solotripper wrote on Jan 11^th, 2010 at 6:38pm:

I hope the details of your Ojibwa elder talk makes the forum? I wonder if that group ever posted a trip report of their adventure? I got a big laugh out of the line's: "Hey, even WE don't do things the 'old way'.  I think somebody's gonna die!"

Neal,

Your wish is my command!  Here is the "missing last page" from my account of our WCP trip... the page Stu cut out:
**********************************************************

Approaching the completion of our paddling circuit the following morning on Leano Lake, I was glad to have notched the location of our access point in my GPS.  The small opening was nearly swallowed by the bush; we might have paddled right on by.  

Ben and I sat up front beside the outfitter’s driver, an elderly Chippewa, who would haul us and our belongings the two hours’ distance to Red Lake, where our vehicles waited.  The driver asked polite questions, listened to our tales, and seemed to size us up before sharing a tale of his own.  Solemnly, he told us of a group of twenty-one teenagers from an inner-city program out of Ottawa who, earlier in the week, he and tribe elders had been asked to “educate” before they entered Woodland Caribou Park.  None of these young visitors, including their instructor, had ever been in the wilderness, paddled a canoe, used a compass, started a fire, or set up a tent.  Our driver shook his head in serious doubt, indicating, “these people, they were determined to do things ‘the old way’… yikes, even we don’t do things the old way!”  He recounted how tribal leaders did what they could with the group in the short time allotted, even offering to serve as guides.   As the point of their trip was to “experience the wilderness”, they preferred to go it alone.  The teenagers would forego fishing poles in favor of using snares to supplement their food supply… even though they carried no sharp knives.  Neither would they carry maps, preferring the discovery method of learning and getting about the park.  Furthermore, the highlight of their three weeks would be to shoot rapids along the Bloodvein River in their Kevlar canoes.

Fresh off of our own challenges in the bush, Ben exclaimed, in incredulity, “Wow!  So what do you think is going to happen to them?”

The old Chippewa slowly turned his head to us.  His eyes creased into a smile as he chuckled, “That bunch?  Ha!  I don’t know!  I think maybe they’re going to die!”

Whatever your approach, there is plenty of Canoe Country magic and a unique, pristine beauty ready for your own discovery in Woodland Caribou Park.  It is, indeed, a path less travelled.  With that in mind, we strongly endorse the use of maps….

**********************************************************

And now you know the 'rest of the story'.

I also see how my memory fades with time.  The Objiwe was really a Chippewa.  There were only 21 teenagers and they came from Ottawa, not Toronto.

Hmmm... guess it pays to keep my trip journal in front of me when I write this stuff.

OF COURSE, I, for one, would NEVER be one to exaggerate about mission-critical stuff like fish size, length, etc....


Jimbo   8-)