Tumpline February 2013

Published: Sat, 02/16/13

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A Canoe Trip Adventure in Parc de la Vérendrye Derek Demers 1967-1973 Sept Jours au Parc de la Vérendrye Antoine Ipperciel Seven Days in La Vérendrye Louis Lescure 2013 Boys' Camp Senior Staff - Directeurs du camp de garçons 2013 2013 Winter Events - Évènements cet hiver Alumni Association News / Nouvelles de l'association des anciens Tumpline Submissions - Soumissions pour cette lettre de nouvelles A Canoe Trip Adventure in Parc de la Vérendrye Derek Demers 1967-1973 My childhood summers at Camp Nominingue have etched the most glorious, golden memories into my mind. The Nominingue tentline was my home every summer for two months each year in the 60's and 70s. For these two months my brother, David, and I had the most fantastic adventures and gained great life lessons. It was however, the canoe trips that were the root of some of the most amazing stories. As we grew older, we repaid our dues to the camp and returned in the summers to lead the younger generation as counsellors. It was in these years that I took out many 7 day canoe trips into Parc de la Vérendrye. I have many great stories of trips, combined with stories when I was the Archery instructor but I wanted share one of them that I think had the greatest adventure. Back in the day the only navigation tools were a map and a compass. I can't imagine how much easier it is today with GPS. The detailed planning and execution of a 7 day trip was very involved and sometimes I took different routes to make things interesting for the campers. On one of those trips, I had plotted out a specific portage root at the end of a tricky 4 fingered lake. We were into day 4 of the trip when we arrived at the end of the lake and came upon these fingers laid out along the vast expanse of the shore, all side by side. Each finger was very wide and deep, and I knew from my detailed planning that I had to hit finger #3, as at the end of this jut-way was the cardinal portage. I also knew that a wrong turn down finger #2 or #4 meant at least 2 to 3 hours of additional paddling and cranky, tired campers. It was an orienteering nightmare. Each finger had the same basic compass heading as they were each laid out perfectly parallel on the shore. I thought I had done the prep work beforehand with my careful planning. It looked so easy on my map but it was very different out there on that big lake. I went with my gut and well, as you might have guessed, I steered the entire crew 2 to 3 hours down the wrong finger. We had a massive headwind and the boys were absolutely fatigued as we approached the shore. There was a moment of elation as we saw the end nearing and we pushed with everything we had to reach the bottom of the finger. I remember the sinking feeling still to this day. There was no portage marker, no trail, nothing... just rocks and very dense bush. In total frustration I got out the map and tried to figure out .... what happened! So which finger did I make the wrong turn on, #2 or #4? After some time I figured it out. We were down #2. Dummy! Now we had a 2 hour paddle back, I didn't even know if we could do it especially with that wind ... but, it came to me in a flash, that wind was now a tail wind! So to take advantage of it, we cut down 2 young quaking aspens, strapped them down on the stern and bow thwarts of both canoes to make a catamaran. Good thing we had plenty of trip cord and the campers worked feverishly to make some strong wrappings. We cut down 2 more saplings, to hold up the 'big fly' and balanced it perfectly on the bow to catch the wind. We pushed out, caught the tail wind, and zoomed at what felt like warp speed back up the finger. Wide eyed, we watched the massive rolling wave between the canoes grow just short of spilling over the gunnels. The campers stretched out in the canoes and basked in the enjoyment of the ride and admired their incredibly stable vessel. All I did was lean way back on the stern deck, with my paddle tucked under my arm, and steered. The smiles on our faces, the laughter we had, and the ribbing we gave to the poor guys holding the 'big fly' in the bow made for a terrific canoe trip day. We talked about it for weeks afterwards. I sure wish I could