I was parking my car at Ferguson Bay beach on Red Squirrel Road in preparation for a 14 day solo canoe trip in Temagami when I saw a couple of familiar stickers on the car in front of mine. The first was a "Paddle In The Park" sticker, and the second was a travel bug dog tag, so of course I snapped a pic 🙂.
Things don't always go as planned, and thanks to several lightning storms and a general lack of fitness my 14 day trip to Florence lake turned into a 9 day trip up and down the Lady Evelyn River.
Another thing that didn't go as planned was my parking location. Originally I was parked just behind the Vibe. But after carrying my canoe to the lake I reassessed the road as I came back for my pack. When I encountered a minivan on the way out I decided my little Mazda3 could make it all the way to the real parking lot no problem. It bottomed out a few times on the way in, but it did make it in one piece.
Fast forward a week, and while paddling back to my car I received many warnings that only a 4x4 could navigate that road after a week of rain. It was true that the holes were now all full of water, but they weren't any deeper. I just couldn't see them. The mud was also a bit slipperier than it had been – I even slipped in my sandals a few times while checking it out.
I decided it was worth a try, so I probed the puddles with a stick to find out how deep they were and plotted my route out. The first few were pretty easy, but I encountered some really long ones at the midway point. The water was spraying right up over my windshield and the canoe was shaking all over the place. I was about two thirds of the way through the longest puddle when I felt it start to bog down. I knew that if I stopped now I'd never make it, so I gave it more gas and plowed on.
After I made it through that puddle I didn't want to loose momentum so I just kept on plowing. I had been much more careful on the way in, but now I was just flying, scraping on the ground after each big hole. I finally eased off when I saw that the puddles were deeper and drier since I didn't want to risk bottoming out in a deep hole, and then I was back at the 'good' road.
I have never made my car that dirty that fast before. When I opened my doors there was mud all over the inside of the frame right up to the weather seal gaskets. But the only paint I scratched was on the bottom of the car, and I didn't even hurt the front spoiler. It's not exactly recommended driving for a Mazda3, but I made it out 🙂.