Thunderbird Canoe Trip
20-23 August 1998, Central
Ontario
Click here
for the unofficial log (according to Squire Mom).
Near the beginning of
the summer (way back in May) the crew decided that we needed a good project
to work towards. A canoe trip was decided on, without too much debate.
Lumberman was put in charge of finding a route, Wildman was in charge of
pretty much everything else.
As our trip dates approached
(20-23 August) the roster for the trip was finalised, as was the route,
menu and all that other good stuff. 11 Thunderbirds made the trip, including
Miller, The Man, Wildman, Princess Boo-Boo, Huck, Monica, The Meatless
Weenie, Lumberman, Flynno, Mom and Zippy. As for the route, I chose the
Gibson/MacDonald River loop, which lies just to the east of Georgian Bay
and South
of the Town of Bala. Thanks to Wildman
and the Princess, the menu was bagels and apples.
Flynno, Lumberman, Laura
and Miller loading up the Mystery Machine and the Flynno-plastic-mobile.
On
Thursday afternoon, everyone except the Weenie, Zippy and Monica met at
my house to pack for the long journey. (The Weenie and Zippy both had to
work on Friday, so they would meet us on Friday night at a specified location.
We'll get to Monica in a second...) Luckily (or unluckily - how's that
for forshadowing?) I had secured the use of my dad's old box trailer that
he had made in 1970 in order to carry crap for the Crew. This weekend we
needed it for carrying three plastic Coleman canoes rented
from the District. But first went in everyon'e
gear for the trip. My dad's last words before we left were instructions
on what to do if we get a flat on the trailer. Yeah, whatever.
The fourth canoe went
on top or the mystery machine, and the fifth rode on top of Flynno's plastic-mobile.
So eventually off we went. By the time we reached the Denninger's where
Monica worked to pick her up (she refused to ask to be let off even an
hour early, even though it was her last shift ever, and she hated the job)
it had become apparent that the lights on the trailer were, shall we say,
"malfunctioning." In fact, braking made the turn off, right-turn signal
induced the left-turn signal, and the left-turn signal didn't do squat.
So, this meant that Flynno would have to follow close all the way to my
cottage, where we would spend Thursday night. The presence of my mother
in the Mystery Machine didn't help the situation much.
Finally, Monica emerged
from work, less than an hour late. After eveyone had piled back into the
two vehicles, we headed down Mohawk Road for Highway 403. Little did we
know, a large truck was sprawled across the highway, and it took almost
an hour for our contingent to get to the first interchange.
After that little setback,
things were smooth-sailing (well, as smooth as sailing can be with 4 canoes,
9 sets of gear and my mother.) We reached Barrie in about 2 hours just
in time to refuel - and I thought the Mystery Machine was hard on gas without
all of the paraphernalia. Another 2 hours of "Slow Down! You're going too
fast!" brought us to my cottage. The time was about 12:30am, and all of
our clothes were packed underneath the canoes, so we just crashed on the
floor in our clothes (except my mom - she went to sleep in her bedroom.)
Friday
morning, we awoke around 6:00 so we could get to our starting point in
good time. A quick stop in the bustling metropolis of Bala gave everyone
the opportunity to see the lumberyard that originated my Lumberman nickname,
and to call parents and say their final farewells. Soon, we were at our
starting point - where Crooked Bay Road meets Highway 400.
As the others unloaded
everything, Flynno and I dropped off the Plastic-mobile at our end point
- where the Gibson River flows under the hightway - and then made our way
back to Crooked Bay Road. When we returned, everyone was just about ready.
Monica and The Man
started off in the same canoe, but that didn't work out very well, so Monica
switched into Huck's boat, The Man went with Miller. Mom's and Flynno's
boat was knicknamed "Titanic" because of its lack of freeboard. I went
solo on the first day, and Wildman steered "The Love Boat" while the Princess
'navigated.' Since I had plenty of space, I got stuck with all of the superfluous
packing - namely the big honkin' home-made toilet, and the bagels. I think
that next time, someone needs some lessons in light-weight camping (and
shopping) before we head out.
Lunch on Friday - Gibson
Lake.
The
weather was beutiful as we made out way along the MacDonald River and into
Gibson Lake. We stopped for a short break amd had lunch on an island. Then
we continued until Wildman exclaimed from about 250m behind, "I think we're
you're going the wrong way!" Since The Love Boat was so far in arrears
we pretended not to hear and kept going, in the right direction. Not long
after, we were heckled by some teen-aged girls who were swimming off of
their dock. Huck quite enjoyed the attention and tried to make small-talk.
