Shadow River River at End of Property River at End of Property bear-shadow-river-postcard.jpg Shadow River is located at the very north end of Rosseau Lake in Muskoka. “The Shadow River is one of the most wonderful natural curiosities of the Muskoka district; it empties its water into the bay on the shores of which Port Rosseau stands. Its course can be explored inland by boats for about five miles, the stream varying throughout from twenty to sixty feet in width. Tall elms and ranks of tapering pines line the banks, and below them the sedgy shores, heavy with foliated ferns and wreaths of moss, overhang the edge. The surface is as motionless as glass and everything is duplicated in marvelous detail, each leaf and branch having its reflected counterpart even more distinct than it appears itself.” – from Muskoka and the Northern Lakes of Canada, 1886 Tekahionwake, better known as Pauline Johnson, the celebrated Six Nations poet, spent much of her time paddling Shadow River in the late 1800s. The river possesses a calm, passive quality, and it is easy to understand Johnson’s particular fondness for it. Shadow River is predominantly a wetland ecosystem, broken up by bands of open bedrock. April is the best time to paddle the upper Shadow, as it usually runs high at this time. At peak flow, the river is barely a canoe length in width but deep enough to float a boat. The reflections on the river of the overhanging oaks evoke a kind of lightness that has been the subject of much prose, poetry, photography and testimonials for well over a century. For the more adventurous, the upper three kilometres of the river provide a mix of meandering creek wetland and Precambrian rock outcrops, with some of Muskoka’s most picturesque chutes and cascades. The lower section can be paddled up- or downstream without difficulty at any time of the season. Look for beaver activity here, great blue herons along weedy shorelines, osprey circling overhead, several species of ducks, Canada geese, muskrats and deer. Mostly second-growth hemlock and pine fringe the shoreline; a generous ground cover of wintergreen, serviceberry and ferns blankets the upper river landscape, and maple and oak form a canopy over the lower course. Read more…