Chapleau Rive Camp

Chapleau River Camp
Back in the early 60’s and on into the late 80’s, my friends and I would take yearly fishing trips into
the north of Ontario. These trips would usually be in early June. The bugs were horrible but the
fishing great. These trips weren’t just for fishing. It was a way for us to just get away from the daily
grind and cut loose. There were never any women along so we didn’t really have to worry about
things like bathing (water was like ice) and acting like adults. I never was very good at that anyway.
Our camps would get in pretty rough shape and when we needed a clean dish we would wash one.
Sometimes. I would usually do all the cooking and fish cleaning. Most men are pretty lousy cooks
and I figured it was the best job in camp as everything was cooked the way I liked it. My friends had
a talent for filleting fish with the bones in that I couldn’t take. I always thought they did it that way just
so I would do all the fish cleaning too.
We would normally fly out of Chapleau, Foliette, White River, Hawks Junction or WaWa, Ontario.
These small towns owed their existence to mining, hunting and fishing. The hunting was usually
bear, moose and waterfowl. Fishing was for Walleye and Northern Pike. There is a lot of trapping
done up there also. Many trappers cabins in the woods. I am not sure but I think that they allow one
trapper per township or something like that. Most of the larger lakes have an old trappers cabin
somewhere. Those things are rough and small!! At that time, a spring bear license was only 10
dollars, with a fishing license. We didn’t fool with them but there were plenty of them up around. Had
to protect your gear and food. We were young and didn’t have much money but by pooling our
money, we were able to go. I might have mentioned before but our first fly-in trip was to Oswald
Lake and it cost us 43 dollars per man for the week!! Our food came to about 13 dollars for the
week per. This included flying in, flying out, the camp (tent or cabin) and the boat with 10 gal of gas
per man!! We had to save our money for that trip too!!
This story is about a trip I took to the fishing camp on the Chapleau River. We flew out of either
Foliette or Chapleau. Can’t remember which now. My friends on this trip were my old canoeing
buddy Jay, Dale and his son Mike. I worked with Jay and Dale and Mike was about 15 at the time.
He had made about 4 trips with us and was a great kid. Little sassy at times but I like that. Well I like
learning the lad to respect his elders a bit. Gotta teach respect some times. :0)
The Chapleau River camp was on a wide spot on the river. It is sorta like a flowing lake. I don’t
remember the exact distances but from the rapids entering the, for lack of a better term, lake, to the
rapids leaving. It was about 4 or 5 miles maybe less. Our camp was at the widest spot and was
about a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards wide maybe a bit less. I figure the water was about 30
ft deep at its deepest. There was a current of maybe one mph. Not bad. Camp was abut midway
between the two rapids. These rapids were big ones. No canoe on those suckers.
The area around the lake was all bedrock. Going up stream near the rapids was cliffs. About 60 ft
high. The other side was fairly marshy, for the most part. Most of the trees were Cedar and Pine with
heavy underbrush, which was almost impossible to walk in.
Our camp was a rough one. One damn beat up old tent! No screens and holes you could throw a
dang goat through. I will save that camp for another story. We were the last ones to use that tent as
they were going to build a cabin the week we left. Shore needed one!!
I have to apologize if I repeat myself, in these stories. Dang if I am gonna go back and read what I
already said. Maybe you will catch me in a lie but I will plead Old age!!
We made a habit of rotating partners so we wouldn’t kill each other. This afternoon I was fishing with
Mike. Good partner but needed livening up on occasion. We decided to troll upstream to the rapids
and do a little casting in the fast water. Walleye were spawning and loved it at the base of the falls.
We worked our way up and then decided to go across the river to a little eddy behind a big boulder
near the brush. As I said, the far shore was marshy in places. Well, we were a setting there casting
and just shooting the bull. I looked over to the shore side of the boat and there was a little Beaver,
just a floating there. About three feet from the boat. I had never seen one that small! He was just a
looking at us, almost like he was tame.
This would probably be a good place to say a few things about Mike. At that time he was a pretty
big kid. 5ft 10 and maybe 190 or so. He was a nature boy. Watched me like a hawk to make sure I
didn’t hurt the environment. Always on my case about something and of course, I would do things to
set him off. It was a lot of fun because he thought he could out wit me. Poor baby! :0) Being a young
lad, he was gullible as hell and I was always looking for an opening. Here was an opening.
I had a feeling that the baby Beaver was not alone but mama was not in site. This little guy was no
larger than a small rat. Cute as hell. I said,”Hey Mike! Look at that little guy! Looks tame!” Now how
the heck could the thing be tame? We were probably 40 miles from the nearest house! Well, he
went all mushy and girly on me and started gushing about how cute it was and that it must be an
orphan. Right! Duh!
