I know how much work you all did going thru the Bush. We built a hunt camp 🏕 IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE 35+ years ago near Shining 🌳 Tree. We are all too old now. Getting harder to get there as we age. The northern lights were amazing.
good stuff, thanks for the video. In the ‘93 I canoed into that country (before it was a park). I made camp at a small lake accessible from Cliff Lake, and built a small cabin over the course of 6 weeks. The fishing on Cliff Lake was amazing. One still, dark night when I was in my cabin, a bigfoot put on a vary impressive sonic display of uprooting trees, banging rocks and logs together. I could hear everything perfectly, and there was no mistaking the sounds, it was doing things a bear or a human couldn’t do. I would have sworn it was 25 yards away, but I didn’t find where it had made all the destruction. I didn’t look too hard though, there was no mistaking the message telling me to move on.
Thanks Andrew! Wow, what a story. Have you shared this with others? And did you leave? I'm sure this is a tough story to share without many questioning it.
@@ThePursuitofPassion I know, it is very strange. At the time I thought it had to be a bear, but I couldn’t understand how it could be throwing huge rocks against trees, it didn’t make sense. All i had was a hunting bow, so it was scary enough at that. I didn’t know much about bigfoot, but assumed it was a myth and a west coast thing. Over the years though, after seeing other credible accounts of bigfoot encounters in the Lake Nipigon area, I realized that it wasn’t a bear. I did end up leaving shortly after that I think. I was going into Armstrong to check my mail before freeze up, and I planned to come back. But I ended up finding work in town and never made it back. I left a cache of valuables in a waterproof container outside of the cabin and left the door ajar, because I thought the “bear” might break the door. A bush pilot flew in later to retrieve my valuables, but he said the container was gone, and the cabin had been destroyed beyond belief. He didn’t get into much specifics, but he looked a little traumatized by it. Also, while I was there, a bear trap I had made was sprung in a very mysterious way. There was no trace of any animal having touched it, and when I reset it, that never happened again.
@@AndrewSmith-rp6ee Wow Andrew, what a story. This shared around a campfire would certainly make people's hair stand on end. I'm actually fascinated by your story. I'm not a Big Foot fan or much of a believer (like you were), but neither would I discredit anyone's experience. I think as scary as that was, you certainly had a extremely unique and intriguing experience. Love to hear more if you are willing. Here's my email address if you care to dialogue more. passionatepaddler@gmail.com Thanks for sharing mate!
@@ThePursuitofPassion You may not be able to or willing to discredit Andrew's foolish claims, but I certainly can. There is not a speck of truth to his clams. Andrew is trolling you. He's also paraphrasing a well-known story that has circulated for many years down in the mid-western US where a group of hunters barricaded themselves inside some large trees while "bigfoot" banged rocks together and against trees and made strange sounds. Imagine there is a 'bigfoot" family living in or around Wabakimi...lololol. These bigfoot folks are the same lunatics that have their watches set to Jerry Springer and often have the entire collection stashed under their beds. I'll admit, it makes a terrific fireside story.....if you have a weak mind and also believe the world is flat, or there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do and can hear everything you say. Ok that last part is George Carlin, lol, but you get the picture. Same group of folks. And for goodness sakes, don't encourage these people..lol
Wow, looks like quite the trip. Hard work but beautiful scenery. Nice to see your dog a blueberry treat as well. Would love to see that Cliff lake in person. Looking forward to the next one.
It certainly was in the beginning, but that ultimately set the pace for the rest of the trip, so yeah, ended up being pretty tough. Yeah, Teddy is unfortunately not with us anymore, but he loved blueberries. Thanks!
Yeah, the whole lake was rimmed with cliffs. It was stunning. We had planned a rest day there and certainly would have fished, but we were behind and had to move on. Thanks Marc!
@@ThePursuitofPassion Aww, sorry to hear that. I saw him on the Happy little Cheese bun Lake series and he was quite the trooper! It looks like he had a very happy life with you guys.
I have used the beaver dam modification technique myself! You are brave not just for doing the route but by being trip leader. How long after the trip was it before you all got together for dinner ?
😆 Awesome! I don't do it often, but I can say I've done it a few times. I attribute my bravery to surviving this long. But one day....🤔 😜 We're still friends!
I just took up kayaking and learn loads of new things watching these videos so thanks for sharing! Do you have any tips on finding the right places to paddle based on level of experience?
