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.......

Wabakimi - Friday, Sept 5/08

-I woke up a couple of times in the night because my arm seized up. It is very sore right at the elbow. I don’t know what I am going to do about canoeing in the morning. We have another long trip planned and my arm is killing me
-woke up in the morning. Everyone is still asleep so I read a novel for awhile in my bunk and then dozed off. Everyone got up at 10:00.
-for breakfast I had two hot chocolate drinks and a granola bar. I complain to the other guys about my sore arm but don’t get much sympathy. I beg Dave to switch canoes even for just an hour just so I can switch arms. But Dave can only paddle on the left so he couldn’t switch.
-we pack up our gear and sweep out the cabin
-just as we are getting ready to leave the cabin, a guy in a motor boat comes to the dock and gets out and strolls around the grounds. Phil tells us to stay in mudroom at the side of the cabin so we just sit in there. The guy in the motor boat checks out the other cabins and then comes in our cabin through the front door and starts looking through the cupboards. We are all sitting still in the mud room. I am afraid to even breathe. Thoughts run through my mind like: Are we hiding? Who is this guy? What is he doing? What do we do if he comes out the side door and sees us all sitting here? Thankfully he left out the front door and got in his boat and left. It was extremely tense
-the resort/camp has a well so we can hand pump water from the well rather then having to filter lake water. Walt had shown me how to prime the pump the other day. So before we left I was going to fill my water bottle when I meet Dave coming back from the well and he asks me in his rough mafia voice “It's okay to use da water in da pitcher?”. He had filled his water bottles and made juice with the water to be used for priming the pump. I pour the remainder of my water into the pump but it is not enough to prime it. Now we don’t know what to do and we don’t want to tell Phil that we screwed up the pump. Dave wants to pour his juice in to prime the pump but I don’t think it is a good idea. Dave then goes to the showers and fills up the pitcher with untreated lake water and we use that to prime the pump and fill up the waterbottles. I hope we don’t get Girardia.
-we left the resort at around 12:30 pm. We don’t have lunch so I put a couple of granola bars in my pockets to get me through the day.
-we paddle up the Ogoki River. My arm is loosening up and I am doing okay. I concentrate on my paddling stroke. Phil jokes to the other guys that since I am such a great conversationalist he has been able to plan out most of next year's routes.
-Phil points out a spot where the natives used to meet to trade amongst themselves. He says if you kick around the dirt you can easily find ancient Indian artifacts. He once got a permit to bring some artifacts to an archeologist and he found some fragments of a bowl and a piece of copper. The copper was from a tribe from Michigan.
-we paddle to Ogoki Falls, see a beaver and unload the canoes at a huge rock. This is the spot where Phil thought we could camp if we didn’t get permission to stay at the resort. Phil phoned Investors Group using his satellite phone so he could transfer money into the chequing account to cover the monthly bill for the float plane
-we do the 273m portage around Ogoki Falls. It is an easy portage. Phil points out some old blazes. To mark a portage trail the voyageurs would make an axe mark on the trees.
-we paddle to the next portage where the two parts of the Ogoki River meet. We have 2 choices: take the long portage (732 m) or take 2 short portages (100m each?). However, the short one requires us to paddle across some fast moving rapids to an island in the middle of where the 2 parts of the Ogoki River meet. We paddle to an eddy and Phil gets out to scout the rapids. Walt, Dave & I think we won’t be able to make it across the rapids and will probably tip the canoes in meantime. Phil comes back after about 5 minutes and says we will take the long route and we all breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t think the “short” route would have saved much time because it involves 2 portages and it takes a bit of time to load and unload each canoe. But it would mean a lot less lugging of gear along the route. I think Phil just wanted to scout out the route on the island but after we told him that we were all afraid to take that route he will probably delete it from the map. We do a back ferry across the current to the takeout of the 732m portage. There are some outfitters boats blocking the takeout which annoys Phil.
-we begin lugging gear across the portage. There are some downed trees blocking the trail which we have to hurdle over. Phil got out the chainsaw and began clearing the way. Other than the downed trees it was a fairly easy portage. There were tons of blueberries. Whenever I walk through the blueberry patches I think about running into bears and I noticed later that I stepped in some bear scat.
-I had a chance to wait by myself at the end of the portage and was thinking how neat it would be to find something left by the voyageurs so I started looking around and noticed a coin. Excitement ran through me as a I picked it up hoping for some valuable coin from the 1800's but it turned out to be a 1965 US dime. We loaded up Walt & Dave’s canoe while Phil phoned Mattice Outfitters to say we are running late and could they send their camp manager with a motor boat to pick us up.
-we paddle Whitewater Lake for what seems quite a while and a little past Picnic Island (which is where a lot of fishermen from the outpost camps have a shore lunch of fish) Richard along with his dog Echo from the Whitewater Lake camp pick us up. Echo is a boxer so I am a little leery getting into the boat but she is very friendly. We take some time tying the canoes to the side of the boat and then we are on our way. During the boat ride it rained part of the time and it was cold. We saw a bald eagle, a rainbow and a beautiful sunset. The boat ride takes 2 hours and we get to the camp just in the last bit of daylight. The cabins of Whitewater Lake Camp are on beautiful white sand beaches that remind me of pictures of the tropics.
-Richard brings some beer but only Walt likes beer. Richard fills us in on some of the current events of the past week
-we unpack our gear to try to dry everything out. Phil gets the woodstove going
-Phil cooks up supper on a real stove. We used up some of the extra food so we had a huge supper: beef stew, potatoes, green beans and meatballs. For dessert we had chocolate pudding cups and chocolate chip cookies. I love chocolate chip cookies and was surprised to find a package in the bottom of the food barrel. I wish I had found them earlier.
-I take a luxurious hot shower
-I finish off the vodka I brought and we fill in our journals and chatted. We went to bed. I put earplugs in because Dave is a terrible snorer.

