Oh Happy Day

Yesterday was a special day... it was the day that we here in the Peace Country celebrate our wonderful river.... even though B.C. Rivers Day is not until the fall (when we also celebrate our river) we take the second weekend in July to Paddle The Peace. It is always an awesome day but some years I haven't been able to participate. This year I did. Teapot and I got up early in the morning to meet some friends at the landing and paddled to the Lynx Creek RV park and there we had breakfast with about a thousand others (slight exaggeration) and then we got back into our canoe for a trip to the Halfway River about 40 km from where we started. The day was glorious and there were about 250 participants this year, a flotilla of about 150 canoes, kayaks, and motor boats of all kinds, taking part in another perfectly balmy (and may I say hot though not so hot on the water) day. I saw friends both new and old, some I see often and some that I see rarely. We paddled with friends that we don't get to see often enough and had a truly delightful time, and I even brought a spindle which during the blessing of the waters I managed to get a little spinning done on my spindle. It truly was a lovely day.... what better than to spend a day on the water with friends and we had several pairs of friends.....

Have a look at the pictures for yourself and see if you are not jealous.....

Leaving the old ferry landing.... These are two of our friends..... essngee we'll call them....
These are two more of our friends..... the big J's.... and Teapot on the right.

We left the ferry landing at shortly after 9 a.m. so that we could reach the muster point at the Lynx Creek RV park and when we got there there were already lots of canoes lined up ready to leave at the right time. Our canoe is the last one which just happens to be the awesome colour of yellow.... yeah, it's way in the back there.....
Just as we were arriving a helicopter from the media was there to take video, photos and do a feature on the Paddle For The Peace

We had to walk down past a whole lot of RVs to get to the breakfast area.... yes they served us all a good breakfast..... I did wonder how all those campers who were in the park for the day and had nothing to do with our event, felt about the crowds of people who were there.....

The breakfast was served with pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage.... these folks were cleaning up.....

Teapot sat in the shade during the speeches and so did I..... he looks too happy for boring speeches, he must have been anticipating the day ahead instead of actually listening...

Once breakfast was cleared away, there were a bunch of political type speeches because in essence The Paddle For The Peace is a protest against the Site C dam that BC Hydro proposes for down river from this site.... if it goes ahead there will be no more river, just a big reservoir that no one can canoe on because of the roughness of water and lack of islands that provide safety....and lets not forget all the land that will be flooded.... no birds, and very little wildlife will prevail.... yuck!

People started to get ready to leave so we headed back to our canoes to ready ourselves to make our way down the river.....

We weren't the only ones ready to leave.....

There were lots of us...

We took pictures as everyone left the muster area in droves....

People were everywhere....

Meanwhile the helicopter watched our every move and took pictures.....

There was every kind of vessel.... and this one reminded me so much of my Newfoundland home that I had to take a picture....

And here a couple of more friends who I just happened to bump into while we were standing around the food... the came all the way from FSJ to be there and I was really glad to see them come out.... that's their doggy.... her name is Molly.... she's really nice...

Finally we really got underway... and headed away down the river.

We saw many supporters of the cause and this fellow on shore was no exception.... enlarge the photo if you want to see the banner that was hanging from the deck rail.....

This photo was taken on the roughest part of the river... well just before the roughest part... I wouldn't be able to take pictures in rough water.... I was too busy paddling... and it really wasn't too bad at all....

The rock formations were awesome and the bottom of the river was clear in some places and I was able to see fish darting away. There were Kingfishers, which I just love to watch dive for fish... but they are too darn fast for my camera. There were swans flying over and ducks galore.... and all kinds of different wading birds.... awesome.
That's all the pictures I have because my camera died on me... (which is not good because I've got a lot of snowy pictures after this.... which means there's something wrong with my camera....)

Teapot and I stopped for a picnic lunch of humus and flat bread with homemade cherry pie for desert.... our friends stopped too... not for long because we didn't want to be the last ones in the flotilla.... and after that the whole afternoon was idyllic....

We were on the river from 9 a.m till 4 p.m. and we were sunkissed, fatigued, and happy by the time we got home.... I couldn't wish you a better day... there just couldn't be a better day......