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.