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For over 20 years I've been collecting stories, photographs, interviews, out of print books and researching various aspects of the human history of Algonquin Park in Ontario Canada. In other words, capturing voices from the past. In the fall of 2020, I launched my podcast 'Algonquin Defining Moments' to both complement my published books but also to continue my mission of sharing stories, recollections, traditions, landmarks and other fun Algonquin Park human heritage curiosities. In this way that those who share my passion for everything Algonquin Park can listen to snippets of the park and its people while commuting, walking, cooking, working around the house or even just meditating on the back deck. Enjoy! Gaye Clemson
Episodes
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Episode 4: The Brent Run Challenge
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Episode 4: The Brent Run Challenge
Though perhaps hard to believe by some, since the 1930s there has been a hidden challenge by locals primarily from Camp Ahmek and the Portage Store staffs on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park to see if it’s possible to complete the entire 160-kilometer trip in less than 24 hours. The trip includes just about every possible terrain that it’s possible to experience in Algonquin Park including large and small lakes, winding creeks, bogs, rapids and portages long and short.
In the summer of 2013 two women, Quinn Cathcart and Rachel Quinby, decided to make an attempt. As a frame of reference, in my youth, the backcountry canoe trip from Canoe Lake to Brent was a weeklong adventure with three days each way and a rest day in between. In the late 1960s the rest day included getting up in the pre-dawn to hitch a ride on the CN train to Kiosk and then paddling pack to Cedar Lake.
This episode is the story of Quinn and Rachel's transforming, hair-raising and exhausting 43-hour journey and shares details of what was an incredible learning experience. Everybody has their own Brent Run Challenge - this was theirs.
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Episode 3: A Walking History Tour of Rock Lake Station in Algonquin Park
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Monday Nov 02, 2020
Episode 3: A Walking History Tour of Rock Lake Station in Algonquin Park
This episode takes the visitor on a walking tour of what was once a bustling community of railwaymen, loggers, tourists and leaseholders and their families at Rock Lake in Algonquin Park. Today Rock Lake Campground is one of the largest campgrounds in Algonquin Park and unless one realizes that the road through it was once the railway bed, you'd never know that for almost 40 years a different Rock Lake existed. The tour takes Algonquin Park history or railway enthusiasts to several locales and shares, insight into the people and places that once existed there so long ago. You'll get introduced to William and Ida McCourt and Shawna Lodge, Billy Baulke and his cottages, Beulah Eady and her joy of music and dancing, and of course Gertrude Booth Fleck and the Fleck Estate and her daily fishing expeditions and of course the train station activities that were the center of the community.