For me, the return to Temagami was one
filled with great expectations and a healthy dollop of nostalgia. While I have
passed through Temagami a couple of times in the last 20 years, my nostalgia
related to two visits there during my school years. The first was in winter of Grade
9. A group of school mates were taken up by a faculty member to stay at a lodge
(run by a family called the Plumtrees, as I recall) on Lake Temagami over March
Break. That trip was memorable for many reasons, and not just because we made
the six-hour journey each way sitting on the floor in the back of an Econoline
panel van. We spent time in historic Cobalt – the site of one of North
America’s great silver rushes (for a while, we were told, Toronto was known as
the place you catch the train to Cobalt.) We visited a large open pit mine
(iron, I think;) spent the better part of a day on Bear Island (a First Nation
community in the middle of Lake Temagami), and particularly in the Bear Island
school; went ice fishing, lots of snowmobiling, hiking, snowshoeing, and were
even taken up in a small bush plane to fly over the area. I recall seeing a
couple of moose trampling through the bush from the air. The idea that some of the people we met were completely
isolated on their islands for weeks at a time in the late fall and spring during
the freeze and as the ice went out was a completely alien concept for city people.
The Appleby international experience
programs are one of our great strengths. From what I have seen across Canada
and internationally, it would be judged as a great hallmark program, with the
“cap” being the Appleby Diploma in Global Leadership. One aspect of the program
is intercultural trips for Grade 9s into countries in order for them to
understand ways of life, history, culture and different perspectives. For me, this trip was my first cultural
orientation to Northern Ontario. While we often talk about regional differences
in the Canadian landscape, for instance between French Canada and English
Canada or Calgary versus Vancouver, in some ways the greatest divide may be
between urban and rural Canada.
The second visit was on a canoe trip with a
group of close friends from my days in the scouting movement. We used to trip
on a regular basis, but this one, which started on Lake Temagami and was
focused mainly on the Lady Evelyn system to the north of the big lake, was
particularly memorable for one reason. It was there in the early fall where we saw
a raft (apparently the proper the collective noun) of loons – maybe 50 or 60 –
swimming together in the middle of the lake. This was the first and only time I
have seen such a sight and it still stands out as one of the magical wildlife
highlights for me.
So I headed up to Rabbitnose full of
anticipation about revisiting this beautiful part of our country, as well as a
blend of intrigue and anxiety about how well my winter camping skills (I used
to do fair bit of it in my younger years) have held up over the last 30 years.
My standard line has been that whatever rustiness in my skills is likely more
than well compensated for by my increased insulation!
As I pulled up next to the bus of students
and started to unpack at the government dock, the ice road that launched out
onto the broad white plain of Lake Temagami was starting to be framed by a
hazy, drizzly mist. And so started my initiation into the Appleby Rabbitnose
experience ….
(I
will write more about the week and the lore of Rabbitnose in my next post.)
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