Thank Goodness: Hard Times and Silver Linings

By JJ (Jennifer Jupp) , Director

NE OF THE characteristics that I believe came from my mother’s influence is Omy deep-seated belief in the goodness of others. This past summer in mid-August, while we were dealing with several stressful incidents at camp, unbeknownst to me, my 81-year-old “fit as a fiddle” mother became very ill with gastro- enteritis. She called 911 as she believed (correctly) that she was becoming dangerously dehydrated. When she relayed the story to me weeks later of paramedics arriving in her apartment, starting an IV, and then transporting her to hospital, the salient and most reported As I sit to write this I feel absolutely Community members bought cans and details were how incredible and nice the overwhelmed by the goodness of others cans of fuel from afar and drove them paramedics were. “Boy, do they ever – by their generosity and genuine to camp. One camper parent organized know how to do their job. I couldn’t concern – by their willingness to put a large purchase of fuel in the United believe how fast they were and yet so themselves out to help us. I’m going to States (much cheaper) where it was calm! I felt so lucky.” highlight just a small number to show driven across to Canada by a friend and I’ve been told that I have a way of you what I mean. then transferred to her and then driven finding the best in people – thanks Due to dry conditions, our site and to camp! This amount of effort was Mum! Sometimes, I find that this takes most of our canoe trips were under a remarkable and positively impacted our some effort and sometimes the fire ban. This lasted for 7 of our 8 ability to send trips out a few days later. goodness of others hits us smack dab in program weeks. Camping stove fuel Erin (Sunstrum) mentioned to me the face. was in very short supply to the point Like what happened this past summer. that we couldn’t purchase fuel within a ... continued on page 3 three-hour drive from camp. T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 2 Completing a Vision: Our New Camp Kitchen

By Ted Moores, Board of Director's Chair and CEO

N 1956 WHEN Stan and Laura- Belle opened Wanapitei as a kids co-ed camp, (I was a young camper that year), one of their Igoals, among many, was to replace the old kitchen. This turned out to be more of a challenge than first expected because it not only required a substantial infusion of capital, more importantly, the camp can’t operate without a kitchen. Though there have been many upgrades over the years, the basic kitchen has remained the same. Now, 63 years later, a new kitchen The camp kitchen in the 80s…. Not much had changed since the original building, nor did much structure is up and the internal change in the decades to folow. finishing will render it ready for the 2019 season. This is a relatively small in the history of the camp, and I’d say sustain the camp financially. In 1971 as item in the overall scheme of creating a it’s the final piece that completes Stan they were retiring from leading the great camp, but a significant milestone and Laura-Belle’s original vision. camp, their son, Bruce, myself, and five If you haven’t heard any of the back others purchased the kids camp from story, it’s heartwarming, and if you them, (they kept the Chateau), and we have, bear with me for a paragraph. In created a cooperative, which now has the late 1920s Stan and Laura-Belle 240+ owners. were on a camping trip, they used to In the 1960s Wanapitei began to say it was their honeymoon, and emerge as a leader in adventuresome Volume 22, Number 1 camped at Sandy Inlet on the Father canoe trips. This became the central Winter 2019 Paradis site, (now Wanapitei). Their strength of the camp and with the dream then was to someday have a kids’ leadership of Laura-Belle and Stan’s EDITOR ...... JENNIFER JUPP DESIGN & LAYOUT ...... ERIN SUNSTRUM camp there. Thirty years later they grand kids, nieces and nephews, (mostly secured the camp from Ed Archibald, Shawn, Glenn and Geoff), Wanapitei The Paddler is published by Camp Wanapitei Co-Ed Camps Ltd. who had started a boys camp there in cemented itself as an outstanding canoe Canada’s premier canoe-tripping camp since 1931, 1931 and was ready to retire, and they trip camp. With this focus, a new based in Temagami, Ontario. went about crafting their vision. Of kitchen became less urgent but Off-season address: course it wasn’t all roses. The camp was remained on the list. Last year I found Camp Wanapitei 17B Southampton Street wonderful, but always an economic a plan for a new kitchen that I had Guelph, ON N1H 5N3 challenge. The senior Hodgins held the drafted up in 1966 when I was the

PHONE: (519) 767-9714 OR (888) 637-5557 vision and value that function was more senior trip leader at the camp. SUMMER PHONE: (705) 237-8830 important than profit, and that value of With the new millennium, we began E-MAIL: [email protected] INTERNET: www.wanapitei.net theirs remains at the core of Wanapitei ... continued on page 29 today. Accepting that, the task was to P A G E 3 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

in the same situation at her desk. Her unfaltering efforts to bring Camp Wanapitei into the top Thank Goodness discussions at the MNRF on that day in July resulted in the road ... Continued fom page 1 being opened the following morning and allowing Session 3-4 recently that she was very moved by the to run. parent community continuing to believe My final story for sharing is by in Camp Wanapitei and canoe tripping no means sharing with you, our despite the numerous alterations to trip readers, the extent of the goodness routes and trip style due to forest fires of others that we received in the limiting our options. We found that summer of 2018. This story when we emailed a group of parents involves an incident that occurred regarding their child’s canoe trip route on one of our Bay Trips that changes – some of which were drastic – involved the group, along with their there remained in the parents an leaders, being separated from their unfaltering support of our efforts to gear and spending a night waiting keep on tripping and usually an offer of for rescue. Whereas usually, the help. “Let us know if we can do OPP would have access to anything to help.” helicopters for such a mission and/ In mid-July the Red Squirrel Road or we at Wanapitei would hire a (our only land access to camp) was private helicopter. Not in the closed by the MNRF (Ministry of summer of 2018! The MNRF had Natural Resources and Forestry) due to control of all helicopters except for forest fires in the area. If it remained one search-and-rescue (which on the chopper – maybe it wasn’t in the control closed, we would be unable to bring night in question was being used of the MNRF. There followed an campers into camp for Week 3. It elsewhere). We were feeling stressed as immense amount of effort and time looked like we were not going to be able we talked to trip leaders via satellite from the Detour Lake Mine as they to run the session. In one business day, phone. A rookie OPP officer on the evacuated our campers and later went in we had colleagues on the lake willing to night shift made us an offer. He said and retrieved personal items and camp help transport by water, colleagues in that he would check in with the group gear from the site. During this time, Mattawa willing to be an outpost for us every hour to get them through the we had countless offers of help from if we chose to have all Pioneer campers night. He said he would talk to us every parents of campers on that canoe trip. start from their site, and parents of hour as well. This is what happens Various parents were on standby, ready Week 3-4 campers patiently waiting to when people act with their heart. His to purchase gear and clothing for hear from us. Had parents panicked idea, along with his calm, reassuring campers who were not even their own and overwhelmed us with questions on voice and position (an OPP officer!) was kids and drive stuff to camp so that we email or on the phone, we would have a game changer for us and for the group. could get the trip out again. The story been unable to do the non-stop work The campers and leaders knew that had a happy ending as gear and clothing with the MNRF to get the road they had an OPP officer all night with was retrieved and the trip resumed and opened. Speaking of the MNRF, we scheduled check ins. completed on a different route. worked for two full days with a This final incident is a longer I could take the whole Paddler to supervisor in North Bay named Julie. gratitude story. The next day, the OPP recount more and more stories She was our life line and put herself out and the camp were still unable to get a highlighting the goodness of others and for us in ways that had us frankly in chopper to lift the group out of their how that generosity, trust, and faith in awe. I spent the pivotal day on the situation. An OPP supervisor was using us touched us this past summer. What phone with her every hour or two from all of his influence and was coming up a huge, bright, sparkly silver lining! 9:00 am until 9:45 pm. I didn’t leave dry with the MNRF. He remembered the office for any reason (bathroom or that the Detour Lake Gold Mine eating) from 3:00 to 10:00 and she was (largest gold mine in Canada) had a T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 4

enjoyed their books and watching the devoured and the WLITs and leaders children create lasting bonds with each rolled out and cooked their pizzas as other through their play! Since we had a well, satisfying the hunger at last! With Juniors: Welcome late brunch, we had a little pick me up a beautiful sunset and crescent moon, snack of apples and granola bars to tide the campers and counsellors tucked us until early dinner. When the clock into their warm, dry beds and savoured to Your Wanapitei struck 5pm, the leaders and WLITs another chapter of Matilda to complete began with pizza making preparations, a calmer, but slightly wacky, second day much to the joy of the hungry group! of trip! With the sauce spiced, cheese cubed, Adventure veggies and sausage chopped and dough carefully divided, the pizzas looked DATES: July 16 – 18 2018 ready to begin! Of course this would be too simple though! Our Coleman stove, JUNIORS LEADERS: Hannibal de Pencier, Olivia once very dependable to us, had now Gordon, Molly Heintzman decided to stop working and after DATES: July 16 – 18 2018 PARTICIPANTS: Huxley Becker, Mazzy another call to camp, the mighty Jackie, Becker, Cruz Prashaw, Zachary Senf, LEADERS: Jacob Fischer and Emma Elia and Emma boated our new stove Henry Wilson Gibson-Bray over to cook our now very patiently awaited pizzas! Portia enjoyed PARTICIPANTS: Charlotte Badenoch, Day 2 supervising our pizza making abilities as Skye Badenoch, Aaron Edey, Katelyn Weather: Sunny, windy the camper pizza cooked, and the rest Edey, Portia Kemp, Quinn Winterburn. Quote of the Day: “You go girl!” - Zach of the group continued to alternate between playing Camouflage and asking Day 2 The campers woke to delicious bacon if the pizza was ready yet! Finally, the THE CALM AFTER THE STORM (for and eggs this morning. The sun was delicious pizza was cooked and quickly the most part…) After a crazy Day 1, the group all enjoyed a nice sleep in till 9 am the next day! We all awoke well rested and pleased to see the sun and blue sky to kick off Day 2 of our adventure. Jacob quickly set up the stove and boiled lots of water for Emma and the WLITs to use for their morning cups of tea and soon we were all devouring a tasty brunch of bacon and eggs with a view of Lake Temagami! With the help of Matt and Mark, we began to pack up the campsite and organized ourselves for our trip to Teabag across the water! Unfortunately though, the once calm lake had become full of whitecaps in no time and after some thought, Emma and Jacob decided to stay put and enjoy a restful day at Ferguson Point! The children loved spending time with Matt and Mark, playing endless games of Mafia and Camouflage. Savouring some unstructured time, the leaders P A G E 5 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 shining and when we got on the water the beautiful sunset. Jude shared some out by cutting the cheese and Mazzy the wind started picking up. We made it fun facts with us. After the sunset, we and Jeff rolled out their own pizza to the jumping rocks and Hannibal had hot chocolate before the bugs came dough which was a nice help. After jumped from a high rock as the kids out. Liv told the boys an improvised pizza we made brownies and did dishes. observed from a lookout. Henry was a story about a ship off the coast of We all sat on the rocks and tried to find fast and agile climber. We enjoyed Newfoundland and Emma read to the shapes in the trees and the clouds. We delicious PB & J wraps and headed down girls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. all saw a bunny and a stallion but the to the Ferguson campsite. Zach, Cruz We fell asleep to their stories and elusive moose granny was only ever and Mazzy played in the waves for a long dreamed of better weather. spotted by Mazzy in the treeline. We time. The group played a game of ‘tag played some music before bed again and yourself’ and people contemplated who had a nice sleep. was “kikik” and who was “boopboop”. Huxley and Mazzy found a beautiful DATES: July 22 – 25 2018 sunny “eutopia” at the site where they DATES: August 1 – 3 2018 chatted and watched the clouds. We LEADERS: Hannibal de Pencier and enjoyed hot chocolate and the group Molly Heintzman LEADERS: Thomas Heinrich, Dana hung out in the tent, sheltered from the PARTICIPANTS: Henry Losa, Mazzy Price, Kyla Ruch wind. After mac and cheese, Molly Becker, Zachary Senf, Jeffrey Ion. PARTICIPANTS: Evan Bates, William serenaded us with songs like “Miss Ohio” Debane, Noah Hollinger, Elena and the group fell sound asleep. Day 2 Lorentz, Tomas Maier, Oona Starritt. Hours on the water: 2 Distance travelled: 3.5km Day 3 DATES: July 22 – 25 2018 Weather: Rainy Hours on the water: 0.5 Quote of the Day: “What does vegan Distance travelled: 2km LEADERS: Jacob Fischer, Emma Gibson- eat?” - Henry Quote of the Day: “Dana has four Bray, Olivia Gordon husbands” - Anon. PARTICIPANTS: Benjamin Armstrong, Today we woke up early and started Jude MacDonald, Cian McDonough, breakfast of bacon and eggs. Before we The damp Juniors woke this morning Soleil Bitting, Chloe Godbout. could finish cooking it started raining. to find the once flooded campsite We all put on our rain gear and huddled drained and dry. The lake was calm and Day 2 under the tarp as we ate our breakfast. the air still and fresh form the evening Hours on the water: 2 We wanted to get packed up quickly downpour. As the group lay around on Weather: Overcast, rainy and off the site so we could get dry at the rocks and played still more endless our next site. We packed up all the games of Ninja and Are We Related?, Today we woke up to delicious oatmeal tents, loaded the boats, and were off in the leaders skillfully tamed their with toppings of coconut, chocolate, the rain. We had a rainy paddle to dysfunctional stove and prepared a brown sugar and raisins. The kids were Devil’s Mountain, but luckily there yummy peach crisp. Midway through ravenous and we finished the meal with were almost no winds. The paddle was digestion, however, a full fleet of CdeBs, full bellies. We left the site and relaxing once we accepted the rain, and Pions and Temags were spotted leaving commenced the paddle to our campsite the trees looked especially nice in the camp. As they dramatically paddled at Devil’s Bay. It poured rain as we mist. When we got to our site we set up straight for us, we assumed battle paddled and everyone was soaked by the the camper tent in the rain as well as a positions and, turning any loose piece time we reached the bay. We passed by tarp. All the campers got cozy in the of gear into a weapon, we huddled the Junior Bs and some other campers tent to escape the rain. We gave behind a large rock to defend our before stopping at our campsite for everyone a piece of tuck that they had precious campsite with all our might. delicious quesadillas. We admired a picked out at camp to raise spirits. Not Our efforts were sadly in vain however beautiful old growth white pine and long after this the rain began to die as all three groups paddled by us, Soleil, Ben and Chloe went exploring down. Before long it turned into a unharmed. Noah, Oona and Elena around the campsite. For dinner, sunny day and we had a lunch of exchanged greetings with their everyone devoured spaghetti. The tortillas with PB and J. We started respective siblings, wishing them a good weather cleared up and we all admired prepping a dinner of pizza, Zac helped and safe trip. By then we were all T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 6 itching to paddle under the bridge and so (sometimes having it land in the lake so the water conditions were daunting, packs were packed and boats were Ruairi took some impromptu swims)! that didn’t stop the kids from being the loaded. A quick lunch of PB&J We had tomato soup for lunch, before best and keenest paddlers on the lake. sandwiches were gulped and before we packing up and embarking on our With much energy provided to us by knew it, we were out on the water and as paddle back to camp. We were met by Super Pancakes (pancakes with whole- the bridge slowly grew dotted with big cheers as we paddled under the wheat flour, oats, sunflower seeds, and people, we pushed on one last time. bridge, thus concluding our Junior B chocolate chips), we paddled halfway to adventure! our final destination and decided to take a break for lunch. With their DATES: August 1 – 3 2018 strong paddling strokes, the kids managed to maintain alternating leads DATES: August 7 – 10 2018 LEADERS: Taj Dyson, Ruairi Smith, on each other’s canoes. Many boat races lead by Krew and Colin were had. After Emmerson Wilson LEADERS: Thomas Heinrich, Dana a lengthy lake crossing, we finally made PARTICIPANTS: Clayton Donnelly, Price, Kyla Ruch it to the other side where we would Robin Fowler, Xander Kurt, Kati PARTICIPANTS: Evan Bates, Lily then make our way to our campsite Martin, Zoe Matthew, Tilly McLean, Cathcart, Kennedy Dabner, Drew right around the corner. The kids Quinn Winterburn. Dabner, Colin Gibson, Elena Lorentz, unloaded the boats, set up their tents, Kati Martin, Oona Starritt. Day 3 swam and enjoyed plenty of other activities before it was time for dinner. Hours on the water: 1 Day 3 Tonight, was a slightly earlier night Distance travelled: 2km Hours on the water: 5 because we knew we’d have to wake up Weather: Overcast and warm Distance travelled: 8km tomorrow with enough time to eat, Weather: Grey skies with moments of pack up, and paddle under the bridge. The Juniors woke up to a chilly sun shining through, headwinds morning, but that didn't stop Kati from What a good day, way to go kids! You Quote of the Day: “Once I had a piece kept your heads high on such a tough asking to take a swim! A breakfast of of glass go through my fingers and later paddling day! That’s what we love peach crisps started us off on our last day it came out my eye!” – Lily of trip. More chess was had between Taj to see. and Quinn, and the rest of the group We woke up to winds already rippling took turns learning and strategizing. We the water and we soon came to realize read more of Winn-Dixie while Tilly and accept that we would be powering DATES: August 7 – 10 2018 threw the Frisbee around with force through headwinds this day. Although LEADERS: Charles Hunter, Ruairi Smith, Emmerson Wilson PARTICIPANTS: Andrew Douglas, Benjamin Douglas, Nigel Fauser, Moe Jackson, Gabriel Lampard, Jude Lampard, Desmond MacKinnon, Leo Olajos.

