If you have lived in the Westboro community, chances are you have passed the Ottawa River hundreds of times and have marvelled at its beauty. But now you can experience it a different way: by taking a guided tour down the historic waterway.
In a few weeks, Renfrew-county based Wilderness Tours is set to offer river tours out of the recently re-opened Westboro Beach. They won a bid by the National Capital Commission to operate a cafe on the ground floor of the pavilion and wanted to share the “magic of the river” with the public.
“What’s perfect about Westboro Beach is it’s on the Kichi Zibi Mikan Parkway, it’s on the bike trail. You can ride a bike on a paved trail from Kanata West all the way to Orleans. It goes right by our doorstep,” said Wilderness Tours founder Joe Kowalski. “The area is packed all the time and in the winter it’s used for cross-country skiing.The Westboro light rail station which will open in a year or so is literally only a block away.”
Branded as the “Westboro Beach Club,” the main attraction will be lazy river tubing which will span four kilometers of the Ottawa River and ends at Lemieux Island Park near the Bayview O-Train station.
“It is about a two and a half hour journey and hugs the riverbed,” said Joel Kowalski, Joe’s son and vice president of Wilderness Tours. ”We’re also going to do a Voyageur canoe tour, which will go from the beach to the Deschenes Rapids. You’ll also get to see the Deschenes ruins, a really neat structure in the middle of the river that most people have never seen.”
Wilderness Tours also plans to host a variety of instructional programs including how to paddle a canoe or kayak, said Joel.
On land, the Westboro Beach Club has opened an outdoor bar where you can stop for a coffee or quick meal. It serves a variety of salads, sandwiches, and ice cream. Beach equipment is also available for rent and a membership deal for regular users.
“We have stand-up paddle boards, kayaks, floaties, beach chairs, beach umbrellas, a lot of the things that people want to have at the beach, but don’t necessarily want to carry back and forth,” said Joel. “The membership program will allow people to use it even more easily.”
Celebrating half a century in business
Wilderness Tours started in Foresters Falls in 1975 by the elder Kowalski when he was only 25. His inspiration came after reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books which filled him “with desire for adventure.” The only problem? How to fund it.
So Joe pre-sold the water rafting trips in order to purchase the needed equipment. Their first structure was a Canadian Tire tarp hung between the trees. In the summer of 1995, he took 400 people rafting – a number that grew to 40,000 customers each summer a decade later.
“I am the poster child for bootstrapping a business,” said Joe. “It was certainly a struggle in the beginning because I didn’t come from a business family. I had no business experience, but I was passionate about running rivers.”
Back then there was no such thing as a white water rafting business.
Wilderness Tours is credited as being North America’s first adventure resort. It has been the springboard to launch a variety of other tours in the region, including Saute-Moutons in Montreal which goes into the Lachine Rapids, and Whirl Pool Jet Boat tours in Niagara Falls.
The water sport made a splash in the Capital about a decade ago when Wilderness Tours started Ottawa City Rafting, a two and a half hour guided tour of the Ottawa River, which includes views of Parliament Hill, and follows the original path followed during ByTown’s logging era.