it floats/the river
by jwc 3o2
almost this entire set of photos comes from a 2.2k stretch of the Ottawa River starting at Booth Street & reaching west to just past the Little Chaudière Rapids.
never built a raft (or floating dock) before but, taking inspiration from some kids(?) who'd already built a raft at Squaw Bay (with an old boxspring & some air mattresses) & a stash of wood & foam in the garbage beside my building, i puzzled, crudely measured & cut everything at home & assembled it down at the bay (thanks, Ben & John, for the lift (& thanks, Rob & Ben, for the paddles)!).
it works!
well, "it worked": since starting this, the 2nd raft has been stolen (is there an end-of-season-river-patrol-clean-up? & even if so, why do people have to be such assholes as to deliberately fuck with others' pleasures?) so we're now back to the floater already there. 'til next year, then...
next year then
the "kids'" raft got embrittled over the winter. added a new perch & went for a few paddles around on it (most notably to break up the ice of the bay & for a wild careen through Yvette's Channel) but it finally disappeared, too.
we're now on raft 3, which is proving far more stable than either that preceded & scoots along the surface right nicely. thanks to the moving crew of Jessie James for helping move the deck across the river & to Rob Ouellette & Nick Power for help in the final assembly. special thanks to Dennis Barchet for the paddles.
further: raft 3 got stolen after not too long out on it, provoking a 4th, improved model with thanks to Ben for driving the deck over & Jess for the pleasurable evening together assembling it.
we will not be stopped!
well, temporarily we were again thwarted by the theft of raft 4 (i suspect the NCC for these complete disappearances) but raft 5 then went into service – though it needed another layer of foam, 2 sheets stolen from the stash i'd brought down. they got added a week orso later &, within a month, it disappeared. i heard rumours of it being stashed somewhere way upriver but couldn't find it. raft 6 has since taken its place – though it, too could use another 4 inches of foam.
raft 6 (the Flotsam 5) disappeared 18 june 2o16 (it lasted almost a year!). the Flotsam 6 – with a full foot of foam under – takes its place as of the 25th, with a great whack of thanks to Al for the ride over with the deck & Adrian for helping to build.
& now that one's lost/gone & i've lucked onto the loan of a canoe for august thanks to Cheryl Shore (which now, years later, seems to just be mine).
as of 2o17, the Flotsam 7 has been constructed & is now kept on an island, which seems to be working.
too, an abandoned beater canoe (thanks, Phil Mineau!) has passed into my hands for repairs & use as a guest canoe as of spring 2o22. now to get the chines on Cheryl's rebuilt...
see also Brandon Ng's videation of the Ng Expedition at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvaN8HAMaFs&feature=youtu.be
