GOOD-BYE TO CIVILIZATION

(November 1, 1978)

I turned from the mountain of supplies as the engine of the Beaver float plane roared over the sound of the wind and the waves. I watched as the plane picked up speed, the prop turning spray into mist as it bounced across the top of the waves on Hiawatha Lake, my new home, on its way back to Hearst in northern Ontario.

The pilot cleared water and slowly lifted the aircraft over the trees. Banking gently above my new cabin site, he dipped his wings to me, and I waved a good-bye and thanks to my last connection to civilization. Watching as the plane slowly disappeared into the north eastern horizon, the sound of his engine having long ago been carried away by the wind, I turned back to the huge task at hand; the job of moving a mountain of supplies from their present position on the lake shore to the top of the hill where I planned on building my cabin. Supplies that were to last the almost two months I would be here before the planes return on December 23 rd.

Glancing down at Lobo, my Husky/Samoyed cross companion, I realized that he was not going to be much help. "Better get it in gear then Dave," I told myself, and with that I grabbed a load from the pile that contained everything I owned and headed up the hill. Trip after trip, up the hill down the hill and back again. About the third trip or so, a shadow moved across the ground. A couple of Canada jays or Whiskey jacks had come for a visit. "Well that didn't take you long did it," I mumbled to them. "Already looking for a hand out are you?"

But the birds were nice to have around, and as I travelled up and down they kept pace until they finally figured that the chance of getting free food from me right now was nil. Off they went to parts unknown, and I kept up the hurried pace until all my gear was moved. Traps, food, equipment, axes, sleeping bag, snowshoes, tent, woodstove, lantern and the myriad of other items needed to stay in the bush and harvest the furbearers that I was sure were just out of my eyesight, watching and trying to figure out what I was doing there.

Step one was to set up the tent, my temporary home until I had a cabin built. Being just a six by ten nylon tent with a fly it was only about fifteen minutes before the tent was able to start protecting my food from the weather and the critters. With my traps piled in one area, my building material and tools stacked where I was thinking of building the cabin and with my spare clothes and sleeping bag inside with the food, my stomach finally told me it was time for lunch.

Down at the lake shore there were some nice rocks to build a fire pit. Sure a few more trips up and down that hill wouldn't bother me. But then I got smart! Taking my big woods # 1 canvas packsack I loaded it with good sized rocks and only needed two trips to get all I needed. Grabbing a few dead branches from the bottom of a nearby jack pine I broke them up and peeling a little birch bark off a tree there was a nice fire going in no time.

Cracking a can of beef stew I set it beside the flames and went to get a five gallon pail of water from the lake. Soon with my stew all heated up, the water at a rolling boil and a plan of action in my head, I filled my belly, enjoyed my very first wilderness coffee and got right to work.

All I really wanted to do though was go out and set some traps. The trapping season for water animals (beaver, muskrat, otter and mink) had actually opened up two weeks ago and the dry fur (marten, fox, wolves, fisher and lynx) had opened one week previous. Since my scheduled arrival had been delayed by two weeks I really should have had a cabin built by now and most of my traps out. With today being November the 1st, I was under the gun to get things moving quickly.

As important as the cabin was a good wood supply, and thankfully that was not going to be an issue because the lake was lined with dead trees just a short carry from where I was standing. Coming from southern Ontario I had no idea when and how hard winter would hit but I needed to be ready for it, and I was sure it was not that far off. I remembered hearing from someone that anytime after the 7th of November you could expect the lakes to freeze, and that did not give me much time. No use worrying about it though, because it was what it was!

Picking out a nice cabin site, I next went to locate some good straight trees to cut down for the cabin walls. With no actual lumber of any sort other than my beaver stretchers (and they were needed elsewhere) I was planning on a dirt floor and maybe seven foot walls. I figured a 16 X 12 foot floor space would be plenty big enough, so I cut a couple of trees and measured off an 18 and a 14 foot piece from each tree. The tops I limbed and set aside for roof poles. For the walls I used nothing smaller than 6 inches at the narrow end.

Four wall poles were now cut so I decided to move them to the building site. Standing the first one on its end I slid my shoulder to the middle and let the log slowly tip till it is rested on my shoulder. Holy crap that thing was heavy! I stiff legged it to the cabin site and dropped it on the ground thinking that the log probably weighed twice as much as I did. No, I thought to myself that was not going to work. With an average thickness of maybe 8 inches and 7 foot walls I was going to need 40 to 50 logs.

Taking a quick walk around the site, I realized that there were not near that many good straight trees within a close enough distance to make this possible. And to carry them all would probably break my shoulder. Time to rethink this deal! Maybe going and setting a few traps before dark would help me think it through. Funny how you can rationalize anything when you want it bad enough hey! And right now, what I wanted was to set some traps. Throwing a couple #330 conibears, the big square beaver traps, a few smaller #120 conibears and some foothold traps into my pack along with wire, pliers, an axe and grabbing my model 9422 Winchester lever action 22, I was ready.

While in the plane, with the pilot circling the water, I had noticed a beaver lodge on the south end of the lake, just inside the river where it exited toward Nagagami Lake. That was where I would head first, I decided, as I walked down the hill toward my canoe.

Tossing everything inside the watercraft, I remembered my fishing gear and headed back up the hill to retrieve it. I called the...