Posts with the Black River tag

Barris Beat

Fine art of packing

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment

A veteran friend of mine and I happened to be comparing notes about an upcoming overseas trip we’ll be taking together. We were itemizing some of the clothing he might need for the climate where we’ll be travelling. I reminded him about the possibility of rain at night and the likelihood of warm temperatures in the daytime. I used some reliable advice:

“Pack layers,” I suggested, “so you can add or subtract as needed.”

“Why do you think I take several days to pack?” he pointed out. “I like to plan these things.”

“So that’s the secret,” I kidded him. “You take almost as many days to pack as we will be travelling.”

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Barris Beat

High watermarks

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Spring flooding of the Muskoka River through Bracebridge, Ont. Photo on Twitter, Daryn Jones.

I could hear it before I could see it. It sounded a bit like a strong wind blowing through the trees. But it was a constant white-noise sound. Then I could feel it. The earth beneath our feet seemed to vibrate. Not an earthquake, but as I walked onto the wilderness bridge, I could feel it being pounded.

The force of surging water seemed to rattle the steel and stone of the structure to its core. I stood there at the centre of the bridge spanning the river where it pours over a large drop known as Victoria Falls and I marvelled at Nature.

“This is as close as I’d ever want to get to a tsunami,” I suggested to a one of my travelling partners. “What power.”

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Barris Beat

Jobs and dodos

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Jobs that go the way of the dodo bird are often the ones we rely on most.

The other day a canoeing partner of mine mentioned he’d faced a bit of dilemma. His cedar-strip canoe, which he and I had used one spring to paddle down the Black River in Muskoka, was in need of repair. Stored out in the open, the canoe had generally resisted the elements fairly well, except where the water had collected in the canoe gunwales and caused some of the wood to rot.

“I needed somebody to repair the damage,” he said. “Surprisingly, I found a guy near Huntsville. That’s what he did – repaired canoe gunwales.”

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