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Last trip of the year

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Geraldton, Ontario
It has been a very long fall in Northern Ontario, but the snow is finally falling tonight. I was looking over my pictures from a couple of weekends ago. My wife and I went out on the Annual Save the Moose Campaign. We didn't expect to get anything, as we were both hunting under calf tags, but the way the system works up here now, it takes about four years to build enough points to get an adult tag. Any excuse to canoe camp for three days with the Snow trekker is good enough for me, to heck with the moose.

We left out house at 4:30 on the Friday night, and arrived at camp around 6:00. That's pretty good, considering it is almost a 60 k drive and a five K paddle with a 20 foot canoe loaded to the hilt.
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We got the tent up, got the fire going, and had a few beverages, but not enough to prevent an early start.
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Our plan was to paddle for half the day and walk half the day, and that is how it mostly ended up.
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We didn't see any fresh sign, but we did see evidence of the one big bull who has been tormenting us for a couple of years now. Perhaps he will be there in a couple of years when we finally have a tag, no-one seems to come to this little corner of the earth. There are several thousand moose hunters from Southern Ontario in the area, but most of them do not get off their quads, and their boats are too big to negotiate the little river.

It was a beautiful day to walk, and the water was low enough to walk for many kilometers along the shore. In the picture below, you can see our camp on the far left.
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Anyway, one of these years, I will post a canoe moose hunting report that has a moose in it. We almost got one on the way home, a large cow was standing beside the highway, but I can't afford a new truck, so we avoided it.
 
Moose are amazing to be around. We used to run into them in Wyoming.

First morning of the second day we were having breakfast on a horse pack trip, and a cow and a calf walked right through our camp within 5 feet of the campfire. They went down to the Shoshone River for a drink. Half an hour later they came back in the same tracks demonstrating without a shadow of a doubt that they were not a afraid of humans one bit.
 
Well done, nice to see you out together. Your canoe looks great, and that lake so peaceful. I guess if you did get a moose it would have been a lot of work to get it out, two trips, one with the moose, then back for the tent and gear.
It’s been a good year here in Maine, first the grandson got a moose, now his dad (my favorite SIL) got a 226 lb deer, leads the local contest at the local weigh in station.
Gotta go, gonna see if I can figure out how to reset the clock in the car and truck, :oops:
 
Good report from a member of the Moose Preservation Society-Northern Chapter. Nice to see you getting a healthy slice of that country all to yourselves. Our last canoe trip a while ago was during moose season and yes there were more quads and motorhomes travelling forestry roads than wildlife. Your 20'er and campfire tent is the only way to do it right. It's all about the journey, but you know that. Any bets who will get their moose first (losing their Moose Preservation Society membership), you or the missus?
 
That is quite the load in that boat. Is it a copy of a known design or your own?
My apologies Al, just saw your question. It's actually a design from Valley Woodworking, based out of Rochester, NY. It's called the Outback 200. It's a very nice design, carried a heck of a load, but paddles quite nicely.
 
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