Day 3 Hours on the water: 1.5 Distance travelled: 2km

Today was a paddling day, so we got up and started packing right away. The Juniors were pretty speedy and barely needed the leaders P A G E 7 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 help. Once everything was ready to go we LEADERS: Logan Germain, Charles munched on some peach crisp then Hunter, Kai Malcolm TEMAGAMI (LATE JULY) headed onto the water in great time. As PARTICIPANTS: Katse Brant, Jake we approached our planned campsite in Doucet, Isabelle Jackson-Briggs, ROUTE: Kokoko Bear Island Pickerel Bay, a house boat came up from Sophia Jackson-Briggs, Dean Panitch, Extravaganza. Camp – Devil’s Mountain behind and snagged it right out from Waka Raina. - Kokoko Lake - Bear Island - Sand Point - under us! Luckily that area is full of Seal Rock - Ferguson Point – paddle under campsites so we headed to the next best Day 2 the Bridge. thing, Tea Bag Point. Once the leaders Hours on the water: 3 DATES: July 17 – 22 2018 had set up a stellar tarp, the group had Distance travelled: 11km tortillas with PB&J and some bird lunch. Quote of the Day: “I didn’t do it, you LEADERS: Jack Gardiner, Charles After lunch tents were set up so everyone know what I DID do? I DID not do. Hunter, Sadie Segriff could change for SCRUB CLUB. The it.” - Dean PARTICIPANTS: Edith Armstrong, kids enjoyed pouring water on their Theodore Audoir, Thomas, Soren leaders as well as getting clean! In the Today we woke up to beautiful blue Gibson, Liam McLachlan, Rileigh afternoon Desmond got out his camera, skies. With our bellies filled with Parker, Leah Sutherland, Owen Tarr. and Ben took to making videos right huevos and yogurt, we set off for our away. At some point we ate granola bars first portage. The group did an amazing Day 3 for a snack, then the leaders started to job, finishing the 700m trek in half an Hours on the water: 7 make mac. Just as dinner was about to be hour! We then paddled through the Distance travelled: 11km completed, Jude had an incident with a enchanting Kokoko lake, in awe of the Weather: Hot and sunny rock. He was so brave as the leaders took old growth forests. We then stopped for Quote of the Day: “My ThermaRest will a look, and Charles paddled him back to a very refreshing swim on an island at fit if I command it to!” - Theo camp to get patched back up. The rest of the beginning of the lake. Strong the group chowed down on the mac and headwinds were then battled for a few We started off the day with a fast cheese. As we were finishing our dessert kilometers while a menacing storm breakfast of oatmeal and we got off the of no bakes, Charles and Jude returned! loomed behind. A short portage was water. Everyone was excited to go to And they came with mail for all the then deftly defeated by the Temags, we Bear Island! We paddled for a while campers! After the letters were read it then filled our bellies with peanut until we hit some headwinds. We all was off to bed to read more Geronimo butter and jelly sandwiches made with fought our hardest to paddle against Stilton so we could figure out who had Kai and Sophia’s freshly baked loaf. We them to make it to Bear Island. After stolen the characters designs. then reached the campsite shortly after some hard paddling we made it! We saw and the campers collected heaps of the other group, the Temagami B’s, firewood just before the storm hit hard. having lunch there. We said hello then The storm was short lived and after a continued to stay with our own group. few minutes of a lightning drill we got We had a lunch of Wow Butter and Jam back to settling into the campsite. A on Tortillas before checking out the Non-Stop Fun With heaping pot of spaghetti was then birch bark canoes. We got to see the cooked with the wonderful help of beginning middle and end stages of the Isabelle. Dean and Katste were so building process because they had three the Temagamis hungry, they ate more than the leaders! canoes being made! After we enjoyed A fresh batch of no-bakes was some tuck from the local convenience thoroughly enjoyed throughout the store. After we were all sugared up we TEMAGAMI (EARLY JULY) group. The Temags then proceeded to waved the Temag B’s goodbye and set ROUTE: Kokoko Bear Island Extravaganza. hang out in the tent for a bit before off ourselves! We paddled with some Camp – Devil’s Mountain - Kokoko Lake - falling fast asleep, ready for another nice tailwinds until we got to long island Bear Island - Sand Point - Seal Rock - phenomenal day! where we had planned to camp. It was Ferguson Point – paddle under the Bridge. occupied so we continued on, but were DATES: July 4 – 9 2018 happy we did because our campsite was beautiful! We started on spaghetti once we got to the campsite. Charles T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 8 perfected the sauce. After dinner we excited to finally see the famous birch rock. Fighting off the swarming decided to have an evening paddling bark canoes being made there as well as mosquitoes, everyone ran into their lesson. Rileigh and Thomas learned to getting tuck. As we began circling the tents and, nourished and exhausted, stern a canoe and were masters in no near side of the island, we were crashed after a wonderful day. time. We had some raced and even slammed by strong headwinds and the practiced some canoe soloing. Everyone’s group fought through the waves to hoping to go out tomorrow! Just before reach the marina. Our progress was TEMAGAMI (EARLY AUGUST) bed we snacked on some deconstructed interrupted however by the passage of a s’mores. Everyone went off to bed barge carrying a huge truck, amazing all ROUTE: Witch Bay Loop. Camp – Pickerel knowing we would get a nice sleep the campers. Once docked at Bear Bay - Devil’s Mountain - Seal Rock Point - in tomorrow. Island, we found a shady spot beneath a Witch Bay - Devil’s Bay - Ferguson Bay – tree and enjoyed a nice lunch of pesto paddle under the Bridge. pasta. We were then greeted by the DATES: August 3 – 8 2018 Temags A who started their own lunch TEMAGAMI (LATE JULY) while we headed over to Michael for his LEADERS: Logan Germain, Adrian ROUTE: Witch Bay Scoop. Camp – Pickerel presentation of the canoe he was Hutchinson, Ian Karovitch. Bay - Witch Bay - Bear Island - Kokoko building. He was bombarded by PARTICIPANTS: Ned Burns, Anjani Channel - Kokoko Bay - Devil’s Bay - questions from the intrigued campers Cheran, Ellon Cheran, Eloise Debane, Ferguson Bay - paddle under the Bridge. who were equally baffled by the finished Abel Hollinger, Sierra Lillie, Louis DATES: July 17 – 22 2018 canoe inside the Canoe House as well as Lorentz, Matthew Olajos, Roxy the different paddles, like the beautiful Pearce Basman, Thea Starritt. LEADERS: Thomas Heinrich, Kai Haida war paddle. After buying tuck Malcolm, Dana Price and three hours after first setting foot PARTICIPANTS: Isla Bitting, Leo Flett, on the island (!), we sadly departed in Hal Griswold, Charlotte Iles, Anna search for the Iwanowski, Alexander Lindsay, Beckett Kokoko Mars, Tenzin Ruff, Malcolm Torrie, channel Pike White. where we were set to Day 3 camp. There, we were glad Hours on the water: 2.5 to indulge in Distance travelled: 10km Weather: Makes sense there are forest a general fires around. Scrub Club Quote of the Day: “Dana looks like one and, now all smelling of the girls from the 80s!” - Pike much better,

It was a quick morning as we walloped devoured an down oatmeal, elegantly topped with AWESOME chocolate chips, brown sugar, raisins and meals of lazy perogies. As craisins. Boats were set into the water the sun set, with the generous help of Leo, Hal and Pike and we were once more greeted by Isla, Anna, another team of ducklings, these ones Beckett and less persistent than their predecessors. Pike “delighted” The sun was already beating down so everyone by layers upon layers upon layers of sunscreen were applied, bottles were showing off filled and long-sleeve shirts were thrown their opera on (yes, Pike, this is a direct reference to singing skills on a nearby you). We set off towards Bear Island, P A G E 9 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

