Kandalore Nor'westers: Robert (Bob) James' Journal of the Lake Superior Centennial Canoe Voyages 1967 & 1969

By Bob James

Notes transcribed September 2, 2017 from 1967 Lake Superior Canoe Trip

Crossing the bay at Marathon

Friday, August 18

In the morning, I had no clue that I would be going on any trip. I had a vague desire to go, but I figures it was impossible.Then I heard, talking to Gord Day, that Brian Law wasn't going, as he had planned. I started to wonder if I could go or not, to fill the required place. I asked Bob Smagala, and he and Kirk finally OK’d it. A quick call to Dad confirmed finally that I would be going. That afternoon was hectic.I had to find someone to take the team, and someone to take my cabin. I had to do camper files and pack myself for the trip and for going home. I got it all done, quickly, but adequately. That night, I helped pack for a while in the trip centre before going back to section. Kirk had us all at flag lowering to explain the purpose and meaning of the trip. He gave us two centennial flags and two of his own paddles to take on the trip. I then went back to section to finish packing (and also because I was duty). I put my guys to bed with a final farewell to them and then went back to the Slack Shack. We all sat down to start playing bridge. We brought food out and then the fun started.. Stocky and Purd had a fight over Purd’s cigarette. We started yelling at each other and generally having a riot. A bread fight broke out about 1:00 and lasted to about 1:15. At that time there was a knock on the door. It was Kirk. The doctor had been complaining about the noise, and he wondered why we were still awake. We started wondering, too. We went to bed shortly after.

Saturday, August 19

Awoke at 3:45. It was still dark, as suspected. We lit a lantern and started rolling. We left section at 4:15 and went to the truck to pack. A quick breakfast ensued, and final preparations were taken care of. We left camp at 5:30, in the yellow pig, and with the long (25 foot) canoes on the back. We drove up through Huntsville to North Bay. A gas and rest-room stop there, and we pushed on North to Sudbury. As we neared Sudbury, the countryside changed completely. It became just about the most barren land I have ever seen. A few scrub birches and brush were the only vegetation, and most of the land was black, eroded and bare. It looked like a moonscape of some sort, or at least a God-forsaken hunk of land. This only seemed to get worse as we approached Sudbury. I can’t see how anybody would want to live in a place like that. Just as we entered Sudbury, there was a loud clank from the engine, and we stopped, slowly but surely. We discovered that a part of the clutch had broken, and we were stuck.This was at 11:30. We went to a gas station and phoned a tow truck from there. He took our truck to a place on the other side of town (where our credit card was good) and began to work on it. We had to walk the four miles to the station. We did this, having lunch on the way. When we got to the station, the truck still wasn’t fixed, so we went up to see the Big Nickel (which was only a half-mile from the station). (There was also a penny and a JFK half-dollar there.) We met the other two men on the trip (Rod MacLeod and Dave Purdon), who had come up in Rod’s car and stopped when they saw the truck. We discovered about 4:00 that the part had been welded and had rebroken and that we couldn’t find a spare anywhere in town. We commenced to re-pack the packs by days, and to set up food caches which could be left along the way, so the canoes wouldn’t be too low in the water. About 6:00, a machinist came with the original part, bolted together. We put it in, and it broke again. We then tried bolting the pedal right to the clutch, but we found this was too hard on the transmission. We phoned Kirk, and he told us to wait for a part. This meant that the truck had to wait for a day or so, but we could go ahead. We checked out the trains and things, and even phoned Toronto to see if we could get a part. We then prepared to sleep the night in the truck. But the man in the station was really nice. We offered to do some work for him the next day, and he told us that we could sleep in an old produce truck of his. Eight of us did this, and the other three slept in our truck. We went to sleep about 11:00.

Sunday, August 20

Woke up at 8:30. Rolled sleeping bags and prepared breakfast. We had planned steaks for the night before, but we decided to eat out that night, so the meat was still there. During the night, it started to go bad, so we decided to eat it for breakfast. The manager of the station lent us a Coleman stove, and we cooked them and some eggs for breakfast. We swept his asphalt apron for him and then cleaned up. In the meantime, a machinist had made the missing (or broken) “link” from scratch, and he put it in and started the clutch adjustment. An auto parts salesman set out to find us the last part we needed (which was available). To pass the afternoon, we played cards, slept, etc. The mechanic who was supposed to put our part in for us went to the stock car races and didn’t get back until 5:00. He put it together and discovered that he could’t adjust it enough. We figured that the pressure plate or the clutch wheel was gone and phoned the United man back again to try and get the part. We also arranged for a mechanic to put it in. We then went for a good supper. After supper, we went across the highway to where they were building a railroad marshalling yard. There we found an old handcar-flatcar arrangement. We spent some time putting it on the tracks, and then we spent an hour or so poling it back and forth. We all felt like characters out of Tom Sawyer. This lasted until about 10:30. Then we went back to the garage. By this time, the clutch had been fixed (it took two tries—the first plate bought was too big), then they tried it out. They soon discovered that it was still not right, and inspection showed that the alignment was out about 30 degrees. Te mechanic heated it and pounded it and bent it until it was reasonably OK (it was the steering rod that had been bent by the tow truck man). We then loaded up, attached the trailer, and left Monaghan’s B-A station at 11:40. Four of us (Rod, Dave Purdon, John Sparks and myself) went in Rod’s VW, and the rest stretched out in the bus. The VW followed the bus for about 120 miles or so, just in case anything went wrong. We stopped once at an all-night restaurant for a coffee and snack and then left again, trying to sleep on the way (without much success).

Monday, August 21

After driving all night, we reached the Soo (that is, the Volks reached the Soo) at about 4:45. We left the car at a friend of Rod’s place, and walked up to meet the truck at a prearranged spot. We got there and sat down to wait, spending the time looking at the clouds, being cold, and waving to the natives. Finally, at about 6:30, the truck arrived. Apparently, just after we left the bus (i.e., about 3:45), the trailer tongue broke in two and the trailer ground to a halt on the highway. It took them an hour to fix it temporarily, and they came into the Soo. We stopped a man to find a welding place, and he took us right to one, but it was only about 6:45 at the time, and the place was still closed.We left the trailer there and went first to breakfast ad then to the OPP station to see if we could leave our truck there while we were on our trip. This was OK’d, so we went back to the welders and proceeded to get the tongue welded. At about 9:30, we left the Soo and began our trip to the Lakehead. We soon discovered the size of Superior to be fantastic. We also found the the North Shore was all that people claimed it was. Huge, jagged rock formations through which only the road, the railroad, and a number of rivers cut. The combination of deep blue water and a rugged coast makes for really beautiful scenery. As we drove along, we noticed that some of the welds in the trailer were cracking, but we continued driving. We stopped at Marathon and left a food cache (about half our food) there to pick up later. We drove on, stopping at White River (the coldest place in Canada—72 below recorded!) for supper. By now, we were all fairly cold. But we drove on. We had to stop once to lash the trailer where a weld had cracked. We passed the red rock of Nipigon and then saw the town—basically a lumber town. We caught sight of the two largest bays we cross—Thunder Bay and Black Bay. Arrived in Port Arthur about 10:00 (PM) their time. Started looking for a place to stay and also for the Lands and Forests people. We found neither. We drove on to Kakabeka Falls, beyond Fort William, and decided to stay the night there. We left the trailer and packs at the park and went to a hotel for a decent supper. This was about 12:00. We ate supper and got back to camp about 1:30, cold and tired (we were so tired we were incoherent in thought and action). Six of us slept in the truck and the other five under a makeshift tarp shelter. We fell asleep fast. The temperature that night went to 35 degrees (Fahrenheit). Brrr!

Tuesday, August 22

We were finally within sight of beginning our canoe trip. We awoke at 8:30 and started washing, packing, and taking pictures of the falls. The weather was clear and warming. We went back to the hotel we were at the night before (partly for breakfast and partly because I left my hat there). We phoned the RCMP, the OPP, Lands and Forests (for support along the way—the RCMP to get its patrol boat to check on us once in a while) and various radio and TV stations (for publicity for the Centennial Voyage, the Nor’Westers, and camp). We were to leave from the New Vickers Bridge and paddle the Mission River. The people going are: Rod McLeod Dave Purdon Craig (Styx) MacDonald Paul Reynolds Bruce Grantier Bob James Peter Mills Andy Bain Jim Stockbridge John Sparks Dave Merryfield (truck driver) We left the hotel at 12:00. We reached the bridge at 12:40, but the press were not supposed to arrive until 1:00 (if at all), so we went down to look at the lake. We came back and put in near an old deserted grain elevator. One press man came with a camera (from a TV station). We left there about 1:30 and started paddling up the Mission River. The wind was right against us going down the river. We passed a dredge, a hydro-electric plant, and a pulp mill before entering the mouth of the river. We stuck by a boom on the way out, then headed towards the eastern tip of Pie Island. The wind continued to be against us for a while, and gradually swung around to hit us more broadside. It seemed as if we were going nowhere. We finally passed the Welcome Islands and seemed to get closer to Pie Island and the Sleeping Giant. From the tip of Pie Island, we headed over towards Thunder Point (at the other side of Thunder Bay). All this time the weather was sunny and cool, and the waves no more than 1-½ feet and choppy. About 6:00 we reached Thunder Point (there was an unmanned light on the point) and went a bit farther. But we decided we were too tired to go much farther, so we went back to the point and set up camp there. It was a grassy and rocky point. There were the remains of an old house and lighthouse there, and we used one foundation to set up a fire on. The three tents were set up in the field. We had a combination lunch-dinner with a beautiful sunset as background. When that finished and it got darker, a big red harvest moon appeared. It was really a fantastic ending to a hard day. We paddled about 18 miles that day. We went to bed at 9:30.

Wednesday, August 23

Woke up at 8:30. Got out. Paul and Styx had already gotten a fire going and breakfast started. We had a rather slow breakfast and cleanup and left camp at 10:15. We paddled across a choppy sea with long swells. The weather was sunny and hot and the wind south-east. We paddled across the bay to Trowbridge Island where there was a manned lighthouse (Harold Horton and Mr. and Mrs. Thompson). They invited us up for coffee, and we took them up on it. We had coffee, tea, tea biscuits, and talk. They explained more of the route to us and told other lighthouses about us. We ended up staying an hour and a half before setting off again. We stayed in the lee of the Shag Islands and then set out across Black Bay. We were now getting 4 - 4½ foot waves. We stopped about 2:00 at Clark Island (a squarish, bird-splattered rock island). Set off again at 3:00 or 3:15 for the far shore. We went in front of Edward Island and behind Porphyry. The waves were again about 4-½ feet high. We came to Magnet Island and found a fishing camp there about 7:00. We finagled a place to stay there and started to cook supper on a stove in a cabin with beds and things. It was great. A good supper, and back to bed about 10:30. (P.S. The man at Trowbridge said that while Thunder Bay had been rough the day before, the rest of the lake was pretty calm. He said it was often this way on Superior.)

Thursday, August 24

Woke up at 5:45. Started a fire in the stove and began breakfast. We had the night before’s soup, since we didn’t want it then, and left-over fruit cocktail. We were slow getting going, but finally got all the packs done and the cabins swept and cleaned by about 8:00. We were on the water by 8:15. Stocky and I started in the sterns. We paddled out into a fairly open bay. It was very difficult sterning, the waves pushed you about so much. By this time, Stocky had been replaced by John Sparks. We made it through various islands as far as Black’s Wharf, where we had lunch and a short pit. Rod and Dave took over the sterns again, because we were paddling across a large bay. We paddled across to Agate Point and then out to Lamb’s Island. The wind was pretty well dead against us and some waves must have been a good 5 - 5-½ feet high. At Lamb’s Island, we were met by Charlie MacDonald, the keeper of the lighthouse there. He invited us in for coffee and we went. He told us the canoe race had passed him at 3:00 PM after leaving the Lakehead at 4:00 AM. He also told us of catching 7 lb. speckled trout and 500 lbs. of moose steaks around his place. He seemed to be a very nice man. He suggested we go to the west o Moss Island and behind St. Ignace Island, because of the wind (it took us 3 hours to go the 7 miles from Black’s Wharf to Lamb’s Island). We left his place at 5:00 or 5:30 and paddled up the channel until 7:30. We stopped at the signal lights there. Camp was set up and we went to bed at 9:30. The weather had been cloudy and fairly windy all day. We did about 34 miles.

