The Lièvre and the Ottawa in winter

The Lièvre north of Buckingham

Autoroute 50, bridge over the Lièvre

Sunset over Ottawa

Flying in January, you need a good reason to get airborne, because it takes such a lot of uncomfortable effort preparing the 'plane before the flight and refitting the wing-covers, etc. afterwards. Once in the air, though, the views make all that effort worthwhile.

After flying up the Gatineau valley and across the hills towards Gatineau, my pilot decided to practise a long approach into Gatineau airport. With the wind coming from the west that meant having to land on runway 27, which entailed an instrument approach procedure taking us beyond the Rivière du Lièvre to the east before we could turn back towards the runway. That day, the rivers were ice covered rather than snowy, which made them easy to detect. We also had a good view of the new highway (Autoroute 50) to Montreal, now completed, with all its bridges in place.

Looking across the frozen Ottawa from the northern side,
Rockcliffe airport on the far bank

As we turned for home towards Ottawa, the sun was beginning to set and the light glinting off the ice on the Ottawa River made for some spectacular views in that direction, too.

Poetry by the river

Archibauld Lampman

I happened to pick up a copy of the New Edinburgh News this morning, the December edition actually, which has an article on Page 3, written by Paula Thompson, about Riverside Poetry in Stanley Park. Reading it, I learned that two plaques inscribed with poems, one in English, one in French, have been erected in Stanley Park near the riverside tennis courts there.

The English poem, entitled To the Ottawa was written by Archibauld Lampman, who died in 1899 aged only 37. He is buried in Beechwood Cemetery.

Here is the poem:

Dear dark-brown waters full of all the stain
Of sombre spruce-woods and the forest fens,
Laden with sound from far-off northern glens
Where winds and craggy cataracts complain,
Voices of streams and mountain pines astrain
The pines that brood above the roaring foam
Of La Montagne or Les Erables; thine home
Is distant yet, a shelter far to gain.
Aye still to eastward, past the shadowy lake
And the long slopes of Rigaud toward the sun,
The mightier stream, thy comrade, waits for thee,
The beryl waters that espouse and take
Thine in their deep embrace, and bear thee on
In that great bridal journey to the sea.

Alfred Garneau

Rigaud is a municipality with a sizeable hill to the west of Montreal. The Ottawa's "comrade river" is the St. Lawrence, of course.

The French poem, La Rivière is by Alfred Garneau (1836-1904), and describes not the Ottawa but the Rideau River:

C’est une forte berge, au large flanc de glaise,
Abruptement taillée ainsi qu’une falaise!
Le Rideau passe au bas, riant sous son flot noir.
D’ici, le long des eaux je puis apercevoir
Les roseaux alignés comme une palissade,
Où crie, à pointe d’aube, un grand héron maussade.
Étroite, la rivière a du moins son attrait
D’onde mouvante, avec, entrant sous la forêt,
Tous ses enfoncements, pareils à des alcôves,
Qu’achèvent de fleurir, au bord, les glaïeuls mauves.
L’on a pour horizon des blés, point de lointain
Que le ciel, et dans l’eau son mirage incertain.

Another thing I learned from Ms. Thompson's article is that there's a 35km long Poets' Pathway around Ottawa with other poems by Canada's (early, famous) "Confederation Poets" on plaques along the way. What a nice idea!

Early morning in Dick Bell Park

Early yesterday morning, a fine, cold one (the wind chill was -30º at one point) we drove up the Ottawa River Parkway to Carling Avenue and thence to Kanata. Passing the Remic Rapids and Deschênes Rapids, where the fast moving water never freezes, we noticed radiation fog rising and dissipating; later in the morning it vanished completely. * The sun being low in the sky made the views so beautiful that after a fortifying breakfast (at the well established Ralph & Sons diner––recommended!) I drove back to a place where I could park and take a longer look at the river, at Dick Bell Park near the Nepean Sailing Club (deserted at this time of year, of course). I got out of the car for a few minutes and took this picture, looking up the Ottawa River to the north west. This is a sheltered little cove, part of Britannia Bay, near Carling Avenue, where geese will land and rest once the ice has melted and they are back in town.

I presume the tracks are from snowmobiles. Note the icy surface of the river. This is because the snow on it melted at the start of the week; the melt water froze when the temperature dropped again. The same applies to the other rivers in the region.

This is my favourite view in Ottawa, by the way, whatever the weather.

*Returning along the same route after lunch the water of the rapids was a deep, deep blue.

The work goes on

Since last September, the Delcan Corporation in association with Guardian Bridge Rapid Construction Inc. has been restoring the Minto Bridges. I was wrong about the main reason for this work. It's being done because the steel grating on the "deck" has previously allowed road salt to corrode the structure below. Therefore it is going to be replaced by a composite wood and fibreglass deck. This will still allow salt to fall into the river, unfortunately, but the bridge will now be stronger and more durable, allowing heavier traffic to cross. 

It’s a very robust and durable material ... 10 times stronger than steel, 30 per cent lighter, and immune to corrosion ... The deck tapers slightly from the centre allowing water to drain into gutters, protecting the structure below-deck from salt. The run-off will flow into the river.

When we saw that our access to the bridges was blocked, we wondered how long we'd have to wait before we could cross them again. I was wrong about that too; the notice said December 15th, but according to the Ottawa Citizen, they are now saying the work will be completed in "early February." I have my doubts. It is an ambitious project, the first of its kind in Ottawa.

The first section to be restored by the City of Ottawa is Minto Bridge West, a 53-metre long span between Green Island and King Edward Avenue. There are plans to rehabilitate the other two spans but the work has not yet been scheduled.

This morning I can hear the construction work from Cathcart Street, loud and clear, but the workers can't be seen. They carry on operating in most weathers––but not at night (as would doubtless happen in China)––under a temporary shelter that covers the whole span of that first bridge. You can see it in my photo above.

A misty day

The opposite bank of our river could hardly be seen today. We have been having a mini thaw, typical of January. The cold is sure to come back soon; in the meantime, the ice and considerable piles of snow are melting and dripping, rain has been falling, and the humidity in the air at temperatures that suddenly soared above zero (Ottawa airport recorded a record +7º yesterday) has condensed into fog. Along the banks of the Rideau the river ice has started to melt from above and water drops are poised to fall from the twigs of the bushes. All this makes for mysterious views on the river banks and when I came home after a walk I immediately went out again with my camera to try to capture some of them.