Hi Ali, you're welcome! There isn't anything in particular to find places to paddle based on experience. Quite often asking questions on forums, social media groups, or asking park staff may provide answers. But the best route to take is to join some courses and work on your skills that will provide you confidence to determine where you'd like to go. Or, join a group of similar kayakers where you can learn the ropes from other experienced paddlers. All the best!
Nice footage of the Big River and connecting lakes. This is in the Armstrong Forest, an important part of the greater Wabakimi area. This area was mapped and portages cleared by The Wabakimi Project between 2015 and 2018; portages documented in Volume 5, of the Friends of Wabakimi map books. www.wabakimi.org/wabakimi-maps.html#vol5 It looked like your group may have encountered one or more of these portages. The FOW is actively working to protect these routes, as more logging is planned for areas in this forest. See our site for more information. www.wabakimi.org/ The Ontario MNRF knows these historic canoe routes are there..
Hi Dave! Thanks for sharing this info. I'm actually aware of the FOW, as I chatted with Phil several times. (He tried to get me to join in on the trail clearing outings.) In fact, he was the one that recommended some parts of the route (eg Cliff Lake) when I mentioned I was heading there for a trip. Love the work you guys are doing and supported it in any small way I could. (Bought all the maps, encourage people to visit/support your efforts, etc.) Thanks for reaching out and connecting!
not too keen on this one..i want to see a lot more canoeing and less stopping...and i cant believe you destoyed the beaver dam and i know you guys could have pulled over the canoes. .if you tried..
No problem. There was a lot of canoeing in the later half of this trip, but this was early in my filming days and I didn't capture a lot of it. A lot has changed since 2016, learning a lot more in regards to filming since then. We didn't actually destroy it, far from it. A beaver would easily fix that overnight. Saying that, yes we could have just did a liftover, but part of the reason was to provide more water to the creek below to ease our travel. Sure some wouldn't agree to what we did, but this has little consequence to a beaver. They are way more hardy and can easily deal with a small breach in their dam.
We love your videos, but please note: Cutting down trees and causing habitat destruction is not allowed in Provincial or National Parks. My wife used to be an Ecologist for Ontario Parks and one important thing that needs to be minimized is our human impact on natural lands and watercourses. Hopefully you can be mindful of this in the future, and maybe present these rules and respect for nature in a future video so all viewers become more aware of how we must minimize our human centric perspective on our interaction with natural areas (especially in Parks). Thanks!
Hey thanks. I totally agree, aware, and understand your concern. However, I'd just like to point out a few things for clarification. Wabakimi is a wilderness class park and the management of the canoe routes in the park are minimal at best. There are some well worn portages in popular sections often maintained by outfitters and fly-in camps, but most are non-existent or in a bad state. So tripping in Wabakimi can be challenging if not difficult. But most of all, many of the new portages have been opened up by the Friends of Wabakimi, and mapped. (They are not associated with the park.) In fact, during our travels through there, we met both a group from the FoW and a pair of First Nation's (hired by the park to work on clearing portages) as they continued in the clearing work that we had already either started, or helped to maintain. So I just wanted to be clear we were not wantonly just going through and destroying things, but rather clearing just enough to get through and assist others that may follow in our path. Unfortunately parks such as Wabakimi simply do not have the resources or funds to properly maintain canoe routes so it is often left to paddlers to manage on their own. Thanks for you comment and concern.
Wow, that aurora. So jealous!! Loved it, looking forward to the rest
Thanks Jon! No doubt your turn will come and you will savour it. You are definitely in a better place to see them.
@@ThePursuitofPassion cannot believe it hasn't happened in my 2+ years up here. Damn solar minimum.
@@LostLakes Yeah, I find that weird too. LOL For all your patience, it will probably be epic!
@@ThePursuitofPassion 😬😬😬
I know how much work you all did going thru the Bush. We built a hunt camp 🏕 IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE 35+ years ago near Shining 🌳 Tree. We are all too old now. Getting harder to get there as we age. The northern lights were amazing.
