This was a beautiful paddle, in the waters on the Ottawa River around the Morris Island Conservation Area, a place I’ve really come to love.
It’s about a mile west of Fitzroy Harbour and the Chats Fall Hydro dam, on a rocky and winding stretch of the Ottawa River that feels a lot like parts of Georgian Bay.
We put in off the parking lot at the conservation area, right beside the sign warning you not to put in there because of “sudden water level changes” due to the dam. I have no idea why that sign is there, because the water levels in their “safe areas” and those outside it are exactly the same.
Anyway, we headed northwest on the river towards the train bridge, passing some quite palatial homes tucked amongst the trees, then headed north to the Quebec side, where there’s a complex series of islands and bays. But a storm blew in, high chop and rain, so we headed back to the more sheltered southern shore.
There we followed a complex, granite-strewn coastline, with small rocky islands, marshes and pretty bays. We finally found ourselves in a protected bay in the conservation area, dotted with small islands — quite lovely. There is a canoe launch at the north end of the bay, where we took the kayaks out and then walked them back the 300 yards or so to the car.
This was certainly of the most varied and scenic paddling routes I’ve found anywhere around Ottawa.
Route:
