In January of 1962, on the eve of his first year of Pathfinder ownership, Bill Swift wrote to Tom Dodd and asked him to consider returning to lead trips to James Bay. Swifty told Dodd, "We would recruit the boys and the group would spend some time at Pathfinder on short conditioning trips. We would take only older boys, say 15 and up." Dodd immediately wrote back...
..."In 1954 Chief tried to interest campers in taking a trip with me (Dodd) in the James Bay area during the second half of the camping season. The catch was that they would have to pay their own traveling expenses, and nobody was interested...A trip with 15-year old campers in the James Bay area is more hazardous than an equivalent trip in Algonquin Park. Such a trip can be made safe, bu the cost of doing this would be high."...
...That seemed to put an end to thoughts of James Bay trip for the next few decades. But during the winter of 1985 - 1986 I thought a lot about the group of campers that would be returning as Activity Assistants (AAs) that coming summer. Every once in a while, a rare bunch of kids come along that have something special. Physical ability helped, for sure: these guys were good trippers. But it was more than that; it was their self-confidence, bordering on cockiness (good natured, to be sure) that made me think it was time for something completely new and different as their 'graduation present' AA trip...
...Simon Mortimer was my choice to be the headman:"The announcement was to be the second biggest adrenaline rush any of us were to have that summer. [red on for the biggest!] The twelve of us were going 570 kilometers north of Lake Superior (further north that this Canadian had ever been) and Mac might join us halfway...quite literally at the end of the road. James Bay, The Missinaibi River, Moosonee, Moose Factory, Arctic tidewater, beluga whales, and the Little Bear Express were about to become a part of our vocabulary and a lasting part of our lives."
The Missinaibi was to be something totally different from any previous Pathfinder trip. For one thing, the trip was almost entirely a downstream river journey...(the trip) began on Lake Missinaibi, the headwaters of the river, and continued for some 300 miles to its terminus at Moosonee and James Bay...Imagine paddling the same river that fur traders had traversed on their way back and forth from Superior to the Bay.
...we (Mac having joined the trip) coasted downstream to Tidewater and Moosonee and our first glimpse of civilization, Cree style. A different world, one none of us will ever forget. We hired a native to take us out in his freighter canoe, beluga watching; no luck, but we got a jar of salt water. No other Pathfinder trip could claim that souvenir. After a couple of days of sightseeing we portaged through downtown Moosonee to catch the Little Bear Express train to Cochrane, then a connection to North Bay, arriving at 2:00 am for a ride back to camp. It was the day of the Treasure Hunt, but the braves' minds were someplace else...somewhere well north of Source Lake. Thank you Alex, Derrick, Eric, Trip, Shrub, Froggy, Drew, Bucky, Jag, Benji, Wit, and Simon. You are what Pathfinder is all about.
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