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us in new clothes; more pics later
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Sasquatch burgers! (Entry by Scott and Matt)
(Aug 4th, 2005) Matt and Scott will take turns telling the story of their past few days:

Scott: 5 days ago we were still battling mighty Lake Winnipeg; now we are firmly ensconced in the warmth and hospitality of the people of Norway House, an aboriginal Cree community of some 6,000 north of the lake. We left our campsite on the rocky island 5 days ago hoping to make a lot of progress. We were almost 50 miles from the north end of the lake. The day dawned warm and clear with a southwest wind. We did some yoga on the rock shelf, jumped in the boat, hoisted our sail and set our paddles to swingin’. We dodged islands and rocks and picked up speed. Matt suggested we try eating lunch in the canoe towards the end of a 10 mile run between two points so I yanked out the food and started divvying it up with one hand while ruddering with the other. 10 minutes later I felt full and quite sick to my stomach, so we pulled over to the point we’d finally reached and tried the lay-flat-on-a-rock-in-the-sun-and-do-nothing cure. It worked so well we had energy to clamber up a large boulder and take a picture of ourselves.

After that we sailed a bit more then the wind died. We paddled on, stopped to make Dinner and then just kept paddling. By 10:30 at night we had reached the braided channels of the Nelson River—the only outlet of a huge lake that has over 20 rivers feeding it. The Nelson’s main channel was impressive to behold in the twilight, nearly a ½ mile wide. The Nelson grows on it’s way to Hudson Bay to become almost 4 miles wide—an impressive and scary beast of a river. The Nelson used to be so full of powerful rapids that the Voyageurs avoided it altogether as a route to and from the bay and instead kept to the smaller Hayes River. The Nelson has been mostly silenced, however, owing to a series of about 7 massive hydroelectric dams that create most of Manitoba’s energy. So much energy is produced by these dams that Manitoba sells some energy to Xcel Energy, the main energy provider in Minnesota where we are from. Hydroelectric power is attractive in that it doesn’t produce emissions, but it has had flooded many traditional hunting grounds for aboriginal people in northern Manitoba and has also in places made the fishing not as good. At the same time the deals that Manitoba Hydro worked out with some of the aboriginal tribes have done many beneficial things, so it’s not an easy thing to judge one way or another—more on that later.

As the current grabbed hold of our canoe we started instantly looking for a campsite in the dwindling light. Just as I was about to despair totally in a fit of self-pity and exhaustion, Matt spotted a narrow gap in the trees were a small hunting shack sat. We pulled up and quickly made camp among the perhaps the worst horde of mosquitoes we’d yet encountered. After diving into our tent we played 20 minutes of kill-the-mosquitoes. Matt shined his headlamp on the tent wall and so many mosquitoes swarmed to it outside that the tent wall literally shook, and not just a little shake either. We fell asleep about 4 seconds later.

Matt: Our alarm rang late the next morning. The mosquitoes had settled down slightly, but not enough to pack up our Bug Shirts. We broke camp slowly, knowing it would be a weary day. Like pervious days after a long day, our bodies had not recovered from our 3 day, 100 mile push from Berens River to the Nelson River. We desperately needed rest. Soon it would come.

We paddled up the Nelson to Playgreen Lake, or as it is sometimes known, ‘Plague of a Maze Lake.’ The lake, riddled with islands and smaller, protruding rocks, was a navigational terror. It didn’t help that we switched map scales, from 1:250,000 to 1:50,000. For example, on the 1:250k maps, 4 millimeters represents 1 kilometer, or 5/8 mile. On the 1:50k maps, those same 4 milimeters represent 200 meters, or 1/8 of a mile. Thus, we were traveling much further on the map than we actually thought we were.

We ate lunch on the west end of Goose Island, near a lived-in cabin. Most of the islands on the lake have small, one room fishing cabins. We were to find out that most people in Norway House have such cabins. We even met the man who owned the cabin where we stayed the previous night.

After lunch, we started out too far west of our true path. We ended up at the Whitefish Islands on our way to Playgreen Point (about halfway to Norway House), much too far west of our direction.

The next few hours were a maze of islands, most of which was a tired blur. Miller and I were exhausted, and getting snippy with each other. Navigation was made easier with our GPS, but we could never tell where the shoreline was. We could not separate islands from the mainland. Sevareid and Port missed the channel to Norway House and took the long way; the ‘Distant Fires’ guys in the 1980’s did the same thing even though they were aware of Sevareid and Port’s mistake. Without the GPS we’d have been lost. Being in the bow, and without a compass, GPS or maps, the mind wanders. Eventually I chose to ignore the question of where we were. My mind could not handle not getting an answer.

Mike Muswagon had told us that buoys marked the way into the Jack River, the last section of our day to Mike Muswagon’s House in Norway House. Around 4 p.m., when my mind was melting at the conglomerated island and shoreline mixture, we saw the buoys. They leaned at the way the current and wind were pushing the water. They brought us to the Jack River.

The scenery changed in the channel. I felt we were truly in the remote wilderness. It renewed our wavering focus, and the current allowed us some rest while making distance. Slowly, our pace increased, and a wind hit our backs. I raised our sail, in a desperate attempt to increase our speed. The wind swirled in the channel, but we hit 6.2 m.p.h., as calculated by our GPS.

