Like you (or like you should be!) I am an Ontario Steelheaders member. I put in my time to volunteer for the greater good of our steelhead fishery on the Saugeen River. Whether it’s helping out with fish lifts at Denny’s Dam or pulling a fish tanker full of yearling stockers, I take great pride in helping out. So, it was natural for me to accept the task put upon me from some of the Steelheader’s brass this past spring. My good friend and fellow member Dan Gravel and I were asked to verify the presence of beaver dams on the Beatty Saugeen River. This became an adventure we wouldn’t soon forget.   For those of you that don’t know the Beatty, it is a major spawning tributary to the Saugeen proper. The Beatty is born in the wooded wetlands of Southgate, east of highway 6. This cold water stream becomes a small river over the course of its 46km stretch before entering the South Saugeen in the town of Hanover. The cold, spring fed Beatty is a fish producing “super trib”, rich with invertebrates, forest covered banks and pristine spawning gravel; it is also the major destination for adult steelhead that are transported by the Ontario Steelheaders “Steelhead Express” tankers some 60km from Denny’s Dam during the spring fish transfers. Here, in this beautiful creek, these steelhead (as well as many others who made the journey the hard way past the man-made dams) pair-up, and lay the seeds for future generations of Saugeen River steelhead. Without a doubt, the Beatty is the major contributor to wild produced steelhead throughout the entire Saugeen system.   Our adventure started in April 2011, when Rod Jones and my father were discussing the rumour of multiple beaver dams in the lower Beatty which would impede steelhead migration. This became a great concern, since ease of access to spawning water is important. These two fine men suggested they send me and Dan down river in a canoe the following week to explore these beaver dams. Not wanting to disappoint, we eagerly agreed. Although the Beatty has an extended spring closure (no fishing till the end of May), we thought it would be a great idea to bring our shotguns along and possibly harvest a turkey or two on the stretches of Conservation Lands that border the river. My father offered us his finest fiberglass canoe and a free ride to Concession 16 where he would drop us off. We neglected his choice of watercraft and brought Dan’s rugged aluminum canoe knowing full well that the journey may be rough. We met Mr. Choronzey in Hanover with canoe in tow and reached the drop off at Concession 16 at 10:30am. He informed us that the trip would only take a few hours and we would be in Hanover no later than 4pm. A quick look at Dan’s handheld GPS told us a different story and we launched the canoe and turkey gear with some doubt in our senior members’ assurance of a quick and easy trip.   The first concession of our paddle turned out to be hell. We never found a beaver dam here. However, we found eight giant log jams that required us to portage the canoe around the masses of lumber. This took considerable amounts of time, not to mention the river had more bends and winding than a coil of garter snakes in a hibernation den. We did however; see dozens of large steelhead hiding in the log jams, obviously not impeded from beaver dams down river! Concession #1 took 2.5hrs to paddle, with no turkeys to be seen or heard.   Dan and I were happy to be out of the slow oxbow section of river we experienced in the first concession of our trip. The second concession was more exciting. Some areas of faster water made for a quicker ride down river. Here we found beautiful sections of spawning water that were occupied by steelhead paired up and making aquatic nookie. We also slammed the canoe into a few logs and boulders, but we were no worse for wear. NO BEAVER DAMS again in this stretch, but we still had to portage around 3 large log jams. Concession #2 took 2hrs to paddle.Now, at 3pm we are at Grey Road 3 bridge, still 2 concessions from our destination with about 4.5hrs of good daylight ahead of us. This next stretch of the Beatty proved to be a wicked adventure. For the next 2 hours we pounded the canoe around and into sweepers and through rapids (yes RAPIDS), slammed into boulders, nearly flipped, took on water, and managed to explode our carefully packaged soft cooler of silver beverages. My shotgun was sitting in 3in of cold stream water in the bottom of the canoe and any thought of killing a turkey was gone. Finally after nearly 3 hours, we completed the 3rd concession, soaked and bruised, but still paddling. The only benefit to this stretch of the trip was being able to witness the most intense mayfly and then caddis hatch I have seen on the Saugeen. Juvenile steelhead and resident browns were lighting up the surface, filling their guts with these flies. It was like something from a western fly fishing movie, surreal to say the least.   Finally, we had one more concession to traverse before we reached the take out point. The final leg of our journey proved to be the worst few hours in a watercraft I have ever experienced, and I have seen a lot! We passed some beautiful riverside homes, whose resident’s proclaimed we were crazy idiots for canoeing the Beatty. One lady even offered to help us off the river and back to town. We neglected the offer and tried to explain we were in search of BEAVER DAMS. About half way through the final concession we met our match. Here, the river split into a section of 3 braids. Dan (in the rear) suggested we go left, I however paddled us to the right and off we went tumbling down a whitewater staircase, putting the canoe on its side and taking on water fast. Dan managed to jam his paddle down into the riverbed to prevent a total capsizing. We immediately pulled up on shore and proceeded to walk the canoe down the remaining 400yrds of whitewater, inadvertently spooking adult steelhead everywhere throughout the stretch. It was nearly dark and we had no idea how much further the pick-up destination was. We managed to paddle down river for about 5 minutes before we were greeted to fast water again and more hair pin turns. We repeated the above scenario two more times. Yes, I said two more times… ughhh! Not taking any more chances, we walked the canoe through the final bit of nastiness and found our take out point within eyesight. Mr. Choronzey was not there (of course). He had dropped the vehicle off for us at the bridge (thanks Dad!) and returned to his trailer at Denny’s Park where he was in the company of the Steelheaders’ brass who brainstormed this idiotic adventure, laughing I am sure.   We left the Beatty at 9 pm that evening. Sore, bruised, broken and bug bit. The canoe looked like a car hood from a demolition derby. It leaked, severely by the time we pulled out. Our guns, soaked. We had managed to spot more than a hundred adult steelhead, and probably floated over 100’s more. The amount of juvenile trout was astonishing, as was the mayfly hatch. We never saw or heard a turkey. And last but not least, we NEVER FOUND A SINGLE BEAVER DAM. I would like to thank those who made a point to bringing the existence of these imaginary BEAVER DAMS to attention of the Ontario Steelheaders, you owe these two members a new canoe and a beer! I do not promote the Beatty as a canoe trip for anyone. It is not listed as a paddle route and should not be used as one.   If you want to access the Beatty, do it from shore!