Posts Tagged ‘canoe tripping’

Or… “Why Langskib is like Mongolia”, by alumni Dave Roberts.

It has been over thirty years since I lead my last trip from the dock at Langskib canoe camp for boys.  I was a camper on the first Temagami Trip the year Dave Knudsen bought Camp Windshift which became Langskib. I was one of the first leaders, I co-lead the first Dumoines River Trip. I lead CG on his very first canoe trip; he later became the best assistant I had the pleasure of working with.

A lot has happened since I left Langskib;  some good, some not as good. I moved to the West, I worked as a cowboy on several cattle ranches in Colorado, I lead elk and deer hunters on horse pack trips into the Rocky Mountains for 11 years, did many other jobs, lived in several places. I married, raised kids, divorced and ended up with a desk job shuffling paper. I soon plan on changing that desk job to something more exciting.

Last year, life was getting a little too slow and too domesticated, I was missing the adventures I had leading canoe trips, the traveling into the unknown, not knowing where camp will be until evening comes. I missed the nomadic life I lived as a cowboy. So I packed some belongings and traveled to Mongolia for three weeks. The people there still live the same as they did 800 years ago when Genghis Khaan ruled. They live in tents called Gers, they move their livestock with the season, packing all their worldly belongings onto ox drawn carts and live off the land. Mongolia is great, just what I was looking for, people with a nomadic spirit. The entire time I was in Mongolia I never felt alone, everywhere I went people treated me as a friend. I spent days galloping a horseback across the Mongolian Steepe with nomadic horseman, I stayed in their Gers, I learned their culture and shared experiences with them. I am learning their language and plan to return to Mongolia next year to visit with Mongol friends and other friends I have yet to meet.

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It was impossible to watch the Canada vs United States Hockey game  without reflecting on one’s citizenship.  I have the good fortune to be a citizen of both Canada and the U.S. My citizenships  result from a series of lucky events, most of which occurred before I could even walk, much less contemplate the relative merits and responsibilities of citizenship in the two countries.  Now, having divided each of the past 35 years between each country, I have an honest claim to citizenship in both.

As the director of Northwaters and Langskib, I often receive queries from parents trying to figure out whether NWL is an American or a Canadian organization. Every other canoe camp I know is predominately one or the other.  One even claims to be “Canada’s Canoe Camp”. Given the recent Olympic events, this seems like a good time to set the record straight; NWL is both.

This is not the simple answer everyone is looking for. Alluding to my dual citizenship when crossing the border seems to virtually guarantee further questions from customs officials. People  prefer if you fit into a category, neatly please, without a whole lot of explanation. Check one box only, as it were. That’s not always possible. (more…)

January 1st 2010. My friend Bill Perkins wants to be the first one to paddle the Crystal River this year and this decade. So here we are at Fishers Landing with winter boots and many layers of wool and polypropylene clothing. His little ford station wagon is not quite stuck in the snowbank. We unload his old aluminum canoe and immediately appreciate the first difference of winter canoeing. Instead of carrying the canoe and gear to the river we just pull it across the snow like a big sled.
The Crystal River is the only river in our county. It is a twisty, four miles from Big Glen Lake to Lake Michigan and most of that is through (more…)

Well, it’s finally happened.  Winter is here, and my thoughts now begin to shift from rivers and giant pine trees to cross country skiing and hot chocolate.  I live in Toronto where winter really never completely sets in.  While there are people running around in minus 40 celsius rated down jackets and there is talk of storms of the century, its really not much compared with the rest of the county.  Even though here in Toronto we don’t really “do” winter, the same sentiments arise once the weather turns colder.  People slow down a little bit, nest a little and eat a little more.

One of my winter traditions is to thumb through my pictures of the past summer.  I look at them fondly and think about the long days and warm nights in Temagami.  This picture in particular brings back memories of this past summer. In June 2009 I stepped into a new role as Program Director at our Northwaters Basecamp.  Along with this amazing new challenge I was also planning a wedding, my wedding for the end of August.  (more…)

By: Chris Wolfe

I remember being thirteen, standing on the dock at Langskib as darkness fell. There in the distance we saw the lights of torches appear. The paddle butts beating the dock echoed the beating of excited hearts. The Bay Trip! The boys who got out of those canoes were giants in my eyes. I knew that somehow what they had just done was big. And there was the way people talked about the Bay Trip with a certain deference and respect- it all took on a kind of legendary quality. If you had told me then that in two years time I would be paddling in in one of those torch-bearing canoes, I don’t know if I would have believed you. (more…)