Day 4 Day 5 then went to bed, excited for our Hours on the water: 4.5 Hours on the water: 7 paddle back into camp the next day! Distance travelled: 10km Distance travelled: 13km Thanks for a great last full day on trip Weather: Hot and sunny Weather: Sunny Temag Bs! Quote of the Day: “Down with the Quote of the Day: “Girl, you’re patriarchy!” - Everyone confusing” - Elsie, re: Isabelle’s beliefs about birds. TEMAGAMI (EARLY AUGUST) We awoke to some more overcast skies, but despite this, spirits were high. Today we woke up early and had a ROUTE: Temagami Tour. Camp – North We started the day with some peach quick breakfast of granola. Before we Arm - Northwest Arm - Bear Island - crisp and then off we went. We paddled left the site we made sure to retrieve Kokoko Bay - Kokoko Lake - Ferguson Bay from Witch Bay along towards Devil’s Doug (or Dug?), our poop shovel, who – paddle under the Bridge. Mountain. We stopped in the narrows Violet had misplaced the previous DATES: August 3 – 8 2018 by Keewaydin for a snack of chocolate night. Thank goodness for that, who chunks and GORP. Matty killed it in knows if we’d have been able to go on LEADERS: Emma Gibson-Bray, Kai the stern the whole day today. Once we without him. Once we got on the water, Malcolm, Jordyn Stafford. arrived at Devil’s Mountain a lunch of the leaders gave the group a little pep PARTICIPANTS: Duncan Bailey, hummus, cheese and tortilla wraps were talk and explained that today was going Cooper Brown, Rowen Conrad, Eric devoured. We decided to hike up the to be a push day because we had to Ingoe, Ella Jeffery, Sophie Jolivet, mountain to get the view from the top. make it back to a campsite near camp Sarah Thomson, Owen Whike. Roxy scampered up the mountain like a so we could paddle under the bridge the little mountain goat. The view from the next day. To the delight of the leaders, Day 2 top was priceless and plenty of photos the campers rose to the occasion with Hours on the water: 5.5 were taken. When we got back down it camper boats often in front of leader Distance travelled: 13km started raining again and so the kiddos boats (shoutout to Ben C. and Elsie for Quote of the Day: “I’m goat cheese, hid out in the tents until couscous was some awesome sterning) ! The leaders ‘cause if you’re different you’re stuck ready. Dish crew Ned and Sierra were very impressed. We kept paddling with me” - Eric persevered super hard by doing a great playing games of “I’m going on a picnic” job in the rain. The kids went off to bed and using leader magic to confuse the The first full day of trip started off while the leaders ran wild through the campers. After we had covered most of with a big breakfast of eggs bacon and forest around the campsite. our distance for the day we stopped for cheese sandwiches on english muffins. Goodnight Temags! a lunch of Thai pasta salad which was Eric acted like a composter, finishing delicious. Unfortunately we dropped four english muffins by himself. We two forks in the water which Gareth finished packing everything up and TEMAGAMI (EARLY AUGUST) and Elsie tried to retrieve Owen and Duncan finished up the unsuccessfully, Pearce managed to save dishes before pushing off the campsite, ROUTE: Bear Island Loop. Camp – Devil’s one of them. We continued onwards ready for the big day ahead. After six Bay - Bear Island - Kokoko Bay - Island - until we finally arrived at our site. kilometers and two hours of paddling, Ferguson Bay – paddle under the Bridge. Camper boats were feeling tired but we got to the second portage of the DATES: August 3 – 8 2018 they kept on paddling, shout out to trip. Before starting the portage we had Elysabeth for her consistent strong a snack of apples where Duncan, LEADERS: Pearce Gould, Molly paddling. To our surprise, there was Cooper, Sarah, Rowen and Owen ate Heintzman, Lucas Whitear. already a group camped there, it was their entire apples, even the cores! We PARTICIPANTS: Gareth Campbell, Jacob and Sadie’s C de Bs!! Simon and killed the portage yet again, Sarah Benjamin Cescon, Simon Gareth were excited to see their siblings carrying the wannagin and everyone Funnekotter, Thomas Johnstone, on the C de B trip. Because there were else carrying their own pack and more. Benjamin Kennedy, Violet MacMillan, no other available campsites, Sadie and After the portage, we had a sweet lunch Isabelle Martin, Elsie Robb, Jacob were nice enough to let us camp of quesadillas with cheese, garlic and Elysabeth Rowat. with them. We had a snack of granola green peppers. We then paddled bars as the leaders prepared a meal of another 7 kilometers to our campsite fettuccini alfredo. We ate dinner and for the night. Everyone helped each T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 10 other set up their tents before going for PARTICIPANTS: Charlotte Bickerton, The original plan was to do half of the a dip in the lake and enjoying the Hamish Carmichael, Calla Hyland, portage, take a break, then finish it. beautiful point campsite stretching into Gillian Keith, Isabelle Kerbler, Soren However, once the lead boat was placed Lake Temagami, with Ella reading to Logen, Nikko Szablowski, Charlotte down at the supposed halfway point, we Sarah and Rowen before dinner. We ate Travers, Oceane Walker, Jasmine soon realized it was quite close to the burritos for dinner, followed by a Woodford, Leo Woods Pneumaticos. end of the portage. The campers were dessert of brownies on graham crackers very excited to keep going and wanted before heading off to bed. Day 5 to finish it all in one go. Nikko and Hours on the water: 6.5 Soren worked extra hard and tag- Distance travelled: 11.5km teamed one of the heavier bags for the TEMAGAMI (LATE AUGUST) Quote of the Day: “Does speed go entire portage! faster in a musical?” - Leo Awesome job team. We finished it in no ROUTE: Obabika Scoop. Camp – Napoleon time. We reloaded our boats and hit the Portage - Beaver Island - Sharp Rock - When we exited the tents in the water for another floating lunch, or Diamond Lake - Wakimika Lake and morning we were surrounded in thick flOATMEAL. Lunch was fried oats River - Shishkong - Bob Lake - Napoleon fog. Hamish organized a super speedy with fresh apple slices. As we were Portage - Ferguson Bay – paddle under pack up and the tents were down before finishing up lunch it began to lightly the Bridge. we knew it. Now all fuelled up, we did a rain. We continued on to Sharp Rock DATES: August 17 – 23 2018 short and fast paddle to our biggest portage, enjoying how short it was portage of the trip. Much to the relative to the previous portage of the LEADERS: Jack Gardiner, Dana Price, surprise of the leaders, everyone was day. We paddled on, camping on an Lucas Whitear. very enthusiastic and excited to begin. island that had been pointed out by Jazzy and Oceane a few days prior as a good potential campsite and it sure was. It was still raining, so tarps tents and dry clothing was a high priority. A nice warm dinner raised spirits. Here a challenge was issued to Leo to ask less than five questions for the remaining duration of the trip and if successful Lucas would give him a piece of his tuck. Still raining and now growing dark, we headed off to bed hoping the rain would stop for tomorrow.

TEMAGAMI (LATE AUGUST)

ROUTE: Obabika Loop. Camp – Devil’s Bay - Obabika Inlet - Obabika Lake - Wakimika River and Lake - Diamond Lake - Sharp Rock - Ferguson Bay – paddle under the Bridge. DATES: August 17 – 23 2018

LEADERS: Taj Dyson, Pearce Gould, Emmerson Wilson. PARTICIPANTS: Julian Blumberg, Cooper Brown, Aisha Nabigon- Froese, Juliet Rawlyk, Leigha Taylor, Chloe Zyp, Marco Zyp. P A G E 11 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

Day 2 Diamond Lake into Lady Evelyn. We Hours on the water: 7 lined the boats down the shoot where Distance travelled: 15km Hanna caught them and lined them Weather: Sunny and hot! down to an eddy. After all the boats Mastering Local were down the shoot everyone went for We woke up this morning to the same a swim. Theo was the first to jump in at wind and dark clouds we had gone to the end of the shoot and float down. bed with. Everyone was packed up Waters with Immediately everyone was doing it too. quickly and we settled in for the classic We got back in our boats and paddled first morning of trip breakfast of bacon with tail winds until we had a floating and eggs with English muffins. Soon we the CdeBs lunch of pesto pasta. We continued to were on the water, boats loaded just as paddle stopping for a few rafted up the clouds left and the hot, hot sun dunks. We got to our campsite at about came out forcing everyone to peel off COUREUR DE BOIS 5:30pm. We made BIG SOUP for layers. After only a few km’s we reached (EARLY JULY) dinner. Wren taught us how to form our first portage of trip!! We began our dumplings. We ate dinner while the sun portage out of Devils Bay and everyone ROUTE: Centre Fals - Maple Mountain. was setting behind us. Later we had did great, the first one ever for many of Camp – Napoleon Portage - Sharp Rock brownies while we took turns playing them! Julian nailed it with a heavy Portage - Diamond Lake - Lady Evelyn - guitar and singing by the fire while we barrel and Juliet carried the heaviest Sucker Gut Lake - Maple Mountain - baked loaves. After dishes were done food pack. At the end we had a quick Frank Fals - Centre Fals - Lady Evelyn everyone went to bed, exhausted after lunch of bagels with cream cheese. We Lake - Diamond Lake - Pickerel Bay - the long paddling day. then paddled for a few hours through Ferguson Bay - paddle under the Bridge. the beautiful Obabika Inlet naming DATES: July 2 - 9 2018 some types of trees and relaxing in the COUREUR DE BOIS LEADERS: Ian Karovitch, Cameron sun. From there we did our longest (LATE JULY) portage of the day into Obabika Lake. MacPhail, Sadie Segriff. PARTICIPANTS: Keitay Becker, Once we finished we went for a swim ROUTE: French River-Ferguson Hop. on the beautiful Obabika lake and had Domnin De Bretagne, Hanna Camp – shuttle to put in French River - GORP. The gorpenomics lasted a while Greenbank, Theo Hoeven, Zoe shuttle to Sandy Inlet - Ferguson Bay - and Cooper accumulated a huge pile of Jovkovic, Makoa Kokelj, Sage Noxon, paddle under the Bridge. corn nuts. We were soon in the boats Wren Rauliuk, Jedidian Saul, DATES: July 17 - 24 2018 and on the way to the campsite. Chloe Magnolia Saul. showed off her newly learned sterning LEADERS: Pearce Gould and skills and we quickly arrived at our Day 2 Frieda Hodgins campsite. We unloaded and began Hours on the water: 7 PARTICIPANTS: Claire Allan, Simon preparing MAC. Soon tents were set up Distance travelled: 21km Lundin Grieveson, Jemima and dinner was served. Dishes were Weather: Hot and sunny Saravanamuttoo, Cameron Swayze, done while some played D&D. Quote of the Day: “I don’t have many Oscar Szablowski, Brynn Tinmouth, Everyone piled into their tents and the interesting things to say so I just repeat Simon West, Ciara Westdal. leaders read the book before saying them.” –Wren goodnight. Great day Temags: 2 Day 3 portages and a lot of paddling! Woke up this morning to a beautiful Hours on the water: 8.5 clear sky and calm waters. While the Distance travelled: 18km kids packed up their stuff Sadie, Cam Weather:Hot hot with headwinds and Ian started on breakfast. We enjoyed eggs on English muffins. After Wooo! Wakey wakey – PB and J on 8- taking our time we finally got on the grain! The river was flat and the mist water. We paddled for a solid two hours was rising as the campers took down before stopping for an apple snack. We their tents. We eagerly hopped in our made it to the shoot that flows from canoes only to be greeted by headwinds T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 12

