General

Diabetes is an insidious disease. It is prevalent amongst our First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. I have been part of organizing an Aboriginal Heritage Festival in Fergus, Ontario for the past three years. All monies collected by admission donations are presented to the Southern Ontario Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative (SOADI). This year's festival will be April 19 and 20 2013 at the Wellington County Museum in Fergus. It is (to my knowledge) the only festival, inclusive of all three Aboriginal groups.

In co-operation with SOADI, we are trying to promote a community " Paddling Against Diabetes Display Love for Earth (PADDLE)", similar to "Running for Diabetes". The first event was held in July at Six Nations on the Grand River. This was well received and considered to have been very successful.

I am also trying to raise awareness and contribute to local Aboriginal Diabetes Health Units. Each year, I do a solo canoe trip. This past year, I did the Kattawagami River, which empties into the southeast corner of James Bay and finished at Moose Factory.
A small amount of money was raised and presented to the local Weeneebayko Diabetes Health Unit.

This July I will be doing the Notakwanon River in Labrador, with all monies raised going to the Natuashish Diabetes Health Unit.

It is the intent to bring further attention to this serious disease and to benefit the local Aboriginal Diabetes Health Units and peoples.

If you are interested in helping by donating or have any ideas, please contact me.

I will be at the Symposium, should anyone wish to discuss these initiatives.

Thanks,

Jack Frimeth
60 Washburn Dr.
Guelph, Ontario N1E 0B2
(H) 519 823 5709
(c) 519 212 3817

j_frimeth@hotmail.com

The Saturday April 21 edition of the Toronto Star has a very interesting article on a Search & Rescue mission to rescue two Inuit hunters gone very wrong. (page IN1, "A rescue nightmare in Arctic") http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1165241--how-did-search-and…

The two hunters had left Igloolik on Baffin Island last fall to go walrus hunting from a small boat, when the weather turned bad. They activated their SPOT beacon Oct. 26, 2011 at 9:19 pm. By the time they were rescued at 10:50 pm the next evening, most of eastern Canada's SAR resources had been brought into play on this one call, and one SAR technician was dead.

A Hercules transport was initially sent from Winnipeg, but since the hunters were on the ocean, it couldn't do anything. A Griffon utility helicopter could have been brought in to hoist the men from the boat, but this was found to be impossible since the closest was somewhere in the south. So a larger Cormorant was sought. The closest was in Gander, but it (like so much of our military's flying hardware) apparently could not make the long flight due to "airframe hours and cycles." Finally, they found a Cormorant in Greenwood, N.S. To cover this extraordinarily long flight, it had to re-fuel in Goose Bay, Kuujjuaq, and Cape Dorset. Since the journey was beyond its normal capabilities, it would have needed an accompanying plane for safety if it were to fly over the ocean directly there. As one was not available, the helicopter had to follow the coast. Another Hercules was dispatched from Trenton with two SAR technicians on board. Meanwhile, attempts were made to obtain an Aurora long range patrol plane, or even a Twin Otter, but without success. So then, a third Hercules was then sent from Greenwood, N.S., though it only had a few hours of flying time available before it was to go in for scheduled maintenance. Additionally, a fourth Hercules took off from Trenton, only to turn around five hours later as by then it was not needed. Finally, the Coast Guard icebreaker Henry Larsen was dispatched to the scene, though it was two days sailing time away.

Since the SAR technicians arrived hours before the Cormorant will be on the scene, they decided to jump from the Hercules with a couple of large rubber rafts for them and the hunters, so that they could provide assistance. One of the technicians made it, but the other was separated from the big raft, so deployed his one-man emergency raft. By the time the four were pulled from the ocean, the SAR technician in the little emergency raft was unresponsive and became the only fatality.

We take our hat of to the courageous men and women of our Search & Rescue teams, and to our armed forces personnel who support them. These people put their lives on the line to help us if things go wrong out in the wilds.

The unexpected can happen to even the most experienced travellers in remote areas, despite meticulously careful planning. Nonetheless, when we head out on that canoe or kayak trip, we need to keep in mind the potentially serious consequences of mishaps when so far from help. The danger isn't only to us, but also to those who may come to help us. While sat phones and locator beacons are wonderful pieces of technology, we should never come to rely on them or allow them to become substitutes for personal responsibility and prudent behaviour.

This episode should also be a somber heads-up that just because we carry a sat phone or beacon, we should not assume it guarantees a fast rescue. The unfortunate string of events that occurred here have caused some serious questions to be raised about this country's SAR organization- not the people; their professionalism and commitment is never in doubt- but the SAR operations, procedures, and material support.

Our Prime Minister has said “There is no possible way that in the vastness of the Canadian Arctic we could ever have all the resources close by." With recent federal budget cuts, those resources may be even farther away in the future.