Friday, August 25

Woke up at 5:30. Breakfast as usual. The wind was really strong (about 30 mph, I think) and this gave us some trouble. But it was with us, so we pushed off about 8:00 and set up sail. We really travelled for a while. But then it started to rain, with some thunder and lightning. We took the sail down and stayed under it until the rain finished. We tried sailing again, after the rain stopped, but it went so slow we paddled instead. Just near the end of the channel, the wind picked up and we sailed around the corner of the island. then the wind was against us. We paddled as far as we could, then put in at a wharf, our speed was so slow. We decided to have a hot meal then and pit until the wind died down.It died down and appeared to shift for a while, and then picked up again. But about 3:30, it was quiet enough to go out again. We set off about 3:45 and paddled the rest of St. Ignace Island. We reached the light on Simpson about 7:30, and decided to stop there for a lunch-supper. It was a rocky beach—slippery, but nice. A standard lunch, but with a fire to warm us. The sunset was red and beautiful. There was fog on the lake, but the water was fairly calm. At 8:30 or 8:45 we set out to cross Simpson Channel. It rapidly got dark, and we set course by lighthouses. We wandered all over, aiming for Salter Island, but decided to go for Rossport instead, since we could follow lights there. It clouded up and began to rain just as we reached the dock (about 11:30). We got two hotel rooms to stay at (for $10) and got to bed about 12:30 or so. We were very tired.

Saturday, August 26

Got up at 9:15. We very slowly straggled out of bed and got well washed in their washroom with hot water. We ate a breakfast in the hotel and watched the rain come down. We left for the dock at 11:00, were packed and away at 11:30, in the rain. We headed north against a north wind. It was very cloudy and the wind was fairly strong. The water was not deep for a while, but we got out into the bay. Almost immediately, Purd broke his paddle. The wind was picking up and from the north.We struggled across the north side to Cat Island and stayed in the lee of it for a while. We then had to head across the water to the north shore again. By now, the rain had stopped, but the wind had picked up quite a bit. The wind was about 35 mph so fast that it took us one hour to do one mile. We then kept to the shore and paddled around. The sky started to lighten, but did not clear until 6:00 or so. We paddled as far as we could, and finally stopped just past Terrace Bay to look for a place to stay. There were lots of blueberries, but no good campsites. We went into the next bay and there was a long sand spit there. There was a park put there by Kiwanis Club and a golf course just behind it. We slept near the golf course under a tarp and cooked our meal in a fireplace as it got darker and darker. We ate in the dark and went to bed about 10:00. It got really cold, but it was clear and beautiful.

Sunday, August 27

Woke up at 6:45; got out of bed and had a fairly quick breakfast. We dried out a bit (there was a heavy dew) and then packed up.The sky was clear and the air was cool. We got outside the bay and discovered the wind was favourable. So we set up a sail and paddled and sailed across Jackfish Bay to Bottle Point and Pic Island, eventually. This meant crossing Ashburton Bay, which is a big one. We had a floating lunch while sailing. It was difficult, since we had all the food in our canoe and had to pass it across on paddles to the other canoe. But at least we didn’t lose any time. All we lost was Purd’s sweater. We sailed and sailed-and-paddled until we passed Thompson Island. Then we figured we had better take the sail down to make a better impression on Marathon. We then paddled across the bay to Hawkin’s Island, where there was a manned lighthouse (we thought). But we couldn’t find a dock, so we paddled in to Marathon Harbour. It was impossible to get close to the small dock because of the chained boom logs, so we pulled in at the airplane dock for the Marathon Pulp Mill. A security guard for the mill came by in a truck and offered to take us into town.. There we met Mr. Earle who said we use his recreation hall for the night. We took him up on it. We had a good meal and went over to the hall. We played basketball, had a shower and swam before bed. We finally went to bed about 1:00. We did forty miles that day.

