It is currently March 28th, 2024, 3:00 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 142 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next
Author Message
PostPosted: April 15th, 2014, 8:29 pm 
Offline

Joined: March 5th, 2014, 7:30 pm
Posts: 2
I was able to locate some of the photos -- my wife scanned them, so now I just need to figure out how to upload them to the Facebook page. We'll try to do it this week, otherwise it will be after vacation. The photos are nothing special, but may bring back memories. I can't find the fishing photos -- still looking...

Pete Schmalz

_________________

PETE SCHMALZ



Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: April 16th, 2014, 5:08 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 18th, 2003, 5:35 pm
Posts: 1086
Can't wait to see the photos. Wish that area was still a wilderness as I would be back there canoeing in a heartbeat. Thanks for sharing.

I found 2 Facebook pages for Camp Kapitachouane:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/304811429554854/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Camp-Kapitachouane/356475607711332

I remember seeing another one but now I cannot locate it.


GG

_________________
A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
*************************************
email: geraldguay@hotmail.com


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 14th, 2014, 10:26 pm 
Offline

Joined: October 13th, 2014, 8:04 pm
Posts: 1
Hello members:
I’m a new participant on the forum and an aging former camper at Camp Kapitachuan. I believe I attended Camp K. for 3 summers probably 1960 thru 1962. My brother, Brian, went to Camp K. for one year in 1964 along with a friend. We’re all originally from Erie, Pa. and I distinctly remember that getting to the train station in Montreal was quite an undertaking even before arriving in scenic Seneterre, PQ. My first year I got a ride with a family friend who had family in Montreal and hooked up with the group at the train station there. I believe on the other years, I met with the group in NYC and we went from there, but I’m foggy on that.
I remember Rod B., Chip Madden and Mike Beebe form the names mentioned in the posts. I suspect that I only went on the C trips usually in the bow although I think that I may have paddled stern my last year.
I haven't thought about the camp for many years (I'm a young 67 at this writing). It came to mind recently after seeing one of the LL Bean stores in a local mall and thinking that LL Bean was where my father bought most of my camping gear which I used for the canoe camp. We grew up in western PA and we didn't have a good sporting goods store in town, so our shopping was by mail. Rod B. said that he had met Mr. Bean and told how he opened his store at 4:00AM daily for local fishermen.
I also remember the Kekeck River, the Gouin Resevoir, baking Bannock in a collapsible aluminum oven near the campfire, portages where one followed blaze marks on trees, moose stalking on the lakes, and getting hailed on in August in northern Quebec. And I do remember one trip where there were three people in a canoe. In all the trips I took, the only other people we saw were at the Hudson Bay post on Gouin Reservoir and one solitary French Canadian guy (a trapper?). Not exactly a place to meet people.
For a place that was important to me in many ways, confidence building, outdoor skills, maturity, etc., I haven't thought much about Camp K. specifically for a LONG time. It got swallowed up in the hectic time of high school. Probably after 3 years there, I never gave much thought again to canoe skills, abilities with an axe, camping, survival skills.
My junior year in college I lifeguarded at a private lake in the Northern Virginia suburbs and one of the homeowners had 2 sons approximately my age. The father had made 2 kayaks out of fiberglass molds over the prior winter and the two boys and I made it out mission to learn how to do (Eskimo) barrel rolls in the kayaks over the summer. We had fun and learned it finally after swallowing a lot of water. I have done gentle kayaking and canoeing over the years but nothing like the Kekek River.
Does anyone know anything about Mike Beebe? He was one of my trip leaders and I believe he was also a medical student. I googled his name after seeing it in the blog but didn't find him. He would have been at least 10-12 years older than me so may be gone now regardless.
While trying to get on the forum I wrote to Mark Hinckley, George Carver and Gerald Guay because I found their e-mail addresses there and all responded. Hopefully, now that I’m on the CCR forum I'll hear from some other participants.

Buz Brinig
Arlington, VA


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 17th, 2014, 12:20 pm 
Offline

Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 6:32 am
Posts: 5
Pete Schamlz - I was on that other trip that you referred to when the camper buried the hatchet in his shin. His name was Trevor Power. He found the hatchet at a previous camp site and sharpened it to an inch of its life. It was pretty short and everyone joked that he was going to hurt himself with it. That particular trip with led by Chris Hinckley (Mark's Brother) and it was going to be our first attempt at the Nicobi River. However, one of our campers dropped a wannigan on his foot on the macoustigan (1 mile) portage and had to be flown out. That left Chris to be in a 1 man canoe for the rest of the trip (he's an animal that way). We ended up doing a shorter loop on the macho and making a more leisurely pace out of it. Thankfully I was able to return the following year to complete the Nicobi adventure - INCREDIBLE. I did all four years during high school there (78-82) and again in 1986 after graduating college. I have created an album with 40 old photos in it - located here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... dffa35ec74


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 18th, 2014, 5:24 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 18th, 2003, 5:35 pm
Posts: 1086
Love those photos on your Facebook page. I may be wrong but I think I recognized rapids on Nicobi and water falls on the Eagle. Thanks for sharing.
GG

_________________
A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
*************************************
email: geraldguay@hotmail.com


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 18th, 2014, 6:07 am 
Offline

Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 6:32 am
Posts: 5
I think that one of the rapids photos was either the Nicobi or the Panache. The falls were from The Achepabanca, the Wetenagami, and the Opawica. I wihs I had more pictures from my experience there. I'm sure that they exist in a box in an attic somewhere. Gerald, did you mention that you encountered a CK trip at one point near the Close River? I think that you were on a trip with your wife around 1980?