I told him that it probably was and he ought to pick it up. Now I didn’t figure the thing would do much
more than bite half his finger off. I don’t guess I have to mention that a Beaver has big teeth! Seems
like a young lad like that would think about that but I guess he wasn’t really old enough for his brain
to have taken root!
He leaned down there and reached for the little guy, all the while watching me out of the corner of his
eye. For what, I couldn’t guess as I figured he should be looking where he was a reaching,
considering what he was a reaching for. He must have gotten some encouragement from my smile
cuz he went for the little feller. Course he didn’t know I was smiling because I had already envisioned
the Beaver going nuts when he latched on to him. I have had a tame rabbit bite me and kick the crap
out of me with his back feet and could only imagine what a damn critter would do that eats trees!!
Well, he was a reaching down there and about to get his darned hand eaten off and the dangest
commotion you ever heard busted out, right there in the thicker brush.
Time for a Beaver lesson. Them critters are BIG. They aren’t big if you are talking about a T-rex but
talking about a rat, they are BIG. When they are upset they seem to swoll all up like a toady frog.
(Which we will get to later) :0) that mama came a lunging out of the brush and to tell the truth, I have
no idea if she made a noise. As I remember it, I remember a squalling. Don’t know if it was the
baby, the mama or Mike. Could have been a blend but I do know that Mike was contributing a bit.
He came a lunging back and a thrashing. I was a laughing my butt off. Sorta funny from my position.
Didn’t really want him to fall in the water and get in the current but figured I could live with it if it were
to happen. :0) Old nature boy Mike, Mike who wouldn’t let me throw the fish guts in the woods, Mike
who don’t go for peeing on a campfire as it is polluting the environment. Well, old Mike takes up a
canoe paddle and fixes to swat that old mama over the head. Problem was she was still a bit tiffed
and was trying to board ship!! She was a lunging and he was a getting, all the while yellin for me to
help! He was trying to swat and retreat at the same time and I was in more danger from that damn
paddle than the damn beaver!! I told the boy that the old beaver was one of mother nature’s children
and we were in her temple so we should not hurt the poor thing. I was a crawling on the motor about
this time, which is just about as far as I could go without taking a swat at that critter myself.
She finally plopped back in the water and with a swat of her tail, dove. Well, I was sorta glad that
Mike had dropped the canoe paddle as when I saw the look in his eye, I picked it up. I thought I was
gonna have to swat the boy like he wanted to, the beaver. The lad had developed an attitude of
sorts. I was still laughing a bit but he wasn’t. He said I had done it a purpose. Heck I didn’t know
mama beaver was there. Figured she was around somewhere but couldn’t think past the little
beaver chawing on his finger. Never got to see that either!
That evening, after dinner, we were setting at the campfire. We all had a good laugh at Mikes
expense and he took it pretty well by then. We got to jawing about how beautiful it was at night in the
north woods. That night was perfect. Not a cloud in the sky! The sky was full of stars! Very still and
about 75 degrees or so. As we sat there, staring at the embers making their way to the stars, Mike
said,” Listen to the frogs, across the water.” I told him they were toads a spawning. It sounded like
there were hundreds of them on the far shore, singing to their mates.
I explained a little Toadology to the boy. I might have flunked every course I ever took in school but I
loved nature and had a fair knowledge about the life of critters. While others were wasting their time
in school, I was skipping and out in the swamps learning Toadology and Snakeology, Beaverology
and lizardology. Useful things that would keep me out of the problems the lad had been in today. In
fact the day wasn’t over yet and he still had lessons in Toadology to learn.
On a warm quiet night in the spring, toads by the hundreds will head for still, shallow water to spawn.
This place has to have a lot of weeds or brush for the female to adhere the eggs to. Sometimes they
will be all over the place. Toads don’t really have what we would call, an interesting sex life. They will
mass together in huge groups and call for mates. The females, all swollen with eggs, will just set
there waiting for the males. Those males, who are usually smaller, have just one thing in mind.
Grabbin that female and squeezing the eggs out of her. The way he does this is by sliding up on her
back and grasping her, just behind the forelegs and holding on. Thing is, he holds on tight. I have
read that there have been cases where fish have been in the shallows and been grabbed by
mistake over the gills and suffocated. Now that will give you an idea as to how tight those suckers
can grasp! Now those male toads will grab any dang thing they can get those front legs around. I
have seen them stacked three and sometimes four high! Course only one female. Guess them
toads are a lot like Texicans. Don’t specially care what they are huggin, as long as they are huggin
something! As she lays the eggs and deposits them on some underwater twig the mail covers them
with sperm, which fertilizes them.
In my youth I have watched this many times in the spring. This generally happens at night. I have
reached down and slid my hand in front of a male and it is pretty startling how strong they are when
the grab your hand! Scares you the first time it happens!
Now we were talking about the toads and Nature boy was arguing that they were frogs. I know my
Toadology and knew they were toads by their higher pitched call. Finally a idea started forming in
my head. Boy needed a learning again. :0)
I told him to grab a flashlight and we would go across and he could see for himself. He was all for it.