ALL DAY! Cameron found some river PARTICIPANTS: Evan Gautreau, Sadi Sadie and Hailey prepared no bakes for booty at a pee-break while Brynn, Gibson, Daniel Hatashita, Kristian everyone. Another breathtaking smoky Claire and Sam scaled some rocks. We Hatashita, Elea Losa, Jada Mann, sunset was admired as water bombers stopped for lunch after successfully not Hailey Parker, Charlie Ruff, Lyric passed overhead. Goodnight, C de Bs – losing any children on “Lost Child White, Sasha Zuchlinski. this was a large day if I’ve ever seen one! Bend.” We scarfed down some mac in a sac and then munched on some granola Day 4 bars before everyone climbed up the Hours on the water: 10 COUREUR DE BOIS (JULY) rock hill for a view. The water suddenly Distance travelled: 26km looked extremely appealing and we all Weather: hot and sunny and forest fiery ROUTE: Juoksentelisinkohan. Camp – decided to go for a swim. Simon was Quote of the Day: “Is it peany- Diamond Lake - Lady Evelyn Lake - able to run the farthest sideways on the boonarnar or is it peanyboo-narna” Wilow Island Lake - Helen Fals - Bridal rock before launching himself into the Veil Fals - Wilow Island Lake - Deer water. Sam was a close second. Soon we We awoke bright and early this Island - Sandy Inlet - shuttle - French were off again battling the headwinds. morning to get a head-start on our River - Wanapitei Bay - Georgian Bay - We paddled through the town of catch-up day. Henry serenaded the Kilarney - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle French River and then arrived at our campers to life with wagon wheel (a under the Bridge. portage. MAN were we quick – just classic) and then oatmeal was enjoyed DATES: July 5 - 22 2018 need another group at the head of the by all (another classic). Spirits were high portage to light a fire under our bums! as we pushed off the site as Jada LEADERS: Liam Agnew and We rafted up for a corn nut snack spearheaded a very singy morning. Emmerson Wilson before arriving at our next rapid which Tailwinds were kind to us, but soon PARTICIPANTS: Maureen Hodnett, was a little rocky. The leaders ran the enough the heat and our fast pace drove Tait Hyland, Madeleine Iles, Rafe boats down and we persevered through us to a shady lunch spot where Kristian Murray, Josephine Nuttall. the next 3 km until our campsite. Sam and Evan served us some delightful chili was absolutely doing great in the stern. wraps, and Henry served some Day 9 While Pearce was checking out delightful history facts. We then Hours on the water: 8 campsites the chaos began. Seaweed continued onwards, keeping up a great Weather: Mostly cloudy with some rain was tossed everywhere and Claire went pace and riding the waves of many Quote of the Day: “This isn’t dish soap, for a little unplanned swim. We ended passing motorboats. The 3 camper it’s lime juice.” – Liam up having a very late dinner due to canoes got in a pretty intense splash technical difficulties but Pesto will fight, helping to beat the heat and the In true Shenanigan form, Friday the always be the besto! Claire and Simon tedium. We stopped for a quick snack 13th showed no mercy to this group of bravely faced the bugs to prepare lunch of KITKATS!!! (slightly melted), where C de Bs. It started with some food for the next day while Ciara and Oscar Charlie’s slipping on rocks inspired having been eaten into and a missing mastered the dishes. Thanks for your foot-sliding galore. Continuing food bucket! We’re blaming the otters. help everyone – you guys rock!! onwards, we reached Recollet Falls, a Luckily, all meals were salvageable, and historic portage taken by many Jesuit the lunch bucket was discovered down priests who travelled the French River. by the water, with an intact Logan loaf COUREUR DE BOIS We crushed the portage. Next we still inside! The next shenanigan came (LATE JULY) reached First Rapids, where we all ran a with breakfast. Coffee was being made nice small V. Shout out to Evan, Sadie, with chickpea water (don’t do it!) and ROUTE: French-Ferguson Hop. Camp – and Sasha in the sterns! The day grew since the stove kept going out the shuttle to put in French River - shuttle to longer, but just when we needed it oatmeal that went with the pancakes Sandy Inlet - Ferguson Bay— paddle most, a sign of positivity came to us, as tasted very… interesting. Once we set under the Bridge. if in a dream. Yonder, around the out we expected a portage right off the DATES: July 17 - 24 2018 riverbend, was a giant inflatable bat, because a ‘falls’ was marked on the flamingo and the inspirational sounds of route map, and ‘rapids’ on the LEADERS: Henry Gould and “Body Like a Back Road”. Infused with topographic. However, when we arrived Brigid Roeder new life, we finally reached our there wasn’t even a swifty in sight. So campsite. After Scrub Club and spag, off we paddle down the Chaudière P A G E 13 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

Channel, battling occasional gusts of headwinds, but mostly calm waters. We got to Little Pine rapids and were able to line river right, that’s when another two groups paddled up. We kept going and while the leaders decided to portage Big Pine rapids one group passed us, one group stopped to camp, and another group showed up. At Double rapids, we ran straight down the easy V, with Maureen boldly sterning the camper boat. The next shenanigan came because of how low our water levels were: The Ladder didn’t exist; in its place was dry rock. We therefore portaged across the burned island between the former Ladder, and the too-shallow Blue Chute. It wasn’t long before we made it to Little Parisian, which the team portaged easily. Two more shenanigans were still in store for us at the campsite. The first being the guys’ upside-down tent post-swim, and the second being that dishes were washed with lime juice! We had amazing burritos that Mado so generously offered to finish should there be extra. The rain and the long day sent everyone off to bed pretty early. Good thing Day 4 delicious curry and Liv braided all the we’ve got a rest day tomorrow! Hours on the water: 5 girls’ hair. Dessert was cookies and after Distance travelled: 13km they were quickly devoured, we all went Weather: Sunny, hot to bed. COUREUR DE BOIS (EARLY AUGUST) We set out from the portage after eating 8-grain. As we paddled down COUREUR DE BOIS ROUTE: The Cross Over. Camp – Devil’s (EARLY AUGUST) Bay - Kokoko Bay - Northeast Arm - Cross Lake the sun was blazing. We Shiningwood Bay - Denedus Lake - stopped at a nice rocky outpost and ate ROUTE: The Raven. Camp - Red Squirrel Wasaksina - Cross Lake - Southeast Arm - gado gado for lunch. Everyone swam – Teejay and Myrna were especially River - Red Squirrel Lake - Jackpine Lake Seal Rock Point - Pickerel Bay - paddle - Unnamed Lake - Hanson Lake - Lake under the Bridge. enthusiastic about bum sliding along the rocks. Everyone deliberated #37 - Chambers Lake - Kokoko Lake - DATES: August 1 - 8 2018 whether or not our planned campsite in Lake Temagami - paddle under the Bridge. Outlet Bay was considered a part of DATES: August 1 - 8 2018 LEADERS: Hannibal de Pencier and Olivia Gordon Lake Temagami or Cross Lake. Max shared riddles with the group and Mia LEADERS: Jacob Fischer and PARTICIPANTS: Samantha Brown, knew all the answers. We finally arrived Sadie Segriff Myrna Burns, Jacob Freedman, PARTICIPANTS: Lucy Baxter, Owen Rowan Helman, Abby Hunter, Mia at a a beautiful campsite. We all went swimming again and Mia, Myrna, and Buckle, Audrey Cameron, Connor Onstad-Bauld, Teejay Oung, Tabitha Campbell, Kate Funnekotter, Simon Parmegiani, Max Pearce Basman Teejay conspired to push Jacob in, but their plans were foiled as Jacob Holenstein, Aurora Mallon, Isaac overheard them. We devoured a Marechal, Gabrielle Matthew, Gabrielle Moore. T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 14

Day 4 carried a boat and the group finished Hours on the water: 5.5 COUREUR DE BOIS the portage in under 20 minutes Distance travelled: 9km (LATE AUGUST) including loading and unloading time. Weather: Mostly sunny, cloudier in With that out of the way we had finally the evening ROUTE: Corporate Retreat. Camp – Lake arrived in Chambers Lake. With only a Temagami - Kokoko Lake - Spawning short paddle we arrived at our campsite We had a nice sleep in this morning Lake - Pine View Lake - Business Lake - on a gorgeous exposed rock. Everyone because we knew we weren't going to Charlie Lake - Tasse Lakw - Nelem Lake set up their tents before deciding to go have a long day. We woke up and the - Chambers Lake - Kokoko Lake - Pickerel for a swim. Griffin, Dove and Malcolm kids were already packing! We made Bay - Ferguson Bay - paddle under decided to take their thermarests for a delicious peach crisp for breakfast. I the Bridge. float with them and soon everyone was guess the sugar from breakfast made us DATES: August 16 - 23 2018 playing with them in the water. Jordyn fast because we left the site in no time. made some Thai Pasta salad for the We paddled to the end of Hanson Lake LEADERS: Jacob Fischer and group to tide over everyone's hunger and started our first portage of the day. Jordyn Stafford before announcing that tonight we The group had lots of energy and the PARTICIPANTS: Kate Blumberg, would have a formal birthday dinner short 330m portage was easy. We loaded Malcolm Charlton-Parker, Dove Dey- and talent show! After a relaxing boats again on Lake #37 and paddled Kerr, Ellie Dowling, Freya Field, afternoon everyone went swimming away. We fought some slight headwinds Tristan Kerbler, Griffin Merskey, again and pizza prep began. Kate to make it to our next portage. The put Miles Millar, Kes Logan, decided she would read her book out in was a little further past a dried up Yarrow Sopinka. loud and she immediately captivated swamp so we took out just before and the entire group. People listened portaged both parts. The group wasn't Day 5 intently as pizza was being cooked and even phased by this portage because Hours on the water: 1.5 Ellie and Yarrow set our canoe table packs have gotten lighter and we have Distance travelled: 4km with an amazing centerpiece. Once gotten stronger. Lucy also carried a boat Weather: Temperate and sunny dinner was ready, people began on this portage! After the easy beach Quote of the Day: “DOES IT HAVE showcasing talents like ribbon dancing put in we decided to paddle to an island ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE and dramatic reading. Everyone praised for lunch. We had hummus and wraps as FIBONACCI SEQUENCE?!” the pizza as seconds were being cooked well and gorp to satiate our hunger. - Malcolm and Kate continued reading. It was After we had a long swim on the island, getting dark so everyone decided to as well as lots of jumping into the water. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE! We turn in before it got too buggy. What a There was a perfect deep spot for woke up today with another teenager in fun day! Sleep well, We have a tough jumping in! We had lots of fun, we all our group and as a result, Kate decided one tomorrow. laughed when Gabrielle Moore jumped she was going to be extra sassy today. into the water with the water jug to fill We wanted to get as much time as it up during her swim! Although, after a possible at our next campsite so we had COUREUR DE BOIS while the fun came to an end and we a big granola breakfast before pushing (LATE AUGUST) had to continue paddling with off from the site in record time. We headwinds. We got to our campsite weren't sure what the day was going to ROUTE: Obabika River - Wawiagama. early and had a little rest before dinner. have in store for us so we powered on Camp – Lake Temagami - Kokoko Lake - We made spag and brownies for dinner. through the waters above Tasse Lake. Spawning Lake - Pine View Lake - The night finished with multiple rounds Before we knew it we had arrived at our Business Lake - Charlie Lake - Tasse Lakw of scatter and mafia in the tent once the portage. Jordyn went to scout it while - Nelem Lake - Chambers Lake - Kokoko bugs came out. the rest of the group unloaded and Lake - Pickerel Bay - Ferguson Bay - came back with the knowledge that the paddle under the Bridge. portage couldn't be more than 40 paces DATES: August 16 - 23 2018 long! With that information, the campers challenged themself and LEADERS: Molly Heintzman and Tristan began running up and down the Ian Karovitch portage with loaded after load. Yarrow P A G E 15 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

