HEADLINE:
My regular spring tripping guys – Ryan, Rob and Judd - and I had big plans last year. We had a big multi-day adventure mapped out, with the majority of the days bringing us all over the interior of Lake Superior Provincial Park in search of brook trout and lake trout. We also planned a “long route” bringing us up HWY 144, across HWY 101 and down HWY 17 into the park.
It took no less than six hours into the first day for our trip to come to a crashing halt. We had made a stop to camp on a speckled trout lake off a system of logging roads southwest of Timmins.
We set up camp for what was to be a two-night stay. We were going to hit a couple of trout lakes that had been good to us in the past and we would then move on. My friend, Ryan, had constructed a beautiful maple wood rack for his truck to carry our two canoes for our foursome.
He even had another friend design and weld steel plates for the four main anchor points to the truck bed. It was a hell of a rack. There was just one flaw with it. It wasn’t made to withstand a tree crashing down on it.
Our campsite had some iffy-looking dead trees. There were some 70 to 80-foot poplars that made you think twice, if not more. The group decided to drop some trees and make the campsite a bit safer.
It was early evening. We all should have just left well enough alone. We didn’t.
A decision was made to bring down a pine tree at one point. It was cut with a chainsaw, but refused to topple. Another decision, more ill-fated, was made to attach a chain to the tree and give it a little persuasion from the truck.
This is the moment we screwed ourselves.
Ryan jumped in his truck and hit the throttle. The tree came down fast and hard. And why wouldn’t it? It was about 30-feet long. The tree smashed into the canoe rack. Thankfully our canoes were not on the rack at the time. The tree destroyed the rack. It snapped it like a twig and then punctured the tonneau cover before denting the crap out of the tailgate and sliding off the back bumper.
It went silent. Then, there were some gasps. Then swearing. Then laughing. It was a scene.
Once the shock wore off and reality set in, we had to come up with a plan to keep our journey going. Rob felled a small pine tree and expertly cut a few replacement pieces for the rack with a chainsaw. It was impressive to say the least. We notched the pieces and put them back together to form a make-shift rack. We even used Gorilla Tape to help keep it together.
Due to the rack being compromised the group decided as a whole not to venture any further North, which meant our expedition into the backcountry of LSPP was off the table and it was the main reason we were all out there.
We didn’t want to run the risk of having further trouble further North with rack issues.
We made our stand and we were going to make the best of it. The region where we were featured about 10 trout lakes in close proximity of one another along with some pike and bass options.
A cold front moved in that night and fishing got tough.
The next two days we didn’t see a sign of a trout. It was discouraging. On the third day and our third lake, I got a bend in my rod. It was a brook trout. I got it into the canoe. It was a three-pound male. About an hour later, Judd hooked a big, fat female and put it in the net.
Ryan and Judd caught one more speckled trout each the following day and that was it for trout on our trip. They wanted nothing to do with us. We did manage to get into a pike lake on the second last day and caught some nice numbers of two and three-pound snot rockets.
It pissed rain heavily on our second last day. Coupled with the poor fishing, a decision was made to come out two days early.
This was not our best adventure. We did our best to make it fun. We had to make an extra run in to get booze from a gas station an hour away because we all drank too much. We paid dearly for food. We had planned on stopping in Wawa for supplies, but instead we went into Gogama. A pack of hotdogs was $11.99. It was a gougefest. We kept our food purchases to a minimum obviously.
We packed up all our gear except the tents and sleeping bags on our final night so we could get up and leave right at dawn.
We got up and put away our final gear in the truck and jumped in. We were all in high spirits despite being beaten by the weather, fish and circumstances. We all agreed it was still a good time and we were all ready to leave.
Ryan turned the keys of the ignition and there was nothing. The truck battery was dead. There was no way we were getting away from this mess that easily.
It was fitting and par for the course we were on.
We started walking towards a lake we knew had a cabin on it and, hopefully, people were still there we had met in the bush earlier on the trip. Remember, this was early May before the flies came out. Not a lot of people are up that far at that time of the year.
We had to walk about seven-km to the cabin. We were lucky. The group of guys were still there. We told them of our situation. We all enjoyed a good laugh about how bad our luck was.
The guys invited us in for breakfast as they were about to eat. We had coffee, juice, splake, eggs, toast and home fries with these guys. It was pleasant and helped boost our moods.
After trading stories and more laughs, they drove us back to our site and boosted the truck battery for us and got us on our way.
We had everything planned out and it still went to shit. I didn’t love that. What I did love was how the boys stuck together and rose above the bad circumstances that befouled us on our trip.
It didn’t stop us from smiling and having a good time.
It shows it’s not always about the journey or trip.
It’s who you experience it with that makes it so special and stays in your heart.
BY SCOTT HADDOW
Wild Northerner staff
It doesn’t matter how meticulous and careful you plan a canoe-camping trip, when the unknown rears its ugly head, it all goes to shit.
It’s the attitude you and the people you are with in the aftermath continue on with that’s the most important thing. You can either roll with it, or not, and sink with it.
Continued on next page