Mad River Adventure Canoe Repair

July 7, 2014  Vermont

For a while now my buddy in VT had been telling me he got a Mad River Adventure canoe from his sister that needed work on the stern.  Now in my minds eye the MR Adventure is this ugly thing:

http://www.madrivercanoe.com/product/index/products/recreation/adventure_destiny_series/adventure_14/

After several discussions he assured me that this was really a canoe and not that ugly thing!  I kept disagreeing with him!  When I got to his house I was stunned to find a real canoe and couldn't believe it!  I had never seen this hull before and honestly thought that the only Adventure was the ugly thing!  What really sent me reeling was how light it was considering it is made of Royalex!  I racked it and headed home.

Once I had it on sawhorses I did some measurements.  Fourteen feet long by thirty-six wide and a free board of fourteen and a half deep, that is some serious free board!  My Courier has that beat by only half and inch!  I started looking at the dent and wondered how in the hell I was going to get that popped back out, deep and long.  A hole had worn through the other side and I could only wonder how in the hell did this damage happen?

Dent and Hole

I finally had to confer with the Guru who was a little stumped about it not being the ugly thing.  A search through his catalogs came up with it being a short lived production coming out in maybe 03.  This one is an 04.  Here's a link he sent me but you need to scroll down to page six.

http://www.madrivercanoe.com/content/madrivercanoe.com/assets/page/archived_catalogs/2005%20Mad%20River%20Catalog.pdf

As far as getting the dent out my thought was to use a heat gun but I am very leery of using those as I usually end up doing more damage then good!  He suggested a halogen lamp which I several of.  I decided to give it a shot!

July 9, 2014

This morning made the plunge and started to setup for getting the dent out.  Now, I have now maxed out my working space and had to empty another shed of mowers and the such to make room for this.  Goddamn, I either have to downsize or build another outbuilding!  With whatever had on hand is what I made due with.  Within a half hour I had it all jury rigged and turned on the lamp.

I thought it was going to take a good long time but was really surprised at how little time it took.  I had a rubber hammer, a piece of two by four and my hand to try to and pop it back out.  The hand won!

Being smart this time I put a glove on because this material was now hot, real hot!  I wondered if I had gone to far yet again!  I kept rubbing it and pushing with my fingers until it started working back out.  After a good ten minutes I got it as far as thought I could and then planted my fist against and moved the light back so it could cool.  Another long wait but it panned out just fine!  It held fine and I figure I can now just fill in any gaps with resin and thickener to try to get it as smooth and uniform as I can.
Now I knew this would not be a perfect fix, the crease in it turned out to be a tad too stubborn and I didn't want to keep heating the RX, I could start to smell it!  In the end I was OK with the results.

I am not really concerned with the appearance as I still need to patch the hole and any other imperfections will be hidden with resin and cloth.

Now in the meantime I talked to my VT buddy and said I really liked this hull and he should consider selling it to me.  I was amazed when he replied, "It's yours!  We'll figure something out later!"  The plan has suddenly changed to make this into a solo!

More To Come!

July 19, 2014

Today was an experiment.  After mis-measuring a brand new thirty-three dollar seat, cutting it wrong, drilling through the end of it and finally setting it aside I decided to use the bow seat which still had enough length left on it to move it to the solo position I wanted.  The only problem is that it's a cane seat and I hate cane seats!  Ask my scrawny ass about the several that have failed me in mid trip!  Enough said on that subject!

After doing a bit of research I decided to try to either steam it off or use boiling water to heat it out.  In the past when trying to get that freaking spline out I've damaged the seat.  I thought steam would work the best so I got out my stove, a few small and thin screwdrivers, a pair of gloves and a can of liquid courage.

I got the water to a steaming boil and held the seat up to it but almost right off I could see this was going to be slow going.  It was coming off but way to slow for my liking.