Favorite Phil Story:
-canoe guidebooks, websites and maps always have disclaimers on them. River conditions and portage routes can change with the weather, seasons or even from flooding from beaver dams.
-a couple had asked Phil for one of his maps of the Kopka River. After talking to them, Phil didn’t think they were experienced enough for a Kopka River trip. Phil said the maps were not complete and he didn’t want the liability so he didn’t give them one. The couple went anyways and missed a portage takeout and went through some rapids and were seriously hurt

Thursday Sept 4/08 - I can paddle for miles and miles and miles..... (with apologies to The Who)

My watch alarm went off at 7 and I got up. It is very foggy outside but very calm and the sky is clear; the water is like glass. Last night, Phil told me to get him up at 7 because he wanted an early start on the day so I went back in the tent at 7:30 to wake him up but he doesn’t seem interested in getting up. So I go back to sit in the gazebo. Walt got up and sat in the gazebo for awhile with me and then he went back to bed. I read my devotions in the quiet of the morning while the birds were singing and the fish were jumping. What seems strange in all my camping trips is the absence of birds in the forest. At home I have to sleep with the windows closed because the birds are singing so loud in the early morning but in the woods it seems quite rare to hear birds singing. After devotions I decided to try my hand at catching some of those jumping fish but again no luck.
-everyone else got up we had breakfast and we packed up camp.
-The outfitter came by in a Cessna to drop off some supplies to Jeff & Karla and to give them batteries for the fish finder. Jeff, Carla and Phil chatted with the outfitter for awhile. We didn’t leave until 12:30! Phil gave Dave & Walt directions and they started out while Phil and I loaded up our canoe and then started out after them. We crossed to the other side of Pickett Lake and went around the bend but there was no sign of Walt & Dave. Phil thinks they may have misunderstood the directions and gone down the creek which is just before the bend. Phil & I turn back and paddle along the twisting creek calling out loudly for them. We finally meet them. Walt & Dave turned back because they figured it must not be the right route. Since time was of the essence Phil wasn’t happy about the delay. Walt apologized. The paddle down the creek was quite scenic.
-I am finding the Canadian Stroke rather awkward. The problem with having Phil in the stern is that he can see when I revert back to my normal paddle stroke or if I bend my left elbow.
-The Raymond River flows into Pickett Lake so we are now travelling on the Raymond River
-we have to do a 250m portage to go around some rapids. The portage is fairly easy and it has lots of blueberries. The portage is muddy in some sections. Due to the rocky put-in (with some downed trees) I had to wade in the water so my feet got wet. However, I am wearing canoe shoes rather than hiking boots so getting wet feet isn’t a big deal. Phil has very strict equipment requirements about what to bring on the trip and he doesn’t allow hiking boots. Several years ago I sprained an ankle on a Sunday stroll through the woods with the family so I really appreciate the ankle support a hiking boot provides. So when Phil said no hiking boots (his reasoning is that only cement shoes make better anchors) I actually lost sleep agonizing over my footwear choices when I was planning on what to take on the trip. I ended up choosing Merrell Gaulley shoes and Phil has given me positive comments on them a couple of times