Soon, we were heading down the Hungry Creek - a little river lined with
wetlands. Monica decided that she would like to get married in a
marsh.
The Hungry Creek - Friday
afternoon.
Soon,
we reached our campsite, on the shore of the Creek just after it went through
a very old, small dam. We set up camp (actually our tarp) in the trees
just off of the rocks, and built a fire near the water's edge. Someone
started pumping water (Thanks to Dave and the 7th Dundas Venturer Company
we had a water purifications system) to refill our bottles. Mom, Flynno
and Miller went on to explore our route for the next morning, The Man sunbathed,
and Huck took to fishing with a piece of string and a stick just like Huckleberry
Finn - thus earning his nickname. The rest of us just chilled out - went
swimming, collected some firewood - the normal kind of stuff. Soon, the
three adventurers returned a little worse for wear. It seemed that since
the water level was quite low, we would have to portage from the campsite
out to the road where we could regain access to the lake system, and where
we would meet Zippy and the Weenie later on.
Dinner on Friday night -
the campsite with the snake!
After
a good dinner, we were all sitting around the fire waiting for Hope and
Todd to join us when Huck decided to go into the tent for a little post-dinner
nap. Just as he reached the shelter, we heard a muffled question, "Uh...
guys? Is there supposed to be a snake in the tent?" Furthter questioning
revealed that it was a rattler, and Flynno's great outdoor knowledge told
us that the only rattle snake in Canada is the Massassauga. It is also
the only deadly poisonous snake in Canada. As Huck, now white as a sheet,
stumbled back to fire-side, Laura barged in, took a picture of the snake
and then tried to shew it away - thus earning her nickname (The Man.) After
a few failed attempts, we sat around waiting for the snake to get out of
our sleeping bags. When the coast was clear (The Man checked everything
out for us) we quickly packed everything up and headed down the trail.
Thanks to the great packing job, it only took three trips across the portage
to get to the destination (another place where that light-weight training
would come in handy.) We decided the safest place to camp was right in
the middle of the baseball diamond we found at the roadside, at the end
of the trail. Nevermind that pesky sign, we never even saw it. ;-)
Friday night's campsite,
Part II - "What sign? I didn't see a sign!"
Soon,
Zippy and The Meatless Weenie arrived in Swifty (the Weenie's Dodge Shadow)
to everyone's delight. After expounding about the snake incident, we "set
up camp" on the diamond, and then went for a swim off the public dock across
the road, and soon went to bed. Huck, still a little shaken from his earlier
discovery elected to sleep in the safe confines of Swifty.
Saturday
morning, the weather was just as good as on Friday. We carried everything
over to the public dock and again set sail. Meatless Weenie joined me in
Murray (my canoe) and Zippy became an honourary crew member of The Love
Boat, since they were always lagging behind. After discovering that our
float plan called for us to travel only 16km, everyone felt that it was
OK if relaxed a bit on the way (see pictures.) The travelling was sort
of uneventful, but sometime shortly before noon we reached the point where
we left Flynno's Plastic-mobile on Friday morning. No good campsites were
to be found, so we went a bit further until we found a great spot. Unfortunately,
the rock plateau wasn't really big enough for everyone, so we all had to
squeeze in. Oh well.
Saturday morning at the
baseball diamond.
After
our bagel lunch, we played fun Rover-games like "How Many Rovers Can You
Fit in a Coleman Canoe," and "Lets Make a Sail for Our Canoe Out of Duct
Tape." Princess Boo-Boo even learned how to make an eye-splice, and we
all learned what Flynno uses and eye-splice for.
After a hard afternoon
of relaxing, it was time for dinner. Mmmm... that spaghetti that had taken
up several of the 80 litres my pack holds (The Love Boat didn't buy regular
spaghetti because "it sticks together." Instead they bought stuff like
Penne that comes in really big packages because most of it is air.) After
spaghetti, Mom made us apple crisp with the apples that we had lugged around
the entire trip and no one would eat because they got all bruised. Mmmm...
Mom's apple crisp is good.
How many Rovers can you
fit in a canoe?