Perhaps if I had some kind of pipe on the end of the kettle to concentrate the steam it might have gone faster.  In the end I decided to just pour boiling water on the spline and it worked like a dream!  In under a half and hour I had the whole mess out and almost totally cleaned out.  I was smiling!  I will say that the cane does need additional boiling water on it to soften up and then that will pull out smoothly but will leave a few ends. 

Cleaned Out

Future use? Fire Starter!  Ha!  I hate cane!

So I did have to take a utility knife to cut out a few scraggliers but it turned out much better than I thought it would.  Next I sanded down the entire seat to almost raw wood.  That took the better part of an hour but I don't mind it so much.  The plan is to throw three coats of spar varnish on it but in the meantime I had to the dreaded task of placing it in the canoe hopefully correctly this time around.  Hell, this is the last freaking seat I have to play with!

I decided instead of cutting it right off I would drill the holes first but I wanted to patch the old holes first.  In the past I have used Plumber Epoxy to fill holes and I swear by the stuff.  I have used to for my poles as well and going on almost twenty years with one of them it is still holding strong.

I pulled a hunk off and spent a good ten minutes rolling in my hands to mix it and then rolled it into a long strand that would fit through the holes I was trying to fill.  It took a little doing but it worked.

All I had to do was find the bottom end, feed a little bit more so it "overflowed" so to speak and then smooth it out with my finger as I did on the top.  A touch of paint later if I really care to will hide it nicely.

Now on the brand new seat I had drilled holes at fifty-three inches from the stern of the hull as from spending some time sitting in it I thought that would get me about dead center while keeling as this is going to be a whitewater boat.  I had thought about make my own hangers but decided to save time I'd use the ones that came with the boat.  Using the front holes I drilled already I carefully measured out for the width and this time came in right on the mark instead of freaking quarter of an inch off.  Believe I must have measured that a dozen times before I made my marks for drilling.

Front Bolt is at 53" and the rear hole was drilled out.

For drilling the holes through the seat I decided to lay it on top and go from there, first through the wood making a mark on the gunwale and then drilling through that.  It does have an aluminum insert.

I was quite pleased with it and will most likely go this route in the future.  Works for me!  Next I marked off where I needed to cut the seat and this was the part that had me fretting but a can of liquid courage helped me make my way through that.  On these gunwales for some reason there are lines, indented for some reason and they made for helpful markers for lining up the marks for the cuts.

I used a Sharpy and made my marks and then using my Japanese saw I cut them.  Man, I was sweating bullets on this one but when I mounted the seat to the hangers the only thing I had to do was pull in the hull a tad to line up the bolts!  SWEET!  I was almost laughing!  I had a shit eating grin!

Using the Existing Hangers

Seat Mounted in Dry Fit

Good Spacing from the Hull

And what was especially nice was that they weren't against the hull but had enough meat left for the bolt!  Next was just another quick sand job, wipe down and then the first coat of spar varnish.  In all of this madness I got a hankering to use the syringes I bought for the Adirondack rebuild.  I decided to fill the gap from the spline/cane with spar and that syringe did it just fine.  Of course that will mean more drying time but what the hell, I still have to attend to the dent and hole in the hull.

It is waiting time now so I can flip it and do the other side with spar.  After three coats I'll put the webbing on, I bought thirty-six feet of it so I should have enough.  Time for a can of liquid courage!

More To Come.

July 25, 2014

It was time to finish this seat and get it mounted again.  Today was a simple task of cutting webbing and putting it in to make a new seat.  This is a very straight forward and easy job to do once you have your webbing on hand.  I had to search around but finally found some without ordering online, Rocky's Ace Hardware.  Ah Gawd they have everything!  Almost like an old fashion hardware store from when I was a kid!

