Well, I’m back, and one extra life experience richer. That was quite the time, and although it had its share of ups and downs, I’m quite certain I’ll be ready to jump in the car again next spring. The oddity might be that I’m still not quite certain where I was – all I can say is that it was a camp on Crown land somwhere between Sudbury and Timmins, about eight hours north of Toronto. Eight of us were crammed into a fairly ramshackle cabin in the woods on the shore of Clarkson Lake, amongst the clear cutting logging companies attempting to boost our softwood lumber industry. It was kind of sad to see fields of trees destroyed and replanted, but it was something I got used to.
One cool thing about being that far north is the wildlife – I saw two moose, a black bear (dead), a few grouse, and a bunch of rabbits. Of course, I also saw a lot of fish hitting the boat, especially on our third day, when we came pretty close to our limit amongst eight men (and that’s a lot of fish). I personally, over the three days, caught three northern pike, two smallmouth bass, and a lake trout. We fished first on Meteor Lake, which boasted by far the worst driving experience of my life. It’s just not worth the trip into it, I swear. Welcome Lake was much more fun, involving a 40-minute boat ride up the river through the logjams and up over a little tiny water fall-off that required getting out of the boat and lifting it over. It was after this, through the rock piles we guided ourselves through via oar pushoffs, that I saw the extremely large female moose retreating into the forest.
I’ll leave things for now – I’ve been instructed that what happens in camp stays in camp, and the names have been hidden to protect the innocent. Thanks to the gang for including me and bringing forth a great time, and I hope to have some pictures to share shortly.
Cheers!