Annual General Meeting 2023
Thursday November 30 2023 7-9pm
Dear RACCC Members,
With the approach of fall, it is time to start planning for the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The RACCC’s 2022 AGM will be a virtual meeting to be hosted using the Zoom platform on Thursday November 30th, 2023 from 7 to 9 pm. Club members can click here for instructions on how to join the meeting.
If you should any topics to address, please contact Glen.
In preparation for the AGM, I invite all club members to consider serving on the 2023/24 club executive. If you are interested, please contact any member of the executive.
Click "read more" to see contact information for Glen plus any attachments (you must be logged in to see the attachments). Closer to the meeting, club financial information will be provided as an attachment to this notice.
The agenda for the meeting is as follows (financial statement and draft budget may not be available until the AGM):
Call to order
Approval of agenda
Membership report
Financial statement
Draft budget
Report from RA
Executive reports
Ted Blake award
Elections
Adjournment
Executive Meeting Minutes November 2nd 2023
Log in to see minutes from the meeting of the executive March 7th, 2023. Minutes of other meetings can be found here.
2023 Ted Blake Award Winner
Congratulations to Paul Hughes, the 2023 Ted Blake Award recipient for contributions to the club. He served as Flatwater Coordinator for 5 years and has been on the Flatwater Committee for many years. For the last fifteen years, he has led what is usually the first club flatwater trip of the season (Burritts Rapids to Nicholson Locks). This is often the first trip for some new members. Paul has always been very helpful to new members in encouraging their participation in club activities. He also did the Club Orientation session for many years. Paul has often filled the club schedule on holidays, leading club trips on Canada Day and Civic Holiday, as well as Labour Day weekend trips to Booth Lake. He has led several Restoule trips, a new destination for the club, as well as other longer trips.
Algonquin Fall Colours
October 1 to 4, 2023
The 4-day trip was tentatively set to go around early to middle October, with exact trip dates to be determined, depending on the peak of the fall colours and the weather.
When we saw the peak of maple fall colours in Algonquin Park would likely occur around Oct. 1 and the weather would be very nice for several days in that period, we decided to go for Oct. 1 to 4.
On Oct. 1, when we reached Algonquin Park East Gate, we saw a sign indicating all day use permits for that day were sold out, which was probably due to the peak of fall colours.
Gatineau Park Ski Pass
The following message was received from the NCC:
We've made some changes to the season pass pricing structure to make the purchasing process easier. For reasons of fairness, the 25% pre-sale discount now applies to all users: the sale of passes with discount codes for groups is therefore no longer in effect this season.
The pre-sale period for this offer runs from October 4 to 25. Then, a 15% discount is available if your purchase is made between October 26 and November 30. You can share this information with your members or simply refer to the web page for pass sales: https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places/gatineau-park-winter-passes
“Paddle with a Pro” on the Dumoine River
On Sunday, August 27, 2023 three members of RACCC paddled the Dumoine River. Two (Bill & Kate) were experienced guides representing our club and I was a “newbie”, never having been in the area. We were a small part of more than 60 paddlers who celebrated the opening of the Dumoine Trail. I signed up for “Paddle with a Pro” because I’d heard a lot about the river and was curious. It was a safe way to explore. I had done a whitewater course but had only rarely used those skills. We booked a cabin for a week at Dumoine Valley Guides in Rapides-des-Joachims (also called Swisha) nearby. This is my story. Others could tell you different tales of the weekend…
Ottawa River History Trip
September 2023
The day began … and started with jokes.
We started from the RA Centre at 9 a.m. and drove to the Blair Road boat ramp.
The Ottawa River was calm as we headed to Upper Duck Island. We could see the base of the Green Shoal Lighthouse near Lower Duck Island. It was in service from the 1860 to 1970s.
How an outdoor enthusiast with physical disabilities found healing in Ontario backcountry
Click here to read an interesting article.
Crotch Lake Trip Report 2023
Six paddlers in three canoes had a fabulous stay on Crotch Lake in North Frontenac Parklands. We arrived on September 6 and left on the 9th, 2023. Half of the group had never been in North Frontenac, while the other half, including our experienced trip leader, had many fond memories of previous trips in the park.
According to the website (https://www.northfrontenacparklands.com/) "...the North Frontenac Parklands offer the ultimate backcountry camping experience with 184 campsites interspersed around 11 pristine lakes." We stayed on campsite 38 at Crotch Lake, which is an easy 2 km paddle from the launch. The site is on an island with a sheltered sandy landing, great views of the main body of the lake, back-saving "kitchen counters", and lots of good spots for setting up tents.
Executive Meeting Minutes September 7th, 2023
Log in to see minutes from the meeting of the executive March 7th, 2023. Minutes of other meetings can be found here.
La Vérendrye Park: La Roulette
August 15-19, 2023
After discussions starting in May about destinations, Greg, Grant, Jane and Jim finally headed out on
August 15 th to paddle Route #30 La Roulette in La Vérendrye Park. La Roulette is described as a 2-night 3-day route but we added a rest day which turned out to be a good idea considering the winds and the rainy weather. Our route was 45 kilometres long with 4 portages totalling 700 metres. By starting at the Canimina put-in and finishing at the Nichotea put-in we were able to reduce the portage length by 800 metres.
Algonquin Park Galeairy Lake August 2023
We started the trip at the Galeairy Lake access point, which was just a few kilometers outside the Algonquin Park East Gate. In previous years, we parked our cars at the access point parking lot, actually belonging to the local municipality, and never had any problems.
This year there was something new. There were two big new signs at the parking lot, and one indicated that for Ontario Park users “overnight parking can be found at 41 Hay Creek Road”. We would have ignored the sign if another camper did not ask us about it since it almost became a habit to park there and go.
FW Intro Training Course Report
(Posted on behalf of Mandy)
I've been in the canoe club for about 20 years. Love it, tripping most summers minus three years of Covid. After sustaining a couple of concussions, the second in 2020, it was recommended to me that I consider taking the Tandem Canoe Club Training.
In July. I had the privilege of attending the clubs Tandem Canoe training instructed by Dot and Salome with a special appearance from Mark S.