OPEONGO LAKE TROUT STUDY by B.M. I first met Gary Ridout at the Bancroft Retriever Club Hunt Trials. Ridout raises Chessies. In discussion I learned that Gary is a Senior Technician at the Harkness Research Lab in Algonquin Park. Each October a team of researchers head out for the spawning shoals of Lake Opeongo to […]
THE SHOE TREE by B.M. circa 1988 Plainly speaking, we are not talking about the shoe tree that granddad used to keep his leather shoes in shape. This tree is alive and thriving. If tongues could talk they would tell you that Bill Boland, of Kinmount, started it all in 1982 by nailing shoes to […]
BANCROFT SLED DOG RACING by B.M. 1988 What do the Bear Grease, the Iditarod and the Bancroft International have in common? How did diaper rash prevent a competitor from finishing his race? Read on if you care to know. On Saturday, February 21, the 5th Annual Middle Distance Bancroft sled dog race took place. The […]
MY FIRST and LAST RACE by B.M. February 1987 “Aaaar, rruuff, urrr, aauurru….” 33 dog teams yelping, howling, dare I say crying, begging to go; sounding like they were being choked to death. BUT – these were happy sounds albeit somewhat frustrated for they had come to race, not stand and wait. The veterans had […]
KANAWA CANOES ON THE MOVE 1985 by B.M. The world’s “largest, most comprehensive collection of canoes” is preparing to move, according to Michael Ketemer, Kanawa Canoe Museum’s manager, researcher, guide, custodian …Varying from birch bark to fiberglass, from the early 20th century to 1985, this collection of canoes from around the world is outgrowing its […]
A HUNT CAMP STORY Tight tongues loosen with time. Consider the latest item to come via the moccasin telegraph. These hunters frequent Crown land in Cashel Township. Mostly they are railroad workers. Like so many it wasn’t about THE HUNT but the experience that appealed to them. The relaxed change of pace kept them coming […]
NON-FICTION From January 27, 1990 NORTH OF BELLEVILLE Unknowingly an acquaintance established a record last summer when he and a friend were fishing for lake trout in August trying out a new depth finder. Trolling a favourite run they noticed three nice sized blips on the screen. Dennis was predicting a strike when his rod […]
THE UNINVITED – A TRUE GHOST STORY The following took place at my parent’s home in Youngstown, near Lewiston, N.Y. Dad had been transferred to Moore’s H.Q. situated in Buffalo in 1970. His voice broke with excitement as only Foster Hewitt’s could. You’d be on the edge of your seat in anticipation, maneuvered there by […]
THE GOLDEN YEARS OF THE CBC I grew up listening to 1050 CHUM radio in Toronto. My parents listened to CFRB with Wally Crouter in the a.m., Gordon Sinclair and Betty Kennedy later on. We watched neighbour Fred Davis, Front Page Challenge, on the television. I still recall CFRB’s weather man Gordon G’s description of […]
REMINISCING by BARNEY MOORHOUSE Someday I intend to write my memoirs. Not an autobiography but a memoir. Simply because our individual memory banks can play tricks. Have you ever wondered, “Did this REALLY happen or am I imagining it?” Certainly it helps if there is someone available who can affirm or deny. In conversation with […]
