Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Wanakita
Camp Wanakita is a fantastic escape from the daily grind located in the Georgian Bay about 4 hours from home. We headed out for this adventure on Friday hoping to arrive before dark as there was concern about finding our way. Getting detailed maps had been part of the task. What had been fascinating w
as discovering that there are not just 10 or 20 lakes in this area as is depicted on the larger maps but a gazillion little lakes all over the place. The area is a big attraction for Canadians who use it for weekend escapes. They say it is a picture in summer and fall also.
We entered the region after some good falls of snow and found everything completely covered in the white stuff (roads too unfortunately). It was magic.
On arrival we were allo
cated to our cabins holding up to 16 guests with a shower & toilet. Pretty basic but more than sufficient for our needs. The weekend was organised by the CLEE group (Canadian Exchange League) and we met teachers and families arriving all night at the main building which was where we ate all of our meals and did most of our socialising.
It was a cold weekend but warm and toasty inside so everyone spent many minutes dressing and undressing to go in or outside, including trading outside footwear for dry inside shoes or slippers. This is a typical past-time for Canadians in winter. At home in Waterloo we can usually avoid this routine as one moves from o
ne warm house to a warm shop or warm building of some discription (such as Tim Hortons) and requires a short 10 second dash in the cold. At Wanakita this is not possible as most activities are outside and we dressed for it. The walk to the main building is also a 10 minute brisk walk.
At breakfast on Saturday morning we were given 'the drum' on the way things worked at Wanakita including how meals were organised. Lists of activities were posted and we had t
o add our names to the events we wanted to participate in. Events included cross-country skiing, snow shoe walking, indoor games, broom ball, toboganing, climbing challenges and dog sledding to name a few. Jenny, Alex and I chose x-country skiing as our first activity and headed of all rugged up in the snow (it snowed for most of Saturday) to be taught how to x-country ski. Alex wasn't impressed with this activity so did not come back for the trek in the second time slot so headed off to one of the climbing challenges. Jenny and I headed out with about 30 others for a trek through the woods following one of the trails which extend for many kilometers. The trails are groomed daily to allow for skiers to get around although on this day you could not glide easily because the trails were covered with fresh sn
ow. About a kilometer along the track we were given the option to break from the main group provided we felt confident to do so. The tracks are well marked with a map at each trail intersection and the large group had a variety of ski abilities so 5 gung-ho x-country enthusiasts which including Jenny & myself, David & Jessica and Steve headed to places unknown in the wilderness.
This proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend as we forged our way through fresh powder snow trails, up and down hills, with the down creating some interesting stacks. With downhill skis you feel like you're 0n very long tooth picks
which have no edge so cutting into the snow to stop or turn is very tricky. About 5kms on, and after lots of hollering and yipeeing, especially from our fearless leader David, we came across the track groomer who was a big bloke in orange outdoor overalls that looked a bit like an oversized Jabawoki. And he had run his state of the art snow mobile off the edge of a bridge into a creek and was very stuck! So we spent about an hour helping him dislodge the machine using jacks and chains and winches. Jenny and Jessica of cause did all the supervising, and did a splenid job of it as we succeeded in removed the snowmobile from its trap much to the delight of Jabawoki who was going to go all the way to Australia to buy us a carton of our favourite beer.
The dogsledding on Sunday also proved a big hit with all and sundry. I was fascinated w
ith the whole event. A small truck arrived with sleds and dogs (in little pens) and began setting up by unloading the sleds first, attaching a tow rope then bringing out the dogs one at a time. As each dog was clpped to the tow rope an assistant (one of the onlookers) held the lead dog and the barking and excitment began. The dogs quite obviously new what was about to happen and were very keen to get going. So, by the time the 20th dog came out of the pens there was pandamonium. Dogs were barking, jumping up and down, pulling furi
ously at the tow rope (a bit like when Fred Flintstone takes off in his car) , clawing at the ground, eating snow, biting the tow rope, biting themselves, biting other dogs close by, fighting and growling at other dogs and generally going absolutely berserk! Finally, after some driving instructions, they were off. The first run was done at record pace with a couple of sleds tipping over at tricky places on the track but as the day wore on and each group had their turn things started to settle and the dogs got into a routine. Needless to say by the time we had our turn the dogs were completely stuffed and barely got into a trot. So it was very safe to say the least but all in all a very enjoyable experience.
as discovering that there are not just 10 or 20 lakes in this area as is depicted on the larger maps but a gazillion little lakes all over the place. The area is a big attraction for Canadians who use it for weekend escapes. They say it is a picture in summer and fall also. We entered the region after some good falls of snow and found everything completely covered in the white stuff (roads too unfortunately). It was magic.
