Water Walker - Bill Mason

In his final film, Water Walker, Bill Mason takes us on journey along the north shore of Lake Superior and tells the tale of his great passion and love for the region. He considered this film his masterpiece and this comes across in his video footage as well as the dialogue. Bill Mason is probably the most influential and charismatic character in Canadian canoeing culture, you can learn more about Bill at redcanoe.ca

I'm free at last!

I just finished my last final exam and can now have my life back! For those that do not know, I've quit my job and gone back to school. I am attending the U of S, majoring in Geology.

Now I can get on with some of the projects that have been on hold for the past eight months. This is just a short list of what I've got in mind:

1. Zoe needs a paddle so I'm going to carve her a paddled based on the Sugar Island design with a few modifications
2. I know it's a strange time of the year to be thinking about winter persuits but I'm going to build a new pulk, 8 to 9 feet long made of the UHMW plastic. And a new harness and pole system to go with it
   
3. Snowshoes, I have been using Arolites from GV they are the new style with the aluminum frames. They are a good snowshoe but they are loud. The deck material that is used crunches very loudly on top of the snow so I thought I would make a pair of old school snowshoes from wood and rawhide with updated bindings
4. I would like to build a canoe rack in an effort to keep the lawn from dying under the boats
5. An Ice chisel for opening holes in lake ice to gain access to drinking water while camping

Like I said this is just the short list. (very short)

Eagles of Hornby Island

Zoe and I and a couple of friends have been watching a nesting pair of Bald Eagles for the past month on Wild Earth TV, via a live web cam mounted just above the eagles nest. The eagles live on Hornby Island in the Georgia Strait off the west coast of British Columbia. It has been fascinating to watch the birds come and go from the nest, though there are long periods of time with a view of a feathery side or other part of a motionless bird. But the humdrum of sitting and incubating eggs should come to and end soon. The first of the two eggs is scheduled to hatch any day now, perhaps Sunday or Monday, then the secret life of eagle parents will get more interesting with the care of the eaglets.

Wild Earth TV is an "ecosystem" of live webcams and broadcasters that combine the benefits of community driven webcams with the high production values of a presenter led TV series. Click here to learn more about Wild Earth TV or to view the other live channels.

Cesar's Bark Canoe - Bernard Gosselin

César Newashish was 67 years old when this film was made. On the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, Cesar demonstrates the dieing art of building a birch bark canoe from only the materials that can be found in the forest. This film has not narrated but has titles in Cree, French and English. This film was produced in 1971 by Bernard Gosselin and the running time is 57 min 55 sec.

Wanderings in the Fort a la corne forest

It was much too warm and sunny on Saturday afternoon to stay in the city so Zoe and I headed to the Fort a la corne forest for the afternoon. Fort a la corne provincal forest is 132,502 hectares of forested land that stretches from 40km east of Prince Albert to Nipawain Sk. We were there during the mid day and the hottest hours of the day so we didn't see too much for wildlife. We did however see a giant beaver patrolling his pond and a curious squirrel that didn't seem all that afraid of us. We also heard a ruffed grouse thumping in the distance. After a long winter it was nice to finally get out of the city even if it was just for a short time.