I bought thirty-six feet of webbing cause ya know it goes fast on these kind of projects!  The first thing I do is lay out the seat and the pull out the roll of webbing and pull out a length and start wrapping it around the seat to see where I'm going to cut it.  On my work bench I have a bunch of hash marks and today added two more to mark the length I needed to cut.  Now I should specify that by cutting I mean melting the webbing to the ends are melted and will not fray.  To do this I use a few simple tools that most folks have, a propane tank, a putty knife, a staple gun and a measuring tape.

 OK, so I pull out a section of the webbing and wrap it around the seat so it is tucked into the inner wall of the seat and then do the same on the other end.  Then I mark it and heat up the putty knife for the cut/melt.  If it is too long I just cut/melt it off to fit.  It is just a simple task .

Using a blow torch to heat the putty knife

Cutting/melting the web

A second later all done!

Once I have the correct length measured out I go into production mode and cut out the number of them I will need, in this case eleven.  In order to get my weave right I used the messed one as a guide.

This is the second time I've done this and I just eyeball how close to put the webbing.  Any mistakes will be hidden by the second round of webbing in the weave and of course being me doing this I was off a bit but is all good.  I cut out the pieces and laid them out to see where and what I was missing.

I thought I was spot on but I spaced them wrong enough to leave a gap at one end when I was done but that was not a deal breaker as when I weaved the other strands through it would make up for it.

So, all one has to do is staple one end in and the pull like a bastard, it helps to have strong hands for this and then staple the top end in then bend the web in and staple that in as a second anchor.

The tab gets stapled as well

First row done.

Now the beauty of this whole thing is that once the weave is started any sagging becomes taut.  It becomes like a drum head.  You could bounce a quarter off of it.  Very nice for a rehab and only about an hours worth of work.  Webbing cost me twelve dollars for thirty-six feet vs buying on line.

I was psyched to get it in place and spent a bit o' time doing that.  I had the original hardware and used that although I am not a fan of those nuts that have the nylon insert in them, they are a bear to use but being the cheap ass Yankee I am I went that route, I do know they are rock solid!

Not my favorite nut to use!

I got the seat in and decided to add the thwart as well and thought it turned out pretty good.  I may dick around with a second thwart down the road but need to attend to the hole and dent next.

Seat all in!  Good Deal!

Thwart in, had to pull in a good inch to make it fit. 

All in all a fairly quick job and recycling old materials is always good.  Next comes the hole fix!

More To Come.

July 26, 2014

This morning I hauled the boat out as I needed to empty it of what is bits of shale.  Now, I have no idea where this poor hull was stored but it seemed to have a lot of stone under the gunwales, wedged tightly in there.  One piece had me puzzled right from the beginning and I thought it was part of the boat.

I've worked on a lot of boats and had never seen anything like this before.  So, I got out a rubber mallet/hammer a piece of foam and started pounding on the gunwales and holy shit it was an avalanche of stone that came pouring out!  I just couldn't believe my eyes.  This thing must have been on a shoreline of shale and just kept collecting it somehow.  No wonder it is so scratched up and has a hole worn through!  I must have pounded for twenty minutes and finally kept flipping it over and in the end resorted to just picking it up and dropping it!  I swear if you had been driving by you thought I had an evil thing going on with a canoe!  I could not believe what I was seeing!

First round of pounding!

This was the stern end!

It just kept coming out and the whole hull sounded like a freaking rattle!  It was driving me mad!  Then this bugger fell out and all I think how much that would hurt to kneel on in the middle of a class II, III rapid!  Might as well shoot me in the freaking knee with a 357 magnum, that I would prefer! 

A boulder!

With all the pounding I was still far from getting this cleaned out so got out an awl, a screwdriver and a bigger hammer and just spent the next hour trying to clean this mess out.  I thought I got most of it but in reality it will most likely take a long while to get it free of this shit!  I did keep flipping the hull and was amazed that more and more came out.  Christ, as if the hole isn't a big enough job but now this! 

Make shift tools to get out the rocks!

Next purchase!  Knee pads!

More To Come.

