Another/the last paddle building session for the summer, the boys group. Paddles are drying on the wall in the background.


one more picture of Mitigoka, sanded and ready for a second/final coat of color.


Miggwich means 'Big thanks' in Ojibwe. Miigwich was recanvassed last summer, and if currently in the quetico on a 17 day trip guided by Taylor Dzier....sounds like derzack. Here are some pictures of the finishjing touches. I've known taylor since first grade, i should be able to spell his last name.


Color coats on Miigwich.

Beginning to install teh outwales. in this picture you can see the top edge of the now-trimmed canvas. This edge, as well as the top of the horizontal planking that is just visible behind th canvas, are coverd neatly by a 'rabbited' outwale.



Using a hand drill to install brass-silicon woodscrews in the outwales.

Clamping the outwales in to place to get the right locati0on of the woodscrews.




Maiden voyage for the newly painted canvas on Miigwich. Now that's how you put a woodie in thw water off a dock without letting it touch the dock! yeah!

Off tehy go. Taylor is in the stern, and is guiding a 21 day Quetico session. he'll be in the quetico park wilderness for 17 days. The boat is unloaded in this picture because they are just paddling across bearskin to the van, where they have already loaded their gear and will load their canoes for a drive and drop-off on the north border of the park.

Okay, now just some pictures from around camp.


Finishing up sanding a few fine camper-made paddles.



Hand tied knots on the bottom of wicker seats in teh Jarvis canoe. the caning is being replaced by webbing, and just before i cut it out i realized that this was hand woven by some guy in Maine 70 years ago.

Tina and Charlotte waiting for a bait ride.


Night sauna with full moon.

Goodness its been busy in York Factory. Over the last two weeks we’ve had two paddle building sessions (three groups total), the Menogyn Rendezvous weekend, building inspection visit from some Y execs, and another canoeing Nor’wester heading out. Kelsey Johnson left on the 29^th with two plastic canoes, 24ish days of food, and four 11^th grade girls bound for rivers east of lake Winnipeg. A Nor’wester, for those of you who don’t know, is a trip here at Menogyn. It’s an invite only trip, meaning you are invited on the trip by former guides who believe you are ready for a30/32 (depending on the year and session), with 23ish days spent in the wilderness. There are backpacking and canoeing Nor’westers. The Canoeing Nor’westers are not whitewater-focused trips, but they do run whitewater, as it needed to travel the rivers they are on.

Since i don't have any pictures from this summer's Nor'westers, here are two from the Norwester i went on in 2006.

So, here’s Mitigoka. Mitigoka is a canoe built by Joe Seliga in Ely Minnesota in 73’. The serial number stamped in the ash stem reads 373354, so it was the third canoe he built in 1973, and it was his 254^th canoe. It’s not his 354^th canoe because joe didn’t want to be considered an amateur when he started building, so he started his boat count at 100. Thus, canoe number 354 is really canoe number 254. Joe built around 750 total.

Mitigoka after her first coat of color paint(on top of two coats of primer).

Engages(work campers) Shay and Harrison helping to clean and sand the interior.

Grinding out some stubborb bolts. Teh seats are fastened with bolts with nuts tighted underneat the seat, so if a washer is not used the bolt will sink up into the seat and be totally inaccessible to a wrench. Very little, however, is innaccessable to our grinder.

Putting the first coat of varnish (thinned) ont he sanded interior.

Mitigoka is the canoe I learned on last year. I did most of the restoration on this boat, instructed and supervised by Kelly Fulton. The stern stem was rotted at the top, so a new piece was made and ‘scarfed’ into place. Three broken ribs were removed and replaced, as well as a bit of planking. As with the stern stem, the inwales(the part of the gunwale on the inside of the canoe) and the point of the deck plate were also rotted. The rotten wood was cut away, and new wood was cut to exactly the shape needed. There is plenty of work on this canoe that would be different if I did it again now that I know the whole process, but I still think she’s turning out great.

In Ojibwe Mitigoka means “There is plenty of wood.” I don’t know the story behind the name. The canoe was bought from Seliga in the 70’s and was named than.

More!

Above: Fireflies lightin a fire! Below, just some pictures of goings on at Menogyn. Groups heading out on trips via canoe, groups leaving on longer trips via pontoon, my summer lodging.





About a week ago Nishime, our mostly restored 16' Old Town we were given last year, needed to go on trail. Most of our canoes are between 17 and 18 feet, which doesn't seem much bigger until you look at the inside of Nishime. the canoe is tiny! there is very little space for the bow-person's legs, and very small cargo space between the yolk and the two thwarts. Because of this, finishing Nishime's restoration was not at the top of my list. i didn't think anyone would want it. but of course, someone did. We almost ran out of canoes (we made it by a margin of three functional boats) last session, and one group (and mostly one guide) had the time to lend a hand finishing up Nishime, so we did it. We got two more coats of varnish on the interior, the same for the outwales, installed a yolk and pads, and bow and stern seats. David Lillian and i did get it done, but we made serious use or York Factory's new lights as we were up till 11pm finishing Nishime.

Summer of boats!

Here i am sanding prepared and cured canvas, getting it ready for a coat of primer.




So, who knows if these posts will be seen by more than three or four people, but i have ben telling certain folks for a while now that t4h eblog would be resurected this summer. Here goes.

I spent last summer as the apprentice under the canoemaster at menogyn. the canoe master maintains all of the canoes at the camp. We 25 or so wooden canoes, 8 Kevlar canoes, 20ish plastic canoes and 30ish aluminum grummans. The canoe master works on all the canoes, but some of them, namely the grummans, need little more than the occasional yolk pad replacement(the yolk pads, for those of you who don't know, are two pads that cushion the weight of the canoe on your shoulders when you are carrying it. Teh plastic canoes need new seats, thwarts, yolks and yolk pads every few years, and sometimes need to be patched before they head off on month+ trips to central and northern canada. The Wooden canoes are take up the most time. they need overhauls/restorations about once every 6 years, and this overhaul is a proces that can easily involve 50+ plus hours of focused work replacing broken and rotted wood, making replacement pieces, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, this summer i am the "canoemaster" (that is my actual position title). I'll do more explanation of what i do in other posts, but this is all for now.

a photo of the shop and two canoes that are just about ready to have their canvases painted. these pictures are a few weeks old, the canoe on the right has since been painted bright red.

All of the wooden canoes get Ojibwe names. this one is called Nishime, meaning a little brother of sister. Nishime is a 16' Old Town that was built in the 50s.

This is a plastic canoe, a "Ranger" model from old town. It is is the only one left of its kind at menogyn, and has been around for quite a while, and it is a favorite of a few. it is one of the few plastic canoes that has a name; Jeremy. Not Ojibwe. It is in the process of getting sorta fixed. Mostly.

Ah more sanding.