CANOE ROUTE
Paddled on 6 lakes a total of 16 km each way:
Big Whiteshell Lake, Ritchey Lake,
One Lake, Two Lake, Three Lake, Mantario Lake.The five portages, totalling 4 km, were challenging asusual but the ten paddlers worked together as a team on the portages aswe did at the cabin; what a great crew!
CANOEISTS
Participants: Lorne Klassen, Cristabel Nett, MarleneWallace,
Martin Zeilig, Ed Rajfur, Cindy Bell,
Cheri Villard, Murray Pirt, Tripat (Trip) Sandhu
Leader and organizer: Don Kurt
SLIDESHOW
Download the essence of the trip in this slideshow movie:
FullMoon DealMantario 2006 Thanksgiving
Photo © 2006 Cheri Villard
(Apple Quicktime movie 60 Mbytes, plays for 5 minutes
(downloadQuicktime, a free player for Mac/Win).
This was the first trip to Mantario for Trip and Cindy,and the first Thanksgiving Canoe trip to Mantario for Murray, Martin,Marlene and Cheri.
It was a bit windy but otherwise a nice day on Friday forthe trip to the cabin. It was T-shirt sunny on Saturday when most of ushiked the Mantario Trail up to Hop Lake to visit the remains ofKolanski's cabin, and along the way we found a beautiful rock outcropwhich could provide emergency shelter to hikers. Images of this part ofthe trip are in the slideshow (above link).
Group of seven kickin' it up with the cabin in the background.
Photo © 2006 Cindy Bell.Sunday was cooler and drizzled for a while, but thisdidn't stop the group of seven from hiking the circle trail to OliveLake where they found a geocache and the wonderful scenery of MooseheadLake.
Unexpected geocache found at Olive Lake.
Photo © 2006 Ed Rajfur.We coined the trip the "Full Moon Deal" because we hadsome wonderful full moons to watch, as well as the stars, followingsaunas and relaxation after fairly active days. Also, the organizer wastold that the breakfasts and suppers were very good (everyone broughttheir own lunches) so the term is a play on McD's poopular slogan.
Monday blew in on a cold north wind so we wore toques,mittens, goretex and hats for the paddle back to our city lives. On theway out, we saw a family of otters on One Lake, as usual. The baldeagle that always oversees our crossing of Big Whiteshell Lake safelyescorted us once again.
Ready for a cool paddle on the way back to the city.
Photo © 2006 D Kurt.
Quotes from some of the participants:
Lots of bouquets to Don Kurt for organizing and leading thetrip. And Thanks to Lorne for all the work he did with firewood whilewe all went out to play. Before Mantario, I thought peoplewho jumped into cold Canadian lakes in October were demented. After Mantario and the sauna,of course, my view changed considerably. What an awesome experience!Many thanks for the paddle, hikes, food and most of all friendship. Ican't wait to return. Laying down in the Labrador tea bogat Kolanski's cabin andbeing blanketed by it's sweet, wild aroma, the camaraderie of everyoneon the trip, "waiting" for Lorne. The most exciting thingabout it is finding out what theskills are of the new people, and our skilled leader. Don Kurt is a veryexperienced paddler. As a group, we brought together a lot of skills.It was a great opportunity to talk to others without the distractionsof all our modern conveniences, and coming back with new friends. Great trip. It was a really good group, great weather, greatfood; great fun! The geocache and how it was found. Laying in theLabrador tea at the Kolanski cabin, and the Kolanski ghost stories inthe sauna! Cheri and her heavy portaging load and interesting canoeyoke. Cindy graduating from someone who wouldn't jump into the lakeafter the sauna to someone who wouldn't stop jumping into the lake. We were lucky to catch the last bout of warm weather thisyear. Even so, the lake was cold enough to shock me when I jumped in.The portages were blissfully dry, the aspens still retained theirleaves so that the scenery was bright and colourful. The morning beforewe left we were priviliged with a cotton-candy pink mist covering LakeMantario, which slowly dissipated as the sun rose higher. Kolanski'scabin was difficult to find and barelyidentifiable, but interesting nonetheless. There was a stark contrastbetween his lifestyle and our hectic modern ways. We were a diversegroup of daredevil go-getter nature-nuts who thought nothing of scalingsome steep rocks to explore off the beaten path. We ate well! Afterpaddling for more than seven hours on seven lakes andhauling gear over five portages, arriving exhausted but energized atthe cabin on Mantario Lake. Clambering up a big billionyear old (or more) Pre-Cambrianboulder at the shaky bridge near Olive Lake during a day hike andspotting the metal Geocache box hidden behind a corner of a nearbyrock. Inside, the box, a former Canadian Armed Forces munitionscontainer, were a compass, a tiny propane stove, a notebook, pen, adisposable camera, a small flashlight, a little handsaw, and a foldedbrochure describing Geocache, among other things. We signed our namesin the notebook, as the instructions in the box indicated, and thentook pictures with the enclosed camera. A couple of individuals in ourgroup took items and replaced them with objects of their own, as theinstructions said we could. After closing the box, we returned it toit's original resting spot. The message inside the box said it had beenplaced there in August 2005.The thrill of discovering the decaying remains ofKolanski's cabin amidst a lush bed of Labrador tea plants by Hop Lake.
The satisfaction of renewing a couple of old friendships,and making new ones; and experiencing, once again, the exquisitenessand timelessness of Mother Nature.
Here are the words for the song "Bound By The Beauty" byJane Siberry, the music playing in the slideshow (click on the fullmoon image near the top of the page):
"Bound By The Beauty"
I'm bound by the fire
I'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound by the dutyI'm coming back in 500 years
and the first thing I'm gonna do
when I get back here
is to see these things I love
and they'd better be here
better be here better be hereAnd first I'm going to find a forest
and stand there in the trees
and kiss the fragrant forest floor
and lie down in the leaves
and listen to the birds sing
the sweetest sound you'll ever hearAnd everything the dappled
everything the birds
everything the earthness
everything the verdant
the verdant the verdant the verdant greenI'm bound by the fire
I'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound by the dutyI'm coming back in 500 years
and the first thing I'm gonna do
when I get back here
is to see these things I love
and they'd better be hereAnd then I'm going to find an open field
and lie down in the flowers
and then I'm going to find a guitar
and play play play for hours
and then I'm going to find a river
to see what kind of body inAnd everything the granite
everything the kiss
everything the earthness
everything the verdantthe verdant the verdant dreamI'm bound by the beauty
I'm bound by desire
I'm bound to keep returning
I'm bound by the beauty of the light
the slightest change
the constant rearrange
of light upon the land
I'm bound by the beauty of the wind
that blows across the earth
the unfetteredness the wheatness
and through the flying hair
the slowness of the falling leaves
across this warm November door
and the geese the flying southness
the arms out evermore
I'm bound by the snow
the soft the fallingness
the everupward face...
the everupward face...
bound by the sunsets
the rivers
the music
the beauty...Visit Jane Siberry (now known as "Issa:) at www.sheeba.ca
GO to MNSwebsite
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