13 miles 20 km Richford, US - Canoe & Co, Glenn Sutton, Canada
Sunny and hot
Last night we stayed in a fantastic bed and breakfast, situated in an old historic house, the Grey Gables Inn, with welcoming hosts Tim and Debbie. Breakfast was excellent.
Grey Gables Bed and Breakfast |
I looked at the map this morning and calculated that we have already missed 15.5 miles of Section 5. How can I have been so stupid to ask for a shuttle to Gray Gables. We should have camped at Lawyers Landing last night and stayed this evening at Gray Gables. The damage is done.
The B and B was great but the town itself looks down at his heels. Apparently it used to be more prosperous .
Richford |
Anyway today has been a hard but fun day. Although we turned up for breakfast, late for us but the time our super chef and host Tim had given, we spent time talking to his other guests and by the time we had wheeled through town using our cart which now seemed to work smoothly, and do some grocery shopping on the way it was middle of the morning.
Grocery store in Richford |
We only made our first paddle stroke at 10.
After 15 minutes paddling against the current a voice called us over from the side. I thought at first it was Russ again, tracking our every move.
We ferried over and met Willie, a down-and-out sleeping in a tent on the river bank and with a giant chip in his shoulder that the whole world and American state was against him. We wished him well and continued slowly upstream.
The day was so hot that the fact that we spent a large part of the day wading in water sometimes nearly up to our waist was actually cooling. We pushed ourselves to keep going knowing that we had to be at the Canadian Border Check by 4 pm. We passed over on lunch and got there at 3.15.
Working our way upstream on the Missisquoi 10.30 |
11.00 |
11.30 |
13.00 |
13.15 |
13.30 |
15.00 |
15.10 |
Crossing the border was a novelty and easy. Geoff first walked up from the river to the American side and asked if we needed to carry the boat up as well. The guy on duty said that was not necessary we could just walk over the bridge and present ourselves to the Canadian authorities and then walk back and down to the river.
We had relatively high water on the river after the torrential rain from 2 days ago. We ferried from L to R and then from R to L the whole day and tracked the boat up numerous rapids.
It may sound odd but we actually had a good fun day if not a little tiring.
After crossing the border, the river is tranquil with hardly any flow in it. It is a pretty stretch from the border up to Canoe and Co, our camp spot for tonight.
Missisquoi in Canada |
Camping field at Canoe & Co |
Francois (Frank) and Rachel from Canoe & Co were really welcoming when we pulled up at their place at 6.30pm
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