-we continue paddling along the Raymond River. We paddle/pole through some reeds to get to Whiteclay Lake and take a short break in the canoe to have a snack. Whiteclay Lake has beautiful white sand beaches along it and there seem to be some spots along it that could be cleared out for some potential campsites. There is a gentle wind at our backs. Phil is an awesome paddler. I can truly say that I have paddled with the best of them. Phil and I are making such good time that we often have to wait for Dave & Walt to catch up so we got extra breaks which is good because my right arm is sore. I am getting more comfortable with the of the Canadian stroke and am falling into a rhythm.
-at 7:00 we finally get to the resort. There are several cabins but the resort is deserted. Phil is scouting around while we wait on the dock. Phil says we may have to push on to a campsite by the Ogoki Falls (where Phil says the fishing is excellent). I hope we stay at the resort, even if we stay in tents on the lawn. I mentally prepared myself to canoe as far as the resort and now that we are here I don’t know if I can go farther. I am dog tired and laying flat out on the dock exhausted.
-Phil calls the the Ogoki Frontier outfitters on the satellite phone and they give us permission to stay in the cabin. I am ecstatic.
-it is September and there a lots of blackflies at the resort. I would have thought they would have all died in July. The are not biting but they do swarm around our heads and we have to be careful not to inhale any.
-Phil does all the cooking on all of the trips. He figures it is easier that way because the participants on the trips would constantly be asking questions such as how much water to add, how long does this simmer, what pot to use, etc. He does a good job of cooking for 4 people on a one-burner stove. Even though he does the cooking we do help by getting him supplies and running errands.
-the resort has a really nice gazebo with a large dining table. We set up to eat in there. Phil seems a little grouchy and Dave calls him an old codger (but safely out of earshot).
-Supper is dumplings, corn, sweet and sour pork on rice. The dumplings weren’t that great but everything else was great. Dave wouldn’t eat all his dumplings and offered them to the rest of us but they are very filling so we all declined. We teased him that he shouldn’t get any dessert if he isn’t going to eat all his supper. I got to choose dessert and picked mandarin orange fruit cups and oatmeal cookies.
-Walt & Dave do the dishes. I can't remember what I did (if anything).
-Phil puts the woodstove on in the cabin and we hang up our clothes to dry. There are huge log beams about 5 and a half feet from the floor. One of us will probably knock ourselves out on those things. The walls and beams are adorned with all kinds of notes from past users of the cabin. The notes typically brag about a huge pike that was caught or a moose that was shot but there are also numerous notes about killing a about 12 mice in one day. Yikes, I hope I don’t wake up to mice in my bed!
-we spend the evening writing our journals and enjoying some libations
-the plans for tomorrow are for another long trip to another resort on Whitewater Lake. The trip may involve some tricky rapids
-we had hoped to see some moose on our long canoe trip today but we didn’t see any. We did see a large osprey, a woodchuck, some loons and a couple of birds.