Temagami
I feel like I have really slacked off, but the truth is I have had little to talk about. I should go on about how great my trip to Temagami was, because it was incredible. It started off with me skipping town because Katrina hit Ohio and the bad weather sent us scurrying out of the field. Half of the guys making the trip were leaving early so I called around, did a little frantic shopping and packing, and headed up with the first group. We got to Buffalo and found that Canada appeared to be closed. It was a labor stoppage by the customs inspectors, which prevented any commercial traffic from crossing the boarder. We, fortunately, were not directly in their crosshairs and simply crossed at the falls instead of at the Peace Bridge.
Upon arriving at our halfway stopping point of Barrie, we mad the obligatory trip to the strip club. This year’s expedition was disappointing as there were several new members to our traveling party who had only heard the tales of skank strippers of the great white north. The women were actually, with one notable exception, reasonably attractive. The next day we did the big shop for food for the time we spent on the island and last minute stuff for the bush. And then it was on to Ooshkee, the name of the small island my friends family owns
We spent the time before the rest of the guys showed up digging out the privy. Thirty-five years of dried shit in a four-foot deep hole. I have actually excavated privies as historical archaeological features. I was glad that this was a pick and shovel operation. The logs the outhouse was resting on had rotted, so the biggest part of the job was moving the building and setting new foundation logs. It was actually quite an engineering problem, which took a lot more thinking than beer to solve.
Once we had all assembled, the gear was packed, canoes set up, and the food distributed (the worst part of the whole getting ready ritual). The next morning the float-plains arrived and took eight of us into the bush. The area is full of interconnected lakes, with small stream systems. The hills are generally not large, but you do have to pick your places to portage. Most of the area is a park and all of the areas we were in are mapped, so we pretty much knew where we were going and what we were getting into.
The scenery was spectacular, as usual, and there was not another soul up there as far as we could tell. We did a little fishing, a lot of card playing and drinking, and enough canoeing and portaging to make it a trip rather than just a campout. Brian and I managed to squeak out of last place in the Euchre tournament and not end up buying breakfast the day after we got back from the bush. Poor Ed got stuck with the weakest player and had to pony up for all the extra peameal (Canadian bacon) we could cram in our faces. In fact, Jeremy, Ed’s partner, bought breakfast with me last year if I remember correctly.
The water was clear and cold, the trees were just starting to think about changing, and the northern lights were out big-time. The stargazing was fantastic as there was a new moon. The only thing that interrupted the view was the Aurora, which was in action three of the nights we were in the bush and a couple more on the island. The weather was extremely cooperative. I slept under the stars twice and there was almost no dew, let alone rain. Maybe Katrina sucked all the moister in the atmosphere out as she passed south of the area. We got a little rain on the way up and the first day on the island, but that was it. The same thing happened twice in Belize. The weather got all sucked out to see behind the hurricanes and it didn’t rain for weeks. Other than letting the temperature build up to about 110º every day it was all good and we got a lot more work done at the site than might have otherwise been possible.
It was a great trip and a much-needed vacation, but now I am back at it in the office. I have a bunch of pictures, that, as with the ones from Belize, I will get around to compressing and posting a few of. There are a couple of nice aerials and some nice sunsets as well as snapshots of the group, card games, meal preparations, etc. I may even get around to putting a few more shots from Belize up. Whatever!
Upon arriving at our halfway stopping point of Barrie, we mad the obligatory trip to the strip club. This year’s expedition was disappointing as there were several new members to our traveling party who had only heard the tales of skank strippers of the great white north. The women were actually, with one notable exception, reasonably attractive. The next day we did the big shop for food for the time we spent on the island and last minute stuff for the bush. And then it was on to Ooshkee, the name of the small island my friends family owns
We spent the time before the rest of the guys showed up digging out the privy. Thirty-five years of dried shit in a four-foot deep hole. I have actually excavated privies as historical archaeological features. I was glad that this was a pick and shovel operation. The logs the outhouse was resting on had rotted, so the biggest part of the job was moving the building and setting new foundation logs. It was actually quite an engineering problem, which took a lot more thinking than beer to solve.
Once we had all assembled, the gear was packed, canoes set up, and the food distributed (the worst part of the whole getting ready ritual). The next morning the float-plains arrived and took eight of us into the bush. The area is full of interconnected lakes, with small stream systems. The hills are generally not large, but you do have to pick your places to portage. Most of the area is a park and all of the areas we were in are mapped, so we pretty much knew where we were going and what we were getting into.
The scenery was spectacular, as usual, and there was not another soul up there as far as we could tell. We did a little fishing, a lot of card playing and drinking, and enough canoeing and portaging to make it a trip rather than just a campout. Brian and I managed to squeak out of last place in the Euchre tournament and not end up buying breakfast the day after we got back from the bush. Poor Ed got stuck with the weakest player and had to pony up for all the extra peameal (Canadian bacon) we could cram in our faces. In fact, Jeremy, Ed’s partner, bought breakfast with me last year if I remember correctly.
The water was clear and cold, the trees were just starting to think about changing, and the northern lights were out big-time. The stargazing was fantastic as there was a new moon. The only thing that interrupted the view was the Aurora, which was in action three of the nights we were in the bush and a couple more on the island. The weather was extremely cooperative. I slept under the stars twice and there was almost no dew, let alone rain. Maybe Katrina sucked all the moister in the atmosphere out as she passed south of the area. We got a little rain on the way up and the first day on the island, but that was it. The same thing happened twice in Belize. The weather got all sucked out to see behind the hurricanes and it didn’t rain for weeks. Other than letting the temperature build up to about 110º every day it was all good and we got a lot more work done at the site than might have otherwise been possible.
It was a great trip and a much-needed vacation, but now I am back at it in the office. I have a bunch of pictures, that, as with the ones from Belize, I will get around to compressing and posting a few of. There are a couple of nice aerials and some nice sunsets as well as snapshots of the group, card games, meal preparations, etc. I may even get around to putting a few more shots from Belize up. Whatever!
posted by TOC | 5:48 PM
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