July 29, 2014

Time to try to fix the hole.  I decided to try to patch the hole from the inside and from past experience I thought maybe a hunk of cardboard would make a good backing patched on the outside.  I haven't done this before but am using thickener for the epoxy which according to everything I've read will turn it into the consistency of peanut butter which is what I want.  I cut a piece of cardboard and taped it onto the outside of the hole and then mixed my butter up.  It was slick and like working it. I should mention that before I did this I borrowed a heat gun and with help got the majority of the dent out but playing with heat guns and royalex is dicey work.  In the end I split the vinyl cover a bit.

Heat gun in action

Had to stick my finger in to push out the heated stuff.

Pushing with my fist to pop out the dent as best I could.

I got it good enough that if I want a slight layer of thickened epoxy will fill it flush, kinda!  I sanded down the edges of the hole as it was still jagged and then mixed up my epoxy.  It came out as a thick goo that I needed to use my fingers to gob on and then smooth out on the inside of the hole.  I had taped the piece of cardboard in from the outside as a backer.  I wasn't sure how this would pan out!

Cardboard taped into place

All secured

Thickened Epoxy

Once everything was in place I waited.  Somewhere around three in the morning I woke up and decided I had to see how it went.  I pulled the tape off the outside and tried peeling the cardboard off.  Goddamn It, the whole plug pulled out and there was still a hole in the boat.  A dismal failure!

Don't do this!  It don't work!

Still left with a hole!  Aaaaaggghh!

Back to the drawing board!

More To Come.

July 30, 2014

I thought about a new approach all day and after work I decided to tackle it from the outside.  So, I resorted back to wax paper and tape on the inside to seal the back of the hole as I know this works.

Invest in masking tape!

Next I got out my Dynel cloth and cut a piece big enough to cover not only the hole but the crinkles and wrinkles I put in the hull with the heat gun.  I then mixed up a cup full of thickened epoxy and using a putty knife gobbed it in the hole, over the crinkles and even into the divets of the dent to try to fill that a bit.  Because I'm using slow cure I knew I had time to mix up a fresh batch of resin which I added G-Flex to and then saturated the Dynel and laid it on smoothing it out somewhat with my fingers.  Next I cut a larger piece of Peel Ply and laid that over the patch and then really spent time smoothing out the Dynel using that.  What was really sweet was how the Peel Ply kept the excess resin from dripping down the hull and how quickly everything smoothed out almost perfectly!

No Dripping!

I waited about two hours but of course in between kept pulling up a corner to test how close it was to pulling off the Peel Ply, I've never worked with this stuff before!  When the time came I pulled it off with one hand but it was a bit hard to do and thought maybe I had waited too long.  Nope!  The Dynel stuck with out pulling off at all!  It was also much smoother to the touch then without using Peel Ply!

A tug

keep tugging

grunt a little more

almost done

A very clean patch!

I'm not concerned about the strands as the cloth was still moist enough to cut those off and I will be painting over the patch so am not worried about the little bit of resin that spread out from the cloth.  Very smooth and is just a matter of waiting for a total cure.  I will take out the inside tape and wax paper tomorrow.  I think I'm going to like this Peel Ply stuff!

I also got the middle thwart in and this boat is rock solid now!

More To Come.

July 31, 2014

I laid down the last patch this afternoon on the side of the hole.  The thickened epoxy I put down yesterday needed a little help.  A patch of Dynel and called it good.  Now it is just drying time and when a few days have gone by I'll paint over the outside patch with Hunter Green paint and call it good.

I am hoping this will be a sweet solo whitewater boat and plan on taking it out on the confluence of the Merrimack and Contoocook River on Sat morning where there is a nice mix of small rapids and flatwater by the putin.

All in all it has taken me three weeks to pull this hull back to water use again but most of that was waiting time for drying of seats, resin and other materials!

