Mission: Valleyfield

August 13, 2007

By Billy Harris

I rolled into Valleyfield Quebec with a new thumping sound in the back of the van and I wish wasn’t there. Not sure what I is but if there were a thumping noise in your house you would be a little nervous too. Carly of course doesn’t notice a thing. How……. I don’t know, but I am pretty sure I have seen this movie before and this nightmare is not fully played out yet. My house or the WHITE WHALE as my friends call is awesome, until I have to fill it full of fuel of course. She’s got a few scrapes too, you know Character, Not prettied up by the Duck at 130 kms per hour grill is a bit Tweetered. Anyway we rolled into Quebexico or Mexico North, as we like to call Quebec and hit the River as quick as we could. In the middle of this nice little town is a white water play park. A pretty good one too not just cause there is a Bar at the top of it that looks out over the river but a whole bunch of nice little playspots to cartwheel loop and tricky stuff in. Not going to blow any sunshine, its small and not at the entire O-River standard but then again what it? For a man made spot its wicked, deep and friendly to learn on. You can hike farther and farther up the river the better you get. Now that being said I watched a guy in a Thunder get, well pretty thundered in the play spot we were in. “I just wanted to learn some new moves,” he told me as we paddled hi to shore. But the rivers, not steep, a nice stretch of water for about 200 meters and a path up the one side. On the left side is a huge building full of old folks. Ya they really don’t like you being on their Yard and as long as you don’t stomp on their extensive garden or eat their produce I think that the 2 communities will co-exist. They got all sorts of stuff growing at the rivers edge and it was the first time I have seen Carly look like she might do something Illegal. Carly is abut the most disgustingly nice person I have ever met and even obeys traffic signals and stuff. Which would not be a problem for me at all but she grabs my hand and makes me stand there. “EVEN WHEN THERE IS NO CARS ANYWHERE TO BE SEEN” we just stand there, waiting and waiting. Anyway, There on the vine were 2 dark red peppers just hanging there waiting to be plucked by My little Vegan. Carly eats about 10 red peppers a day the, with the ferocity of a panther eating a baby deer after a 2 week fast. You should see it, seeds flying, red juice all over her face, big smile. Murmuring about how good they taste. (I just shake my head in awe, nothing really to do but stand back and watch) I figure she eats about 160 $ a week in food, 130 pounds of greenhouse goblin, pepper anilating, veggie monster. To make matters worse she was hungry when we put on, she kept saying don’t they look good about a dozen times, I never bothered to tell her about the Cucumbers in the next garden over. She might have broken the law for those they were huge. She like cucumbers even more than peppers..

We hiked up to the play spot at the top of the river. Wicked play hole there, and the loops were awesome, great spot for learning. We got to the parking lot and Carly forgot here helmet, but lucky for us we found an old ACE HELMET…. I had to shoot that…. Opps getting off topic again… The bottom of the river has a sweet surf wave for beginners, not my cup a tea but wicked to learn on just the same. Then if you want to get your big wave funk on 20 minutes from there is a big wave called in French the “undertaker”. Corran Addison called it energizer but the locals scorn at that name and properly abuse me for calling it that. I dropped in a few shots from there looking down as only you can do there to watch I had been there before but it was a nice surprise. Wicked wave with a touchy right side and a hole worth a beating in as well. Fyi there is a couple dollar entrance fee and it’s worth every penny. Apparently the wave has been shut off for the last couple years and is now back and flowing. Just so all you kiddies know, hydro Canada is a bit on the touchy side when it comes to playing near outflows. A couple years back they changed some of the laws about Navigatable waterways without asking the people who navigate it. So since then there has been a bit of a stink about running stuff through or around dams. Man made stuff can be dangerous but then again anything man made needs to be looked at with suspect I suppose.

Corrections from Rob from the camp:

Jason from the Paddle Shack in Ottawa has been awesome. He has been the guy, along with Sharky from WT, who made my 10000 go far. Really really far!

We bought the WRSI helmets because we believe in them but we bought them at the school price from their site.

All our Gul equipment and the first 11 paddles came from the Paddle Shack.

Amber and Tyler Curtis, from Level 6, gave us a huge amount of clothing and semi and full dry-tops. Steve Horvath from H2O gave us another 6 paddles to add to ours to keep the kids in gear that would fit the different body sizes.

These are the people, along with you, Carly and the Jackson team (Ruth and Nick came out in February 2006 and E.J. has been supportive in advice and swag for the events), that I want to see recognized for helping us to do what we do.

B Harris on a mission
Location and Beta for Valleyfield found at
http://playak.com/article.php?sid=1212

Billy