remember the camper's names and the other counsellor, but it's my hope they are reading this and remembering the great time we had that day. Sept Jours au Parc de la Vérendrye Antoine Ipperciel 14 ans Jour 4 Aujourd'hui, nous nous sommes réveillés à 6h00, car on savait qu';une longue journée d'environ 35 km nous attendait. Je me mets aussitôt dans mes vêtements mouillés pour ensuite partir un feu. Je cuisine ensuite le petit déjeuner avec Will : du gruau et du bannock. Lorsque tout le monde finit, je vais ranger les tentes et remplir les sacs. Ensuite nous repartons en canot, dans la direction opposée de la deuxième journée. Il n'y avait pas tant de vent, donc refaire le lac Carrière ne prit pas tant de temps. Nous nous rendons donc à un court portage. Je le traverse rapidement, et comme d'habitude, je reviens en arrière pour voir si quelqu'un a besoin d'aide. Ensuite, nous nous rendons au prochain lac : Camitogama. Lui aussi, on l'avait traversé la deuxième journée. Cette fois ci, un mince vent nous poussait dans le dos. C'était réconfortant. Les heures passent et nous réussissons à traverser les lacs Canimina, Nichcotéa et la moitié de Nicolas. C'est sur Nicolas que nous sommes arrêtés pour la nuit. Rendu là, la même routine reprend et puis nous partions un feu. Pendant que les moniteurs prennent une sieste, je cuisinais une soupe. Une fois terminé, on a appelé les moniteurs à table. Après avoir bu ma soupe, je suis allé en solo sur le lac pour remplir le filtreur, car le lac était très sale. Lorsque je suis revenu, on devait commencer à faire les pizzas. Will et mois, nous nous en sommes occupés. Le souper était très bon. Une fois que tout le monde ait fini, j'ai rangé la nourriture dans les barils. Ensuite, je suis allé les placer dans la forêt, à environ 100 m. du site. Je suis retourné avec le groupe et nous avons discuté autour du feu. Mous nous racontons des blagues, des charades et des histoires. Finalement, lorsque tout le monde était fatigué, je suis allé remplir ma bouteille d'eau pour ensuite la vider sur le feu. On s'est ensuite déplacé vers nos tentes. Une fois dans nos sacs de couchage, personne n'a vraiment parlé, car on était tous fatigués de notre journée et on savait qu'une grande journée nous attendait demain. Seven Days in La Vérendrye Louis Lescure Day 2 Today, we woke up at 6:55 AM and ate a delicious meal of fried oatmeal, eggs and bacon. We left in our canoes on Cawatose under a beautiful blue and sunny sky. A portage brought us onto Camitogama, where Blaise passed the maps to Troy, who started orienteering for the trip. He led us to our next portage onto Canimina. On this lake, we stopped to have Kraft Dinner for lunch. We then started paddling again to a very campsite, where we had pizza. The only problem was that some of the ingredients were missing! For dessert, we had a delicious apple crumble which, once again was my favourite part of the day. My least favourite part was when I cut my thumb. However, the counsellors did a good job of fixing it. Another sunny day...hopefully, it stays this way... Day 3 Today was my birthday. I turned fifteen years old. The day started with pancakes. While we were making the pancakes, we heard thunder. We asked the counsellors how much time we would have to wait before leaving - they said 30 minutes. The thunder continued for almost an hour. The result was we left an hour and a half late. Just as we got into the canoes, it started raining then thundering, so we went back up to the campsite. We set up the rain tarp and waited while singing songs. Later on, the storm stopped, but it was too late to leave so we made dinner and had my birthday dessert - it was so delicious and was the thing that I enjoyed the most today. The worst was going to bed hoping that we could paddle safely tomorrow. Day 4 Today, we woke up early because we wanted to catch up on the time lost. We had cereal with milk, which we finished quickly, and managed to break camp 55 minutes after waking up. We started paddling on Canimina and then portaged to Nichcotea and finally arrived on Lac Grand for lunch, where we had planned to camp the previous night according to our route schedule. The afternoon was a bit slower as we paddled from lac Échallon to Racine to Nizard where we stopped for the night. Here we had dinner and made succulent cinnamon rolls for dessert. Eating these was the best moment of my day! The worst had been the portage between Canimina and Nichcotea, where we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. 