PARTICIPANTS: Helene Briggs, On our way to Sharp Rock Portage we Destiny Greyson, Hailie Greyson, COUREUR DE BOIS. passed two other small family canoe Ellie Keith, Nuan Law-Gallagher, (LATE AUGUST) trips, and when we got to Sharp Rock Abigail McColgan, Kaia McColgan, two kayakers from Ojibway as well. Isabella Parker, Pyper Rajaratnam, ROUTE: Montreal-Anima-Nippissing. Busy day on Lake Temagami! We Madeleine Zarull. Camp - Napoleon Portage - Sharp Rock stopped and lunched on bagels with Portage - Lady Evelyn Lake and River - cream cheese and tried finding gross Day 2 Montreal River - Anima Nippissing - things for Cam to eat like leeches and Hours on the water: 7.75 Carrying Lake - Red Squirrel Lake - Red frogs, but they were all too small to be Distance travelled: 15km Squirrel River - Ferguson Bay - paddle considered a proper meal. On this Weather: Sunny and hot, then windy under the Bridge. second portage of the day these C de and cloudy at night DATES: August 16 - 24 2018 B’s wanted to carry boats! Achille got a Quote of the Day: “Head and shoulders boat all 85 m, Duncan got a boat and knees and toes, that’s all we’ve LEADERS: Cameron MacPhail and pack halfway and then carried on with a got.” - Molly Carly Turner pack and Jemima got a boat across the PARTICIPANTS: Jemima Cohnstaedt, gravel road before getting a pack Today we woke up to a delicious meal Achille Di Rosa, Orson Di Rosa, instead. Just as we got most of our gear of eggs and bacon with toasted English Drew Gibson, Madeline Kurt, to the other side of the portager the C muffins. We had a very quick morning Adelaide Lavigne-Schmidt, Duncan de B B’s showed up and got started. We and the campers loaded all the boats McKay, Kadin Nabigon-Froese, brought our final loads across, wished while the leaders finished packing up Lauren Richardson. the other C de B’s a good trip and the site. We hit the water and quickly finally parted ways. We got such an got to our first portage. We managed to Day 1 early start today that we still had a take all our groups gear across on our Hours on the water: 7.5 first load which was exciting. Shout out Distance travelled: 17km to Nuan for carrying the wannigan. We Weather: Hot and sunny, continued on and finished our second very calm portage before eating a lunch of black Quote of the Day: “You bean dip and cabbage salad on tortillas. can’t name something if After this we began paddling across you plan on eating Wakimika which was very beautiful. We it.” - Orson had originally planned on camping on Wakimika, but we were making good C de B C’s, you beauties, distance and the wind and weather were after much taunting and on our side, so we decided to continue preparation we were the onwards onto Wakimika river. It started first of the C de B’s under out very narrow with cool little shoots the bridge on our way out. through beaver dams and lots of logs. Way to go! We raced the C Before long it became less windy and de B B’s to Napoleon opened up a bit. Soon enough we were portage and had just begun on Obabika Lake where we camped at unloading our boats when the first site we saw. We made a they caught up. We passed delicious meal of spag which Destiny them back and forth for a and Hailie helped prepare. We learned while on the trail along about Destiny’s goal to start a Bakery with a family with green called “A Date with Dest.” We canoes and a dog! On the contemplated dessert but decided other end of the portage against it. The leaders played guitar we packed the boats up while most of the campers sat around super quick, snacked on chatting. Thanks for a great day! apples and then left the other C de B’s in our dust! T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 16 couple good paddling hours left so we to Mountain where we had seen zero Ellio Frise Rucklidge, Griffon kept at it and came to a sweet little site mountains. Soon, however, we Hoeven, Alexander Iwanowski, right near the Lady Evelyn Chutes discovered why it was so named. We Matthew MacDougall, Tenley McKay, across from the pictographs. We spent reached our first portage (a big boy) and Madeline Naish, Pyper Sennecke. the early eve swimming, fishing and found the mountain. To the top of enjoying the sun. While the leaders Mount Crumpet 20 000 feet up… We Day 6 were preparing dinner (stir fry) Kadin schlepped and schlorped but eventually Distance travelled: 13km and Duncan were hard at work trying to conquered the portage. Our next Weather: Not quite as hot! score us some fish dinner. After several portage was but a short paddle later and Quote of the Day: “Why is there cookie attempts Duncan snagged a nice pike! was a beaut, short and flat. We all ran it all over my hands?” “I don’t know but They filleted it with help from Cam, once in order to go see the world’s take advantage.” - Ellio and Ollie and as per his promise at lunch, ate its largest frog! Emma and Claire both eyeballs. After dinner Orson fried up carried canoes on this portage! Then Amazing day today. What would the pike and most of us enjoyed some onwards we went, just a quick hop over become most people’s favourite day of good, fishy protein. Then it was our first to our next short portage. Which we trip thus far started off with some dish crew working hard, and then bed also proceeded to crush. We had made incredibly tasty super pancakes courtesy where much loud and off-key singing it to Anima Nipissing! We stopped on a of Bernard. Henry and Carly scouted was heard from the leader tent. Night small island for a magnificent lunch. A the set right next to the campsite as campers! We hope you’re quiet soon…. perfect loaf was eaten along with camp was broken down, and when they summer sausage, cheese, mustard and a returned they announced to everyone’s wee bit too much mayo. (oops Emma) delight we would be running the set! COUREUR DE BOIS (AUGUST) The sun came out for our paddle over Breakfast was devoured and before we to the campsite which was massive and knew it we were all in the boats. Ellio ROUTE: Iceland Expotition. Camp - Witch beautiful. Campers sang the Old Canoe and Maddie were the first camper boat Bay - Bear Island - Outlet Bay - Cross and played in their sleeping bags before down the first set today, the rest Lake - Wasaksina Lake - Iceland Lake - spag was consumed followed by followed. Alex and Owen were the first Northeast Arm - town of Temagami - brownies. Great job today, my little tins to brave the ledge just downstream. No Cassels Lake - Net Lake - Thieving Bear of ground oregano! dumps! The whole group followed and Lake - Mountain Lake - Anima everyone stayed upright. Ducky style Nippissing - Mannajigama - Snare Lake - down some R1s and swifts got us nearer MacLean Lake - Carrying Lake - Red to the only portage that day at the dam Squirrel Lake - Red Squirrel River - into Thistle Lake. Charles showed off Ferguson Bay - paddle under the Bridge. some of his killer dance moves that he DATES: August 3 - 21 2018 Rocking Rapids learned in Fortnite, and later pulled out a bouncy, floaty ball that you could LEADERS: David James and throw super far along the water and Brigid Roeder with the Pioneers have boats race for. Tenley and Eliot PARTICIPANTS: Islay Ballantyne, were a formidable pair of racers always Olivia Gregerson-Curtis, Claire seeming to slip in and grab the ball Paulsen, Emma Syme. PIONEER (EARLY JULY) from behind. We had a semi floating lunch of pesto before getting back on ROUTE: Temagami River. Camp - Lake Day 13 Temagami - Cross Bay Lake - Cross Lake - the water and motoring to the portage. Hours on the water: 6.5 Temagami River - take out in River Valey The portage was super short and Tenley, Distance travelled: 12km - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under. Griffon, Owen and Alex all carried Weather:Overcast and NOT HOT the Bridge. boats, and Matthew took the wannigan. Great job to all and the portage was Quote of the Day: “Double num num DATES: July 1 - 10 2018 nahamana” - Claire (we still have no soon over. We pulled up to our campsite at around 4pm where we scrub clubbed idea what this means LEADERS: Henry Gould, Bernard Rechico-Moisan, Carly Turner and made Borscht. Carly’s family recipe! We played lots of chess and hung out. Today we awoke to a hearty breakfast PARTICIPANTS: Eliot Berthier, Charles of 8-grain before we said our goodbyes Debane, Owen Doucet, Ollie Embry, Pyper tried to get out of the water after P A G E 17 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 scrub club but 3 times she got too cold Quote of the Day: “The collective long day we pushed through and and ran back into the water. We had singing of the littlest worm” –Everyone camped at the amazing beach site just DOUBLE DESSERT of caramel We awoke following our amazing across from the portage. Spag was led popcorn and cookies, and then Ellio portage from yesterday well rested and by Seb and Patrick which was amazing! and Ollie made potato salad for ready to press on! Huevos were A photoshoot and a Mark Twain story tomorrow. Night! consumed in record time and we were later we were ready for some s’mores. off, with the group from Wabun close What seemed to be all of the worlds on our heels. We arrived at Calf Rapids mosquitos showed up and we all PIONEER (LATE JULY) and ran some beautiful swifties making scurried off to bed! our way to St Peters Rapids where we ROUTE: Upper Missinaibi River. Shuttle to hopped out and scouted the set. The put in - Missinaibi River - take out in route was decided and everyone nailed PIONEER (LATE JULY) Mattice - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle the line. However in the small current under the Bridge. at the end Russell and David (camper) ROUTE: Spanish River. Shuttle to put-in DATES: July 15 - 24 2018 had the world's slowest tip. After the at Biscotasing - Spanish River - take out at rescue of them and the gear we used our Agnew Lake Lodge - shuttle to Sandy Inlet LEADERS: Severen Fischer-Schmidt tailwinds and a couple more swifties to - paddle under the Bridge. and David James get our way to Split Falls portage. DATES: July 15 - 24 2018 PARTICIPANTS: Luke Allan, Sebastian Everyone jumped out of their boats and Cino, Michael O’Regan, Ellis Reid, we crushed the portage. GORP LEADERS: Logan Germain and Russell Roberge, Gideon Solomon, disappeared faster than you can say Eamonn Gogan David Thorne, Ross Torrie, Derek Good Ole’ Raisins and Peanuts, we ate PARTICIPANTS: Hayden Berwick, Tutt, Patrick Westdal. with a beautiful view of the falls. A long Grace Charness, Matthew Czubak, flat section followed with two heat Griffin Jeffery, Evan Kauffman, Javin Day 5 related swims from our boats, as well as Patterson, Ketan Patterson, Beckham Hours on the water: 8.25 many many games of Botticelli. We had Schwartz, Maizie Solomon, Distance travelled: 22km a floating lunch of bean salad and Owen Taylor. Weather: Hot sunny, with a little managed to steer our raft clear of tailwind obstacles. When we finally arrived at Day 4 Thunder Falls we were weary from our Hours on the water: 7 Distance travelled: 17km Weather: Sunny and cool

We woke up and quickly and noticed that our water levels had dropped significantly. The set next to our campsite looked almost unrecognizable and judging by the water lines on the shore our water levels had likely dropped a couple of feet. Nevertheless, we ate a hearty meal of oatmeal where Eamonn pointed out the three towering white pines – which we coined the “Three Brothers”. After the tents were packed up and dishes done, we ran the set empty boated. Big ups to Ketan and Griffin for hitting a perfect line! After a couple of more swifties, we reached our first portage of the day and after executing a technical put in we all enjoyed a lunch of wow butter wraps. T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 18

Owen, Matt, and Hayden took full Charlie and Clare were up and moving Distance travelled: 16km advantage of the many blueberries at early this morning and helped make the site and were able to munch on a some pancakes and lunch. Others were We awoke from a seemingly quick post-lunch snack. We quickly not so quick and as a result Bridget everlasting sleep that gripped us to grey loaded up our boats and paddled earned a more personal wake up song. skies and mystical fog. As the children through the beautiful Labelle lake. Pancakes eaten we pushed off and some began to arise from their tents leaders After an additional portage we decided time later had a lovely swim and lunch made a breakfast of bacon and eggs. As to camp, and everyone got into their at a wonderful sandy point. though nature was happy to see us bathing suits and we had our first Unfortunately over lunch some heady getting back on the water the clouds SCRUB CLUB! Afterwards, Hayden, winds had built up and we had to battle began to part and blue skies were once Ketan, and Matt helped chop them down our crossing to the river but again visible. With breakfast eaten and vegetables for Eamonn’s famous spag. we arrived nonetheless at last dipping bellies full we gladly hopped in our After the dinner Evan volunteered to our paddles into the current of the boats and paddled down the river. Not mix some oatmeal cookies for dessert, Dumoine River!!!!!! Our first set was long after we started did our first and Owen happily volunteered to lick rocked with everybody getting down obstacle bare its fangs, a portage around the remaining cookie off of Evan’s safe and dry. Clare and Margot Cascades du Batardeau. The portage hands. After dessert we read holes and impromptu’d a fun sneak route and went quickly as the packs and boats learned about Kissin’ Kate Barlow and Charlie and Bridget may have had some were mightily moved by campers. Lucas the reason why she took to a life of broadside fun. We rocked the socks off and Jackson really challenged crime. Once it started getting buggy we the next portage and soon arrived at themselves by taking multiple loads of did a double rock, stick, leaf to Lac Brulart. We snacked on some choco group gear. And we were off once again compensate for our missed one the chunk and arrived at our campsite. It down the river to our next portage previous night. was a Campsite. Firewood and benches above Chutes Perley. Just as expertly as and a fire...I mean thunderbox oh la la. before the campers moved gear from An unbelievable curry was whipped up one side to the other. There we had a PIONEER (JULY) by Ella, Gwen, Cole, and Margot in lunch of tuna (or black bean dip for our spite of a pretty intense thunderstorm vegetarians), quickly we were back on ROUTE: Dumoine River. Camp - Lake rolling through. A sweeet tarp was set the water again to find our final portage Temagami - Rabbit Point - Temiskaming - up and back massages, hot chocolate, of the day. After finishing that one the Laniel - Hunter's Point - Ogascanane Lake and singing followed dins. Off to bed, group continued on paddling through - Lac Dumoine - Dumoine River - take night Pions :) swifities until finding our campsite. out at Drifwood - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - With firewood collected, Braeden and paddle under the Bridge. Peter helped chop vegetables for a DATES: July 4 - 24 2018 delicious mac & cheese. PIONEER (EARLY AUGUST) LEADERS: Grant Bowles Conover and ROUTE: Coulonge River. Shuttle to put in - Kimberley Huisman Coulonge River - take out at Terry Fox PIONEER (EARLY AUGUST) PARTICIPANTS: Charlie Baar, Gwen Bridge - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle Elmhirst, Clare Farley, Jack under the Bridge. ROUTE: Noire River. Shuttle to put in on Greifenkamp, Ella Iles, Dominic DATES: July 31 - August 9 2018 Lac Jim Road - Noire River - take out at Lavallee, Cole Rinehart, Sarah the Black River Inn - shuttle to Sandy Sabharwal, Bridget West, Inlet - paddle under the Bridge. LEADERS: Jack Gardiner and Margot West. Kimberley Huisman DATES: July 31 - August 9 2018 PARTICIPANTS: Evan Bailey, Lucas Day 13 Conrad, Charles Debane, Freya LEADERS: Cameron MacPhail and Hours on the water: 8.5 Hurst, Sarah Ingoe, Owen Krentz, Carly Turner Distance travelled: 23km Jackson Leggett, Braeden Moore, PARTICIPANTS: Sachen Gombu, Weather:Hawt, Headwinds, Peter Nelles, Kiki Nussbaum. Emma Helman, Oscar Kim, Thunderstorms Mackenzie Latimer, Jeremy Day 4 Liverance, Rhys Matthew, Judah Hours on the water: 8.5 P A G E 19 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

Onstad-Bauld, Elena Prescott, Isabelle Seguin, Oliver Seguin.