Monday, August 28

Woke up at 7:30. Got up and rolled. Had breakfast at a cafeteria. We phoned the OPP and picked up our food and took it to the canoes. We had to wait until 11:00 while Pete went to the doctor to see about his cold, which was pretty bad. So we took our time and slacked around. At 11:00 most of us went down to pack the canoes.We got this done and sat around until 1:00 or so. At this point, Mr. Earle drove up with Rod and Pete in the car. We knew that Rod had to leave because of his job, but we learned then that Pete had bronchitis and also had to leave. So we were down to eight people. Paul moved into our canoe, and I took stern for a while. We paddled until about 3:30, and then had lunch in a beautiful little cove and rocky island near Ogilvy Point.We left there about 4:30 or 4:45 and headed southeast along the shore. We finally camped around 7:30 near the Willow River, on a rocky beach. We had to put in with waves breaking behind us, and most of us got wet getting the canoes in. We put the tents up on the beach on the gravel and cooked supper as the sun went down. We went to bed around 10:00 or so. We had only done about 20-25 miles. The wind was southeast and moderate.

Tuesday, August 29

Got up about 7:30 or so. Or, at least, all of us but Styx got up, and had breakfast. We finally pushed off about 9:30 or so. The weather was clear and fairly calm. We paddled down the shore and made it to just past Sewell Point. Then the wind started to pick up. We headed for islands there to cut a pole to sail with, and then headed out again. By this time the wind had picked up a bit. We went in the lee of a point and put our sail up. We sailed a while and then found the wind was too strong. As we went to take the sail down, the mast got caught in the seat and almost swamped us. We broke off and started paddling again. We made it to an island in Oiseau Bay before we made it to land. It was almost straight granite and one big rock, almost straight up. We climbed the rock and tied the canoes (gingerly), and went up for lunch. We had a fire, and in the lee of the island, so the wind wasn’t too bad. But on top of the rocks, the wind was strong enough to lean into (it must have been about 35 mph). While we were having lunch, Styx and Purd found a place to beach the canoes. It was a flat rock ledge not much above the water. We unloaded the canoes and moved them into here. Then we went further and found tent sites and moved the packs over there. We couldn’t find a fireplace, so moved the packs back to the canoes and set up kitchen there. I cooked that meal. We ate and had a discussion on sex afterwards. Bruce and Andy slept under the canoes. We went to bed about 9:00. (In the afternoon, Purd had started a talk on the organization of the trip. We recognized him as the leader and set up a few rules, ie, that we keep close to the shore and close together.) We only did about 10-12 miles. The wind continued blowing all evening.

Wednesday, August 30

We woke up at 5:10 and quickly got the tents down and the meal made as quickly as possible in the dark. We finally got away about 8:00 and paddled out into a fairly calm lake. The sky was about ⅕ clouds. We paddled at a good rate for three hours. Then the wind picked up and we set up sail. We sailed for an hour and it got too rough again. We set in at the falls below Triangle Harbour and prepared a hot meal of pancakes. There was an old trapper’s cabin on the beach and an old, very dilapidated log home. A lot of guys slept the afternoon. Styx and Dave explored the falls via an old trail. Stocky and I (and later Paul, Dave and Andy) explored a point of rocks and a cliff. We all pitted out the rest of the day, until about 6:45, when Purd said it was OK to go on. We wanted to get on past La Canadienne Point while it was calm.But we struck out into a rolling sea. We set out at 7:10 and paddled until 8:30. Then the sun set. We put in at Richardson Harbour at a rocky beach. There was a logging pond about the campsite. Dave’s canoe went up and put a tent in a meadow. Our canoe set up a tarp shelter on the beach, with life preservers as cushions. We had a horrible sleep, but the others slept okay. We had a fire, and soup for supper and went to bed about 10:30. We had only done about 20 miles that day.

Thursday, August 31

Woke up at 7:30 and “hurried” out of bed. Had a usual breakfast and packed up. We were on the water by 9:00, and paddled fairly hard for three hours. The wind picked up, right on schedule, at 11:00. We raced and paddled hard, but we only did about 10 miles until 12:00, when we had to put in at a sandy cove. We had our supper there, and discussed the future of the trip, since only four of us (Dave, Styx, Stocky and I) were the only one which thought we could go beyond Michipicoten Harbour. We thus only needed one canoe. We also figured we ere wasting a lot of time on the campsite. Consequently, the food was re-organized as to meals. We settled down to rest about 3:00 with plans of going on about 4:30 or so. At 3:45 we decided it was calm enough to go on, so we packed the canoes and set off. We paddled in a rough sea and with a sun peeking out from hazy clouds occasionally. About 6:30 we set in at Pilot’s Harbour and found a cabin there. We set up tents and cooked some pancakes and talked. To bed about 10:00, after doing about 18 miles or so that day.

