I had the priviledge of being part of the first annual “Mad River Float” which took place on the Madawaska River up near Calabogie, ON just this past Saturday.
Many thanks to Jim for sending out the invite and organizing the event. If my memory serves me, I believe there were about 10 people and three dogs who took part. Naturally Ellie came with me, outfitted in her brand new PFD. She did pretty good, but she isn’t in the kind of shape I thought she was. I’d say she swam for maybe half the time, the other half she just floated along with me – it’s a damn good thing I had that PFD for her or I think my arms probably would have fallen off by the end of the float.
We all met up at Jim’s place near Calabogie and from there we loaded up a few cars and trucks with all the ‘floaties’ and headed upstream. Only one incident of ‘floaty gone awry’ on the way there…lets just say you really need to make sure those rubber dingys are tied securly to your roof before driving 80 km/h.
We ended up putting in a little later than was planned but no big deal. In the end, we floated approximately 2.5 kms in around 2.5 hours. Not a speedy trip. The weather was spectacular and the water was a perfect temperature. My only complaint is that I didn’t put enough sunscreen on, or at least not in the right places cause I ended up with a wicked sunburn on my lower back.
When we arrived back at Jim’s place, they sparked up the Q while we went back to the get vehicles we left at the drop off location. Jim cooked up burgers and dogs for everyone but unfortunately we (Darcy and I) had to hit the road right away because we had a party to get to at Matt and Alix’s place.
All in all I’d say the 1st Annual Mad River Float was a big success. I’m already contemplating what sort of ‘craft’ I’m going to be floating down the river on next year. Definitely something that can hold a dog as well.
So thanks again to Jim and Allie for hosting the event. Sorry we couldn’t stay longer. Next year I’m there for the night. :)