have never camped on Gordon as I'm not crazy about the layout there and the kayak landing at the SW corner is pretty crappy, not great for unloading a kayak.  We paddle around and check it out but decide we will land at the main dock on the east side.   This is quite high and requires a bit of effort to climb up, I then use my bow rope to tether my yak to the bridge to shore so I can't be charged for mooring.

Gordon Is. dock

Having found a suitable picnic table we sit and have a relaxing lunch.  After awhile we hear a boat approach and it turns out to be the parks boat checking the faciities on the island.  Of course the ask if we have beaching permits and we explain we are camped at Camelot and purchased the permits there.  As they had already been to Camelot they would have found our payment in the box so no problem.   With lunch over we head back to Camelot aiming for Sugar island then turning SW but keeping to the opposite side of the islands we passed on our way up to Prince Regent.   Arriving back at camp we prep the fire for the evening and then generally laze around and read for the rest of our afternoon.   There are a fair number of insects to be found on these islands including wood roaches and millipedes that can usually be found under groundsheets and bags but today we see an interesting one making its way up a tree.   Turns out it is called an eastern eyed click beetle and is about 2 inches long, see below.

Eastern eyed click beetle

Now today is Pat's turn to make dinner and she is making me a pizza for my birthday.

Ta da!

Not only that but I get carrot cake with cream cheese icing for dessert complete with candle!

Birthday dessert

Just room for 1

Chef boyardee at work!

So all in all a pretty good way to celebrate a birthday and we enjoy the rest of our evening sitting around the fire.  Weather for tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy warm and humid but no precipation until evening so just fine for our paddle back to Clark marina.  Morning comes and it is not too bad at all, cloudy as forecast but nice and warm with almost no wind. On waking we both begin to break camp, I start with packing up what's inside, sleeping bag cot and clothing then move to dismantle tent. So Pat makes breakfast with her version of egg McMuffin, fried egg and bacon on a muffin, juice and some strawberry/rhubarb fruit dish all very tasty.  The site is supposed to be vacated by 11:00 and I know it is booked for the weekend so after our hearty breakfast we haul gear down to the landing to start packing the kayaks.

Packing up the kayak

By about 10:30 we are ready to roll and our heading will be SW just outside of American waters to begin with, passing Netley island then Deathdealer island and no it's not in the U.S. but who knows maybe they had some inflence on it's naming😉.  We continue this heading to Jolly island where we do pass through some U.S. water but luckily no one shot at us!  At Jolly we turn right to aim for the top of Thwartway island (or Leek island) which is also a park island.

Pat in her Atlantic kayak

From the top of Thwartway if you look NW you can make out the sign for Half Moon Bay, a white crescent moon.  This is where a religous service is held for boaters/cottagers of the 1000 islands and has a pulpit and a wire around the inside of the cove where boaters can tether their boats while they listen to the sermon.  We use this landmark and head for it.

Heading to Half Moon Bay

Pat in Half Moon Bay

From here we retrace our course round tip of Bostwick island then skim past Beau-Rivage to head into the Bateau Channel and the turn off to Clark Marina and home.  Arriving at Clark we find a grassy area where we can drag out the yaks without using the main ramp as the owner was complaining about the time we spent on the ramp so this worked out fine.

Happy paddling!

from

KayakJock

 Rideau Canal

 A days locking

Today (May 27th) a friend and I decided to have a paddle that would let us make good use of our season lock passes so I decided a return trip from Merrickville to Lower Nicholson's Locks would do just that.   My kayaking season is well under way with almost 150 kms already paddled with this paddle just being 12 km but giving us a total of 10 lock throughs, 5 down and 5 back.   So George and I launch from the beach near the Merrickville library and paddle towards the entrance to the channel leading to the 3 Merrickville locks. The entrance to the channel can be seen at the right of the image below.

After a short paddle we are sitting before the first of 3 locks with no one in sight.  So the procedure is 3 blasts on your whistle to hopefully summon one of the lock crew.  In this case it didn't work even after successive tries likely because the crew are sitting in the lockmaster's building which is somewhere near the middle of the 3 locks. So nothing else for it but get out and walk down to look for someone.  I reach the middle lock without seeing a soul so cross over to the lockmaster's building and knock on the door. After a minute or two a guy appears and I explain we are waiting to lock through downstream. So then I hike back which involves crossing hwy 43 then its down to the kayak and join my friend in front of the lock.  Pretty soon we are slipping into the lock and the gate closes behind us.

Merrickville lock

Note, if you plan to do some locking on the canal the smart thing to do is bring a list of the lock phone numbers so you can call them with your mobile phone and not have the bother of getting out to look for someone.  I forgot to do this this time!  So 3 locks to get through Merrickville and then we paddle 3.5km to arrive at Clowes lock where there is just one to get through.

Clowes lock

Once you start locking they will usually call ahead to the next lock so when you arrive there they are ready for you and this was the case today the lock at Clowes was partially open to receive us.  After Clowes Upper Nicholson is a mere 670m and again just one lock.

George at Upper Nicholson

Next comes Lower Nicholson and it is even shorter distance of about 450m the image below is taken in that short paddle before the lock.  Arriving there we find that the only floating (low) dock is on this side of the lock so as we plan to have our lunch here we pull over, get out and haul the yaks onto the floating dock so we can relax and have our lunch.

Approach to Lower Nicholson

Kayak parking at Lower Nicholson

It is a lovely day and we eat a leisurely lunch, no rush as last locking at Merrickville is 5:15 p.m.  They actually close at 7 p.m.  but it takes quite a bit of time to empty and fill 3 locks and they like to quit on time. So after a restful lunch we pack up our gear and head back up stream.  As we approach Clowes lock I snap a pic of George in front of the dam which extends to the left of the lock channel.

George on approach to Clowes lock

And then we are back at Merrickville locks for our last 3 locks before paddling back around to the beach put-in by the library where we will take out and head home.  Not a very long paddle but took most of the day as we got underway around 11:00 a.m and we returned to the beach at  4 p.m.  

Entering Merrickville locks

So for anyone who wanted to get a bit of locking experience this trip could be done by purchasing a days locking which costs $1.75 per foot or just under $30 for a 17' kayak, not a bad deal when you figure you can get 10 lock throughs, 12 if you go through Lower Nicholson.  So we had a very enjoyable and relaxing paddle and I highly recommend it!

Happy paddling

from

KayakJock