Wow - long time since posting - it's been a wonderfully active and interesting time.

Marg and I were about to head off to Wabun in late September for a final round of readying the camp for the winter, when out of the blue came a call from Dr. Dan Christo who was in the Boston area for  medical conference.  Dan was a camper at Wabun in the early 70s, then a member of our staff, and ultimately our camp doctor and staff medical trainer. He was also a member of my Wabun B section in the summer of 1971.  He is single-handedly responsible for taking a photo of one of my favorite canoe-trip moments of all time.  Marg and I enjoyed a great couple of hours catching up with him and his family when Dan visited us in New Hampshire.

Dan Christo visiting on a beautiful fall day - September 24, 2012

In that summer of 1971, we were camped on Sassaginiga Lake - day seven into a Wabun B thirty-day Dumoine River trip - time for a rest day, a chance to do some fishing, handle a bit of laundry, bake some bread, and finish off the rest of the smoked ham in a split pea and ham-bone soup - all punctuated by frequent swims, journal entries, and just kickin' back like a rest day should allow.  In the midst of this day of leisure and cuisine, we looked out to see what I thought were two loons swimming across a broad expanse of the lake - alas, it turned out to be two young bull moose moving from one shore to the other.  During a previous summer  I had heard from my Mattawa guide Danny Meilleur that moose in the water, so long as they are in water deep enough not to allow hoof contact with the bottom, were pretty much fully end exclusively concentrated on swimming and that you could actually get close enough to pat them on their back - or maybe even take a ride.  That stayed with me as an encouragement to be carried forth to just the right moment - right to that day on Sassaginiga.

Decked out in our lounging-about bathing suits, we launched a couple of canoes and headed out for the intercept - with a canoe on each side of one of the moose, I was presented with the opportunity to take a great leap of faith.  In mid air I had two thoughts: what if Danny was pulling my leg; and toss my precious Pentax H1A to the next canoe for a photo op - Dan Christo was in the bow of the adjoining canoe, caught the camera, and did me the huge favor of capturing what others might think not to have happened without print proof - many, many thanks, Dan, and thanks for enlivening the memory with your visit.

Moose riding on Sassaginiga

When Marg and I reached Temagami at the beginning of October, the skies were blue, the foliage in technicolor bloom, and the airs warm and comfortable.

Ian Cameron and his son Michael  joined us again to help with the combination of finishing up the storage of gear, shuttering of buildings, prepping of all the engines and nestling them into the implement shed out of harm's way.  In those first couple of weeks there was ample opportunity to turn some energies to the  harvesting of the last of the vegetables and herbs that Chef Robin Potts had planted in the spring before the camp season began.  The harvest was incongruously bountiful - squash, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, rosemary, basil, and oregano.

Evidence of the feast that fell into our laps

As the hint of chills strengthened each morning, you could get a sense of summer gently morphing into fall.  The wildlife on the island seemed to sense this as well.  Who knows whether or not the grouse were seeking to make use of indoor spaces to ward off the temperature change, but on one of our mornings we came across two ruffed grouse that had lost their battle with window panes - not to let their misfortune go to waste, we settled into a bit of widlife cuisine - bacon-wrapped and freshly herbed grouse on a bed of rice -

Approaching time to leave.

Then, in what seemed like a matter of hours, it all changed - really stiff winds from the north, temperatures down below freezing, snow squalls and conditions far more typical of November than October.  Ian and Michael left just before the weather turned.  Marg and I stayed for another week or so to tidy up the seemingly endless tide of loose ends - the temperatures stayed cold, but the skies cleared again yielding gorgeous vistas of the remaining fall colors highlighted by that special blue of the water that comes with the chills of fall shrouding the lake in rising morning mists.

It was a wonderful good-bye visit - we look forward to seeing Temagami again in the winter phase of March.

In the next week, I'll catch up with a posting of my visit with Jess in Taipei - I've been here for a week and will be back in New Hampshire just as the polls close - glad I completed the absentee ballot.

Cheers, all.