General

 George Luste, a pillar of the Wilderness Canoe Association and founder of the Canoeing & Wilderness Symposium died at his home on Toronto on Saturday, March 21st. An obituary notice will be published in one or more of the Toronto papers, probably in the weekend edition of March 28. No public funeral is planned. A celebration of George’s life will be held at a future date, to be determined by his family. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I invite you to share your memories of George by replying to this email. The idea is to collect them all in one place and publish in a photo journal that will be presented to Linda and family on behalf of all WCA members and Symposium attendees.

I also encourage you to make a donation to the Luste Lecture Fund. This fund was created in recognition of George's immense contribution to wilderness canoeing and in partnership between WCA and CCM. Details on how to contribute are available here:
http://www.wcsymposium.com/content/luste-lecture

May he rest in peace and live on in our memories.

See the Esquif website. As of Monday March 16th, Esquif has closed its doors. They'll be no TFormex replacement for Royalex. Anyone looking for a replacement Canyon or Pocket Canyon for tripping, or a solo whitewater canoe better start making calls to the shops to grab up the remaining stock. When it's gone, it's gone for good.

Just in case you are interested, The Credit race may move to the 4th of April if the ice is still not out.
View info online.
Credit river March 28th, 2015
https://bay179.mail.live.com/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=mga9…

Humber river race
April 11th, 2015
https://bay179.mail.live.com/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=mgTr…

Moira river Derby
April 19th, 2015
https://bay179.mail.live.com/mail/ViewOfficePreview.aspx?messageid=mgTr…

Jeff

Last fall I have accepted an invitation to be involved with the next level of development in Queen Elizabeth Wild Lands P. P. along with the many other stakeholders that share interest in this area. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people with even with more than my almost 50 years of going into the area which is good for the point that they want to preserve the area as much a possible.

We met in early December, which was a meet and greet and to identify issues and to build direction from this and the past park documents. It was a great opportunity to show the other groups that our concerns where very similar.

From the canoeing fraternity perspective reasonable inexpensive access where we don’t cause conflict with the different property associations is the major point I brought to the meeting.

In this process we are looking at least at 5 year time span before things get really going (or more)
Hopefully in the near term we can come up with some temporary solutions.
On this point I have offered the paddling fraternity as a possible work/volunteer force to help clear any parking access point that may be identified to alleviate any places we are in conflict with other stakeholders.

The sad news here is the manners of some paddlers has put us on about the same level as the ATV’ers in the way they have treated surrounding landowners and users, but both are above weekend fishing people with powerboats.
We have lost a few of the parking spots due to this activity. Yes the park is a free/public area but we don’t pay taxes to the surrounding area.
So we need to make sure all paddlers are considerate to these surrounding groups. It will make it that much easier to develop new parking access locations.

Here are some of concerns from other Groups.
Trespassing on Private property.
Blocking of driveways and obstructing lane ways.
Leaving garbage, pet droppings.
Using private property and the access roads as a bathroom.
(yes they are watching!)
Camping too close to cottages.
Conflict when it is pointed out they are doing the above.
Not following hunting/fishing laws.
For the Hunt/fish camps.
Respect their camps, give them some space.
Don’t camp beside them.
Trespassing, they have had a number of break-ins.
Report any suspicious activity. They understand it is not canoe trippers, they would just like to protect their camps.
In hunting season wear ORANGE!
It is just common sense to make both your outdoor experiences safe and enjoyable.
This is just a readers digest version when the full report is made public I will post it.
This area is close to the GTA and will come under increasing pressure for use before it becomes an operational park.
It is up to us as paddlers to make sure we are not on the naughty list of park users.
I will post if I hear on the suggestions I made about helping to develop/expand and parking areas.
If you hear of a land owners/stores that will let us park for a few $ let us know, the competition will help keep the prices in the known areas competitive.
It is not going to be a fast process, if you have any concerns pass them on to me and I will bring them up at the next meeting.
Jeff McColl
Conservation Chair
WCA

PS When making comments on the use of the Park remember that all groups have a voice in what is going on. Look at it from others perspectives when trying to come up with solutions.

The Latest of Northern Hoot from Jeffrey Hinch
The Man who walks by Moonlight
Tawabinisay
A great read,
For those who may wonder why posting this here, This is the man that most likely was the Guide for the Group of Seven in Algoma. He took famous American author Stewart Edward White into this area before the ACR, and was also the Guide for the surveyor crews who put the tracks in.
http://www.northernhoot.com/…/ghostrain-circa-1922-man-who…/

In an earlier edition - Ghost Train
http://www.northernhoot.com/news/northernvoices/ghostrain/

I have been friends with the Grandson of Sidney Johnson since he gave me a lift from Hwy 17 up to Frater 10 years ago on one of my solo trips. He shared with me one of his Grandfathers drawins of the Canyon.
Jeffrey Hinch sent me a copy of the drawing in the story without the shadows,
With the people shadows I had mistakenly guessed the wrong spot but only by 200m, With out the shadows it was just another place that I had stood where Sidney painted, all very cool.

Winter
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gqGS5gmQL6c/USLe74rZglI/AAAAAAAAE5k/…

Fall trip train coming out of the sketch location.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-th7gM8-hJOM/VDwhqWoqIBI/AAAAAAAALec/…

Enjoy!
Jeff

the image attached is the other Sidney Johnston watercolor.

This link came to me through Bird Studies Canada.
Both the video and Bird Studies site is a good way to get your kids interest up or help you see/hear more on you trips to what is out there.
With the science sector taking a hit the bird people can always you another set of eyes and ears.
Link to Bird Studies Canada
http://www.bsc-eoc.org/

Jeff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDI41AJ0nzw&feature=youtu.be

Canoes for Peru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84411374&x-yt-ts=1421828030&v=DKc…

Post on Myccr
http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=43610

Feel free to share!
Jeff

This is why the partners forum is such a good idea.
It would be nice to hook up paddlers who are willing to take older folk into the woods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD22gq7UD1o

Jeff

 For all of you friends that couldn't be at the Canoe Museum last fall to see the inaugural Luste Lecture, here it is:

http://www.wcsymposium.com/content/luste-lectures

Our annual hiking weekend was a great success. We had snow again this year but it didn't deter us. Enough cars with snow tires allowed us to drive to the Beaver Valley for a Bruce Trail hike that included Eugenia Falls, Hoggs Falls and several smaller waterfalls. I thought we had too much food for the Saturday night supper but we made short work of it. Following dinner, Marilyn & David Friesen treated us to a presentation about their hike on Baffin Island and then Dave Robinson followed up with slides from last summer's Snake River trip. On Sunday, a smaller group hiked the Bruce Trail at the Nottawasaga Bluffs then had lunch back at the farmhouse before heading home.