2013 Boys' Camp Senior Staff - Directeurs du camp de garçons 2013 Grant McKenna Director Directeur Elisa Van Wagner Business Manager Directrice commerciale Matt Cromey Program Director Directeur des programmes Jennifer Miller Waterfront Director Directrice des programmes aquatiques Trevor Cardozo Trip Director Directeur des excursions Rafic Dagher Craftshop Director Directeur de l'atelier Vincent Rioux LC Director Directeur des 7 à 10 ans Mat Easey JC Director Directeur des assistants-moniteurs Yusef Farah Chalita LIT Director Directeur des leaders-en-formation 2013 Winter Events - Évènements cet hiver Sunday, February 17 Montreal Families Camp Fair Pointe-Claire February 20-23 OCA Directors Conference Niagara Falls Parent and Son Information Evenings (For new and prospective campers and their families) Wednesday, February 20 Chimo Hotel Ottawa 7:15 PM Thursday, February 21 Lower Canada College NDG 7:15 PM Wednesday, March 27 Lower Canada College NDG 7:15 PM Thursday, March 28 Chimo Hotel Ottawa 7:15 PM Wednesday, April 24 Lower Canada College NDG 7:15 PM Thursday, April 25 Chimo Hotel Ottawa 7:15 PM Wednesday, May 8 Lower Canada College NDG 7:15 PM Wednesday, May 15 Chimo Hotel Ottawa 7:15 PM If you are interested in any details concerning these events, please contact us at the camp office. 17 février Foire de camps Montreal Families Pointe-Claire 20 au 23 février Congrès des directeurs OCA Toronto Soirées d'informations pour parents et garçons (Pour nouveaux campeurs inscrits ou intéressés) mercredi 20 février Hotel Chimo Ottawa 19h15 jeudi, 21 février Lower Canada College NDG 19h15 mercredi, 27 mars Lower Canada College NDG 19h15 jeudi 28 mars Hotel Chimo Ottawa 19h15 mercredi 24 avril Lower Canada College NDG 19h15 jeudi 25 avril Hotel Chimo Ottawa 19h15 mercredi, 8 mai Lower Canada College NDG 19h15 mercredi 15 mai Hotel Chimo Ottawa 19h15 Pour plus de détails, svp contactez le bureau du camp. Alumni Association News / Nouvelles de l'association des anciens On the weekend of September 6-8, 2013, the CN Alumni Association will be hosting an Alumni weekend at camp. This is the first time that alumni weekend will be organized separately from Family Camp. More news to come soon... Dates and locations of all alumni socials will be posted on Facebook on the Nominingue Socials Group page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/NominingueSocials/. To get involved with CN Alumni Association, please contact John Christou at campnomininguealumni@gmail.com. Tumpline Submissions - Soumissions pour cette lettre de nouvelles We are looking for submissions for our newsletters from campers, staff and parents... from this summer, as well as from recent and less recent alumni. These submissions may be general memories of camp experiences or specific memories about a canoe trip, about a favourite program or a funny experience. Please send your submissions to grant@nominingue.com. You may submit your stories and memories in English, French or Spanish. Nous sommes à la recherche de textes de campeurs, parents et de moniteurs de l'été 2012... et de souvenirs de nos anciens campeurs et moniteurs des années récentes et moins récentes. Vos textes peuvent décrire vos expériences en générale ou une excursion de canot, un programme favori ou une expérience drôle. SVP envoyez votre texte par courriel à grant@nominingue.com. Votre texte peut être écrit en français, en anglais ou en espagnol.
Camp Nominingue \| Tel. 450-267-2555 \| Toll-free 866-910-1551 (Canada & US) Email: info@nominingue.com \| Web: www.nominingue.com
This e-mail is destined to all campers, parents and counsellors, current and alumni. If you would prefer not to receive occasional messages from us, please unsubscribe using the link below this message. Ce courriel est destiné à tous les campeurs, parents et moniteurs, actuels et anciens. Si vous voulez vous désinscrire de cette liste d'envoi, svp cliquez en bas de la page. Winter address: 112, rue Lippée, Les Coteaux, QC J7X 1J4 Summer address: 1889, chemin des Mésanges, Nominingue, QC J0W 1R0