fajrdrako | The Great Canal Mud Expedition

commodorified phoned up and suggested we go for a walk on the canal with

raynedaze and their friend Suzanne.

commodorified didn't mean that we'd walk alongside the Rideau Canal, where there are respectable pathways, sidewalks and bike paths. She didn't mean walking on the ice of the canal, a feasible thing in winter, but not so much on a warm day in March when the ice mostly isn't ice any more. No, she meant on the canal bottom, which is still exposed, because they haven't let the water back in yet.

Sure, said I. As long as it isn't too strenuous, or keep us walking too long. I'm not in shape, I said.

She reassured me, the lying dog. She knows I can do more than I think I can. She's wise to my ways. As I am to hers: she's minimizing the difficulty, thought I.

Had I but known...

Okay, it was difficult, but fun. Here's the pics of the expedition.

1. We met at Kettleman's Bagels on Bank Street, then walked to the Hartwell Locks.

commodorified was considering walking across the canal ice at Dow's Lake, but I wasn't willing to try. So we walked around Dow's Lake and through The Arboretum.

2. The snow was crystalline and granular and crunched underfoot. I tried to catch its sparkliness on camera.

3. At Hartwell Locks, we found the ladder that leads down to the bottom of the canal. We went down.

Those are mussels encrusting the wall of the canal.

4. Hartwell Locks, seen from the muddy canal bottom. We needed to find a place to ford the water in the canal, where the mud wasn't so soft that we'd sink in way over the tops of our boots, or be pushed over by the current, which was (as it always is) stronger than it looks. Easier said than done, but we were triumphant.

5. We explored a stream that runs westward from the canal. Forded it, too.

6. Rocks, a red buoy, and the mud, ice and water that make up the canal in March. That's Carleton University aboveground.

7. So we walked on the ice and the mud. Sometimes the walking was easy, sometimes not. Sometimes the mud was soft and sticky enough to give us four-pound weights on each foot. Sometimes we sunk down up to our shins.

In terrain like this I fell flat into the mud with a shriek and a squelch. I want it on record that this was a shriek of indignation and surprise, and it was not a girly scream. I'm sure

commodorified will confirm.

8.

raynedaze stopped to feed the ducks. After that, we had an entourage of ducks following us for a while.

9. We walked for a very long time. And then we walked further. And then we rested on slanting slabs of concrete that appeared to be canal walls that had fallen down and been left where they fell, while newer walls were built above. Then we walked for a very long time again.

Eventually we went up another ladder and circled round to walk under Hogsback Bridge. You know how water seeks its own level, and is usually flat? I love the way it curves and flows in mounds here.

10. In the park there, we saw wonderful signs of spring: buds on the trees!

11. We crossed under Hogsback Bridge to look at the Falls.

12. More of the Falls.

13. The water at Hogsback.

14. Given the rough water,

commodorified said she thought the sign was redundent:

But people do try to swim there, sometimes, which looks to me like a good idea only for the insane and the suicidal.

15. We crossed the park and went to the bus stop, where we got to rest and enjoy a cup of hot tea. Tired but happy.