Saturday, September 6/08 - Leaving Wabakimi

-I slept poorly during the night. Whenever I woke up I could see Phil sitting at the kitchen table. I don’t know why he stayed up for what seemed to be most of the night.
-I woke up with a headache in the morning, took an Advil and then went for a walk along the beach and chatted with some of the people staying in the other cabins who were waiting for their flight out. They had alot of questions of our trip.
-I went back to the cabin, had breakfast and packed up my stuff
-Our flight is not scheduled to leave until around 11:00


-Dave was gone for awhile and came back with a Nalgene waterbottle filled with blueberries. Walt and I thought this was a good idea and filled our waterbottles with blueberries. I also picked a zip-lock bag full of blueberries for Sarah (Phil’s neighbour in Thunder Bay who does all the organizing for the trips when Phil is in the bush). Walt and I saw a garter snake while picking blueberries

-the Otter plane arrived with the new Wabakimi participants. They unloaded their gear at the dock and some large barrels of diesel fuel for the resort’s generator were unloaded as well. It is quite something that all the supplies for the camp have to be flown in: 4-wheeler, fridges, mattresses, etc.

-we exchange handshakes with the newbies and our gear is loaded into the plane. We say goodbye to Phil and get into the plane. I got the front seat; it has all the steering controls in front of it so I was very careful not to touch anything.

-a cooler was passed around and Walt took a beer and Dave & I took Coke.

-the takeoff was smooth and I wasn’t nervous this time. Took some pictures from the plane

-arrived back at Mattice Outfitters, unloaded our gear from the plane and loaded up Terri’s car
-on the car ride to Thunder Bay we didn’t see any wildlife other than a skunk
-we unpacked the gear at Phil’s, phoned our families, had a shower and a shave and felt human again. I did some laundry.
-we took a cab to the 3 Mangoes which is a Chinese/Phillipines type restaurant. We decided to order 3 dishes and each try part of each dish. Since I generally order stuff I am sure that I will like, I was rather adventurous. Dave’s fortune cookie said: “Water and boats are in your future”. Walt’s fortune cookie said: “A bold and exciting adventure is in your future”. It would have been funny if we had eaten at that restaurant before the trip! My fortune cookie said “Versatility is one of your traits.”
-rather than take a cab we decided to walk home and we each bought some pop, chips and a Lotto 649 ticket with the agreement that we would split any winnings
-we sat in the basement, vegged, watched the old version of The Flight of the Phoenix (which a long, boring, poorly-acted movie) and each ate a large bag of chips

Epilogue:
Sunday morning I got up and walked 2.5 miles to attend Hope CRC. After I got back we went out to Joey’s Fish & Chips for lunch, checked our lottery tickets and Walt won a free ticket
-I left at 3:30 pm for the airport for my flight back to Toronto and then a connecting flight to London to be reunited with Tetcy and the boys at 9:30 pm

Being a participant of the Wabakimi Project was an awesome experience. It was a little different than I expected it would be but it was still a great adventure. I feel a little regret that my remote, wilderness trip included some stays in log cabins but then it was also a nice luxury at the time. I take some personal satisfaction in that I not only survived but thrived out there. The bonds formed with Phil, Walt and Dave reminded me of the valued friendships from my college years. We hope to see each other again in February at a Canoe Symposium (all past Wabakimi Project participants in attendance go out for supper together)

I would absolutely love to go again. I have some pictures hanging in my office and I get a slight pang in my heart when I look at them. However, I don’t know if I will get the opportunity to go again for several years because of limited vacation time and various obligations. But I appreciate the fact that I got the opportunity to go. A special thank you to my wonderful wife, Tetcy for allowing me to go on this trip and also for allowing me to selfishly indulge in the many other camping trips as well.

Thank you to all who read my blog entries and for the comments.

And now back to your regular blogger, Tetcy.......