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Break-up during the night Last night the ice went out on Lake Temagami, reports Ottertooth's official observer, Glen Toogood, and a new season has arrived. Lake Temagami, one of the deepest and largest lakes in the area, is the measuring stick because it is the last to go and the central lake, physically and emotionally, in the area.
Bear Island open but North Arm still closed Bear Island residents are now able to boat to the road, but the North Arm of Lake Temagami remains ice covered. Observer Glen Toogood reports that he is able to get to the landing by boat from Garden Island. |
 GLEN TOOGOOD George Mathias' airboat skimming the ice as it passes Garden Island, heading home to Bear Island at sunset, April 25. |
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Deep lakes hold onto ice The deeper lakes still have ice. This satellite image gives a good view of ice in northern Temagami, Anima Nipissing, Obabika, and Lady Evelyn lakes, and those to the northwest
Big lakes starting to clear The stubborn big lakes are starting to clear of ice in spots. Only large sheets of ice are visible in this satellite photo, and the most obvious are labelled.
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APRIL 22, 2007 GLEN TOOGOOD Ice shifts Southwest wind shifted Lake Temagami ice about 30 feet today (shown in photos), reports observer Glen Toogood on Garden Island.
"Good enough to mix drinks with," he emailed.
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DAVID BOURDELAIS A Keewaydin canoe trip. |
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APRIL 21, 2007 50,000th camper will attend a youth camp
A century after the arrival of the first youth camp
at Lake Temagami, the
The lake plays an outsized
role in youth camping. It
Keewaydin's arrival in 1902 — it was founded in Maine in 1894 — launched the lake's second industry (after the fur trade), according to historian Bruce Hodgins. Cochrane’s Camp arrived the following year. The third was Camp Cayuga, which opened on the Northwest Arm (today Northwaters occupies the site) in 1925. The number grew to eight by 1949, and has swung between eight and eleven since. Sometimes the rustic base-camp facilities bordered on the outlandish. Cochrane’s had a six-hole golf course. The first Wabikon had riding stables with a bridal path to Temagami Lodge. Keewaydin had, and still does have, clay tennis courts.
For the first six decades, youth camping on Temagami was a stable business. Aside from the 1932 closure of the first Cayuga (which never really reached viability), no camps closed until the first Wabikon in 1961. The quick-succession demise of Windshift, Metagami, Northwoods, Cochrane’s, White Bear, and Wigwasati in the 1970s left the impression of instability, but a new generation of camps — Canadian Adventure, Pays d’en Haut, Lorien, Langskib, and the third Wabikon — opened in their wake, keeping the overall camp count fairly constant. Lake Temagami seems an illogical place for camps as it is so far from a major metropolitan area, but the founders were attracted by the direct railway access and the boat lines. In the boat-line era, which ended in 1965, you could buy a passenger ticket from any major Canadian or American city to a camp’s dock. In spite of their isolation, the camps could move people and supplies to and fro with ease. And in Temagami they adjoined a stunning wilderness network of canoe routes that has become the third most-popular wilderness canoeing area in the world (after the Boundary Waters-Quetico and Algonquin Park). Most operations have been canoe-trip camps. These are anything but typical youth camps. Campers spend most of their summer away from the comfort of base camp, confronting the challenges of weather, terrain, and each other, and go home more self-reliant and confident. Until the 1980s, most canoe trips of five or more canoes were from Temagami camps. Before then the colour of these slow-moving specks on the water was a sure identity of their camp: Keewaydin’s green, Cochrane’s grey, Wabun’s and Northwoods’ red, Wigwasati’s yellow, Wabikon’s blue and Wanapitei’s white.
Lake Temagami without the camps would be like coffee without caffeine. They provided some of the earliest employment for Bear Islanders. Many former campers and staff, particularly from Wabun, Keewaydin and Cochrane, became original island owners. The current and previous presidents of the Temagami Lakes Association, Vince Hovanec and Brad Hall respectively, are Keewaydin alumni. Camps hosted the founding meetings of the Save Maple Mountain Committee (at Wabikon in 1973) and the Temagami Wilderness Society (at Keewaydin in 1986), the groups that spearheaded the biggest conservation battles. These island oases served as villages in the countryside. During the era of the boat lines, they were way stations for cottagers dropped off or picked up at scheduled boat times. They hosted dances, provided vital mail service through their post offices, and dispensed medical help through their infirmaries. And Temagami is richer for them. — An earlier version appeared in Temagami Times, Winter 2007. Recommended reading: The Keewaydin Way
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Lakes to the south going
Ice thins The rivers are open, but many lakes still have ice that is strong enough to walk on. The others with more progressed melts have been thinning quickly this week. See this satellite image, the first without full cloud cover in a week.
Rare history book goes online The biography of Bill Guppy, a Temagami pioneer and the man responsible for bringing a young Grey Owl to Temagami, can now be read online at ourroots.ca. Bill Guppy: King of the Woodsmen by Hal Pink was published about 1940, but few copies remain. It is one of the earliest books written about the area. Our Roots, an Internet nonprofit, publishes historic Canadian books.
Spring melt underway Spring melt has the flow high on Jumping Cat Creek on the Northwest Arm of Lake Temagami, as seen in these Sunday, April 1 photos by Glen Toogood of Garden Island. |
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Maps and information herein are not intended for navigational use, and are not represented to be correct in every respect. All pages intended for reference use only, and all pages are subject to change with new information and without notice. The author/publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for use of the information on these pages. Wilderness travel and canoeing possess inherent risk. It is the sole responsibility of the paddler and outdoor traveler to determine whether he/she is qualified for these activities. Copyright © 2000-2014 Brian Back. All rights reserved. We do not endorse and are not responsible for the content of any linked document on an external site.
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