Day 2 Hours on the water: 5.5 Distance travelled: 17km Weather: Grey, a little rain Quote of the Day: “Cause we all just wanna be big rock stars and live in hilltop houses, drivin’ fifteen cars” - Mac and Sachen

We woke up bright and squirrely to a wet and sandy world. The Pions eventually got all their tents down, packed away and their stuff in boats before we enjoyed what we’re sure will be the first of many sandy breakfasts; eggs and bacon. We stuck around in the rain for a while while we went over river morphology, river signals and safety. Then it was on the water by 11:30. Right around one of the first bends there was a single, well defined V and we all hit the center perfectly. Next was many twists and turns at top speed. The current is strong with this one. We much rain that the river rose a few Day 9 zipped along, enjoying the sun peeking inches. After the storm drifted on Elena Hours on the water: 6 out from behind the clouds every once and Rhys got started on some gourmet Distance travelled: 25km in a while and eventually found a nice pasta, yummy dudes! We topped the Weather: Sunny sandbar to enjoy some cream cheese evening off with a couple puffs of pink Quote of the Day: “Wait, quote of the bagels for lunch where we also spotted clouds in between the grey and even day is an actual thing?” - Ben D. some moose, bear, and deer tracks. some cookies courtesy of Judah, Emma, After a filling meal and a wang ho we and Izzy. Night folks, I hope you're all Today we had 8-grain for breakfast continued to to our first portage which Big Rockstars in your dreams. before we set off on our last day of trip. kept with the theme of this river; quite Ethan portaged the boats up to the top speedy. We had many boat carriers and of 50/50 and everyone ran the set. Liam even a trio for our heaviest barge. We PIONEER (LATE AUGUST) and Norah took a bit of a swim in the loaded up and practiced eddying into set on the way down, but their boat was the current at the bottom of the ledge. ROUTE: Noire River. Shuttle to put in on empty, and the water was refreshing. We After a quick play we snuck and ducked Lac Jim Road - Noire River - take out at all got pretty wet from the waves and around all the curves and bends this the Black River Inn - shuttle to Sandy loaded our boats to continue on. We ran river could throw at us. We soon heard Inlet - paddle under the Bridge. the first few sets and decided to lift the turbulent sounds of a thunderstorm DATES: August 15 - 24 2018 over a small channel of Jam Rock drawing nearer and decided it was a Rapids because the water was high. The good time to stop and get set up before LEADERS: Liam Agnew and long section of swifties was visible after the storm hit. We ended up having tons Olivia Gordon the lift over and everyone cheered! of time and had collected firewood, set PARTICIPANTS: Jake Breckles, Aenea Before we glided down the river we up tents and a tarp and were just Briggs, Norah Burgess, Kyle Carr, Ben decided to stop for a delicious lunch of starting dinner when it started pouring. Drew, James Hubbard, Illiana Rawlyk, scruffins. We continued paddling down Torrential downpour for 20 minutes! So Benjamin Sullivan, Ryan Sullivan, the swifties before we camped at Black Ethan Wiebe. T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 20

River Inn. The leaders quickly whipped last packs were loaded into boats and LEADERS: Henry Gould and up burrito toppings while the boys we all pushed off in a impressively Frieda Hodgins played jackpot and the girls helped synchronized display of mermaid push- PARTICIPANTS: Asher Birenbaum, shred some beets. Everyone made their offs. And with that we said our Jonah Brooks, Riley Buckle, Charlotte own burrito at the burrito bar. Liam goodbyes to Thistle Lake and headed Funnekotter, Jasper Gibson, Xin Law- read the last chapter of the Hobbit and down the winding river. Having tasted Gallagher, Mikaela Lewis, Sean everyone played cards before bed, blood, the campers pushed hard, eager Lizzola, Andrew Morse, Jamie exhausted and melancholy that the trip for more whitewater. We hit a few Paterson, Finn Paulsen, had come to an end. swifties to Kai’s great glee at it was his Sebastian Shaw. first time sterning in white water while Alex took a great liking at screaming Day 8 PIONEER (LATE AUGUST) “PARTY GEAR!” at every occasion. As Hours on the water: 7.5 we approached Island Portage, we Distance travelled: 33km ROUTE: Temagami River. Camp - Lake stopped for a tasty lunch of Kim’s Weather: Sun, sun, sun here it comes Temagami - Cross Bay Lake - Cross Lake - masterful lemon/poppy seed loaf with Quote of the Day: Jamie’s snores Temagami River - take out in River Valey cheese and summer sausage while Kai - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under and Kolya agreed on the invalidity of We woke to a beautiful mist hovering the Bridge. Belarus as a country. Our energy above the river with a blue sky peaking DATES: August 15 - 24 2018 refreshed, we set off up the steep through. In no time we were done with portage. It was an epic experience as it granola and on the water – rafted of LEADERS: Thomas Heinrich and gave onto a breathtaking view of the course. For the rest of the morning we Kimberley Huisman river from the top of a steep cliff. meandered around bends, periodically PARTICIPANTS: Isabella Arsenault, Bellow us, the dark water slowly moved rafting to drink water and sunscreen up. Linda Berry, Parker Chase, Alexandra by us like a great beast nudged between We found a very appealing sand bar for Hyland, Kate Mackay, Kolya Salter, two rocky flanks. Sweaty and exhausted lunch and scrub club!! Everyone Kai Samuel-Szablowski, Paige we broke off for a swim in the washout participated in some gymnastics/spy Saravanamuttoo, Amalia Tinmouth, of the falls and several of us experienced moves and swimming and then mucked Augustin Woods Pneumaticos swimming in whitewater and how to some loaded potato salad. Xin was enter/exit eddies thanks to Kim. As a buried head deep in the sand and then Day 7 light rain started to fall and Gus began GORP’n’go. The leaders were Hours on the water: 6 his deep plunge into the five stages of participating in a 24 hr no map Distance travelled: 8km grief, we got back to our boats and hit challenge so we were all surprised when Weather: Cloudy with rain in some nice swifties before arriving at we hit the swift that was to lead to our the afternoon Ragged Chutes, our final portage. It campsite. Unfortunately, it was Quote of the Day: “My burps taste like was a great effort by all and we quickly occupied and we were forced to push chlorine.” -Kate, after eating some set up and tarp, ate some steamy Mac past to a sandbar. At first we were less questionable smarties. and headed to bed. ‘Night guys, than enthused, especially at the lack of you rock. firewood but soon MAC was created by We woke this morning to some cloudy Asher, Mikaela and Seb and all moods but unthreatening skies looming over were lifted. We finished the biggest pot the jovial Thistle Lake. Breakfast was PIONEER (AUGUST) anyone has ever seen. Soon we started scheduled to be a good old classic playing sand games. Andrew was the oatmeal but –surprise!– the leaders ROUTE: Coulonge - Noire Crossover. sock wrestling champion while Sean decided to treat everyone with the Shuttle to put-in at Grand Barrage - Lac was able to pin Frieda back in circle addition of smarties! All enjoyed it a Grand - Coulonge River - Lac Bryson - wrestling. Jasper fact: she was in a great deal and those of a more refined Tooth Lake - Noire River - take out at circus. Henry whipped up the most palate detected the slight aftertaste of Black River Inn - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - delicious cake for Frieda’s birthday and fuel produced by the smarties which paddle under the Bridge. we all hung out by the bonfire and had been, coincidentally, stored in the DATES: August 3 - 22 2018 gazed up at the stars. Goodnight all – same barrel as the fuel cans. Weird how welcome to the last map of life is full of surprises… After that, the the Coulonge. P A G E 21 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

collecting large sums of water in our boats – notably Graeme and Waymann, who couldn’t stop laughing the whole way down. Following some short deliberation, it was decided that we would camp after finding a lovely campsite just next to the set. After unloading on flat rocks on RR, campers were fooled into believing that there was a super long portage before the campsite. We set up a flipped boat in the centre of the site and ate a family- style dinner of spaghetti cooked by Waymann and Anne (and Millar). Headlamps on Nalgenes played the part of candles. Margy brownies for dessert were fired up. Songs were sung, hugs where given, teeth where brushed, and we were soon all off to sleep. Goodnight all! Tomorrow is our last (full) day of trip. Let’s make it a good one. Paddling North

Day 18 with the CduNs and PIONEER (AUGUST) Hours on the water: 6 Distance travelled: 7km ROUTE: Dumoine River. Camp - Lake Weather: Sun the Bay Trippers Temagami - Rabbit Point - Temiskaming - Laniel - Hunter's Point - Ogascanane Lake After a well-deserved sleep in, we - Lac Dumoine - Dumoine River - take woke up to another sunny morning. CANOT DU NORD ( LATE JULY) out at Drifwood - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - Peach crisp was fried after campers paddle under the Bridge. collected more fire wood. Postponed ROUTE: Coulonge River. Shuttle to put in - DATES: August 3 - 22 2018 Happy Day gifts were exchanged Coulonge River - take out at Terry Fox leaving us in good spirits. The Grande Bridge - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle LEADERS: Severen Fischer-Schmidt Chute portage drained us. Anne, under the Bridge. and Eamonn Gogan Hannah (Fennell), and Zephyr were DATES: July 14 - 24 2018 PARTICIPANTS: Emma Bickerton, lucky enough to be on chapatti duty for Anne Carscallen, Luke Chevalier, the majority of it. Some consistent LEADERS: Sam Angel and Graeme Cook, Hannah Fennell, swifties/R1 (ducky) where presented Sasha Pickering Madigan Gillespie, Michael Gyles, first thing on the water, but the real fun PARTICIPANTS: Ellen Boyle, Sacha Ben Hannah, Owen Merskey, Hannah was had in the afternoon. After tuna Edwards, Renee Macdiarmid, Kate Millar, Matthew Shaw, and cheese chapattis, we ran Pine Melanson, Madeleine Merskey, Michael Waymann. Rapids, the water being low enough to Calista Mortimer, Felix Quastel, run the usual R2 ledge. Lots of fun! Oscar Roos, Rachel Steel. Then, we hit some huge water, T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 22

Day 8 LEADERS: Connor Cepella and Hours on the water: 8.5 Morgan Hodgins BAY TRIP ( JULY) Distance travelled: 30km PARTICIPANTS: Ted Cass, Mathieu Weather: Sunny and HOT Forster, Daniel Horton, Romey ROUTE: Kesagami River. Shuttle to put-in Quote of the Day: “GOOO Tigers!: - Karovitch, Lillian Lowson, Rose at Detour Lake Road - Lake Kesagami - Kate North, Sam Sutherland. Kesagami River - James Bay - Moose River - train fom Moosonee to Cochrane - Heat woke us up this morning, not Day 13 bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under the alarm. The blistering heat had Hours on the water: 5 the Bridge. begun already. We promptly loaded our Distance travelled: 3km DATES: July 1 - 25 2018 boats and ate a wicked quick oatmeal Weather: Hot, sunny, windy, bit of rain at and bran muffins to get us moving in the campsite (finally!) LEADERS: Cori-Anne Huisman and the hot schlump of a day. Saying Owen Melanson goodbye to Jeanne and the Minogami The Bay Trippers rose after a (very) PARTICIPANTS: Gunner Brant, girls – maybe forever – we found small shower the night before. Hooray! It Charlotte Briceno, Beau Cornish, ourselves at petit devil rapids very is very humid and endlessly sunny- maybe Callum Keenan, Emma Tutt, quickly and it was chill so we just ran the rain will give the water level a much Malachi Winter. that thing ducky style. After a while we needed boost! Our T-bisq breakfast may happened upon DIE HARD!!!! This have prolonged the morning, but gave us Day 5 rapid features a rocky RR and a nice the power to zoom through the Lost Hours on the water: 8.5 hungry hole on RL...nice! Sasha and Wannagen Falls portage. Shortly after, we Distance travelled: 22km Felix shot it first on RL and it was oh so shot a sizeable R2 (not marked on the Weather: Sunny and very hot. Strong smooth! They were followed by Kate, map). One swamp (ft. Sam and Rose), and side-winds, pretty exhausting! Renee and Oscar then Ellen and Maddy one wrap (ft. Daniel and Mat). The Quote of the Day: ““Here, try to fillet… both replicating the smooth line set by leaders (so strong) managed to get the ok maybe we’ll fillet them all for you” – their brave leader Sasha. Rachel and boat off using The Armstrong Method. Scottish fisherman Cali followed this line as well but as Next stop- The Autobahn! Not that we they were paddling out of nowhere, Sam actually knew we were there due to some The alarm jarred us out of deep sleep and Sacha shot by them! After that we labelling confusion and the low water this morning and we cracked open our paddled endlessly………Well not exactly. levels. We munched some delicious pesto eyes to the terrifying view of millions of We did lunch around 4pm. We ate by the side of the set crafted by Mat, Ted, mosquitoes and blackflies bouncing wraps and crackers, it was satisfying. We and Romey, and tried to cope with the between the tent and the fly. They eventually – eventually being the hat of the day. We shot The Autobahn- buzzed desperately for our blood but operative word – made it to Enrages pretty fun- then shot a few R1’s leading couldn’t reach us through the screen. where once again we ran into the to a fun ledge. Sam dumped- but it was After a few minutes for mental Minogami boys. It got late quick so we no fault of his own… We carried on preparation we sprinted out to start a munched on some swiftly prepared downstream in the heat, lined a short smokey fire. The brilliant idea of Dahl and rice then went essentially drop at Frog Song Falls, then reached putting the extra sweetened condensed straight to bed! Gang Gang!! The Devil. We had a few laughs paddling milk from snowballs into the 8-grain and swimming down the boily set. Camp made it a stellar breakfast! Right on was made on the cliffs RR, then, just as schedule we re-entered the Upper BAY TRIP ( JULY) we were about to commence the evening Kesagami River. The river is pretty wide festivities- It started to rain!!! Hooray! now so we paddled side-by-side playing ROUTE: Kattawagami River. Shuttle to Then it stopped. Annd, that's when botticelli and telling each other about put in at Lake Lawagamau campground - everything went a bit bonkers. Anarchy our families. We learned the meaning of Lawagamau Lake - Bailey Lake - ensued and a once humble, charismatic, Gunner’s name and about Charlotte’s Kattawagami River - James Bay - Moose sweet potato soup, somehow morphed dancing. About 8kms later we popped River - train fom Moosonee to Cochrane - into a shepherd’s pie. Excellent camper out into Newnham Bay of Kesagami bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under independence! Let’s have cookies. Lake. The side-tail winds prompted us the Bridge. to attempt to sail but the tarp ate DATES: July 1 - 25 2018 Callum and Gunner nearly got ejected. P A G E 23 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9

