A River Runs Through It

Muskoka is all about canoe trips. A popular day's outing for many of our guests is to canoe down the Oxtongue River, from Marsh's Falls, and then portage home to BONDI VILLAGE. It takes about four hours, depending how long you spend swimming, exploring the river, and watching for wildlife. We transport the canoes to Marsh's Falls -- the last of several waterfalls on this river as it works its way to Lake of Bays from Tea Lake in Algonquin Park. There is little sign now at the Falls that once Captain Marsh had a thriving saw mill and boat building works there in the late
1800's. The lake steamer S.S. Mohawk Belle was built here. The mill burned in 1900, however, and was never rebuilt.

Today, we had guests from the Netherlands, on only their second ever experience in a canoe, take on the trek. Jacqueline, william, Robert and Maurits looked like old hands.

The Oxtongue River is a wonderful canoe experience -- it's flat water, and you go with the current, so it is easy paddling. There is no development along the shoreline -- it is a very pristine river. Recently, the Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation acquired 100 acres spanning both sides of the river and put it into a Conservation Trust to ensure that it remains in its natural state.

Sometimes when you reach Dwight Bay, all that lovely sheltered paddling comes to an abrupt end, as the winds can pick up on the big lake, but there is always the option of paddling to nearby Dwight Beach and calling for us to pick you up if the lake is too rough for your comfort level. If the day is calm, however, it is a short paddle along the shore to a short portage, and a truly Muskoka canoe trek experience that brings you right back to the beach at BONDI.

Our family who took on the flat waters here today are heading to Ottawa next, and we've recommended that they try another river -- the mighty Ottawa. Flat water? Not so much. The Rafting trips offered on this river are superb -- it is a warm water river, unlike some of the big rivers running straight off the glaciers that offer rafting trips -- and it has rapids second to none. One of our favourite summer outings is rafting on the Ottawa. Companies like OWL, River Run and Wilderness Tours all provide professional and entertaining raft trips.

After all, we think everyone should get to check out rivers that flow smooth, like the Oxtongue, and rivers that leap and plunge about...