Canoe Trip Memories

This will be a bit of a mixed bag of things today. First the weather, for KR. At 5:00 this morning it was -8 C with a wind chill of -13 (17.6 & 8.6 F).

I recently joined a reading Blog group called Whorled Leaves. The group has chosen the book The Lonely Land by Sigurd Olson as a first book to read and share comments about. It was a shot in the dark for me as I had never heard of Olson or his book. I collected the book from the library last night and had a quick look through and read the introduction. It is a book about a wilderness canoe trip down the Churchill River in Saskatchewan. I felt an immediate kinship to Olson as I did a wilderness canoe trip on a different Churchill River. The Churchill River that I paddled down was in Labrador and even though it was at least 20 years after Olson's trip I already expect that some of our experiences will be similar which will make the book of even greater interest to me.

Since I am going to be reading about a wilderness canoe trip, I thought I would share a few memories about my trip here on this blog. The memories will be hazy at times as the trip was in the summer of 1981 and I can find no notes but I do have old slides that I took during the trip. As long as my slide projector holds out, I hope to make digital copies of some of the photos that I took back then. (If I blow the projector bulb, I may be finished. I am not sure that the bulbs are available anymore.)

I had a friend in Labrador that set up the trip and asked me to come along as one of six participants. After a few minutes of thought, I said yes and started preparations. First was a bit of map work. Where is the Churchill River anyway?



Well, actually, where is Labrador for starters. If your geography is not quite up to what it used to be, look for Labrador on the east coast of Canada. It's officially part of Newfoundland although Quebec would like to lay claim to it.



The plan was for me to fly to Goose Bay, Labrador and join the group there and then we would load three canoes and all or our gear into a van and drive on the only road in Labrador, yes, the only road, to Churchill Falls. We had to take extra gas just in case as there were no towns, no service stations, and damn little else other than bush along the road. It really was the only road in Labrador other than a short one between Goose Bay and North West River. All of the other villages in Labrador were along the coast and accessible only by boat.

Below was my first sight of the river near Churchill Falls. Yes, it is a canyon at the beginning. No there are not many places to get off the river. No, there are no towns, villages, or houses between Churchill Falls and Goose Bay. No, the road is not close to the river. No, once we leave the van there is no easy way to turn back. Yes, we need to be careful. No, there were no GPS units then and we did not have two-way radios. We would be out of communication with the rest of the world for the time it took to get down the river. (To be continued.)

Shelter or Food

I brought two items inside to photograph today. Both are galls. The first gall is the common Goldenrod Ball Gall. They are very common on the goldenrod called either Tall Goldenrod or Late Goldenrod (Solidago altissima). The gall is formed by the plant in response to the larva of a small fly (Eurosta solidaginis). One English name for the fly is, appropriately, Goldenrod Fly. The larva spends all summer and all winter in the gall. During the winter it produces both an antifreeze alcohol called glycerol and a sugar called sorbitol to help it survive. So the gall is both food and shelter for the larva. Of course there is more to the story. Several other insects manage to parasitize the larva so the larva may become food for another insect larva.



One will only know in the spring which insect will emerge unless a bird checks it out first. Both Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers open some galls to check out the food inside. Since the larva produces a sugar to help it survive, the birds must enjoy a sweet find. Also I have known a few naturalists that have opened the gall to show others and then popped the larva into their own mouths, swearing that it is sweet and good. So far I have just taken their word for it as my taste for sweets has not expanded to fly maggots of any kind yet.

The other gall that I photographed was the Willow Pine Cone Gall.



It is caused by a small gnat or midge (Rhabdophaga strobiloides). Like the Goldenrod Gall, the Willow Gall has not only the original insect larva but a host of other larva that share the shelter or parasitize the other insect larvae in the gall. (I've spent the last hour,ok, hour and a half, searching for the information that I know I have in a book, somewhere, but it eludes me so I cannot post the large number of insect larvae suggested that live in the gall. It's like an itch that cannot be scratched. Sigh!)

Ice and Flowers

This pattern was in our pond ice this morning. I am guessing it was caused by a warm spot but I have no idea why there was a warm spot there.



The Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) was in full bloom yesterday in spite of icy winds.

Water, Water

Here is yesteday's photo of our east pond. As you can see, it is small and iced. Last year the pond was dry for the first half of the winter. This December it is at spring levels with water over the base of some of the willows.



Here is today's photo of the Hamilton Harbour with the city, escarpment and setting sun in the background. The harbour is deep and unfrozen for now. It often freezes during the winter and ice boats may be seen skating across it. The city of Hamilton is built both below and on the Niagara escarpment beyond the harbour. The escarpment runs from Niagara to Tobermory and ranges between 60 to 120 m (200 to 400 feet) in height. In Hamilton the escarpment is about 100 m (300 ft.) high. It looks more like a cloud bank in this photo. The Hamilton harbour is a port for both the Great Lakes and ocean ships that come up the St.Lawrence River from the Atlantic.

Mourning Dove

Someone has to clean up under the bird feeders....