Reminder - you must sign in as the member in order to download the current issue:

http://www.wildernesscanoe.ca/content/download-current-issue

In this issue:

1 Snake River
10 Editorial-out
10 Editorial-in
10 WCA Activities
10 Contributors’ Guid.
11 Book Review
11 Deadline
11 Outings Report
11 Bill Mason Videos
12 Food for Paddlers
12 Don River Paddle
13 Spanish River
17 Damascus
18 Bear Spray
19 Symposium
20 Bonaventure River
26 Camera for Paddlers
27 Fall Hiking Weekend

Minutes AGM 2012

Roni Furst is collecting those old MNR brochures for Northern Ontario (only!).
She has the approval of the MNR to publish them.
Several hundred are ready for publication but she would like to get as many as possible of the remaining brochures before going to press.
I think that this is a project worthy of the support of the entire paddling community, so please have a look through your files for the following.
If you find anything, please email her at RFdivr@aol.com
THANKS, Allan

She has minimal information on the following Routes/brochures:
Clearwater Loops through Pekagoning Lk
Eye R to Clearwater West Lk
Marmion Lk Loop
Atikokan to Lac des Milles Lacs and return
Seine R - Lac des Milles Lacs to Atikokan
Seine R - Atikokan to Ft Frances
Clearwater West Lk to Ignace
Wasp Lk Loop
Nym Lk Loop
Sydney Ck, Montreal R to Matachewan, West Montreal R

She has none of the following:
Kenora district:
Dryberry Lk - Feist Lk Loop
Highwind Lk - Porcus Lk
Highwind Lk - Teggau Lk
Porcus Lk - Geijay Lk
Jones Rd - Sand Lk Loop
Kenora - Trout Lk Loop
Blind River district:
Helenbar Lk Route (Mississagi PP)
Ten Mile Lk Route (Mississagi PP)
Nipigon district:
Sections 1-3, 7-9, 12-18, 22-28, 31-33, 35-38, 40-67.

 My incredible good fortune continues. I was recently interviewed by folks from Outcrop Communications out of Yellowknife. They are commissioned by the Government of NWT to orchestrate a marketing campaign for CBC's Artcic Air and various print media. The goal is to inspire people to visit the spectacular NWT and partake in some of the incredible outdoor activities NWT offers.

Some of my video footage from the Mountain river trip this past summer found its way into the campaign. Here's the brief synopsis of my story, as it appeared in the Saturday's Globe & Mail Travel section:

http://www.myspectacularnwt.com/content/aleks-story

Off to winter camping trip to Algonquin with Dave, Ann, Al, Wendy and Jerry from Vermont this Saturday. Can't wait - my first winter camping experience.

Aleks

Don Starkell, the Winnipeg paddler who claims to have logged more distance in a canoe than any other paddler in history (some 120,000 km) passed away on January 28 of cancer at age 79. Don and his son Dana made the Guinness Book of World Records for their 1980 canoe voyage from Winnipeg to the Amazon, a distance of 19,200 km. Don started his canoeing career in 1948 at age 15, and then went on to become a top sprint and marathon racer in the 1950's. Other notable trips included participating in the 1967 Centennial trans-Canada paddle, and an attempt to kayak the Northwest Passage in 1991-92 which ended just 58 km from the finish with a rescue after being trapped in pack ice. You can read about his exploits in his books "Paddle to the Amazon," and "Paddle to the Arctic." Don remained an active paddler all his life. In a 2010 Canoe & Kayak magazine interview he complained that due to poor weather he only put in 2400 km the previous year. His parting words in that interview would make a great epitaph for him: "I've travelled three times around the world. If someone wants to beat that, I don't give a damn."

If there's a Paddler's Heaven where there's always sunny skies and a tail wind, we know you must be there, Don.

Bill.

Dear Toni,

My apologies first if I greet you on a first name basis even though we don't know one another.

I just want to congratulate you and your staff on a job really well done!

I just finished reading the last edition (Winter 2011) of the Nastawgan and could'nt help but notice the overall high quality of that publication from the glossy paper to the high quality colour pictures to the well written articles, all of great interest.

It's really a labor of love and I want you to know that it shows throughout the whole publication.

All the very best,

Jean-Claude (JC) Lessnick

The best weather yet was had for our 3rd annual hiking weekend.

Saturday started off cool but warmed up quickly. Our 16 km hike to the Kolapore uplands was followed by a pot luck supper (where 17 of us squeezed around the farmhouse table), singing/guitar playing (courtesy of Bruce Bellaire) and charades. The regulars (Diane Lucas, Rick Sabourin, Bruce & Beth Bellaire, Barb & Dave Young, Mary Perkins, Faith Hughes, Johanna de Bruijn & Bear) welcomed newbies (Rick & Maaike Nonnekes, Elizabeth Barker, Dave & Dawne Robinson, Jon McPhee & Dian Connors, Scott Campbell).

Sunday was even warmer and we enjoyed shorter hikes on the Bruce Trail to Best Caves in the morning and Standing Rock in the afternoon.

Close calls: Elizabeth almost didn't find us on Friday night in the dark, a few missed turns on the trails added to the kilometers & calls for new hike leaders, Bear had trouble retrieving a stick from a tree, sauna/microwave technical difficulties.

Even though most of us had some sore muscles/joints the weekend was a wonderful experience. We are indeed fortunate to have such great hiking along the backbone of Ontario.