{"id":685,"date":"2018-03-08T09:01:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T14:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=685"},"modified":"2018-03-23T13:25:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T17:25:52","slug":"fly-camp-from-paradise-lodge-yes-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=685","title":{"rendered":"FLY CAMP…FROM PARADISE LODGE…YES PARADISE"},"content":{"rendered":"
WHAT ARE THOSE \u00a0WHITE THINGS IN THE STEW POT?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

WE used canoes and a Cessna float plane on a fly camp west of Paradise Lodge \u2026 somewhere west of Paradise Lodge in that great wild boreal \u00a0forest that rolls \u00a0from<\/p>\n

Sault Ste Marie to Manitoba and beyond. Of course we did not get that far for we were not ‘coureurs de bois.\u2019 We were\u00a0just a bunch of 20 somethings doing a job that few people really wanted. \u00a0 Oh sure, lots of people wished they had a job like this. \u00a0Lots of people wish they could roll back the time clock and become some kid of adventurer. \u00a0But if the chance ever comes, \u00a0most Canadians would turn it down.<\/div>\n
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Take this \u00a0campsite.<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
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What you see is a sleek Cesna 170 \u00a0drawn up on a rocky point of granite that has \u00a0been thrust out of\u00a0a sparkling unpeopled lake. \u00a0Maybe a lake full of fish ready for the taking. \u00a0Paradise.<\/div>\n
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Not quite.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We flew \u00a0in here as the sun was setting. \u00a0Four of us \u00a0with our canoe strapped to the struts of the Cessna. \u00a0What daylight hours we had \u00a0were spent frantically erecting our tents and making sure we had \u00a0fly canvas stretched about a foot or so above the\u00a0tent canvas. \u00a0Otherwise, in a storm, water would work its \u00a0way through the tent and soak us all and perhaps do damage\u00a0to our survey \u00a0implements. \u00a0 Pitching the tents was \u00a0an ordeal made \u00a0worse by the \u00a0usual cloud of \u00a0blood sucking bastards trying to see if they could drive anyone completely mad.<\/div>\n
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\u201cOh ,Alan, loves the job. \u00a0You remember how he loved Scouting and the camping life\u201d, my mother \u00a0would say \u201cHe is a lucky boy\u2026doing what he loves.\u201d, her friends wold answer.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
True. \u00a0Very lucky to have spent 10 glorious summers doing geophysical surveying. \u00a0 \u00a0But it was not all sweetness and \u00a0light. \u00a0 When I found this photograph I remembered \u00a0just what that frantic evening was really like.<\/div>\n
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We got the tents \u00a0up but by then it was dark and \u00a0we hadn\u2019t taken time to eat. \u00a0Fortunately we had bought some packages of preserved food. \u00a0Packaged \u00a0stuff, easy to carry. \u00a0Only needed \u00a0water and \u00a0Presot a fine meal. \u00a0Or so\u00a0the package said when we bought the stuff. \u00a0 Just for campers like us.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0Strange thing about the Paradise Lodge job is that I remember the grunts\u2026the guys who did \u00a0the bush tracking\u2026the guys who got the numbers. \u00a0Yet I cannot remember who was in charge. \u00a0Maybe \u00a0it was me. \u00a0 Who was \u00a0the cook that night? It might have been \u00a0Bob Bartlett or Serge Lavoie or my turn to cook supper. \u00a0That much I do \u00a0not remember. But boy do I remember that supper. \u00a0What a great meal\u2026\u2019nforgettable’ as the song goes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cGet some water from the lake and wedge the pot right in the embers of the fire.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGood\u2026water is boiling\u2026Now read the instructions on the package.\u201d<\/div>\n
“Who can read in the total blackness a Northern Ontario evening.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cStop talking. Cut the top of the packages that says \u00a0\u201cBeef Stew\u201d and dump the contents in the pot. \u00a0 Says there are vegetables and rice mixed \u00a0in with the cubes \u00a0of beef.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAll looks the same to me.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDump it in\u2026put two packages in\u2026a celebration.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now that stew tasted just great. \u00a0We ate as much as \u00a0we could\u2026left a fair bit in the pot for morning as that would \u00a0save time. \u00a0So we had \u00a0a \u00a0Couple of bowls each washed down with tea boiled up in a fruit juice can with a coat hanger wire handle. Next morning the stew did \u00a0not look as good.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSerge, take a look at the stew pot\u2026what are those white things floating in gravy.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just rice.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRice does \u00a0not have little nubs of black on each ent.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe Indian rice.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen what are those things?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWorms\u2026the stew is full of worms\u2026little worms\u2026hundreds of them.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo you think we ate any?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe ate dozens \u00a0of them\u2026thought they were rice grains well cooked\u2026soft.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYuck!!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In retrospect, seems the worms \u00a0did \u00a0not do us any damage. \u00a0 We \u00a0laughed \u00a0a lot as a \u00a0result and laughter can \u00a0be therapeutic.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 2018<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHAT ARE THOSE \u00a0WHITE THINGS IN THE STEW POT? WE used canoes and a Cessna float plane on a fly camp west of Paradise Lodge \u2026 somewhere west of Paradise Lodge in that great wild boreal \u00a0forest that rolls \u00a0from Sault Ste Marie to Manitoba and beyond. Of course we did not get that far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}