This day began with reasonable sun and gradually deteriorated into a cloudy windy rainy mixed up day. We found our way down the river through numerous class 1 rapids and riffles, with a few class 2 rapids to quicken the pace. With the high water level many of the would-be rock gardens at the base of each rapid had enough water to float us over. Unfortunately one simple little stretch provided us with a bit of a wake up call as a boulder reached up and tried to bite our boat in half. I was not quick enough exiting the stern to swing the boat around, water swept over the guwhales almost instantaneously. It's amazing how quickly a canoe can fill with water and turn into a one ton dead weight. The sickening sound of cracking fibreglass as your boat begins to break in half is not a welcome sound on a remote river. Thoughts of how we would manage to get off the river without our boat flashed through my mind as I found myself standing outside the boat frantically trying to lift the gunwhale against the weight of water and current. The water gods were with us and by some miraculous stroke of luck we were able to turn the hull downstream enough to stop the flow of water into the boat. I was deeply thankful to find my trusty flexible plastic pail under the seat, and began bailing for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually the level of water in the canoe was low enough to allow us to float away from our lovely rock garden to shore where we were able to flip the boat and assess the damage. There were 25cm creases travelling in two directions along the hull which created a significant loss in structural integrity.
Inexplicably, the rain stopped and the sun burned down for twenty minutes allowing me to dry the hull and apply the wondrous material we have come to know and love as "duct tape". As soon as the last piece on the inside of the hull was applied, down came the rain again and onward down the river we went trusting the repair job to carry us through the remainder of our journey. (The last time I used duct tape to repair a boat, it stayed there for five years before I got around to re-fiberglassing.) Embarassed yet thankful for the reminder to lean our hull downstream, we jockeyed through each new set of rapids with renewed respect for the hydraulic power of the river.
We paddled to the north end of Theriault Lake anticipating a four star camping area after a hard fought battle with wind and waves. As we rounded the point to our destination we found the other paddling group nicely settled in. The odds of this happening are rather limited, but onward we paddled to a sheltered location futher up the shoreline. We roughed out a camp and settled in for some drying time and well deserved rest.

Yellow raincoat lady	Top of the rapids	Where are we?	Canoe sighting ahead
Sock drying time

Adventure 2004 | Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six | Day Seven | Day Eight | Day Nine | Day Ten | Day Eleven | Day Twelve