Canadian Fishing / Hunting Chat Forum Heartland Fishing Report, Heartland Hunting Report - Been There Done That - Fishing - The Last Resort

admin
Administrator
Rank: 9

UID 1
excellent posts 14
Total Baits 459
Posts 42
Minnows 285
Crawlers 234
Leeches 230
Reading Access 200
Registered 6-6-2006
Status Offline

The Last Resort - Chapter 12

The next day, Arthur went to Frank and asked him to send any spare parties of Tourists to Wine.  How many people want to travel forty-four miles over water and cross three portages to catch fish? Not very many!

The first party Frank sent us was a man, his wife and guide.  It must’ve taken them all day to get there as the never arrived until around six-thirty.  They had brought all their food with them so I didn’t have to do a thing.  That pleased me but that didn’t bring us in much money either.  The next day they went out to fish but the motor broke down and although Arthur did offer to tent them his little motor, they declined the offer.  The guide spent all day trying to fix the motor but couldn’t get it started. Finally, late on Sunday evening, the guide got the motor fixed.  Monday morning they were leaving as they only stayed the weekend.  We made the large sum of two dollars!

The next party that came were two men.  They seemed so surprised to see us and wanted to know how long we had been there.  Arthur told them we had come in the spring.  They wanted to know how I got to such an isolated spot.  I don’t think they could understand me very well so I left the kitchen and let Arthur do all the talking.  I’m afraid that was the end of the tourists this season.  I didn’t mind as I could’ve lived a long time like that.

The weather was beginning to get chilly and we were beginning to get low on food.  We had been living on pork and beans and bologna.  I think I know every conceivable way of disguising bologna.

Arthur shot a duck one afternoon and I cooked it for supper.  The duck season was not open yet and Arthur never would have shot the duck if we hadn’t been so low on food.  We had just finished our delicious duck supper when we heard a plane. We had just hadn’t hear d a plane since we had been there so we were quite excited.  We watched it land and went down to he dock to meet it.  Whoever could be coming here?

It was the game warden. The duck carcass was still on the kitchen table and I couldn’t do a think about it.  The first thing the warden saw was the duck carcass.  He never said a word as I’m sure he know that we were short of food.  We had a very nice visit.  He was such a pleasant young fellow named David Gawley.

He also wanted to know how I came to Wine Lake. Arthur told how we had met in England and that now we were running this little place for Frank. David told us that his mother and father, Dave and Margaret were building a camp on Wabaskang and that we should stop in and see them on our way out.  It was so nice having someone else to talk to and to hear the news from the outside world.  We didn’t have a radio or newspapers of any sort.

It wasn’t too long after David’s visit that I began to feel quite sick.  I couldn’t think what I had eaten that could make me so sick.  Surely it couldn’t be that duck that I ate a week ago? I seemed to get worse and Arthur wanted to take me out to the hospital but I didn’t want to make that long canoe trip.  I kept putting it off until I got too sick to move.  I don’t know how Arthur got word to  Ear Falls for a plane to come and get me but he did.  A plane came in for me in the afternoon.  Arthur and the pilot managed to get me into the plane which took me straight to Sioux Lookout where an ambulance was waiting to take me to the hospital.

I stayed there ten days and to this day I don’t know what was wrong with me.  My friend Margaret took Richard and Miss Irving took Sally Ann.  How grateful I was to have such good friends who would look after my children for me.

Arthur came home a week after I had left the hospital.  I still didn’t feel very good so I was happy to see him.  He would be able to get my water for me.  All the things we took for granted in England, were so precious to us over here.  If we had a barrel full of water, we would think we were in heaven and if he had a large woodpile, we would think that we were indeed wealthy! It seemed the main purpose over here was to make sure that we had  a lot of wood and water.

Copies of The Last Resort can only be purchased from Sleepy Dog Cabins
An online version is also available at www.freemap.ca

5-28-2007 14:50