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 18th, 2014, 7:23 am 
Offline

Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 6:32 am
Posts: 5
Cool Map... Hi All. I dug out my old maps from my CK trips and got busy this morning.

Have a look at this link: http://caltopo.com/map?id=6V3K

I will be doing more work - especially on the Nicobi / Opawica loop. I can't find the trip report from that trip but I am going to try to recreate it from memory.

HAVE FUN!!!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: October 18th, 2014, 4:41 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 18th, 2003, 5:35 pm
Posts: 1086
Yes in 1985 we did a circuit from Lac Berthelot up through the big lakes then over to the Panache, up the Wetetnagami to the lake with the same name, then South through a number of small lakes and steams to the Megiscane River back upstream to our starting point. Took us 3 weeks to do.

At the intersection of the Panache and Wetenagami Rivers we met a group from Camp K. We share the campsite with them that night.
GG

_________________
A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
*************************************
email: geraldguay@hotmail.com


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: November 17th, 2014, 9:30 pm 
Offline

Joined: May 17th, 2012, 9:33 pm
Posts: 5
Thanks for the posts Todd. My father (Carl) and my Uncle (Rod) would be getting a real joy out of this thread. Todd thanks for sharing the photos. the camp is still there, in decent shape. I like the picture of your group in front of Boys Cabin #2, that cabin has gone back to nature. The rest of the cabins are in good shape. My brother (Peter) and I spend a couple weeks in the summer up there, usually fixing things. Chris Hinckley has joined us for the past two summers. This summer I , along with my son and some friends went down the Capitachouane River. Again thanks for the photos and the posts, brings back great memories.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: November 17th, 2014, 9:38 pm 
Offline

Joined: May 17th, 2012, 9:33 pm
Posts: 5
Todd; when going through my fathers stuff, he saved everything, we saved a bunch of old trip reports, which I have been scanning. I have the '78 trip report with Chris. I can email it to you.
dgwilli09@gmail.com


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: January 2nd, 2015, 1:21 pm 
Offline

Joined: December 31st, 2014, 11:25 am
Posts: 1
Hello CK friends,
I spent 6 summers at Camp Kapitachuan in the 70's. I was sorry to hear of Carl Williams passing. He taught me how to canoe, navigate, and be at home in the woods. Doug, it was good to see your post. The last time I saw you was at the University of Maine. I often think of how beautiful it really was up there. I miss the trips. I miss the daily traveling for weeks on end. I still get a a few short trips in every year, but nothing like the CK trips. They were great. My trips are mostly in Maine or New Hampshere.

I thought it might be fun to try to contact some old CK paddling buddies. Maybe plan a trip or just make contact.

Regards,

David Pierce


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: July 24th, 2015, 7:30 pm 
Offline

Joined: July 24th, 2015, 5:23 pm
Posts: 2
Well, better late than never, I guess. Seems most of the posts have been and gone. but, if anyone still is looking at this discussion, I would like to weigh in. My name is Michael Benfield. I was a counselor at Camp Kapitachuane during the summers of 1958-59. Rod Beebe was my Physics teacher at The Gunnery. I knew Roger Kenna and Chip Madden well.
Why am I just looking at this site now? I was looking at Google maps this afternoon to look at the route I will be driving to Kingston, ON on sunday, when my eye spotted the Gouin Reservoir, a body of water hard to miss on a map. This lead me to look for lakes and rivers I remembered paddling so long ago. One thing lead to another and I came across this site.
I don't have pictures anymore. I don't know who has Rod's, but suspect his son, Rod might have them. Rod was the only teacher I ever kept in contact with. I thought it was me, but realized later, it was his ability to keep in touch with everyone. I loved that guy! He was such a tough hardheaded man. He teased me about playing soccer at school. He was head coach of the varsity football team and wanted me on it. But, inside there was something that shown through that crusty exterior. I attended both his wife, Jeannette's, in 1992 and his memorial services in 1997. I was less familiiar with Carl Williams, although I was assigned to a trip he led to Lake Wetetnagami. It was the first camp trip to that location, if I remember the trips correctlhy, and we had poor maps. I remember Carl cautioning that we should pull to shore at the sound of any rapids. He had a good map of one quadrangle. The next good one showed very little. The map after that was a good 2 mi./inch map again. He could see the elevations at the end of one map and the beginning of the next good one with many miles in between. His fear, of course, was that the change in elevation could come in one huge waterfall. That was not the case, but we could say that safely after we finished the trip.
I have many memories, but not sure how accurate they are now after all this time.


