KITCHENER -- A family from Flamborough made a unique discovery while canoeing the Grand River earlier this month.

They found a message in a bottle, sparking a search for the author and the story behind the letter.

The Tilbury family was paddling near Caledonia when their five-year-old found a bottle floating in the water.

"We wondered what it was," Robin Tilbury said. "Finley thought it was a pirate map to a treasure."

The message itself was a short story about childhood pastimes and pets written in April 2012.

"It drifted around for eight years," Tilbury said. "I don't know how that happened, eight years is a long time."

Siblings Emma and Toren Burr penned the letter with their neighbour.

"We found a bottle, wrote it, rolled it up, put the cap on, threw it in the creek," Emma said.

The Burrs spent a lot of time at "Big Creek" in Caledonia as kids. The bottle was found about 10 kilometres from its drop spot.

"That's amazing that, after all this time, it hasn't sunk to the bottom or hasn't gotten completely damaged," Toren said.

The Tilbury family was able to connect with the Burrs through social media.

"Pretty sure we wrote it and threw it in there, and a week later I completely forgot about writing it," Toren said.

The siblings were only nine and 11 years old at the time.

Reflecting on their message was a nice trip down memory lane.

"Like what animals we had, what we did in our free time," Emma said.

The letter inspired the Tilbury family to write one of their own.

"Definitely try and keep the sense of adventure going," Tilbury said.

They plan to write several messages, dropping them at different locations to see how far they go before they're discovered.