Friends of the La Vase Portages set off on the 9th annual La Vase Portages Canoe Day with a special historic date to celebrate.
It has been 400 years since Samuel de Champlain travelled through the Nipissing area.
Friends of the La Vase Portages (FOTLP) formed their group in 2006 to help protect the historic route from damage with a proposed quarry threatening the pristine route near Coopers Lake.
FOTLP is made up of a volunteer board of ten people who meet several times a year to plan and coordinate for “the protection and promotion” of this historic canoe route.
La Vase Portages is recognized as a Canadian Heritage River System and is one of the most famous portages in Canada.
FOTLP Chair John Wipprecht is proud of the group’s accomplishments. “We are all quite pleased with the progress that has been made in the last nine years. All the portages have been located. We have acquired some property. And we’ve entered into agreements with land owners so that all the portages are open to canoeists who are traversing the country or going on a day trip like us.”
The group negotiated the return of the Upper Portage back into public ownership which is now part of the North Bay Mattawa Conservation Authority.
About 34 paddlers in 17 canoes re-enacted the route that might have been used 400 years ago.
The group started off at Brandy Lake which has a historic plaque and a parking area for trail walkers and canoeists. Their trip was expected to take six hours. The lake was created when Hwy 17 was built through a portion of Trout Lake in 1929.
Dressed as a voyageaur, FOTLP member and North Bay councillor Chris Mayne, is an avid canoeist.
Mayne warns the group not to be fooled by the dense vegetation in the water and not to get out of the canoe in an attempt to stand on the vegetation.
Legend has Samuel de Champlain travelling along the La Vase Portages to reach Lake Nipissing in the year 1615. Étienne Brûlé is said to be the first European to have explored beyond the St. Lawrence, canoeing the La Vase Portages in 1610. He later became a guide for Samuel de Champlain.