Aug 1, 2014

I decided it was time to take this hull out for a test paddle.  I put in on the confluence of the Contoocook and Merrimack.  The first thing I noticed is that my seat is too far back!  Goddamn IT!  Next the free board is huge on this small hull.  Now the worst thing was when I tapped my foot on the bottom it was like a big piece of fat that ya slap and it ripples!  Holy Christ the whole floor of the canoe was like wave of Royalex!  I thought I was going to go mad!  Why O' Why!

Despite this I kept paddling just to see how the rest of the boat responded.  I knew at fourteen feet it would be one of those hulls that keep you on your toes, constantly correcting but it does track fairly well as long as you keep up a good cadence with your paddle is fairly fast.  I was not disappointed with this aspect and it was about what I expected.  It turns on a dime which is mighty sweet as I am not a fan of boats that make me plan turns ahead of time!

So from this shake down cruise I know I have to move the seat forward maybe four inches and lower it maybe an inch and am thinking of tilting it for kneeling purposes.  As for the quivering floor after talking with the Guru I think that after Mad River sold out to Confluence they had a couple of years of shitty Royalex and I think this hull is one of them as it is an 04.  It is so soft it is crazy!  I'm going to try to put some foam blocks under the seat to apply some downward force on the hull.  Apparently another canoe company does this on a certain model and see if that will stiffen up the hull some.  I'm still trying to get used to the unusual  free board.  My Colander has a half inch on this hull but doesn't appear as deep!  It visually creeps me out like I'm reaching way to far to reach the water with my paddle!

So with all this shit to figure out I guess I'm not done so there is...

More To Come.

August 19, 2014

After much thought, testing, and more thought I have decided that this boat is going to live on my buddies lake.  The RX is so weak that I have absolutely no desire to try to reinforce in any way shape or form.  This despite having putting in a second forward thwart.  It would be costly, time consuming and because of the thinness of the hull I wouldn't trust it for any whitewater I want to run here in New England's rocky rivers, now way now how!   I am not kind to my boats as they are meant for running hard.  Damn! 

I want to curse Confluence for putting in the RX stoves in backwards and messing up a bunch of good hulls but what the hell ya gonna do!   It was a good fix just on a shitty hull which almost makes me want to cry, hell, a can of liquid courage saved me from that fate!  Guess this little chapter of canoe fixing is over.  Just a quick lesson that I can use down the road!

Fixing An Aluminum Canoe

May 25, 2014

The local store owner approached me with a little bit of a challenge.  Can I fix his aluminum canoe?  Well, I say I'll give it try and why the hell not?  I worked on my mother's aluminum canoe a few years back but it wasn't holed.  This one was, not bad but enough to make it a pain.

Once I got it here I put it on sawhorses and slowly filled it with water one bucket at a time.  The leaks were due to small pin holes in a patch on the hull and the end of the stern where it had seen a lot of use. There is also a patch from a previous breach in the hull and water was leaking out of there at well. 

Since the holes where so small I thought I'd try out some G-Flex in them.  I had just bought some syringes for this type of work.  I filled each hole with just enough resin so they weren't overflowing.  I then put a layer of Dynel cloth over that to make a tight seal.  I used this link for a guideline:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/fix-leaking-rivets-in-aluminum-boats-with-g-flex-650/

It's all pretty simple but as usual prep time is what eats up most of the job.  Here's what I used. 

I filled the boat the next day with water and waited for two hours while keeping checking for any leaks.  None so it was a success.  Next on the board was to find a way to fix the decks.  The aluminum had ripped and all one has to do to open an artery is to scrap against it.

I tried to bend the cut back but didn't have a way to seal the cut.  I talked with the owner and said I could probably replace the decks with wood and he was good with that.  I had some luan set aside for just this kind of project and decided to use that.  I drilled out the rivets on the metal decks and used them as a template to cut out the new decks. Four coats of spar varnish and I deemed it good to go.

