Turkeys, Milkweeds, Ice, Snow, . . . .

Calla and I flushed out a dozen wild turkeys on our afternoon walk. One of these days I am going to get a good shot of turkeys. We were within about 20 metres of the flock when they all took off flying in several directions. About 10 minutes later, I heard them calling to each other in an attempt to regroup and managed to get this photo from a long distance away.



Yesterday when Églantine, Calla, and I were out, I went looking for and found some Swamp Milkweed stalks with pods. Églantine noticed that some seeds and pod parts looked like a face.



The pods of the Swamp Milkweed are a lot more delicate than the Common Milkweed.



Below is a close up photo of an icicle with the sun setting behind it. (Yes, I broke it off and turned it sideways. The icicle that is, not the sun.)



And, before I forget, just for the Kansas Reader, here is this morning's sunrise & snow photo with the temperature.



Yes, the temperature is in Celsius. (10 F & -6 F)

New Snow

We had some new snow yesterday and it appeared that there was enough to get out my snowshoes and start packing down the trail around Églantine's property in preparation for skiing.



Here's our dog, Calla, wondering what I am doing with the camera almost down in the snow.



We went from 9 Mourning Doves and a Junco under the bird feeder to 15 Mourning doves later in the day. This was the best photo of the 9 + 1.

Now & Then Concluded

Sorry I missed posting yesterday. Hope the edge of the chairs did not bite too much.

The air temperature has gone up a lot in the last two days. It's almost balmy.





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1981 Churchill Trip Concluded

I was anxious, frightened and a bit exhilarated when balanced on top of large canoe packs while riding an overloaded canoe going through fast and rough rapids. We had decided to risk the overloading after spending time lining the two remaining canoes down river for a half hour or so and making very little progress. We did make it to the end of the rapids and, much to my surprise and gratefulness, we found the missing canoe drifting slowly in large circles around an enormous eddy at the end of the rapids. We grabbed onto it and pulled it slowly to the shore where we checked the damage and our remaining possessions. Luckily for us, we had had all the packs and our shoes tied securely to the canoe so all we lost were the paddles and kneeling pads that had been loose in the canoe and much of our pride at not having been able to handle the canoe in rough water. Needless to say, everything not secured in plastic bags was soaked. Again, fortunately, almost all of our clothing and food were in plastic. I found my 35 mm camera inside my newly purchased "waterproof bags" resting in a small puddle of water. I took a few photos and replaced the film. There was a bit of water damage to the photos, but the camera continues to function 24 years later. My partner had not bought the expensive waterproof bags but put her camera in a simple zip-lock freezer bag. It was perfectly dry! I have been buying zip-lock bags for many items since then.



The next day was to be our last and it was but not in the way we expected it. There was a particularly bad set of rapids just ahead of where we had camped but we could not line the canoes on our side of the river so we had to cross the river to do the lining. My partner and I were not successful at getting across in time. Instead we had one of the wildest canoe rides that I ever want to take. The canoe was going through huge standing waves. There were times when I was looking up to see my partner high above me in the front of the canoe as we headed for sky and times when I was bracing to stop myself from falling down into the depths as she was far below me. All the time we were desperately hoping to miss all the rocks in the river. We were successful in that we made it through the roller-coaster ride and to the side of the river at the bottom of the rapids with the canoe about 3/4 full of water but we were still upright and nothing was lost or damaged.

Because of all the excitement and misadventure of rapids, we were being even more cautious at the next and last set of rapids when misfortune hit the final time. Our leader, while walking and hopping along the side of the river slipped on a mossy rock and went down hard. He put out his hand to help save himself and put a finger, on his dominate hand of course, out of joint and out of service. He pulled the finger and tried to get it back in place but was not successful. We put on a splint and again worked on our problem solving skills. We were fortunate in two ways this time. We had just passed the first road that we had seen on the 5-day journey so the plan seemed obvious. We were going to abandon the trip and walk out, no matter how long it took as travel. Without our leader being able to paddle, it would have been very difficult to finish on the river and we knew that we were only about 30 miles from our Goose Bay ending point. We took all of our packs out of the canoe and took them up to a clear spot by the "road" and I dug into my pack to get my tarp so I could keep items out of the sandy soil. I had just spread out my tarp, which was bright orange, when we heard a loud sound coming from above. We looked up to see a helicopter. It was the first sign of current civilization we had seen for the week. We all waved and jumped up and down and the helicopter actually landed.



