Project Dare -- 40th Anniversary

This weekend Wendigo Lake Expeditions (http://wendigolake.com), who run the program Project Dare, celebrated their 40th anniversary.  I got the invite and couldn't resist attending.  I headed down Friday night and settled in at Spirit Point, a camp just around the corner from Dare.  Larry the host met me at the gate and walked me to my quarters.  He and his wife Jenn are great hosts.  He was always up and always had a cup of coffee ready for you.  The facilities were beautiful.

I spent the evening with the extended Glass family.  Steve's mom Grace, his sister Julie, brother-in-law Albert, brother Jeff and wife Heather and their daughter Hannah.  Great converstation.

I've been to Dare many times but this was my first experience meeting people who were with Dare at the beginning.  Bob Davies the founder was honoured at a ceremony at the watefront.  Steve Glass, the current director and operator of the facility paid tribute not only to Bob but all the staff past and present who have contributed to the success of the program. Monique Smith our local MPP along with municipal representatives from Sundridge and South River acknowledged the contribution that the staff of Wendigo Lake have made to the region.  A ministry official (Wes) stated that the youth justice system in Ontario has been greatly affected by Project Dare.  Dare sets the standard and many ex-Dare staff work in positions at the ministry.

After an enjoyable breakfast I joined Vince Pawis for a native teaching ceremony.  Vince was impressive.  He gave us an introduction to native teachings.  He is of the Eagle Clan.  At one point he placed two eagle feet in my hands.  I looked at them and realized how they matched the impressions that John and I had found on the beach a day earlier.  Vince laughs easily and has a terrific sense of humour.  After lunch I was scheduled to do the "Flying Fox" zipline into the lake, but after listening to Vince in the morning--I changed plans and headed out to the sweat lodge.

This photo is from the internet, but our sweat lodge looked  just like it.

Vince and his helper Esra began making the sweat lodge the day before.  I arrived to find a low ribbed shelter.  It was no more than 4 feet high and about 12 feet across.  There was a hole in the centre for hot rocks.  We pulled a couple of tarps over top and fijve of us climbed in.  Albert, Julie, Vince, Karl and myself.  Vince guided us in the experience and poured cedar-water on the rocks that were delivered by Esra.  90 minutes later we emerged.  Not a moment too soon.  A very cool experience.

A delicious meal at the Wendigo Lake dining hall, including a  pig roast was the last event planned at Dare for the evening.  The evening social event took place back at Spirit Point.  I hung out with the Dare staff around a camp fire.  One gentleman from the 70's (Eugen...sp?) sang songs about sailing on Georgian Bay with Dare youth.  In the 70's Dare had a sailing program.  Friends rembered old stories and one ex-Dare client Chris, attended with his mother.  He is an impressive young man and is heading to chef school in October.

I eventually returned to the lodge and joined Steve and his family.  The highlight for me was Steve's daughter Sara playing guitar.  She played three of her original songs.  Rare and beautiful for sure.  A great evening.

In the morning I enjoyed a coffee with Steve and Larry.  As I was heading out I was greeted by Dudly the pet pig.  He wished me a safe journey.

I am always tired when I leave Dare but at the same time I find I an energized and renewed.

Eagle Tracks at the Manitous

We have been itching to sail our boat somewhere, anchor it and spend the night.  Thursday night was the choosen day so John and I provisioned the boat and set sail for the Manitou Islands.

We left the North Bay marina (A) at about 6:30 pm and headed out to the Manitou Islands (B).  The distance is about 8.5 km.  There was no wind so we motored out in about 50 minutes.  We picked a spot and backed in to about 7 feet of water and dropped the anchor.  We set it nicely and had no  problems throughout the night.  There was one motor boat nearby--also anchored for the evening.

The full moon illuminates the water.

We had been working on some sort of tarp system for the boat to protect us from sun and rain so we took the opportunity to set it up see how it looked.  Seemed to work fine.  We prepared dinner on the boat's origo stove and I was happy that everything worked well.  We timed the water boiling at 7 minutes--not bad and the stove gave off little or no fumes and the meal was prepared easily.  That night we read our books and looked out at the beautiful full moon.  For a mast light we attached a prezil head lamp--worked perfect.  The boat swung easily around the anchor throughout the night as the wind shifted and a cool breeze flowed in threw the forward hatch and out the screen at the hatch.  John was out and slept till 10:30 the next morning.  I was a bit restless and spent some time up on deck in the early morning watching the moon and stars.  The moon went down at 4:20 am.

View from the forward hatch.  The camera flash has illuminated the picutre, but the moonlight was bright enough for our own eyes to see the deck and beach in the distance.

The First Mate sound asleep.

I was up at 8:30 and watched two eagles on the nearby beach.  The male was perched on a limb, while the female stayed on the ground.  At one point a raccoon chased the female, only to be chased away himself the the male eagle who swooped down protecting his mate.

Both eagles are on the right of the tree.  The male, half way up, and the female on the ground.

Once John was up, we had a breakfast of bacon and eggs and jumped in the water for a swim to the beach.  We walked along and explored looking for the eagle's nest.  No luck.  But we did find eagle tracks on the beach.  Too cool.   I remember the distinct three  for-claws and the one rear talon.  Just over 24 hours later I was holding eagle claws in my hands while participating in a native teaching ceremony at Project Dare--all very cool.  We finished our exploring and swam back to the boat, hauled in the anchor and set out for North Bay.  On the way home we turned on the auto pilot and sat up on the bow of the boat in the shade and enjoyed the ride home.

View from the stern showing the distance we swam to the beach.  A great morning workout.

A great first experience sleeping on the boat away from the marina.

Fun in the rain -- the Chutes

The weather this summer has been fantastic.  Hot and sunny.  The average temperature of Lake Nipissing hovers between 20 and 24 degrees.  Nice enough to swim anytime--day or night--rain or shine.  We have been spending a lot of time on our sailboat taking advantage of the nice weather.  When the rain showed up it gave us the opportunity to get back into our canoe and head to Talon Chutes in the rain.

A couple of John's buddies (Connor and Keenan) joined us for this adventure.  "You guys up for paddling in the rain?"  Everyone was pumped to go.  So we packed up a lunch, threw in some raincoats and headed to Pimis Bay.

The air temperature was about 18 and the water was warmer.  The paddle in was beautiful as always.  The warm rain made it peaceful--even with the three crew.  John and Connor sat at the bow paddling, and Keenan was the designated team biologist (spotted on this trip were: a beaver, beautiful red flower, frog).

Once at the chutes we hiked around to see the "dog-face" rock and climb across the dam.  We discovered a hornet's nest--I took one for the team here--part of being the leader.  After our hike and explore we settled back to the trailhead where the canoe was beached and went swimming in the rain.  Fantastic.  We all enjoyed the warm water and rain.  Everyone enjoyed jumping off the low cliffs on the opposite side of the river.

 

 

The trip ended back at the put-in--just as the sun came out to dry out our bathing suits.  Perfect.