Canoeing and Canoe Trips

An important contribution to life at Ahmek and Wapomeo came in the form of canoeing instruction. Most of the distinctive style can be traced to Bill Stoqua of the Golden Lake First Nation. Stoqua’s prize pupils at Ahmek were the Hayhurst brothers, Bill, George and Tom; the Perry brothers, Karl and Ron; and later the Laurier brothers, Henri “Hank” and Carl. Of those who are still at camp, Dr. Tay and Jack Eastaugh are worthy exponents of the art. Occasionally, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau [Prime Minister of Canada 1968 – 79, 1980 – 84] turned up on TV to put us all to shame. Canoeing skills instruction had a prominent place in the early program, as it does to this day, but the underlying goal was to prepare campers to enjoy the paddling experience along Algonquin’s waterways. Bill Stoqua and Bruce Ridpath, and those who followed opened for Ahmek and Wapomeo campers the “way of the canoe.” Among the related skills taught by Basil Partridge and other resident Natives was how to build a birchbark canoe. By the ‘30s, many staff and campers carved their own personal paddles, sometimes made from locally grown black cherry. Maurice (“Matt”) Bernard of Golden Lake, who succeeded Partridge, was always known at camp as “Nish.” Canoe trips were the obvious extension of the canoeing program. Over the years, both camps emphasized the importance of canoe trips on character development and group dynamics. Couchie explained: “Teamwork is the key to a successful canoe trip, and cooperation is necessary when you are living so close to each other for 24 hours a day, sometimes for two weeks or longer. It’s an experience you can’t get anywhere else.” As director, Couchie always insisted that each counsellor had to take out her own canoe trip, “So if an applicant didn’t like trip, she didn’t come to camp.” There’s a familiar-sounding story that Couchie tells. One camper was very reluctant to go on canoe trip when Couchie was director. The camper complained to her counsellor, her section director, and finally to Couchie herself. The girl was required to go anyway. On the day her cabin returned to camp, “her mom and dad were in camp waiting anxiously — and I was too,” recalled Couchie. “She paddled in, threw her arms around her parents and then saw me. ‘Thank you Couchie,’ she said, ‘for making me go on that trip. I had a wonderful time.’”

From Fires of Friendship: Eighty Years of the Taylor Statten Camps, pg. 35