Camping in the Arctic Watershed

“Why would you want to go to Moosonee, eh?” asked Joanne our waitress. The four of us looked at each other for a few moments before Jack responded. “Who wouldn’t want to go to Moosonee? Have you been there?”

“Oh yeah, there’s not much there.”

That was the point of going to Moosonee. There’s not much there. And where there is not much, I have found that there is much. Where there is not much, is where I look the most for the least. Where there is not much, is where I find the most.

Jack is my cousin. He knows a little bit about a lot of stuff and a lot about a little bit of stuff. He got that way by listening to NPR, which stands for National Public Radio. I thought NPR stood for “No People Responding.” But Jack also works at a university. Universities are the places where you get higher degrees by learning more and more about more defined subjects. Apparently to get a Ph d., you have to choose a narrow topic to do research. Then you have to write a really long paper while continuing to learn all there is about such a small detail that you get your degree when you’ve learned all there is to know about next to nothing. Jack heard on NPR that the boreal forest has a great diversity of plant and animal life and enough mass to rival the rainforest of Brazil. So he says to me, “Let’s go see it.”

It didn’t take long for Jack to convince me that a trip to the boreal forest would be of interest to me. I am a birdwatcher and figured I could add a few species to my life-list by going north. Some people don’t get it, but I am “one of those people,” as I was called by a Canadian Customs Officer, who travel for hours just to get a glimpse of some species of bird I have never seen before. One advantage that birdwatchers have is that they can cross borders without being held up at customs. There is nothing more birdwatchers like to do than share stories of seeing their first yellow-bellied sapsucker and nothing less customs officers want to hear than how a birder was able to distinguish between a common snipe and an American woodcock. Yes, birders do go snipe hunting. I keep a record of the species with date, location and other notes. The boreal forest seemed like a good place to go to see a few new birds.

The boreal forest is nearly continuous across North America, Europe, and Asia. In Russia, it’s called taiga. In North America, it’s mostly in Canada, roughly at latitudes between the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay. The trees are mostly coniferous, but deciduous trees are found as well. Animals in the boreal include moose, fox, wolverines, and bear. Birds found include many owls, warblers, and waterfowl. The few people who live in the boreal forest live a spartan life-style and are more likely to see a wolverine than anyone who attends the University of Michigan (where Jack attended college) or Michigan State University (where I got my degree).

Jack and I sat down and looked at a map. We figured that we could get to the boreal forest by heading straight north up I-75 and crossing the St. Mary’s River into Ontario, Canada. Jack was worried about the possibility of new border crossing regulations but I told him I would just start telling the customs officer about the last time I crossed the border to Canada I had seen a Ross’ goose for the first time and how hard to tell apart they are from the snow goose. I knew we would be waved right on through. We kicked around the possibility of going to a few different provincial parks before we settled on Tidewater Provincial Park. Jack told his brother, my cousin Joe, about the plans and Joe was in. I talked to my friend Jim and he was interested too. So the four of us were on our way.

Tidewater Provincial Park is called Tidewater because it is an island in the Moose River near Hudson Bay where the tide rises and lowers twice a day. To get there, you have to go to Moosonee. To get to Moosonee, you have to go to Cochrane, Ontario. Cochrane is 530 kilometers northeast of Sault Ste. Marie and 1090 kilometers from Detroit. On the way to Cochrane, we drove along the east coast of Lake Superior. The terrain is hilly and there are rock outcrops along the road and coastline. The rocks are igneous and may be among some of the oldest in North America. The area is known as the Canadian Shield which is the core of the North American continent. “Moose Crossing” signs are as common as “Deer Xing” signs in Michigan. We did see a moose carcass on the side of the road next to a Toyota carcass.

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