1. To The Mouth of The Seal
gain the sun amazes us by just being present. Louis and Jim woke up first
about 6:10. Louis, the pig, soon after came into our tent (Norm, Chuck and
Rhos) and woke us up by violently vibrating his tonsils and excreting nauseating
sounds. He and Rhos finally made breakfast and after all the duties were completed,
we got on the water at 8:00. Not bad for this crew!”-- July 10, 1973
“A
It’ll be 37 years ago this summer that Jim Leggat took
five teenage boys on a trip of a life time.
The 1973 six week followed the route of the early
voyageurs, 600 miles starting at Pukatawagan in northern
Manitoba to the mouth of the Seal River at Hudson Bay.
“I learned more in those six weeks and in preparing for
the trip than I had to that
point in my life,” Rhos Dyke
says. “The trip changed me
dramatically in how I carried
on into 11th grade at Kelvin
High School. I took on more
responsibility at school and
in the community. I learned
a ton about teamwork.”
Dyke now lives in Los
Angeles and is executive
vice president at software
company Cloud Creek
Systems.
Also on the trip were John
Russell, Louis Keene,
Charles McLandress and Norm Krolman. Rhos Dyke
2. Russell, a professional engineer, splits his time between
Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He is director of operations
at Sebastian Construction Group, a builder of high-end
homes.
“It was the high-light of my life,” Russell says. “I think
Leggat was only 21 and we were 16. There was
supervision, but compared to today’s standards we were
pretty free-wheeling.”
McLandress lives in Toronto and is a research scientist in
the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto. He
still paddles, and in 2006 canoed the Seal River a second
time.
3. Charles McLandress in 2006
Keene, an architect, lives in St. Simons Island, Georgia. He
paints in his pare time.
Two of the six on the trip have
passed away.
Jim Leggat died suddenly Nov.
11, 1994 at age 41 while hiking in
British Columbia. The first cabin
on the line at Camp Stephens is
named after him.
Norm Krolman, 39, disappeared
Sept. 7, 1996 shortly after
withdrawing cash from an ATM
in Winnipeg,
Winnipeg police say all of his belongings were still at his
Wardlaw apartment, a sign the self-employed computer
programmer intended to return.
Foul play is suspected. Norm Krolman
For Dyke, Russell, Keene and McLandress, they went their
own ways a long time ago. Like so many of us, university
followed by careers, family and other things scattered
them.
Late last year, Jim’s brother John gave me the logbook
for the 1973 Camp Stephens Six Week Trip.
He said it the trip was unique not only because of the
route, but because Leggat was the only tripper. It was
4. also one of the early trips where more thought was put
into making it challenging. Like canoeing and camping in
polar bear country. Subsequent trips saw increased focus
on safety, including two trippers.
“It was extremely challenging,” Russell says. “I
remember dragging our canoes over deadfall and rocks in
shallow creeks with the bugs draining the life out of me.
“I remember collapsing one night in the tent with barely
setting it up and then back at it the next day.”
hos’s true culinary techniques showed themselves in a very crappy ham
stew. Jim tried to show us how to cook and attempted to bake cornmeal
bread. He must have misplaced his glasses for he mistook the salt for the sugar and
made a meal unfit for a K9.” – July 18
“R
It started July 1. There was no sunrise ceremony; only a
few goodbyes from trail staff; Jamie Grant, Mitch Halprin
and Hugh Burton before the van pulled out of Winnipeg for
The Pas.
When the van pulled into The Pas with Leggat, his boys
and all their gear, the tone for the next six weeks was set.
Jim Leggat wrote: “We went up to Clearwater Provincial
Park to look for a campsite. It was raining cats and dogs –
couldn’t find one, everything was completely booked up –
decided to ruff it and stay in a motel.
“We found the Wescana Inn – booked suite 17 but then
we moved up to the executive suite and room 21 beside it
– really nice.”
The first night of the trip was spent eating pizza, watching
TV and throwing ice cubes at one another.
5. The next day didn’t start on the water, but loading canoes
and gear onto a train pointed towards Pukatawagan.
Leggat wrote as the train rolled north: “The country
seems to be getting pretty rough – started wondering
what the hell we have signed up for.”
About nine hours later the train stopped at Pawistik, a
siding near Pukatawagan on the Churchill River.
The next morning, after an oatmeal breakfast, the two
canoes hit the water.
The weather was perfect. Over the next couple of days
they were ahead of schedule. And they hadn’t even
broken a sweat. The fishing was also good. Louis, John,
Norm and Chuck each caught fish, some they threw back,
some they ate.
On the fourth day on trial it started raining.
“Decide to stay in bed,” Leggat wrote. “Broke camp
around 10:30. Not to impressive – that’s too bad.
