First posting from the end of the highway

Hey Everyone!

We’re getting all settled into town here, but our lack of Internet connection may result in some sporadic blog timings. After an amazing breakfast of pancakes and fruit, courtesy of Meagan’s mom, we loaded into the car and headed out of Toronto at 6am on Monday morning. About thirty minutes into the drive, we realized that Mick, our Australian GPS guide, had sent us the wrong way and we were forced to turn around. The next little while was uneventful, except for a few bathroom breaks, gas stops, and the realization that our DVD player didn’t work. We continued north-west, gradually seeing fewer cars, but surprisingly consistent LCBO’s and Tim Horton’s. Little did we know, gas stations were to become a rarity and our gas continued to drop to empty. Finally, a sign told us that there was gas eight kilometers ahead and was the last gas station for 126km. We pulled in, only to find that it was closed for another six days. Kirié and Jaime wandered the area looking for a jerry can or someone who could give us some gas. We returned with a piece of hose and windshield wiper fluid container with the intention of siphoning some gas from a broken down old vehicle. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the gas tank, and instead were able to backtrack to an out-of-the-way small town where we were able to buy some gas. With a full tank, we continued on while Meagan slept. We blasted ‘90’s music and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Ontario. Later, in another attempt to find gas, Mick sent us 3km down an abandoned gravel road, which to our surprise, actually took us to a gas station. As it began to get dark, the rain started but an hour later we arrived in Thunder Bay and pulled into the house of Layla’s cousins, Jenn and Matt. After a nice, hot shower it was bed time. 16.5 hours closer to Pickle Lake.

In the morning, we repacked the van, we went to breakfast at 'The Hoito’, a Finnish pancake place, and all left painfully full (except for Meagan). Realizing that our tire was again flat, we went to the Canadian Tire to patch it. While we waited, we finished our other errands, and with a new tire continued towards Pickle Lake. We were soon pulled over for speeding, but hearing we were going to Pickle Lake, the officer joked that he usually catches people speeding away from Pickle Lake, not towards it. Decided that our trip to Pickle Lake was punishment enough, he let us go. We turned onto the 599, and about three hours later arrived in Pickle Lake.

There, we called Lucie Hoffman – our main contact in the town – and were guided by her son, Miles, to their beautiful home. Lucie had prepared us moose-meat spaghetti, or ‘mooseghetti’, which was amazing. We then went to our apartment, not much to look at from the outside, but nice on the inside. We moved in, watched a movie, and went to bed.

On our first morning, we relaxed around the house until 1pm when Lucie came to pick us up for our tour of the town. We started at the airport – which moves the most freight of any airport in Ontario – and got to see the weather station where Lucie and her husband, Roy, work. Next it was onto the Ministry of Natural Resources fire station, where we received an extensive tour. The man was very friendly, and seemed extremely excited to show us around – probably because he doesn’t get many visitors. We then went to the Post Office, the Northern (grocery) Store, and the gas station/auto mechanic shop where Miles works. There we saw Miles and met the famous Kent (the volunteer’s landlord last year), who surpassed all of our expectations. We then went to Crolancia, the school in Pickle Lake, and got a quick tour. The kids seemed very excited, which was encouraging.

That night, we went to what we thought would be dinner, but turned out to just be desserts (which served fine in the end) at Roy and Lucie’s house. There, we met the only female OPP officer, Dianna, who was incredibly friendly and had much advice to give us. She seemed keen to help us out and start a girls night program. We also met with many teachers and community members who were all excited to see us and had much to share about the community.

On our second day, we went to Crolanica to help out with their daily breakfast program. It was really great to meet some of the kids, who all seemed super excited to see the ‘Queen’s Kids’. Jaime seemed quite relieved and excited to find some other boys (even if they were only 12) to have to ‘man talk’ with. Then we drove to the nursing station at Mish (the reserve), and will hopefully be meeting with the nurse tomorrow. Then we went to the band office and met with Connie, the Chief. She was very nice and offered much advice and guidance for our project. She even suggested getting one of the community members to take some kids as well as ourselves out on the land with the elders. We then went to Missabay, the school on the reserve, and met with Ida, our main contact there. We also met Ashley, one of the teachers, who seemed highly enthusiastic. Jaime and Meagan arranged to go help with the belated Earth Day celebrations the next day and get more acquainted with the school.

Later in the day, we decided to go play soccer with the Crolanica kids, but arrived too late and found that they had already left the school. Instead, we went on a hike through some awesome trails down to Graveyard Lake. We sat in the sun, and enjoyed the afternoon. We then returned home, made some pretty tasty nachos and delicious shepherd’s pie. We invited Miles over, watched a movie, and then let Miles take us out, Pickle Lake-style.

Miles brought us to a creek down on the reserve, where some of the sucker fish from the lake come to spawn. The fish are only there spawning for about five days of the year, so it was pretty amazing that we got to see them. Having no teeth and no sharp fins, Miles taught us how the catch the fish with our bare hands. We were all pretty excited, and had a lot of fun with it. We finished the night with some stargazing and even spotted some green Northern Lights. Being pretty excited about our day, we packed it in.

Goodnight from the end of the highway – stay tuned.