I bet Mike! That's awesome. You probably had some amazing memories from there as well. (Is that in the Temagami area?) Thanks!
good stuff, thanks for the video. In the ‘93 I canoed into that country (before it was a park). I made camp at a small lake accessible from Cliff Lake, and built a small cabin over the course of 6 weeks. The fishing on Cliff Lake was amazing. One still, dark night when I was in my cabin, a bigfoot put on a vary impressive sonic display of uprooting trees, banging rocks and logs together. I could hear everything perfectly, and there was no mistaking the sounds, it was doing things a bear or a human couldn’t do. I would have sworn it was 25 yards away, but I didn’t find where it had made all the destruction. I didn’t look too hard though, there was no mistaking the message telling me to move on.
Thanks Andrew! Wow, what a story. Have you shared this with others? And did you leave? I'm sure this is a tough story to share without many questioning it.
@@ThePursuitofPassion I know, it is very strange. At the time I thought it had to be a bear, but I couldn’t understand how it could be throwing huge rocks against trees, it didn’t make sense. All i had was a hunting bow, so it was scary enough at that. I didn’t know much about bigfoot, but assumed it was a myth and a west coast thing. Over the years though, after seeing other credible accounts of bigfoot encounters in the Lake Nipigon area, I realized that it wasn’t a bear. I did end up leaving shortly after that I think. I was going into Armstrong to check my mail before freeze up, and I planned to come back. But I ended up finding work in town and never made it back. I left a cache of valuables in a waterproof container outside of the cabin and left the door ajar, because I thought the “bear” might break the door. A bush pilot flew in later to retrieve my valuables, but he said the container was gone, and the cabin had been destroyed beyond belief. He didn’t get into much specifics, but he looked a little traumatized by it. Also, while I was there, a bear trap I had made was sprung in a very mysterious way. There was no trace of any animal having touched it, and when I reset it, that never happened again.
@@AndrewSmith-rp6ee Wow Andrew, what a story. This shared around a campfire would certainly make people's hair stand on end. I'm actually fascinated by your story. I'm not a Big Foot fan or much of a believer (like you were), but neither would I discredit anyone's experience. I think as scary as that was, you certainly had a extremely unique and intriguing experience. Love to hear more if you are willing. Here's my email address if you care to dialogue more. passionatepaddler@gmail.com Thanks for sharing mate!
@@ThePursuitofPassion You may not be able to or willing to discredit Andrew's foolish claims, but I certainly can. There is not a speck of truth to his clams. Andrew is trolling you. He's also paraphrasing a well-known story that has circulated for many years down in the mid-western US where a group of hunters barricaded themselves inside some large trees while "bigfoot" banged rocks together and against trees and made strange sounds. Imagine there is a 'bigfoot" family living in or around Wabakimi...lololol. These bigfoot folks are the same lunatics that have their watches set to Jerry Springer and often have the entire collection stashed under their beds. I'll admit, it makes a terrific fireside story.....if you have a weak mind and also believe the world is flat, or there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do and can hear everything you say. Ok that last part is George Carlin, lol, but you get the picture. Same group of folks. And for goodness sakes, don't encourage these people..lol
This is awesome. Those northern lights are amazing. Thanks for posting.
Thanks Keenan. We had a special night that was unforgettable. Cheers
glad I found this series. The commentary of the "actors" is very entertaining. Great narration as well. Thanks for sharing
That's great, glad you enjoyed it Mark. Anytime, cheers.
Wow, looks like quite the trip. Hard work but beautiful scenery. Nice to see your dog a blueberry treat as well. Would love to see that Cliff lake in person. Looking forward to the next one.
It certainly was in the beginning, but that ultimately set the pace for the rest of the trip, so yeah, ended up being pretty tough. Yeah, Teddy is unfortunately not with us anymore, but he loved blueberries. Thanks!
This looks like a great trip. Half way through the video and loving it.
Thanks Ben! Thanks for swinging by. Appreciate the comment coming from a video guy. Lots still to learn for me!
Those cliffs were especially nice! I would of been itching to drop a line in those waters in front of them.
See you on the next one👍
Yeah, the whole lake was rimmed with cliffs. It was stunning. We had planned a rest day there and certainly would have fished, but we were behind and had to move on. Thanks Marc!
Great start to the series of videos of your trip. I love it. Beautiful scenery of the area.
Thank you Jimmy! Definitely a beautiful place to canoe trip.
Wow that's pretty epic! Beauty park!
It really is! Thanks bro! 👊
Loving the trips keep em coming.
Thanks my friend. Appreciate the support!
Loving the poodle portage 😁
😄 We miss Teddy dearly. He was an awesome canoe-tripping dog.