It rained steadily for the next few days.
“We woke up a 6:45 a.m. only to discover that the rain
had not left us – oh poop!” Dyke wrote in the logbook
days later. “We once again had scrambled eggs, once
again we resisted the temptation to puke.”
In the days ahead the rain continued along with heavy
winds. The rain they could handle. The wind, not so much.
It whipped up the water making it dangerous to canoe on
open water because of the high waves.
Waiting out the lousy weather and living in such close
confines also brought out conflict.
6. “More strains on the trip are showing through as they
boys were at each other’s throats in an argument over
new positioning of the canoes,” McLandress wrote at the
end of the second week. “Now once again tempers have
died down and all grievances settled. We decided to hit
the sack. That’s all for today. Covered 0 miles.”
When the weather changed the group of six made up for
lost time on the Little Sand River.
“By now we were all rather upset at the bugs which
seemed ravenous all the time,” Keene wrote.
Two days later the trip hit the Seal River. The boys lucked
out when they came across a Lamb Air cabin, one of many
scattered throughout the north used by the northern
airline.
In the days ahead the six shot numerous rapids, one which
saw one of their canoes badly crunched when it went
through some white water sideways:
“When it was all over, only one paddle was missing and
three boys had the symptoms of pneumonia,” the July 29
log book entry reads. “Jim tried to kick the now four foot
dent out and succeeded partly.”
On July 31 the trip saw their first seal—they called it Herbie
—and seven days later saw their first big polar bear.
“I was really scared because I didn’t know what it would
do,” Dyke said in the logbook.
In the days ahead, as they paddled towards Hudson Bay,
they saw more. A lot more.
A week later they flew to Winnipeg from Churchill. Then
trail director Jim King met them at the airport and took
7. them to Pizza Place before driving them out to Kenora.
They’d covered the distance of the six-week trip in about
six hours.
On August 16 they paddled into camp.
“Two days ago we were sitting at Hudson Bay wondering
if we would make it home to Camp
Stephens,” Dyke wrote in the log the
night before. “Camp seemed to be far
away and almost in another world.”
YMCA Strong Kids
What’s Strong Kids?
Well, the ‘Y’ is consolidating its fund raising efforts that
focus on children into one campaign, STRONG KIDS. That
doesn’t mean the Campership Fund has disappeared. On
the contrary, as part of the larger campaign, we hope to
attract an even wider range of contributors.
And, you may still designate your gift to Camp Stephens
and the Robble Gobble Fund in memory of Bob Paterson.
Strong Kids will also raise funds for the North Y Youth
Centre (part of what we old timers knew and loved as
North ‘Y’) which opened recently and has already
exploded with $5 memberships for kids in the local
neighbourhood. Funds also go to providing assisted
memberships at all branches so that no child is denied the
opportunity to participate in the Y.
I shouldn’t have to explain 'Strong Kids' , but I will
anyway. Back in my day (never mind, I won’t say when
that was), we used the term ‘character building’ to
8. describe what we aimed for in our
programs and work with children
and youth.
Fun, challenging sports programs
and activities in Y branches,
camping and tripping adventure
experiences, leadership
development programs, all with the
best trained and value motivated
leadership we could provide.
And most of that leadership was
home grown from the programs. If
you have Y membership or Y
camping or both in your past, you know the formula works.
I’m proud to say I grew from the same experiences way
back in the 40’s and 50’s.
The Y is still making a difference in young lives--today with
special emphasis on kids from the inner city and families
who would never even contemplate a year’s membership
or two weeks at camp.
That’s what Strong Kids means. Hal Studholme
And thanks to you, Camp Stephens continues to bring
these character building experiences to children who need
them most.
One more thing. The YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg has just
completed the purchase of the former Salvation Army
Camp Woodlands, a year-round facility near Woodlands,
Manitoba. This will allow us to not only give rebirth to the
old Camp Manitou spirit and provide our own, year-round,
9. multi-faceted camp experiences to children, families and
adults.
Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Hal Studholme, Chair, 2010 Campership Fund
To donate: Click here
80Camp Manitou th
Anniversary
Reunion
It’s Monday August 2 starting at 11 a.m.
Anyone who’s been connected to Manitou can attend.
Register at Camp Manitou’s website.
“The Camp is a fully accredited facility with such
amenities as a climbing wall, mountain bike trails, an
archery range, a rope course, large swimming pool and
canoeing on the Assiniboine River.
“The approach used to present a desired learning activity
may vary from time to time, but the basics remain the
same. The camp's focus is on helping children to develop
personal trust, greater self-confidence, and recognition of
their personal abilities, increased social skills and a true
sense of personal worth.”
There’s a Facebook page set up where you can see who
is going.
-30-