they were greeted with a slice of pie, and later some home fries thanks to Rae and Everett. The remainder of the morning was spent lounging around, reading on the rocks while others worked on happy day gifts and others swam. We then decided to do some more useful things, so we cleaned out and reorganized our barrels, and re- distributed our packs, then took a trip across the river to check out Turtle Rock falls. It looked runnable from afar, but when we got close we saw how big that hole beneath the slide really was, we all thought better. We threw some large logs into the falls to watch the hole in action, recirculating the logs and breaking them apart. Amazing. Afterwards we returned to our campsite with all the firewood we could gather from the RR campsite, and immediately We still didn’t make any forward decided to swim down the waves by our progress so we gave up and did it the site. We practiced our body ferries and swimming into eddies. Leo, Maddie and old fashion way. A quick snack of BAY TRIP ( AUGUST) GORP re-energized us and a sunscreen Bernard did some “water bouldering as they found different increasingly party allowed us to paddle another few ROUTE: Kesagami River. Shuttle to put-in km’s before lunch. The wind turned to at Detour Lake Road - Lake Kesagami - difficult places to try and get out of the full side winds and made us work for Kesagami River - James Bay - Moose water. our meal. The lunch spot turned out to River - train fom Moosonee to Cochrane - That was enough activity for today be an awesome shallow spot to swim so bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under though, and we resumed our lounging. we chased each other through the the Bridge. Some continued reading, others napped, and some even did yoga and of water. Malachi beat Owen out in a final DATES: July 31 - August 24 2018 showdown of ninja! Smooth moves LEADERS: Morgan Hodgins and course, we had granola bars (they were Malachi! We had to grind down for the Bernard Rechico-Moisan alright). It was marvelous. We ended the day with pizza and s’mores. Well last 5 km’s as the wind became ferocious PARTICIPANTS: Maya Cairns-Locke, and it felt like we barely moved. Finally Elliot Carusone, Maddie Norman, rested and excited to get moving again, we pulled up at our nice small site after Rae Panayi, Suzanne Pataut-Ghez, we headed to bed with dreams of having been “so close” and in view of it Leo Rawlyk, Eglantine Roch, the Bay. for over an hour. A lovely tourist Everett Vitols. fisherman gently forced us to take 4 walleye to eat and practically taught us Day 13 BAY TRIP ( AUGUST) how to fillet and cook it via his guide. Hours on the water: 0 - REST DAY You need big driftwood on that fire, ROUTE: Kattawagami - Lower Missinaibi c’mon guys! ;) The fish was delicious Today was a momentous day. The Fly Over. Shuttle to put in at Lawagamau alongside French onion soup and morning came with glorious blue skies - Kattawagami - flight and bus to Sandy washed down with s’mores. Emma as campers slowly emerged from their Inlet - shuttle to Lower Missinaibi - Moose learned some dance moves on the beach tents, having been chased out due to River - train fom Moosonee to Cochrane - and we retired for more imaginary the heat. Bernard prepared some bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle under images of Matt Damon abandoned on pumpkin pie, following the meticulous the Bridge. Mars. Night guys, hope for good instructions that Sasha left us. As the winds tomorrow! Bay Trippers rose from their slumbers, T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 24

DATES: July 31 - August 24 2018 river with the help of some swifts and a bit of current. Just before snack, Isaac LEADERS: Connor Cepella and landed a prize-winning smallmouth Owen Melanson bass. T’was a great catch! Oh the Places You’ll PARTICIPANTS: Martin Ambrose, We had falafels for lunch, courtesy of Matthew Blumberg, Madeleine Mat and crew. Later in the afternoon, Brown, Dries Di Rosa, Isaac Ewing, while re-entering a boat after a swim, Miguel Gomeza de Larrea, Kate Maddy and Dries rocked a sweet Go: W.L.I.T. and Gyles, James Hemphill, Sumner flatwater dump! Second dump of trip! Rajaratnam, Min Timmins. They completed a successful self rescue on a gravel bar then we headed Voyageur I Day 17 downstream. We arrived at the confluence of the Hours on the water: 7 WILDERNESS LEADER IN Piwabiskau- a wonderful and deep- Distance travelled: 28km TRAINING ( JULY) Weather: Cloudless, warm watered site! We swam, the prepared/ slammed burgs for dinner! Fried fish LEADERS: Mark Nicol and The Bay Trippers woke to a crisp and and cookies to follow! What a Helen Thomas cloudless August morning. Steam was spectacular day Bay Trippers! PARTICIPANTS: Matthew Chung, rising from the river and the sun was Sarah Irvine, Sophie Karovitch, Grace just breaking over the tops of the trees. Murdoch, Mark Teron. We munched some 8-grain (some enjoyed it savour style) then hopped ROUTE: Dumoine River. White Water into boats. We made good time down Training Trip. DATES: July 3 - 8 2018

Day 4 Hours on the water: 0 - play day at Little Steel Quote of the Day: “What if you ate earlier in the day and then ate poo.” “Wait…I meant beets.” –Sophie

We rose to a chill in the air which was incredibly refreshing following the heat wave we’d been experiencing. Cinnamon buns appeared and disappeared quickly. First, we portaged the boats up, and then ran down Little Steel all together hitting some sweet eddies and nailing some ferries and S- turns. After that, Grace and Sophie worked with Alex on C-turns in the solos while Matt and Sarah went back up to the top to pull off some sweet moves with Helen and Mark. We played ‘brace till you dump’ again before lunch and swam in the bottom of the rapid since the showers had stopped and the day was heating up again. Lunch=Hocho, Pasta’N’Beet Salad combo. Yum. Back on the river in the P A G E 25 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 afternoon, Matt and Sarah went VOYAGEUR I hopping around in the solo boats with (AUGUST) Helen while Sophie and Grace went playing in some BIG waves with Mark ROUTE: Pontax River. and Alex. Leaders were not allowed to Shuttle to Nemiscau - help with dinner because the WLITs Pontax River - Rupert were on it and made a mean chickpea Bay - Waskaganish - tofu extravaganza while the leaders shuttle to Sandy Inlet - tried to lasso each other. I am so tired-– paddle under the Bridge. the music of the rapids and the happy DATES: July 30 - August memories of today lull us to sleep. 25 2018

ROUTE: Lake Temagami. Flat Water LEADERS: Mark Nicol Training Trip. and Helen Thomas DATES: July 19 - 23 2018 PARTICIPANTS: Samuel Carey, Sophie Gordon, Day 4 Alex King, Abrial Levisky, Gabriel Hours on the water: 3.75 Reindeau, Ella Taylor, Matthew and Sophie were leaders of Alexander Wolf. the day. They made the best peach crisp (according to Onswe and Helen). They Day 17 were super speedy and got off the Hours on the water: 8 campsite at 8:45. The winds were low Distance travelled: 20km and we got to Devil’s Mountain with Weather: Cold and clear, lots of time for a brisk hike. After a then very sunny tiring vertical ascent we chillaxed at the Quote of the Day: “We top. We had some alone time to reflect were trying to make it on our WLIT experience. We very look bad, I don’t know safely did a lake crossing, with much where we went wrong.” efficiency. We then stopped for a snack Athabasca as they cut Sam’s hair. and swim break to get everyone’s energy on which Ella and Slippy (who are so levels back up. The waves got choppy; tough and strong) nailed some mid- This morning, we had both oatmeal we saw menacing smoke in the distance. portage centre flips. We left the gear at muffins and oatmeal for breakfast. Do We called Woody and the satellite the campsight halfway down the trail, you see the theme? The campers tent phone. We stopped dead in our tracks and the boat carriers went ahead but opened to a small cliff, and in my and decided to set up camp where we lost the trail a lot. That is part of the personal opinion it looked precarious. stood. We had a lunch of chaps with fun I think. Alex thought we’d been The weather was beautiful and sunny, hummus, pb and j, along with hot kidnapped, so we comforted her. The but cold in the kind of way that I chocolate to warm everyone up. Sophie sight was gorgeous and full of cool rock wasn’t happy about. We ran a few R2’s, and Sarah swam like mermaids: the walls, so Ella Taytay led the charge of and Slippy looked suave in the solo. We clouds were white but Sarah was whiter. the climbers, who made some expert floated and ate fruit, and not too long We got lessons on firewood, tarps, and traverses. Our backyard was a gorgeous afterwards broke for a scrub on some navigation before eating quesadillas for swamp, and the front lawn was a sunny rocks. Folks were very reluctant dinner. We had one last day slumber waterfall. Yummm. Split pea soup and to get in the water at first, as the air was party to conclude our wonderfully blackflies and spam for dinner, and the very cold, but they came around amazing trip. campers all stayed up late making lunch eventually, and we warmed up like and desert. Those wacky kids wanted to lizards while munching our gingerbread shave Sam’s head, but the leaders said molasses loaf (tks Alex and Abby). More no, so they decided to give him a chill ducky R1’s and R2’s, and a portage T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 26 tasteful haircut instead. It looked energy AND Jack and Grace made a Sarah Irvine, Sophie Karovitch, Ella surprisingly good. great and filling red lentil, veg soup. MacPhail, Lachlan Robertson-Martin, Perfect after a cold, wet day. Everyone Mark Teron. compared their bloody clothing (from Day 22 VOYAGEUR I (AUGUST) the bugs, that is) and Theo’s shirt was Hours on the water: 8.5 definitely the most impressively red. Distance travelled: 3km ROUTE: Pekans - Moisie. Shuttle to put-in With the Pekans behind us and the Weather: Sunny and hot near Labrador City - Pekans River - Moisie beside, we drifted off to sleep. The sun was just breaching the hilltop Moisie River - take out at Parc Riviere as we climbed out of our tents this Moisie - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle morning. The line of sunny warmth under the Bridge. VOYAGEUR I ( AUGUST) crept down the gravel bar, illuminating DATES: July 30 - August 25 2018 our kitchen as we gobbled some ROUTE: Moisie River - Lac de Mile amazing sticky cinnamon buns and sang LEADERS: Alex Hodgins and Approach. Shuttle to Lac De Mile - Lac happy birthday to Pont. The boats were Sasha Pickering Opocopa - Moisie River - take out at Parc loaded and rocks were thrown. PARTICIPANTS: Emma Gordon, Jack Moisie - shuttle to Sandy Inlet - paddle Apparently there’s one strategy of Heath, Theodore Heintzman, Paul under the Bridge. skipping rocks for many skips and Limousin de Neuvic, Samuel Liptay, DATES: July 30 - August 25 2018 another strategy altogether for long Grace Murdoch, Lee Rosensweet. distance skips. We set off at last and Wilson Symons. LEADERS: Sam Angel and that line of warmth became a blaze of Cori-Anne Huisman sun. Arriving at the R4 drop we decided Day 9 PARTICIPANTS: Matthew Chung, to portage instead of liftover because of Hours on the water: 7.5 Patrick Dunlop-Ellis, Claire Hunter, the length and bouldery terrain. We Distance travelled: 5km Weather: Overcast turning to rain

