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Ice canoeing on Vaughn Bay
By Colleen Slater
KP News
Mackenzie and Kelson Mills, 8 and
10 respectively, experienced a unique adventure with
their parents on Jan. 12, the second day of “a sheet of
ice” on Vaughn Bay.
Dad Matthew Mills suggested the
outing, and with the kids jumping up and down with
excitement, mom Lisa joined in. They paddled out in
their red canoe, and found the ice to be about a
quarter-inch thick.
They pushed through the icy
covering, and the noise sounded “like at the North
Pole,” Kelson said. “We had to yell to be able to talk,”
he said.
Matthew, Kelson, with a boat hook, Mackenzie,
and Lisa Mills
in their canoe. Photo courtesy
Judy Mills |
“Panes of ice”on the Mills’beach on Vaughn Bay.
Photo courtesy Judy Mills |
“It sounded like metal grinding
against metal,” Mackenzie added. “When we paddled, the
waves went under the ice and made it move.”
The water from the paddles froze
before the drops landed. They could see the path they
made through the ice. Kelson reached out with a boat
hook to smash a hole in the ice, then stuck the hook
into the hole to pull the boat ahead. They saw seashells
frozen in the ice, and sticks half-submerged that
Matthew said “looked like frozen wooly mammoths.” They
watched a seagull walking around on the ice, but most of
the ducks and seagulls were out on the sandspit.
The children knew they had to be
careful in the canoe so it didn’t tip, and if they fell
in and went under the ice, they would need to break the
ice. “Take your personal flotation device if you go,”
Mackenzie advised.
After the tide went out and left
ice on the beach, “it looked like a bunch of panes of
glass,” according to Kelson.
Grandpa Don Mills told them it was
57 years ago when the bay had that much ice on it.
Both children were ready to go out
the following day if the “Vaughn Bay ice sheet,” as
their dad called it, remained intact.
“It was the best winter adventure
ever,” Kelson said.
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News, all rights reserved.
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