It turned out that the bright orange tarp was actually a signal of trouble. I had had no idea that it would be of help in that manner. Anyway, the helicopter pilot was taking two men into a fishing site somewhere further along but he agreed to stop on the way back and give our leader a quick trip into town by air which he did. Our leader was dropped off at the Goose Bay hospital and properly put back together. He did lose the flexibility of that finger and had to give up some of his guitar playing ability but that was the only lasting effect, as far as I know, of his accident. The rest of us camped where we were for the night and started to portage our canoes and belonging along the road the next morning. It was not long before we were met by our leader and another person who had brought the van as far as they could along the road. Unfortunately, the van was still several kilometres away from us but, after some thought, we all went back to the van and started some road repair. There were several gullies washed into the sandy roadbed, but we were able to fill those with rock and logs and sticks and got the van to the canoes to collect them without having to portage them a long distance. Thus ended the Churchill River expedition. It was not as expected but all survived with minimum damage and only a few items were lost.

Now & Then # 7

One of these mornings, it will be warmer. Not today!



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1981 Churchill River Trip Cont.

On day 5 we had our first major problem.

(You were waiting for this, weren't you. Didn't I say it was a real adventure?)

At this point in the trip we were about 120 miles from the beginning and only had about 60 miles to go. (I am pulling numbers off of another internet Churchill River adventure since I still cannot find my numbers or write up.) Anyway, we've come to one of two major rapids on the Churchill River. It is a class 3 rapid for those of you who know the class system and a rapid for experts only for those of you who don't know the system. It is recommended that everyone line this set of rapids for at least the beginning as it is at this point in the river that it makes a 90 degree turn and another river, the Minipi, joins the Churchill to add a huge volume of water. There are records of people drowning at this spot in the river and none of us wanted to add to that record. Before we even lined the rapids, we tied our canoes to some trees at the edge of the river and went to look at what was ahead.



Here you can see the river for miles ahead. There were miles of continuous rapids. Make a mistake here and you may be wet for a long time, if you get out. As I remember, the rapids were about 5 miles long after you made the 90-degree turn and met the swirling waters of the Minipi.

Have I dragged this out long enough yet?



Here is one of the last photos of the day. You can see the lead canoe, on ropes, being floated down the river and a bit away from the shore. The second canoe is hugging the shore tightly. My camera and I are at the stern rope on the third canoe and the canoe is pulling hard. I pulled the canoe back in to the shore and put my camera into it's two waterproof bags, one inside the other. My partner and I then gently started to let the canoe out again to make the corner. In the photo, you can see the water in the distance splashing against rocks and putting waves into the air. We moved as carefully as we could but, nevertheless, the canoe suddenly pulled out to a position where it was crosswise to the rapids. It was like trying to hold a locomotive back and my hands were not up to the challenge. My partner, a young woman, was in danger of being pulled into the river and I shouted, "Let go!" She did and we watched as our canoe rapidly went tumbling downstream leaving us 60 miles from the nearest road without our food, without our tents, without our extra clothing, without our shoes, without everything except the clothes on our bodies, our lives, and our friends with two other full canoes. What to do?

(To be continued....)

Now & Then # 6

It was another cold sunrise. Fortunately there was almost no wind.



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1981 Churchill River Trip cont.

Having had our restful night on the rocks, we started out our day with some rapids. They don't look too bad from the shore, do they?



When one is out in them and it's a cloudy, damp day and the river wants to steal your canoe out from under your knees, it feels a bit different. We spent a fair bit of time lining the canoes through the worst of the rapids.



Little did we know that the rapids of day 5 would make our rapids of today look tame. Meanwhile, blissfully unaware, we did find a bright spot on this fourth day when the sun shone through during lunch break.



(To be continued....)