Bee Careful

[Robin]

In August I took a trip to LaVerendrye and traveled along a familiar route. At Chute Henault there is a small First Nations Trapping/Hunting cabin, I first saw it 15 years ago and have stopped by for a look see every time I have been in the area.
This year I was surprised to see the cabin had been renovated, on my last visit 10 years ago it had been abandoned.
It now has iron bars bolted to the windows and doors, similar to what you would see in the South Bronx of NYC. A long way from the days of unlocked doors and a warm place to dry out in should you need it.
Anyway, since I like to poke around and see how the other half lives, I spent a few minutes looking around. There where old trapping tools hanging under the eves on one side which I admired from the porch. On the other side I looked to see what else was hanging. As I leaned around the corner, I heard a buzzing sound right above my head, looking up I noticed not 10 inches above my head was a very active hornets nest. I slowly backtracked and made a "bee line" for safer parts.
You can see the nest hanging on the front right corner of the cabin here:

 

[Guest]

That's one way to keep intruders out! Well that and the bars... of course I'm not sure how the real owners let the hornets know to let their guard down.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I wonder why the bars. To keep animals out of new renovations? Its a shame that cabin isn't open to transients. We had use of a cabin in Pukaskwa intentionally left open for overnight travelers.

Wasp nests are so common on houses in the woods with overhangs such as ours. We often have to blast off a dozen or so hornet nests.

 

[Guest]

Theft and vandalism occurs often in cottage country, but I’ve never heard of any backcountry cabins having been victimized.
The bars are sad to see. The hornet nest is down right scary.
We had one in a tree above a patio next to our back door last year. Turned out to be some kind of a White Faced Hornet.
Despite their bad reputation they left us alone. No-one slammed the back screen door that summer.

 

[memaquay]

Hmmm, looks like motion activated light and some other kind of do-dad up on the roof....maybe it's backwoods Breaking Bad!

 

[Guest]

So you think that woodstove stack is cover for a meth lab vent stack? Maybe...

 

[Guest]

So this thread could be labeled Beeing Bad. The Winnebago’s parked out back.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Robin, did you peek inside?? If not can you please go back and report? The bees might have been the ....guards!

 

[Robin]

There is an old logging road leading to this cabin, if you followed Solotripping.com back in the day, I made the mistake of describing my way of dealing with the more and more beavers back there who flood old logging roads leading to a great put in like this one at Chute Henault. No one got hurt, I just gave the little critters something to do that night, but from the responses....jeeeeesh!

It was one of those "ya had to be there things"

So now I see that the road is completely covered in saplings save a quad/snow machine trail. A truck would never make it in anymore. Unfortunately, the small remote First nations village down the trail 1/2 a days ride on a quad has a bad reputation. Not my observation, just what the locals have told me. Anything with 4 wheeler distance is subject vandals, so up went the bars on the windows.

All those solar lights where unpluged, I was afraid to walk out back after the hornets nest to see what that platform was up on the roof.
There was a sign in English next to the front door giving the permit # for the present owner. They had cut the bush and trees down for a nice view out into Lac Henault.

 

[Guest]

I was a long time lurker around the solotripping campfire, and I vaguely remember the dam fuss, you troublemaker you! Ha!
I remember the nice shoreline photo you took next to chutes Henault, beautiful. There’s not much out of reach of ATV’s anymore. Upsides and downsides to that. Who wouldn’t like a little cabin in the woods?

 

[yellowcanoe]

No longer do I regard the beaver as anything other than the evil empire. They are busy cutting trees without permission on my property. They built a McMansionLodge around the point.. They never ask for permission to cut and didn't get a variance to put a house within a hundred feet of the water (shoreline zoning prohibits this for people), I 'd like ta git a few btards for pelts.

And they built a new dam right by the lake.. I guess the hundred feet below the old dam was valuable.

Yep my dawg chases them. Border patrol.

 

[sweeper]

And here's something you probable didn't know about them YC, it's at the 1:50 min mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQdFA1IYQAw

 

[yellowcanoe]

I can't get the sound to play Sweeper!

 

[sweeper]

Worked for me just now.

 

[Tripper]

YouTube is having issues with the sound being turned down by default. Seems this started around Oct. 4th.

I noticed it too and though my son had unplugged the speakers so he could use it with his iPod. Wasn't the case after all.

Just pause the video, click on the volume/speaker button and turn it up. It can become annoying but until YouTube works out the bug, that's really all you can do.

BTW, nice vid Sweeper. Never knew about beavers sharing lodge space with their neighbours rent free. Thanks.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have an X next to the volume button on each You Tube video. And I cannot get rid of the x. My flash player is up to date. This computer age has left me so impatient I expect results. In olden days we would have gone for a walk with each other.