Last edited by Michael B on July 27th, 2015, 6:06 am, edited 2 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: July 26th, 2015, 5:29 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: November 18th, 2003, 5:35 pm
Posts: 1086
Very interesting post Michael. Thanks for sharing. Hope others come back to this thread and read your post.
Take care,

Gerald Guay

_________________
A smart man learns from his mistakes,
A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
*************************************
email: geraldguay@hotmail.com


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: July 26th, 2015, 10:03 pm 
Offline

Joined: July 24th, 2015, 5:23 pm
Posts: 2
I do hope someone will approve my request for membership to the Facebook site. I loved looking at Brad's pictures, especially from 1973. Big water that year?

I had a couple of other memories. One was about Carl. We would hear him messing about in the early morning in the rain getting breakfast organized. At some point, he would sing in a grating voice, "Oh what a beauuuuutiful morning, oh what a beauuuuutiful day!" We all pulled up whatever we had that was still dry in the leaky tent around our faces and pretended not to hear him. But, there was a reckoning for those tents that didin't spill out their human contents in a timely manner. Carl would pull the pegs out and drop those tents right the ground. lickity split!

Another memory was coming back from Chibougima,maybe. I'm thinking it must be that trip, because it was the only one I was on with Rod. This would have been the summer of 1959, I think. We saw sea planes land in the river ahead of us. I can't remember the location. But, the rangers were looking for a body of a student who had a summer job maintaining a fire tower. He and his partner were on a bit of a real vacation by taking a canoe trip. Apparently, in the process of lining a rapid, the canoe became stuck on a rock. The person holding the bow line turned to find a stick to pass to his partner to lengthen his reach and hopefully push the canoe off. When the bow lineman turned back with the stick he had found, his partner was gone. This had happened several days before we arrived on the scene. The rangers from the sea planes conscripted us to help in the search. They passed out grappling hooks on lines to tow around in the calm water below the rapid. Within an hour one of our boats had hooked the hair of the drowned young man. We were all shaken by the experience. Rod pulled us all together and said something that I will always remember. I don't recall the exact words, though. It went something like this: You can be as strong as Mike Benfield, but never strong enough to fight a strong current. Water is always stronger and will pull you away if you fight it. I think the reason he used my name was due to my ability to grab the center thwart of a canoe and just pull it up over my head with not much effort. I should have used the recommended procedure, however. Having had back surgery over 30 years ago and with constant back pain to this day, I am reminded by my foolishness. Gerald, I like the quote about a smart man and a wise man. I am neither.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: August 6th, 2015, 10:33 am 
Offline

Joined: September 5th, 2010, 10:50 am
Posts: 39
Great posts, Mike Benfield. Your story about pulling out the body of a young man with a grappling hook was unnerving, and one that I'm amazed I'd never heard before. In case you don't know, the last of the CK founding fathers and mothers passed away recently. Ibby, wife of Carl Williams and sister of Rod Beebe, died early this summer, and a memorial service was held at the Episcopal Church in Salisbury a few weeks back. My brother, Chris Hinckley, and I attended, and the entire Williams family was there. There were a number of Beebe family members in attendance, and a few CK alums as well. Tom Soper, Tom Addicks, and a teacher from the Berkshire School, whose name escapes me right now,
were there, and I may have missed others. You and I must have met at either Jeanette's or Rod's memorial services back in the 90's. At Ibby's service, I spent some time talking with Rod Jr. (or maybe it's Rod III), and you're right, he is in possession of most of Rod's movies. I told him it would be fun to get them digitalized and put out onto the web, and even offered to help. The next time I'm in his area (Great Barrington, MA, I think) I hope to stop by and pursue this further. I told him I was sure that an appeal could be sent out to the ever growing list of CK alums who've reconnected via the internet which could help to cover the cost of such an undertaking. So be prepared to be solicited!
The pictures on Facebook were actually posted by Shannon Calabro, who is one of Carl and Ibby's granddaughters (Peter's eldest). There may be more to come, but, even if not, she's done a great job making them available.
Note to Dave Simpson...as I've pointed out in earlier posts, trying to recreate many of the trips we took back in our day would be difficult, primarily because almost none of the portage trails exist any more...they have truly disappeared. To recut them would be very time consuming. However, because of the availability of the ABS-type canoes, many more of the "un-runnable" rapids could be run or lined, which would eliminate the need to recut portages. Heights of land, however, still can't be run, and the prospect of recutting such memorable slogs as the Barry Lake miler, the Wheelbarrow portage, or the 2-miler out of Little Hebert Lake into the St. Cyr River, just to name a few, is daunting. One of the trips which is still doable is the Capitachouane River. Folks still take the train (either from Montreal or Senneterre) and get off at the Bourgmont Station stop (it's still there). From there they can head south towards Lake Choiseul, Crooked Creek, and Lake Capitachouane and then on down the Cap. River all the way to the Dozois Resevoir. Both portages leading south from the tracks are still in good shape. Alternatively, one could drive from Verendrye Park all the way to the bridge over the rapids just south of Lake Capitachouane and put in there. If anyone out there decides to make the trip, be sure to take lots of pictures and post them! Happy paddling.
Mark Hinckley


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 142 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group