I used rivets with a washer as a backing to hold them in place but fires smeared a healthy dose of G-Flex to the metal and the wood as an additional holding agent.  I am going to be adding a piece of ash to the wide end of the deck which will tie into the hull for a carry handle and add support. 

Since I was working with resin I decided to add a little weight to make sure of a good bond.  Bricks!

Now one thing I didn't realize until I had already done it was that once the metal decks were off the hull spread some and the wood deck wasn't fitting correctly.  I used my straps to cinch it in so it was a tight fit.  Once I did that I drilled through the wood deck and into the the lip of the hull so the rivets would line up.  I made sure I marked with tape where the old rivet holes were so I could off set the new holes. 

All in all not bad.  I did add a layer of foam to the existing foam bulkhead so the wooden deck has more support.  All I can think is if someone sits on it. 

I added foam to fill the gaps you can see here

A few pictures of the boat.

More To Come.

Aroostook River Maine 2014

This is the account written up by Mike Bussell of the trip on the Aroostook River, Maine 2014.  The players were Mike Bussell, Marshall Moore, and Ken Corbett. 

Aroostook River, Maine 2014

Written by Mike Bussell

After doing 150 miles on the Allagash to Ft. Kent last Sept. and pretty much wrapping up almost all of the 740 mile NFCT in segment's over the past 7-8 years, I thought I had retired from down river canoe camping. I really was, and still am, tired of setting up and tearing down camp every day while covering miles. My canoe camping was going to consist of 'base camping' from now on.
Well, on that drive up to the Allagash back in Sept. We crossed over the Aroostook river way up in Ashland and I took a mental note to 'read up' on it. Now come January this year I'm bored and start throwing around the idea of getting out on a multi-day trip with DougD and maybe two others to have a nice small group of four. I throw the idea out to Doug early in January because it seem's it's alway's too late by time we get around to planning time off together.

So I start researching the trip and looking for shuttle driver possibilities up that way and sending out email invites to my other canoe camping buddy's. One by one my regular crew of guy's couldn't make it for one reason or another. More talk with Doug and we send out invites to a couple of guy's he's traveled with before but I hadn't, but knew they were top notch experienced traveler's, Marshall Moore and Nanook of the Nashwack, aka (Ken), from New Brunswick. Now come March and disaster strikes Doug as we all now know with his house burning down and effectively prying Doug from the trip along with his life's possessions. At this point I had lost some of the excitement of planning and let it slip by for a few week's. Marshall and Ken were still on board and I felt I owed them the time to keep plugging and get the detail's worked out.

Up to this point I hadn't had much luck getting a shuttle for this river. There were plenty of Sporting camp's, and Maine Guides and Outfitters, but none did shuttles and each were pryed for information of the phone number of someone they might know that could do it. Finally I got in touch with a Leo Freeman of Presque Isle, the finishing point on our trip. Leo owns 'Perception of Aroostook a small canoe and kayak shop right across the street from the boat launch ! He told me straight off that that wasn't his usual shuttle service, but yeah, he'd drive us in. He likes long drives on Maine's back logging road's just like everyone else up there. Leo Freeman is a Jack of all trades, he's a Registered Maine Guide, extremely avid road bicyclist, and back country skier, and many more I'm sure I'm not aware of.
O.K., so the day arrives where I get up to Presque Isle on saturday and meet Marshall at the Motel where we split a room for the night and hook up with Ken in the morning. We meet up with Leo Sunday a.m., load up and we're on our way into the headwater's of the Aroostook.

We take the logging roads in to the put-in by the Ashland check point. Aptly call the '6 mile' check point, it's 6 miles in. Here you have to sign in and pay a fee to 'North Maine Wood's'. After successfully confusing the woman gate attendant as to the number of day's and camping night's we would be in NMW we succeeded in keeping an extra $24 in our pocket ! NMW manages the campsites and collect's the fee's for the logging companies that own the forest. It's a co-operation that allows public use of the vast forest for camping, canoeing, hunting and fishing, and shared use with the logging company truck's. There are Sporting camp's that have been out there since the 1880's when the only method to get there was a Maine Guide poling up the Aroostook with the 'sport's' into the headwaters and the camp's.