Aaaah! I just love the arrogance of youth! He grabbed a flashlight and down to the boat we went. Jay
and Dale opted to stay and enjoy the night by the campfire. These were nice and stable 14 ft boats
and I had a 5 hp motor on it. It was such a beautiful night it seemed a shame to break the peace. It
was about to be busted all right!!
We putted slowly across the river. The toads were just a singing away. It was so quiet. I told the boy
to take a seat cushion and lay it on the bow so he could lie on his chest and get a good look. He got
all stretched out there with the flashlight in his left hand and on his chest, looking over the bow. His
face was a foot or two above the water! Perfect!! Told him to watch out for the Beaver and he called
me a name his daddy would have been upset with. I did it to tense him up a bit.
Well we were nearing the brush and I brought the boat to a creep. They were still singing but that
was about to stop as soon as we spooked them. We were whispering now. He then said,” You are
right! There are toads all over the place! Hundreds of them!” I said,” Any Beavers?” He looked back
and told me to go to hell but I had planted the seed a little deeper because as he looked back at the
toads, he looked around a little more carefully. Heck, I could have mentioned the snakes that love to
feed on the toads, couldn’t I? I didn’t want to spook him too bad, as I had a plan. I was working this
plan out as things were developing, but I knew one of us were gonna be pissed!
Now what I wanted to do is scare the boy a bit when the toad latched on his hand. I had omitted that
part as I was giving him a Toadology lesson, I guess.
The water was about a foot or two deep and full of brush. Short stuff that just cleared the water in
most places. The boat was just nosing into it and stern was out in the gentile current. I was standing
up and watching the kid. He was sprawled out on his stomach. Lying on the cushion. I told him to
reach out and grab one of those little buggers for me, as I wanted to use them for bait the next day.
He was a little tentative but he reached out toward that black water. Flashlight in his left hand and
right one for the toad. Well I couldn’t see very well but I can imagine what happened. He reached out
and slid his hand around that toad and the toad must have thought he was a swold up girl toad and
clamped down on the lads hand!! Must have been a strong one, intent on squeezing eggs out of
nature boys hand!! HAHAHA
Now when that toad clamped down on his hand the boy reacted a bit. He about went nuts!!
HAHAHAH He swung the damn toad hand, his right, back and the damn toad almost hit me in the
face! Problem was, he was stretched so dang far out over the bow of the boat, he was a mite
unstable. Now physics is one of those classes I flunked but I do know that if you get an unstable
mass all stretched out over a bow of a boat and then spin to the right to throw a damn toad in your
guides face, something just might happen. It did. The boy rolled right in the drink! When he hit that
water he damn near come unglued! I was a laughing and the boat started drifting off as I was
occupied trying not to pee my britches. The light was in the water, still lit. I was screaming, “Look out
for the toads!! Don’t let them get you!! I think I saw a beaver!!” That didn’t really help things from his
point of view, I guess. He was yelling and spitting and sputtering. I couldn’t even see him, as it was
so dark over there. I could see a spot of light where it lay in a foot or so of toad filled water.
I was lying in the bottom of that boat laughing, which had now drifted 50 ft or so downstream. Every
time I would try to get up and go help him I would start laughing and be of no use to the poor guy. He
was still going nuts over there. Everything that touched him was a damn clutching toad or a ticked off
beaver mama in his deranged mind. Dang, I wish I had thought of the snakes at the time. Wouldn’t
have had to bother taking him back to Michigan.
Finally I collected myself enough to start the motor and head back to him. Wasn’t hard to find, as he
was still a screaming. Must have affected his mind a bit as, even though we were in the wilds of
Canada, he was screaming something about the Sun and the Beach. Something like that anyway.
The darned kid started chucking something at me. I figured they must be rocks as I couldn’t see him
picking up any more toads, for a while! I putted up to his location when he settled down a mite and
edged the boat up to shore. He jumped in and proceeded to act like a spoiled little kid. He seemed
to blame me for his misfortune! Heck, I was a rescuing him! Wasn’t I the one that almost got toad
slapped? I was right about the toads too but he failed to acknowledge that, very important point too.
I mentioned that his voice sounded funny and that he must have swallowed some of that toad stuff.
Sorta gurgly like! Now I thought that was funny and was just trying to cheer the lad up but I don’t think
it helped. He was still screaming at me.
I putted over to the flashlight, which was still lit and asked him to reach down for it. Well, upshot is,
we got it the next morning. His dad and Jay were waiting at the camp and as it was so still and
quiet, they had a rough idea what had happened. They heard me laughing and him screaming and
figured the lad had learned a little Toadology!!
There were some more interesting things happen that trip, so I will save them for another story.
Don’t want to make these things too long and bore the folks!!