week september 28 1985 p17 nma grraa a wilderness adventure in ontarios northland editors note jonathan ken ny is a markham resident and grade 10 student at st johns school of ontario near claremont boys at the school begin each year with a northern canoe trip this year jonathan and 16 other stu- dents and staff members embarked on a 17day canoe trip from the headwaters of the matta- gami river south of timmins to moosonce at james bay a dis tance of 547 km introduction i have been a part of st johns school canoe trips for the past three years accumulating 50 days of canoeing experience although stories of school trips seem to stress toughness and challenge trips are a collection of moments some tough and hard some easy and comfortable some happy and joyful some just beautiful a gift of the canoe trips is the beauty and awe of the wilderness and the sense of history beside us as we paddle on the old voyageur routes the fol lowing is a daytoday account of our latest expedition from the school log jggfgq going over the checklist with the base commander we got off the repaii o i an at 630 pm we stopped at opaning falls for a kaiser supper arid at 8 15 p m the intermediate brigade 25 boys and men were dropped off at duke lake for the spanish river expedition by 915 pm the senior brigade bur group arrived atmattagami lake i about nmins and set up ten t- in the dark august 17 this was the first day of our training camp we slept late when we woke up we collected lots of fire wood it was a very hot and sunny day so after prayers we were all glad to have dumping practice and organize our crews the bowsmen were all old boys and had to have 25 days of canoeing and to be 16 years of age to qualify for the job they also had to take tests my bows- man mark weston was very help ful we paddled up ihe lake and looked at the togo rapids the day closed peacefully with a cry of a loon august 18 on the second day of training we simulated a real day we woke up early in the rain arid loaded our canoes we ate our usual breakfast of porridge then paddled 235 krri tb- no frills rapids where we did some trick photography a canoe paddled out in front of the rapids to make it look like we were shooting them for supper we had a very hot indian curry rice and coffee august 19 today was the first day of tiie trip so after our porridge wc started down stream on thematta- garni river before wc left tht clouds lifted and a glorious rairi- bow bid us farewell we covered 37 km after which we looked for a campsite campsites were scarce and some were covered in tin cans and garbage august 2021 on tuesday we pad4ledj and on weclbsdao2 weather was dy falls today we met a man who was a bush pilot and we saw his plane we also passed through timmins today and picked up a food drop august 22 after a good sleep in we broke camp lazily and started the day with a portage i dislike portages intensely because i was just changed from carrying duffle bags to canoes a canoe is 22 feet long weighs 350 pounds and is very diffi cult to carry fortunately it was only 400 metres to the end we pad dled 24 km today i went for a swim this evening and the water was quite cold august 23 we got up at 6 am today after a mile portage around sturgeon falls we faced sturgeon falls rapids where mr claydons canoe swamped and soaked all the tents in the tent pack our lunch spot was j surrounded by raspberry bushes which were soon emptied we padl died 23 v6 km today j august 24 j ton faced four obstacles i we portaged over loon rapids and tracked the canoes upstream and shot davis rapids tracking is iis- ing the bow and stern lines arid with no one in the canoe walkingjjie canoe down the rapjklve doubled up qn portage ci5iratfudw falls because the qiwaif was very bad and narrpirjfe over at islaml camrietkf mmmamm m wj7-