On arrival we were allo
cated to our cabins holding up to 16 guests with a shower & toilet. Pretty basic but more than sufficient for our needs. The weekend was organised by the CLEE group (Canadian Exchange League) and we met teachers and families arriving all night at the main building which was where we ate all of our meals and did most of our socialising. It was a cold weekend but warm and toasty inside so everyone spent many minutes dressing and undressing to go in or outside, including trading outside footwear for dry inside shoes or slippers. This is a typical past-time for Canadians in winter. At home in Waterloo we can usually avoid this routine as one moves from o
ne warm house to a warm shop or warm building of some discription (such as Tim Hortons) and requires a short 10 second dash in the cold. At Wanakita this is not possible as most activities are outside and we dressed for it. The walk to the main building is also a 10 minute brisk walk.At breakfast on Saturday morning we were given 'the drum' on the way things worked at Wanakita including how meals were organised. Lists of activities were posted and we had t
o add our names to the events we wanted to participate in. Events included cross-country skiing, snow shoe walking, indoor games, broom ball, toboganing, climbing challenges and dog sledding to name a few. Jenny, Alex and I chose x-country skiing as our first activity and headed of all rugged up in the snow (it snowed for most of Saturday) to be taught how to x-country ski. Alex wasn't impressed with this activity so did not come back for the trek in the second time slot so headed off to one of the climbing challenges. Jenny and I headed out with about 30 others for a trek through the woods following one of the trails which extend for many kilometers. The trails are groomed daily to allow for skiers to get around although on this day you could not glide easily because the trails were covered with fresh sn
ow. About a kilometer along the track we were given the option to break from the main group provided we felt confident to do so. The tracks are well marked with a map at each trail intersection and the large group had a variety of ski abilities so 5 gung-ho x-country enthusiasts which including Jenny & myself, David & Jessica and Steve headed to places unknown in the wilderness.This proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend as we forged our way through fresh powder snow trails, up and down hills, with the down creating some interesting stacks. With downhill skis you feel like you're 0n very long tooth picks
which have no edge so cutting into the snow to stop or turn is very tricky. About 5kms on, and after lots of hollering and yipeeing, especially from our fearless leader David, we came across the track groomer who was a big bloke in orange outdoor overalls that looked a bit like an oversized Jabawoki. And he had run his state of the art snow mobile off the edge of a bridge into a creek and was very stuck! So we spent about an hour helping him dislodge the machine using jacks and chains and winches. Jenny and Jessica of cause did all the supervising, and did a splenid job of it as we succeeded in removed the snowmobile from its trap much to the delight of Jabawoki who was going to go all the way to Australia to buy us a carton of our favourite beer.The dogsledding on Sunday also proved a big hit with all and sundry. I was fascinated w
ith the whole event. A small truck arrived with sleds and dogs (in little pens) and began setting up by unloading the sleds first, attaching a tow rope then bringing out the dogs one at a time. As each dog was clpped to the tow rope an assistant (one of the onlookers) held the lead dog and the barking and excitment began. The dogs quite obviously new what was about to happen and were very keen to get going. So, by the time the 20th dog came out of the pens there was pandamonium. Dogs were barking, jumping up and down, pulling furi
ously at the tow rope (a bit like when Fred Flintstone takes off in his car) , clawing at the ground, eating snow, biting the tow rope, biting themselves, biting other dogs close by, fighting and growling at other dogs and generally going absolutely berserk! Finally, after some driving instructions, they were off. The first run was done at record pace with a couple of sleds tipping over at tricky places on the track but as the day wore on and each group had their turn things started to settle and the dogs got into a routine. Needless to say by the time we had our turn the dogs were completely stuffed and barely got into a trot. So it was very safe to say the least but all in all a very enjoyable experience. # posted by Dibbo @ 12:46 pm 