Halfway to our goal, we met our first canoe. Two men were paddling it, against he current and the wind. Their long strokes dug deep into the water, as they propelled their Old Town Discovery (I don’t remember the model number) through the water. They welcomed us to Norway House, as many more would do along the river.

Our goal that day was the red deck of Councillor Mike Muswagon, who Scott and Todd had met in northern Minnesota. Mike was so excited about the trip, we drove the 14 hours from Norway House to Minneapolis to speak at the official Launch Party at Fort Snelling on May 1.

Mike invited us into his home, and came home promptly when his son, Walter, 12, called him upon our arrival. Walter fetched us towels, and we had our first shower since Winnipeg.

Mike invited us to the home of acting Norway House Chief Fred Muskego for a barbeque (as Chief Ron Evans has just been elected Grand Chief of the Manitoba lodges). There we ate steak, hamburgers, salmon skewers, salad, pie and bread. We chatted with Fred for a few hours as our bellies grew full from the meal. He had a great sense of humor and all the guests at the barbeque were great.

Scott:

We were already a little overwhelmed by the generosity and warmth Mike and the people here were showing us, but then Mike brought us to the Kinosao Sipi muliplex, a community gathering spot that houses a large arena. Mike had long ago told me that if we were to arrive in his community during their annual week-long Treat and York Boat Days celebration that it would be truly something. I had told him that we’d be there weeks before that. But as has happened so often on this expedition, the timing worked out and we arrived in the thick of it. At the multiplex hundreds of people sat listening to the MC talk about the events that would happen the next day. Next thing we know Mike is on stage introducing us. We received an enthusiastic and warm welcome and we each got to say a few words.

After that, Mike checked us in the York Boat Hotel. Somehow, he managed to get us a room there during the busiest time of the year. We slept soundly and comfortably in the very modern and very nice hotel.

Next day is a blur so much happened. We watched 3 teams of ten women each compete in one heat of the professional York Boat races. They have a bunch of these races in all different classes for both sexes. The York Boats were used to transport furs from here to the bay on the same route that we will be going. The races are truly incredible to watch and Mike took us out in his boat to get close to the action. The teams are very well coordinated and trained and the teamwork is impressive. They races are held on Little Playgreen Lake, a beautiful rock and pine rimmed, island speckled lake that the community sits next to.

Other events at this week long festival include talent shows, musical concerts, strong man and women competitions, flour packing competitions, children’s events, canoe races, foot races and dozens more. It’s all very well run and organized and just really impressive. The community negotiated with Manitoba Hydro to be compensated for the adverse effects of the hydroelectric projects, and the leadership at Norway House has done some incredibly intelligent investing into their own community. Treaty and York Boat Days is just one example; they community has good health care, child care, a brand new beautiful 15 million dollar school, self-run radio and TV, etc. Everyone is very friendly and warm and welcoming.

A little later Mike took us back to the multi-plex for the elders’ giveaway. Here the tribal council members and others spoke with great respect about the importance of the elders for the community and offered their words of thanks. Then volunteers (we got to help) hand out gifts to all the elders. Those elders that are at ‘the old folks home’ can watch on the TV station and their gifts are brought later. I told Mike that this respect for the elders is one of the things that this community has to teach the rest of the world. He asked me to say that in the microphone and so I did—pretty neat.

Mike’s mother was cooking a ton of food when we stopped by her house and we got a bunch of bannock, a biscuit type food that Sevareid and Port learned how to make when they were here. Delicious. We got a bag to take with us. Later we got a homemade pizza from her and ate it with Mike and his wife. At some point in the past two days we met Gordy, a local guy who has done a lot of paddling in the area. He was great to talk to. Also Anthony, another guy we met (MC at the arena actually) gave us a ride at one point to the festivities on ‘the bank’ or the beach and then bought us Sasquatch burgers—triple stacked burgers that we talked a lot about how difficult it would be to eat the whole thing (but really we ate them purty darn fast and completely).

It’s late, we are tired, and we are trying to leave tomorrow…so the journal may lose some coherency, but what else has happened….we have become fairly well convinced about the Sasquatch that lives here…we were given by Mike some Norway House hooded sweatshirts, t-shirts and hats with a beautiful York Boat Days logo that includes the Sasquatch and says Norway House: Home of the Sasquatch. So cool. We have learned a lot about Mike’s dedication to his people and making this place a healthy and happy place (it’s definetly working). We’ve seen hundreds of people laughing and having a good time. We’ve eaten a lot of good food. We can’t wait to come back and visit sometime for there is much we haven’t gotten to do. And you can actually drive here, though you have to take your vehicle across the river on a ferry that is right by where the Bigfoot was filmed, so the adventure begins right away!

More to come later but that’s an overview for now. Must go to bed…did I mention we watched a Hank Williams impersonator perform and a Johnny Cash impersonator in the same night? Really we’ve only been here two days but so much…
And so soon the gorgeous Hayes we will be on it…can’t wait.

p.s. we'll be on MPR's "All Things Considered" Friday afternoon