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3/15/2016 4:31 pm  #1


Great Stories?

I'm still new to the forum, so if this is way off the path of interest I hope you'll excuse it, but.....there are so many experienced trippers here, there have GOT to be some awesome stories - funny, remarkable, ironic, and I would love to read them.  Think of it as a way to welcome the oncoming canoe-tripping season.  I try not to be just a "taker", but a "giver" as well, so I'll share some of my favorites from the park to get the ball rolling.  
 
My first experiences in the park were as a Boy Scout, at age 14 or 15....35+ years ago.  This isn't a sappy post, but just for this paragraph - I disliked extended camping trips right up until the moment I laid eyes on Butt Lake (as it was then called) from the Hambone portage.  It isn’t an award-winning view, but I looked at that lake on a beautiful August day, and it changed me immediately.  I suddenly loved camping, found a passion, and wanted to be IN that place.  My camping experience is nowhere near as vast as most if not all of the other visitors to this site.  I probably have ten Algonquin trips to my credit, but some stories just stick with you.   

Here we go.

Bees. Firefighting, and Swamps -  At about age 21, I planned a trip with two old scout friends; Robert and Jim, along with Robert’s dad, Mr. K.    In his youth, Mr. K. delivered mail to rangers in the park by canoe.  Robert had been going to the park since he was an infant.  On this trip, we came out of a river system, entering....I want to say the south end of White Trout Lake but could be wrong.  Was that lake renamed?  Anyway, I was the lucky one, riding bow in Mr. K's canvas Chestnut.  We saw smoke topping out of a small, forested island.  We quickly realized somebody had camped there illegally the night before - and had not even been smart enough to remove about 15cm depth of pine needles for their campfire.  It had smolder/burned out a garage-sized area.  Roots & bases of trees had burned.  We formed a brigade line with pots and pans.  I filled them with water, handed them off, and so it went.  After a few minutes, Robert told Jim it was all set on one side of this boulder, so start approaching on the other side.  Jim did, and immediately activated an already-agitated nest of yellow jackets.  They blamed Jim, and he was attacked enthusiastically.  Mr. K yelled at me to get the bug spray, which I did.  (an aerosol “Off” product – this was a loooong time ago).  I returned to find Mr. K. and Robert open-palm slapping Jim front and back as hard as they could, killing bees – you could hear the thumps from distance.  I gave Mr. K. the can, he told me to clear out, which I did, but watched from safe distance.  They continued pummeling Jim, and showered him with “Off”, "CLOSE YOUR EYES!!".   Jim kept backing into a pine branch, which he mistook for a bee, so he kept fearfully swiping at the back of his head.  Robert elected to let Jim continue thinking there was a bee in back of his head.  That became known as “The Bee Dance”, and was imitated endlessly.  It happened fifteen years before my kids were born, but they both know the dance.
 
In the end, we put out the fire, Jim was stung around thirty times with no reaction thankfully, and that was that.  The whole thing was a shame, it should never have happened obviously, it was just good fortune we showed up when we did.

A day or so later, Robert felt the harsh sting of karma.  There is dispute about whether Jim told Robert to wait a minute or not, but Robert inexplicably got into the stern of the unloaded canoe (grumman 17’), and sat down.  Robert’s size was such that very little of the hull was in contact with water.  The outcome was inevitable.  He stuck his arms out, briefly waving them around in a vain effort to balance himself, but the boat dumped violently, and hilariously, leaving Jim on the shore holding a slack bow line.  The water was unusually deep, so it took Robert a moment to resurface, but when he did, he said only one word: “JIM!”  That marked the only time I ever heard Mr. K. laugh at someone, and it was a very, very faint chuckle at his son’s expense.  This became known as “the Swamp Dance”, and Robert’s hand motions in the instant before dumping were imitated relentlessly.  My kids know that one too.

I spent the next three days hoping I would not end up with a dance of my own – and succeeded.
 
I found me a sweet knife!  My dad grew up in West Virginia, and used to climb East River Mountain as a kid, which borders Virginia and West Virginia.  When I was in my teens, we hiked up together, and I was lucky enough to find a hunting knife.  Offhand I can't remember the make, but it was a quality blade and in good shape.  It had been stuck in the ground and forgotten, I suppose when somebody was field dressing something.  Fast forward two or three years to a trip in Algonquin Park.  In a campsite, I found a sheath - by the same company, and in the right size for the knife.  I still have it of course.  Neatest thing I ever found just because of the odds of that happening. 
 
These are the most interesting ones I have to share, except for one I’m saving……..
 

 

3/16/2016 2:21 pm  #2


Re: Great Stories?

I love this idea! I'm eager to hear others' stories.

Your last story reminded me of a quick one:

On my first solo trip, I made the mistake of portaging with my sunglasses perched on top of my head (a mistake I am apparently unable to learn from). My - thankfully cheap -  sunglasses broke and I was left to glare into the beautiful sunny day without them. As I was checking out my campsite, I came across a pair of sunglasses with "stylish" leopard print plastic frames waiting for me under a tree. They were scratched but fit perfectly. I wore them for about a year before replacing them. Mother Nature sure does provide when you're in need. 

 

3/16/2016 4:25 pm  #3


Re: Great Stories?

I'll bet you looked awesome in them.  One the last portage of the day (9th) many years ago, it took everything I had to get the canoe up on my head.  In the struggle, I popped a lens out of my glasses, and did not keep my thoughts about that problem to myself.  We had not seen ANYBODY all day, but during my ten second recitation of every bad word I knew, doesn't a family of four crest over the hill right in front of me.  Ugh..... 

     Thread Starter
 

4/02/2016 5:16 am  #4


Re: Great Stories?

Did a loop a few years back that had us finishing up by climbing up and down the 4km portage from Wenda to Grand.  It was August, mid-afternoon, sunny and a blustering wind was carrying white caps down the lake towards the put-out.  I thought the conditions were perfect for a downwind sail and everyone in the group agreed, we quickly found two poles, rigged up a sail with a big tarp and lashed both canoes together. 
We paddled out to the middle of the lake from the portage with the sail laying flat on the bow of both canoes, got ourselves into position (both bow paddlers slid to the middle of the canoe to pull on the ropes holding the sail) and hauled it up.....the tarp filled with so much wind both bows visibly sunk down close to the water line, then lifted up again and we were off to the races. 
We cruised our ridiculous catamaran down the length of that lake, never having to lift our paddles once, laughing and howling our butts off the whole time,  We waved at all the people trying to fight their way up the lake, we waved at all the people on the beaches taking pictures of us..... We literally sailed it right onto the landing, dropping the sail in front of a group of onlookers who didn't know what to make of us.
I haven't encountered those perfect conditions again but anytime I'm doing a trip that involves large lakes, I keep a homemade sail tucked away just in case....

 

4/06/2016 9:58 am  #5


Re: Great Stories?

I am so jealous of that sail! In moments like that I probably would have pushed through with paddling thinking that the set up time of the sail and all that would eat up so much time as not to be worth it. I need to remember that sometimes it's worth taking the time to experiment!

Another memorable portage story: My husband and I were eating lunch at a portage with a family of 4 from the UK. We chatted for a bit and we packed up and headed out before them. I didn't hear it but according to my husband, as I was taking off with the canoe and the pack down the trail the 11 year old girl looked at me and said to her mom: "Lady Power!" 

Never have I ever been so proud to be an equal partner on the trail. 

 

4/06/2016 12:43 pm  #6


Re: Great Stories?

The sailing story is great.  We did that once or twice when I was in scouts.  We had success, but not like you guys!

Claire - let it never be said that you are not the real deal.

     Thread Starter
 

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