IT WOULD BE NICE BY Ralph Bice

From Wednesday, October 11, 1978

As I mentioned a couple of months ago I have been told that when a person begins to think and talk of things that happened many years back it is a sign of old age.

Perhaps that statement is correct. Only for ever so long l have been thinking of some of the things l like to remember and the more l think of them the more real they become.

They all happened more than 50 years ago and times when l am meditating l think how nice it would be to do them again.

It is that time of year when trappers are getting ready for the annual trip to the woods and my thoughts have been going over the second trip my brother and l made to Algoma. Fall of 1920. We had sort of bought a trap line the spring before, and while it did not have any legality such transactions were considered at that time to be binding.

It meant going further into the woods and we had engaged a team and wagon to take us as far as the end of the road. It was still nine miles on a very rough trail and we carried our equipment and supplies that distance into camp. We had the use of a building used by lumbermen when they were building a reserve dam and it had a good stove. Also, it meant going up a small river to look for a lake we had been told about where we built another camp.

But it was nice to be in new territory. Fur signs were good, there was a lot of moose, the woods full of partridge and any lake had an abundance of speckled trout.

It was hard work, especially the portaging in. Travelling was in the winter, on snowshoes of course, and as a necessity l made my first pair of snowshoes that winter. Fur prices were low as compared with the previous winter but we did have a good winter. L have made many trips to the woods but l think that one was perhaps the most enjoyable. We were young and there were no worries. No hydro bills, no phone bills, no fuel bills, no gas bills and no taxes. Just check your traps and enjoy being outdoors.

It would be nice to take some of the early guiding trips again where it was as wild as possible. That would be the trip with Mr. Folsom in 1923.

There were just the two of us and we made many trips over less travelled areas of the park. We went in from Rain Lake over to Roseberry then that three mile carry over to the Little Nipissing. I believe we were the second guided party that made that trip.

At that time the lumber dams were in good repair as one lumber company had driven logs down only a few years before. That made for good travelling. Another company was repairing other parts of the river and dams but they had not begun to cut logs and we saw miles of pine forests. There were a few miles where the trees were growing within a few yards of the water and the branches met in many places from either side almost closing the view of the sky.

There were many deer that year. Very few moose, though going back 20 years that little river was a great place to see moose. Since it was berry time there were plenty of bears and a few nights we heard the wolves. This was before they had tape recorders so we quite certain they were the real thing. And the fishing.. Several times when we would stop at a portage for lunch, usually at a dam, Mr. Folsom with the most crude fly tackle, would catch enough for lunch. Since every bend of the river meant new country, and believe me there were many bends, it was very, very interesting.

It would be very nice to be able to be at the station when the morning train came in at Algonquin Park. Everyone met the train and it was great place to visit. There were not so many cottages on Cache Lake then but most came for the summer. No roads then and travel had to be by train.

I often wondered if only the real nice people came to Cache Lake or did they get that way because it was such a nice lake? Just could be it was the close association with the guides. But Highland Inn and Cache Lake did seem to have so many really nice people.

It would be nice to have another evening with the guides at our own guide’s camp. So many stories and no one appeared to want to quarrel. Then we had a good sized recreation room and l think we would average at least four square dances each week. Plenty of fiddlers, plenty of callers. But they were lovely summers.

It would be nice to drop in and talk with some of the old rangers. Steve Waters, Mark Robinson and later Peter Ranger. He was the best story teller but l did have many pleasant talks with Steve Waters and Mark Robinson.

I wish l could call on my old friend Ex-Inspector Arthur Storie and paddle to some cottage for an evening of bridge or cribbage.

It would be nice to take a party, mostly from Cleveland and that area, to Eagle Lake again. Especially for the first feed of fish. Most parties really enjoyed their trip but this party came to enjoy every bit of it. And eat fish. Once they asked for a real feed on the last meal. We cooked fourteen of those Eagle Lake fish and nine men ate all of it. Eagle Lake is now Butt Lake but the fish are about the best eating to be found.

It would be nice to have a ride on the wayfreight to Algonquin Park. Just to visit with the crew and all the people who would be at the different stops. No hurry but such a lovely ride.

It would be nice to be with a party and I could think of several where we would sit around the fire in the evening, listen to the night life, and just feel the companionship of being out in the woods where everything was quiet.

 

Ramblings of an old man? Perhaps. But it would be so awfully nice to go through it once again.

P.S. I almost forgot. It would be nice if those hills l have travelled for so many years did not appear to get so terrible steep.