Sunday morning we awoke
to rain. We quickly downed our daily rations of bagels, and then packed
everything into the canoes for the journey back to the car - only about
3 or 4 km. No leisurely pace this morning, though. Soon, we reached the
plastic-mobile, and while everyone else was getting everything packed away,
the Weenie, Flynno and I went to collect our cars. When we returned, everything
was
quickly piled on, in and around.
So off we set, in the
drizzling rain, for home. It had been a very good trip, even if it hadn't
been particularly challenging. We all 'bonded', and isn't that the important
thing?
As our convoy neared
the City of Barrie via Highway 400, I was in the front with the Mystery
Machine, Flynno followed in the Plastic-mobile, and Hope pulled up the
rear with Swifty (the lights on my dad's trailer were still causing problems.)
All of a sudden, rubber started to careen off of the Mystery Machine (actually
my dad's trailer.) I made my way on to the shoulder as Flynno was freaking
"I think the tire's flat."
out and Hope wondered what was going on...
We got out to find just what my dad had warned us about - a flat tire.
But not just any flat tire. This was the flatest tire any of us had ever
seen. In fact, a piece of rubber had apparently flown off only to catch
on the sheet-metal fender, causing it to contract around the wheel. So
what we were left with was a 1958 Rambler wheel rim, with shredded rubber
stuck to it in random places. Now what was it that my dad had said to do
in this case?
First of all, we sent
Hope on her way with Huck, since he had to get to work on time, Princess
because she was cold, and Wildman because he had to keep Princess warm.
Then we tried getting the problem wheel off. No simple task, since the
wheel was being constricted by the fender, and the bolts holding the fender
on were rusted tighter than... well, they were pretty tight.
So we needed a hacksaw.
We drove into nearby Barrie in the Plastic-mobile to buy one, leaving The
Man and Monica with the Mystery Machine and the trailer. While in Barrie,
we called my dad, who flipped out. Anyway, we bought a hacksaw at the friendly
neighbourhood Canadian Tire on Bayfield Street, and headed back out to
the entourage. We then proceeded to hack off the fender with the hacksaw
(BTW, it was still drizzling at this point.) Eventually the fender was
strewn into the ditch (uh... I mean it was cleverly and safely disposed
of in an approved location...) and we started to attack the wheel itself.
Unfortunately, the wheels hadn't been off the trailer since about 1980,
so the nuts were all stuck. It took Mom and Zippy leaning on the tire iron
at the same time to loosen them.
Luckily, Ramblers had
the same bolt pattern on their wheels as Chryslers, so we figured we'd
just put Swifty's spare (conveniently snagged from Hope before she left)
and we'd be off. Unluckily, a 1980's Shadow has somewhat smaller wheels
than a 1958 Rambler, so even though the bolt pattern matched, the size
of the bolts didn't.
So this time, we took
the old wheel with us in the Mystery Machine as all of us went into town
leaving the one-wheeled trailer at the side of the road. We figured that
it would be safe. We dropped off the wheel (to a chorus of snickers) at
the Canadian Tire to be fixed, and the 7 of us went on to Pizza Hut for
lunch (it was about 3:00 and none of us had eaten anything since bagels
at 6:30am.) We were ready to scream and/or cry when we found out that the
lunch buffet was just closing as we entered the restaurant, even though
they let the leftovers sit there seemeingly mocking us while we waited
for the $100 worth of food that we had ordered... Eventually it came, and
we were stuffed.
By 4:30 we were back
on the road heading home with out new tire and hacksaw. That still wasn't
the end of our adventure, though. While driving down Highway 407, the canoe
on top of the Mystery Machine started to lift off, and everyone had to
stop while we fixed the ropework. Last time we let Wildman tie a knot.
Anyway, we also had to stop at Camp Nemo to drop off the canoes.
By the time we were
home, it was around 7:00pm - eight hours after getting the flat. And thus
the new Crew slogan was born -
"Endure
the Adventure"
- Lumberman
Other Pictures...
Miller, Mom and Flynno enjoying a break.
Miller's ready for a day of paddling!
The last stretch of the Hungry Creek
- Huck, with Lumberman in pursuit.
Also Friday night - just before the
snake discovery.
The infamous snake itself (the brown
blob right in the centre.)
Huck and the Meatless Weenie relaxing
- Saturday wasn't very stressful...
Page Last updated on 18 October
1999. (c)
Thunderbird Rover
Scouts.
visits to this page since 8 November 1999.
