At times I found myself convinced I was in over my head but bullheadedness prevailed.
The river began with crystal clear water and spruce bows arcing to the surface. I dodged low hanging branches and passed under the creosote stained bridges of the park. The current was smooth but I had to be weary of rocks. Schools of small fish darted away from my orange boat and tadpoles swam past. I enjoyed getting a feel for the boat and was soon very happy to have brought the canoe paddle along when it got narrow. Night 1 found me at Wanagan Camp where i ran into Zach who is Stand Up Paddle boarding the river for 3 weeks. We shared similar experiences from the day's paddle before zipping uo tents.
The wildlife along this portion of river has been plentiful. Ive had numerous deer jump across the river in front of me and passed the following: porcupine, beaver, squirrel, chipmunk, snapping turtle, box turtle, snakes, swan, crane, bald eagle, hawk and ducks. Oh...the ticks are numerous and voracious, having found many on me, at camp and in the canoe.
The Class I rapids were an eye opener as i paddled hard to avoid the boulder obstacles, log jams and suspended hazards in the water course . Sometimes I would end up sideways to the flow and quickly realized just how much volume was pushing my canoe downstream. There were some sketchy moments including wading under a spspruce tree blocking the river but fortunately I made it.