@@ThePursuitofPassion Aww, sorry to hear that. I saw him on the Happy little Cheese bun Lake series and he was quite the trooper! It looks like he had a very happy life with you guys.
I have used the beaver dam modification technique myself! You are brave not just for doing the route but by being trip leader. How long after the trip was it before you all got together for dinner ?
😆 Awesome! I don't do it often, but I can say I've done it a few times. I attribute my bravery to surviving this long. But one day....🤔 😜 We're still friends!
Here we go!!
Haha. Yup!
So good👌
Thanks a lot Paul!
I just took up kayaking and learn loads of new things watching these videos so thanks for sharing! Do you have any tips on finding the right places to paddle based on level of experience?
Hi Ali, you're welcome! There isn't anything in particular to find places to paddle based on experience. Quite often asking questions on forums, social media groups, or asking park staff may provide answers. But the best route to take is to join some courses and work on your skills that will provide you confidence to determine where you'd like to go. Or, join a group of similar kayakers where you can learn the ropes from other experienced paddlers. All the best!
epic trip! sad composite creations is no longer in business they made some cool unique boats.
Thanks Gabe! Yeah, that's too bad. With Royalex gone, I thought it would be their chance. Unfortunately not.
Nice footage of the Big River and connecting lakes. This is in the Armstrong Forest, an important part of the greater Wabakimi area. This area was mapped and portages cleared by The Wabakimi Project between 2015 and 2018; portages documented in Volume 5, of the Friends of Wabakimi map books. www.wabakimi.org/wabakimi-maps.html#vol5 It looked like your group may have encountered one or more of these portages. The FOW is actively working to protect these routes, as more logging is planned for areas in this forest. See our site for more information. www.wabakimi.org/ The Ontario MNRF knows these historic canoe routes are there..
Hi Dave! Thanks for sharing this info. I'm actually aware of the FOW, as I chatted with Phil several times. (He tried to get me to join in on the trail clearing outings.) In fact, he was the one that recommended some parts of the route (eg Cliff Lake) when I mentioned I was heading there for a trip. Love the work you guys are doing and supported it in any small way I could. (Bought all the maps, encourage people to visit/support your efforts, etc.) Thanks for reaching out and connecting!
not too keen on this one..i want to see a lot more canoeing and less stopping...and i cant believe you destoyed the beaver dam and i know you guys could have pulled over the canoes.
.if you tried..
No problem. There was a lot of canoeing in the later half of this trip, but this was early in my filming days and I didn't capture a lot of it. A lot has changed since 2016, learning a lot more in regards to filming since then. We didn't actually destroy it, far from it. A beaver would easily fix that overnight. Saying that, yes we could have just did a liftover, but part of the reason was to provide more water to the creek below to ease our travel. Sure some wouldn't agree to what we did, but this has little consequence to a beaver. They are way more hardy and can easily deal with a small breach in their dam.
We love your videos, but please note: Cutting down trees and causing habitat destruction is not allowed in Provincial or National Parks. My wife used to be an Ecologist for Ontario Parks and one important thing that needs to be minimized is our human impact on natural lands and watercourses. Hopefully you can be mindful of this in the future, and maybe present these rules and respect for nature in a future video so all viewers become more aware of how we must minimize our human centric perspective on our interaction with natural areas (especially in Parks). Thanks!
Hey thanks. I totally agree, aware, and understand your concern. However, I'd just like to point out a few things for clarification. Wabakimi is a wilderness class park and the management of the canoe routes in the park are minimal at best. There are some well worn portages in popular sections often maintained by outfitters and fly-in camps, but most are non-existent or in a bad state. So tripping in Wabakimi can be challenging if not difficult. But most of all, many of the new portages have been opened up by the Friends of Wabakimi, and mapped. (They are not associated with the park.) In fact, during our travels through there, we met both a group from the FoW and a pair of First Nation's (hired by the park to work on clearing portages) as they continued in the clearing work that we had already either started, or helped to maintain. So I just wanted to be clear we were not wantonly just going through and destroying things, but rather clearing just enough to get through and assist others that may follow in our path. Unfortunately parks such as Wabakimi simply do not have the resources or funds to properly maintain canoe routes so it is often left to paddlers to manage on their own. Thanks for you comment and concern.
@@ThePursuitofPassion Thanks for the explanation!