Portageur.ca Paddle - Found And Claimed! - Paddle In The Park Contest

03 Aug Portageur.ca Paddle – Found And Claimed!

Posted at 20:56h in Featured, News, Updates by Fiona 0 Comments

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Well then, a big ol’ paddles and paws up to Andrew Thuro (and Abbey) for being the first to claim a Badger paddle this season! Andrew and Abbey deciphered the clues and were able to locate the Portageur.ca Paddle on the Chipmunk Lake portage which is on the way to Presto(n) Lake in Algonquin. It wasn’t easy, but they did it and as Andrew tells it, Abbey helped lead him to the right spot. (She must have known that there were some great doggie prizes and treats for her from See Sawyer Run if she helped!) Check out everything that Andrew and Abbey won with their Portageur.ca Paddle Prize Pack and read their paddle-finding tale below…

ANDREW THURO PORTGEUR.CA Paddle

Well, my canine friend Abbey and I were finally able to get “Out There” and found Preston and Nancy’s Portageur.ca paddle on the portage to Chipmunk L from Booth L around 3:30pm on Friday, July 31st.

Though the weather was beautiful yesterday, the winds were not in our favour and made for a challenging paddle into headwinds all the way from access #17 (Shall L) up to Booth L. When we finally made it to the put in at Booth L, it was looking unfriendly with a strong headwind and whitecaps. Thankfully, Booth has a beautiful stretch of beaches along its N shores and I decided to get off the water and “line” my canoe W along the shore. With danger of capsizing adverted, we made it up to the Chipmunk L portage around 3:00pm.

Portageur.ca Paddle as found by Andrew Thuro

Now at this point I wasn’t entirely sure if the paddle was located on this portage or the Mountain L – Marshy L portage. I decided to weigh my options and had an introspective break. I sat down on a large drift wood trunk on the beach head and really took in the scenery of Booth L. With my mind set for a 1900m portage, I loaded up my gear and started the walk up a relatively unused portage. It was at this moment I thought “better keep a keen eye out for the tree with the burl!”

Abbey Portageur.ca Paddle Finder With eyes scanning either side of the path, Abbey who was up ahead of me, stopped and turned to see where I was at, as I wasn’t hiking at my normal pace. She was standing just beyond a tree slightly obstructing the path with a tall, straight trunk and impressive girth. At this point I was in scanning mode; I looked at the tree and scanned right into the woods and saw a sharp angled, light coloured piece of wood – “it can’t be!!!”.

I looked back at the straight tree and up the trunk, sure enough, a big burl over the path. I looked back at a 6′ tall dead tree trunk with white rope, a long black sock and a corner edge of the wooden collector’s tag! The feeling of excitement of having deciphering the clues, finding the paddle and relief of not having to portage 1900m was overwhelming!!!

Again, thank you for organizing a fun contest and #TheRewardsAreOutThere

Submitted by Andrew Thuro, via email.

Again, congrats to Andrew and Abbey! We hope you dig your new Badger Paddles and prizes from our incredible sponsors!

The Portageur.ca Paddle:

This well hidden, varnished cherry Portageur.ca Badger Canoe Paddle, with custom laser engraving, comes with a Badger Paddle Sock and a wood PITPC collector’s tag.