We made our way up to Gravenhurst and met up with Marc on Thursday.  The Black and Tans didn't quite make the cut, but they were nice and cold.  The drive North towards Sudbury was ok, except that one of the vehicles made a wrong turn, but we met up in Chelmsford for lunch.  The number of snapped trees and downed power lines was pretty interesting.

We found our way into Sashihaw using maps that I printed from Google, and the Land Information Ontario website.  Actually, it wasn't very difficult to find our way in, considering the fact that we never used this route before.  Andre, Ed and Richard were our hosts for the weekend.  We found the pike in Sashihaw along with the occasional walleye.  The trip wouldn't be complete without the usual discharge of firearms.  We barbecued a chunk of bear meat, which turned out pretty good.  Chicken with a side of bear ---- quite a combination.  We used some of the bear meat for sandwiches for Sunday's lunch.

The smoker we bought turned out to be a bust.  Five hours to cook a piece of beef??  We had to finish the steaks on the barbecue.  However, the deep fryer worked out pretty well with the french fries and the deep fried pike.  I could get used to eating pike that way...

Whalsom Lake was this year's expedition.  We met up with Eddy L. and his son, Adam and spent the day fishing on Whalsom.  That lake has fish!  Eric and I shared a canoe, and it brought back memories of one of our earlier bass fishing trips.  We ran out of minnows, so the lures came out.  My Mister Twister had a lot of success, and casts towards shore resulted in quite a bit of action.  Then we ran out of time....

Camp activities included the normal rounds of Euchre and a few games of horseshoes.  A leak in the toilet bowl resulted in manual flushing techniques.  This year, I shared the middle camp with Ben.  It was like living in a palace since we were able to shower pretty regularly before going to bed.  It was a nice change to get into a sleeping bag without all the insect repellent and sweat.  Beer consumption was pretty consistent, and we didn't run out (I think only a few bottles may have been left behind).

Generally, it was a good time, with only one day of rain.  I had a great time as always, and look forward to next year's trip.  The economics of this excursion make it a very practical vacation.  Perhaps next year we will head up to Timmins for a day and visit the sites.