Woke up to clearer skies and dryer than yesterday. Peach? No, Pineapple crisp for breakfast. Spray skirts on - we found ourselves in a canyon and big waves (like, really big waves). Theo and Paul absolutely soared! The end of the Pekans my friends, she is thunderous. As soon as we reached the beginning of the portage to the Moisie, it started to rain. We refuelled on tuna wraps and PB&J. The bugs came, too. In thick, thick, black fly swarms. About a hundred meters in, you cross into burn, a landscape of charred trees and barren of leaves any higher than a few feet off the ground. It was wet, we fell, and there was frustration and anger. Emma fell and a tree stopped her. HELLO MOISIE! We reached the end, threw off our loads and looked up to see Wanapitei canoes paddling towards us.. V1C! Cori and Sam and crew camped next to us. There were hugs from friends and a few stories shared. Seeing the other group definitely gave us some P A G E 27 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 ogled the big boil in the set. Anyway, enough of being amazed by nature, we glided down to our first runnable set of the day. Sarah went for a quick dip to cool off in the eddie above the set and the slippery rocks turned it into a much more prolonged swim than she intended, much to everyone else’s amusement. Lachlan finally helped her out, poor Sarah. We nailed the first three wave trains and pulled over to scout the forth. Wow it’s huge! We thought the last few were big, well this one is enormous! We all scrambled up the right shore to watch Patrick and Sam try it out while Cori and Lachlan set up safety. They set up beautifully, staying left until after the hole, then driving right but even so they caught some huge air and barely pulled through. It was decided that the line was just a tad too tight and wavy to run so we all portaged as a team and ran the washout. This was a perfect time for Charlotte Van Dyke-Talbot, Cian lunch of quinoa salad and a quick swim. Wilson-Valdes. The next wave train was nearly as big but less of a tight squeeze to punch out Day 31 of so we went for it! There was a lot of Voyageur II: Into variations on the line and a lot of Hours on the water: 9 serious bouncing and splashing! Nearly Distance travelled: 40km everyone made it through but the “old” Places Unknown Weather: Sunny and headwinds spray deck boat was capsized in the curler wave. The boat continued down The Kazan is so gorgeous! Finished the next section of white-water but VOYAGEUR II paddling the rest of Ennadai Lake and everyone was safely on shore before long we were back on the Kazan. ROUTE: Chipman - Kazan - Kognak - Tha- conveniently right beside where we Kazan has lots of current. Technical R1. Anne River. Shuttle fom Stony Rapids to were planning on camping. We set up It is still fast flowing and there are lots Black Lake - Chipman Portage - Wholdia of swifts and current in the narrows. camp at the Societe des Helicopteres Lake - Snowbird Lake - Kasba Lake - Canadiens. Matt and Sophie made some Today was Halloween so we dressed up Kazan River - Kognak River - Tha-Anne in costumes at the campsite (and some yummy ful while Sam ran down the River - helicopter to Arviat - fly to shore to see if he could spot our people had theirs on all day!) and trick- Toronto - bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - Lake runaway canoe. He came back to report or-treated between the tents. We Temagami - paddle under the Bridge. it was washed up on the opposite shore camped across from a very large esker DATES: June 30 - August 26 2018 just after the next set! We’ll pick that up that you can see about 5km away as first thing tomorrow! Phew! Ella and there are no trees really. There is still LEADERS: Fraser Cepella and Mark made some yummy looking chaps the occasional gathering of trees and if Alicia Hodgins and magically a birthday cake appeared you really try, you can find firewood. PARTICIPANTS: Selena Bob, Gabriel Also, the landscape is hilly with these for Pont! Happy Birthday Sarah! Sleepy Fischer-Schmidt, Phillippe Forster, from our full day in the sun and weird small “mounds" of gravel (lots of Emily Gardiner, Carmen Gomeza de glacial features here!). At night we heard adrenaline we slipped off to bed. Honk Larrea, Juliette Keith, Dana King, honk went the nearby train. wolves and pups that must have had a Jack Panayi, William Paterson, T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 28 den in the esker so maybe don’t camp on the esker.

VOYAGEUR II

ROUTE: Hess-Stewart-Yukon. Shuttle to put in fom Whitehorse - Tsichu River - helicopter shuttle - Keele Peak - Hess River - Stewart River - Yukon River - take out in Dawson - shuttle to Whitehorse - fly to Toronto - bus shuttle to Sandy Inlet - Lake Temagami - paddle under the Bridge. DATES: June 30 - August 25 2018

LEADERS: Kai Bruce and. Tess McCutcheon PARTICIPANTS: Jason Arbour, Atticus Cameron, Madison Demaria, Perry Dollar, Mathew Hartman, Lucas Mahoney, Danielle McGill, Laura gear up for the very big whitewater we corner. A little startled, the moose Peberdy, Ethan Rajaratnam, would be running. We scouted and bolted once it saw us. Once at the Ryan Seck. psyched ourselves up. Tess and Ryan campsite we relaxed in the warm shot first and set a walky up with the all beautiful sun. Kai gave us President’s Day 19 clear sign. Soon the boats came down Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Hours on the water: 5 using excellent control decent skills to cookies. A very excellent day indeed. Distance travelled: 4km avoid taking on any extra water into the Today was a reminder to us that boats. The large whitewater persisted paddling can be relaxing and the beauty This morning we woke up cooking in and excellent whitewater lines of the green mountains and boreal our tents. It was an odd sensation to continued. We eventually hit a twisty forest can be enjoyed while floating wake-up to sun instead of the pitter- turny stretch of calmer water. Here, we down the river. patter of rain. The water had risen in spotted two moose. One stared us down the night and so we started the day with for a long while before heading into the a quick inventory. We portaged the rest bush. The second was just lying in the of the gear and soon were starting to middle of the river when we turned the P A G E 29 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 Completing a Vision

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to mold the camp into a great camp, as well as a great canoe camp. This thrust actually began with Andrea Hodgins in the late 90s, and Woody after her during his first “life” at Wanapitei. With this expanded focus each young Camp Director added a significant and necessary step in the evolution, from Robyn Mitz, who proved that the camp could remain in the black, Kelly Davis, who pushed against the “good ol boy/ girl” tone to prove that constant professional decorum was a necessary part of being a staff member, and Sarah Progress on the kitchen rebuild as of October 2018. We are so excited for it’s completion this spring. Frizelle, who tied these themes together as our single season “angel” when we Laura-Belle, and of Bruce, following to afford a new kitchen without putting needed some help. Then the era of them, and of all the people who have the camp in financial jeopardy. Woody and JJ began, providing mature, built and maintained the best of the seasoned professional leadership, and I’ve realized in the last few years that camp over the years. Now, mostly the evolution has continued at a it isn’t my role to complete anything because of JJ and Woody, the camp is constant pace, making Wanapitei a big; it’s to create a foundation so others healthy on all fronts, and with the help bastion of solid policies and procedures can build and improve on it. That is of very generous shareholders and that are inspirational to other camps. what Laura-Belle and Stan did, and they community members we’ve found a way would be ecstatic at what their creation As we complete the kitchen project is today. we’ll honour the vision of Stan and 2018: The Summer Northern Ontario Burned burned throughout the summer. 276 senior staff and board members, were square kilometres - 10% of the engaged in a constant frenzy to identify By Geof Hodgins, President of the provincial total - were scarred by this canoe routes not threatened by this Board of Directors fire, including the southern face of blazing nemesis. For two days the Red Chee-bay-jing, “the place where the Squirrel Road was officially closed and HE SUMMER OF 2018 spirits go”, also known as Maple Wanapitei was on notice that an will be remembered as the Mountain. evacuation order could be forthcoming. year Northern Ontario With the exception of the V2s and But it was a remarkable summer for the burned. A record 1,325 fires the Ottawa Valley Pioneer trips, camp. Despite the fires, 394 youth Tcovered over 2,763 square kilometres. found cool clear water into which they virtually every Wanapitei group had to One of the largest was sparked by be diverted or had their route altered could dip their paddles on Wanapitei- lightning in early July, only 40 km from prior to leaving camp to avoid fire – led adventures. The ashes now lie Wanapitei in the Lady Evelyn- some were re-routed twice. Woody and frozen under a blanket of snow but with Smoothwater Provincial Park, and JJ, along with the tripping directors, ... continued on next page T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 30 Burned

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spring, rejuvenation will begin. Fire is an essential part of the boreal and mixed forest ecosystems and a pervasive feature of the living world. The forest creates the oxygen that combustion requires and provides the fuels that feed it. Fire liberates nutrients for the soil and opens the canopy to sunlight supporting new growth. Berries flourish, nurturing an array of foraging creatures as aspen, birch and jack pine take root, re- initiating the cyclical progression toward forest maturity. Healthy forests leaving barren soil that supports little but only within distinctive fire- are complex and variable systems and growth. Much of the forest that ecologies, dependent on equally distinct the fires that moved through them, recently burned in California is simply climatic conditions. For millennia, distinguished by the combustibles they gone - displaced by an expanding desert. change has been gradual. This past feed on, reflect this diversity. Ground As long as there are forests, there will summer, however, hot, dry conditions fires burn through organics in the soil. be fire. In the coming summer, trippers led to more fires in Ontario than during Surface fires move through forest litter, venturing through the bush-country of any other year in recent history. If this grasses and shrubs. Crown fires blaze becomes a pattern, these forests will through the forest canopy. Northern Ontario will encounter dramatically altered landscapes. We may not be sustainable as we know them. But fire is an ecological shape-shifter lament the loss of some majestic stands 2018 demonstrated that the line and can also destroy an ecosystem. of old-grown pine but life is being between fire’s power of rejuvenation Unusually dry forests, as we are generated anew, which the forest and destruction is very thin. As campers increasingly seeing in North America, depends on for diversity and so we can travel through burned-out areas in 2019, support extremely-hot, swift-moving rejoice. At the same time, we should not they will be presented with fires that sterilize the soil by killing the be callous as Turtle Island is both extraordinary opportunities to bear- microbial life and depleting stored resilient and fragile. Its forests evolved witness to an ecosystems in carbon. Such intense heat also effects with inherent fire-cycles that have transformation. Let it be a year for the ability of the earth to absorb water propagated extraordinary bio-elasticity contemplation and for learning. P A G E 31 T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 To Our Donors: With Our Deepest Gratitude E SINCERELY thank every person who contributes positively to Camp W Wanapitei, both financially and through countless hours of volunteer time. 2018 was a landmark year for Wanapitei in terms of challenging events. We are beyond grateful to the support offered by our Wanapitei community as the summer progressed. We would also like to thank the people outside of our community who offered their time and resources to support our groups and our camp program.

Bread for Harvest Gourmet Dinner at the Chateau Handmade by Michele Lattimore

Wannigans Hand-crafed by Bob Olajos $1000 Donation to Camper Additional Contributions - Bursary Fund Mabel’s Labels $6000 For The Purchase of James Melanson Mabel’s Labels donated 35% of al sales fom New Canoes families who purchased clothing labels Anonymous $1000 for Unexpected VIIA through their business to our bursary. Helicopter Shuttle Cost Support Wanapitei Camper Bursary Fund Martin Talbot Greater Community Support Cash Donation of $1590 Athabasca Health Authority, Saskatchewan Families who chose to donate the balance of Program Fee Contribution for 6 Centre de Sante Radisson Staff their child’s camp store account. This money campers from Temagami Detour Lake Mine Staff helped us support campers who would First Nations Hartley Bay Marina otherwise not attend camp for 50% of fees for these campers are contributed Hydro-Quebec (Radisson) financial reasons. by Temagami First Nations. Julie Robinson with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Camper Sponsorship for 13 North Bay Critical Incident Stress Team Wanapitei Camper Bursary Fund Direct Donation of $7310 Wanapitei Campers Tisdale Bus Lines Families who chose to donate to the Camper Taylor Statten Camping Bursary Fund Officers Tyler, Roy and Marty with the Bursary program at the time of registration Ontario Provincial Police or independently. Up North Adventures, Whitehorse T H E P A D D L E R ● W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 P A G E 26 Mark Your Calendars: 2019 Important Camp Dates

19th: Junior 4 session begins. 24th: End of July Banquet 25th: Junior 4, Late July, and July sessions end. 25th-28th: Community Weekend 27th: Community BBQ 28th: Junior 5, Early August and August sessions begin.

AUGUST 3rd: Junior 5 session ends. 4th: Junior 6 session begins. 9th: Mid-August Banquet. 10th: Junior 6 and Early August sessions end. 12th: Late August session begins. 12th-17th: Family Camp. 14th-17th: Family Camp three-night option. 23rd: Gourmet Dinner. 24th: Harvest Night. VI and MARCH MAY VII Campers paddle under THIS MONTH: Camper Medical 1st: 3rd installment of camp fees due the Bridge. Forms online. Paddler in for families on a payment plan 25th: Camp ends. your mailbox! 10th-12th: Alumni Spring Work 1st: 1st installment of camp fees due Weekend SEPTEMBER for families on a payment plan. 15th: Last day to submit Medical THIS MONTH: Summer Forms 2020 registration APRIL opens online. THIS MONTH: Preview our 2019 JUNE camp clothing and place your 1st: Last day to confirm travel plans OCTOBER pre-order 17th: Camp office moves THIS MONTH: Summer photos 1st: 2nd Installment of camp fees due to Temagami. online on Flickr. for families on a payment plan. 19th: Staff training begins. 1st: Final balance of camp fees due 28th: Early July, July, and Full NOVEMBER for those not on a Summer sessions begin. 9th: Ottawa Reception: Old Ottawa payment plan. Fire House 6th: VII 2019 Family Information JULY 16th: Toronto Reception: Leaside Session (for this summer’s VII 9th: Mid-July Banquet. Gardens and Arena campers and their families) 10th: Early July and Junior 2 7th: Camp Wanapitei Annual General sessions end. Meeting for shareholders 12th: Junior 3 and Late July (Toronto) sessions begin. 18th: Junior 3 session ends.