We all encounter very interesting things while on adventures, the type of items or situations that really make you wonder and want to remember. It is terrific that in today's internet age we can share these experiences with other like-minded people on a forum such as ETS (Thanks Doug) and with most people carrying a camera we can even see the pictures.

So I thought this could be a fun post to "Share Your Adventure" so all of us can enjoy and learn from it.

Here goes,

In late September I traveled to an "end-of-the-road" location in Northeastern Ontario for an Archery/Muzzleloader Moose Hunt. The site was on the edge of the Hudson Bay Lowlands where the Boreal Forest thins out to stunted conifer and muskeg to the north. The area was a patchwork of recent small clearcuts that had been replanted, and it was within these openings that I was hunting. While sitting on a slashpile I noticed a faint trail that ran along a thin ridge, through the harvested area and into the standing forest. I went exploring along this old trail and found that it was a Trappers trail which linked 2 small lakes about 2km apart. About 50m from the shore of one of these lakes I noticed an odd shaped lump, back in the thick bush off the trail.

On investigation I found it to be an old wooden canoe that had been onsite for a very long time. The canoe was made of wooden strips which I suspect are cedar, with wooden ribs, gunwales and seats. I found no evidence of canvas at all and the 100's of tacks used to assemble the canoe were both copper (1.5cm long) and brass (1cm long). The short brass tacks were very interesting as each one was curled over in a small loop at the point, I suspect to have them lock into the thin wood.

I am sure the person who cached that canoe in the bush would have some great stories to tell.

The old canoe in the bush.


Close-up of the canoe stern with my hi-tech muzzleloader for scale.


Thanks for reading along,

Mike