Friday, September 1

Woke up at 5:00. Purd went across the peninsula to check the waves and decided they were too bad to warrant getting up that early. So we slept until 6:30. We got up and had a small breakfast, without porridge. At 8:00 we set out again. But the wind picked up again, and we had to set in at 10:00. Again we had our hot meal and pitted out completely on the rock beach. The weather was sunny and fairly warm, so we tanned ourselves. Stocky, Andy, Jon and I went in swimming and to wash (actually, it was only an in and out affair). Than we pitted again Around 4:30 or so we decided that it had calmed down again and we set out again down the lake. As we pulled out, we were surprised to see a boat at Point Isacor. It turned out to be some Americans headed for Michipicoten Island to fish. We paddled on, and they passed us again just as we were getting to Dog Harbour at night. We both turned into the harbour and set up camp on the sandy beach about 7:30 or so. We did about 10-15 miles that day. Our progress was definitely getting slower, and it looked then as if we would be pulling out at Wawa.

Saturday, September 2

Woke up at 7:00. Purd and I set out to make a quick breakfast. The others didn’t get up for a while and then came out to have some food. We finally set off about 9:00 and headed for Michipicoten Harbour. It took us until 1:00 to reach the lighthouse at the harbour, where we stopped for a while. The wind had shifted to east, and was picking up now, which slowed us up a bit. Actually, we were only doing 2-3 mph now, which was really bad. We reached Michipicoten Harbour about 2:00 and pulled the canoes up and unloaded there. Purd tried phoning the camp to see about replacements, but was told the phone was disconnected. He then tried Kirk’s place, and everywhere else he thought of, all to no avail. We decided to go to the Soo for the truck and pack it in right there. I was selected, and got a ride in a pickup to the highway. I went to the OPP at Wawa to let them know I was coming to the Soo and to see about a ride. No deal. I left there about 3:00 and walked for three miles and two and a half miles until I was picked up by a Hydro man. He drove me right to the OPP station at the Soo. I walked in, looking very grubby and asked about the truck. No one knew anything about it. Finally they said I could take it, but they couldn’t find the keys. They eventually got the key and I signed a receipt and was free with the truck. I noticed the trailer was missing and found that it was being welded at the same place as before. I drove over there and could not get in at all, so I drove back to the OPP. I was lucky in reaching the after-hours number and the man went and opened the shop so I could get the trailer. Meanwhile, I had noticed that the engine was very much overheated. So I put on the trailer and put on the lights. Then I carefully took the rad cap off. There was a lot of steam given off. I tried filling the rad with a Coke bottle, but it wasn’t working. So I locked up the shop and drove to a gas station. The rad took about 3 quarts of water. But the engine cooled right down. I got on the road about 10:30. I picked up a hitch hiker and the two of us set off for Wawa. I drove a fair while, and then stopped for coffee. We drove on and stopped for a rest. This happened once again. I finally got to Michipicoten about 3:00. Everyone was glad to see me.

Sunday, September 3

Got the trailer loaded by 5:00. Went out to the highway for gas and coffee. Finally set out about 5:30. Styx drove to Sudbury, while most of us slept. I drove from Sudbury to North Bay, where we stopped for supper. Dave Merryfield pulled in with the other camp truck and canoes. He had just been up to Outpost to pick them up and was on his way back to camp. He told us that on his way back to the Sault (from the Lakehead), the whole top part of the trailer had come off without him realizing it. He had to go back 60 miles to get it. Consequently, the welding job. He also told us that no one was in camp, which screwed up a few people who wanted cheques. After supper, Bruce drove to camp. We got in at 9:00 and unpacked that night to lantern light (we couldn’t get the power on). Everyone but Stocky, Styx, John and I left that night for home.

Photos by Bob James