After leaving the check point we were about a mile or two down the road when there was a loud bang and something dragging in the gravel. We stopped in the middle of the road and jumped out, Leo was rushing to check the boat's on the trailer and I bent over and looked under the truck. Well,.. the full gas tank had dropped to the road ! The band's holding the tank had rusted and the obvious jolting of the gravel road did them in. To keep it short, another elderly couple were on their way into their camp and had some 4x4 block's of wood to help leverage the tank up where Leo used some cam-buckle straps and got it seated pretty good and we were back on our way. We still had about 50 miles of gravel road to travel and kept an ear on any noises from underneath, it stayed quiet.
Finally getting into the Chase lake drive-in campsite around 2:30 we unloaded boat's and gear, opened a beer and said our goodbyes to Leo.

The back side of the Chase lake drive-in campsite is a 3 cell area with outhouse a picnic table pavillion at one site and two regular sites with fire ring and table. We had company already set up at the other two sites and we tucked into the smaller site that was still available.

Come morning we broke camp and were paddling out into Chase lake by 8:30 a.m. All the other fisherman camper's at the site were still snoring away as we paddled off down the lake. Chase Lake is about 1 1/2 miles long and there is a open outlet at the end that run's about a quarter mile into Munsungan lake. I took lead at the outlet and ran a sweet quarter mile of CL-I into the next lake.
Munsungan lake is 5 miles long and a Maine gem for fishermen. Considered one of the top 5 in the state for catching native Brook trout and land locked Salmon it's a destination for the truly serious fly fisherman. And also the location of Bradford Camp's. Built around 1880 they are one of the top notch remote fishing camp's. They built a strong reputation over all those years and the current owners are just as friendly and good as any place you could stay.

After crossing Munsungan lake you go through the thoroughfare into Little Munsungan. There is a nice campsite at the thoroughfare that is only canoe accessable and look's like it doesn't see much use (still nice). There is another site on Little Munsungan that we didn't stop at but is also car accessable.
At the outlet to little Munsungan is the beginning of Munsungan stream and another single cabin that is still called the 'Old Timers camp' even though all the old timers have passed away and somebody else has the title now. It too was built around 1880 and is the real deal, still looking great.

Munsungan stream quickly goes on it's way at the outlet and at about 1 1/2 miles the current pick's up as it rushes to Munsungan fall's, a portage. I had been told the beginning of the portage was hard to find in swift current on the left bank. I was in lead and was close to the left bank and there was a serious looking ledge rapid just ahead that had caught my attention. I was just going into my lining up for the rapid when out of the corner of my left eye I saw a faint notch in the river bank woods, the trail ! But I was already at that point and a quick few strokes and I was hugging branches about 15 yards downstream from the path. I made motions to Marshall and Ken where the trail was as they were still above it and would be able to get to it easy enough. Soon enough I was pulled up onto the trail and started humping my gear down the portage trail. A fairly short portage of less than a quarter mile,maybe 2/10th. The put-in being right at the base of the 'fall's'. In my WW boat, or my empty 17' Explorer I would see no problem running this drop as there is a runnable center line over the 3-4 ft. ledge drop. Not sure I'd run it in my loaded Kevlar Prospector though.

Theodore Roosevelt fished for Salmon at the base of Munsungan Fall's when he was a young man on his trip to Maine. It's the farthest he'd gone up river and some say this area is where he got the idea of preserving our nation's resources in later years for our National park's.

Once back in the boat's you cross under the only logging road bridge the entire trip. As you head down river the current pull's you along with nary an blowdown to block your way. The wooded riverbank's also start to steepen into a fir and Cedar lined wilderness and the gradient start's to pick up. Soon we were really flying along a swift, fairly straight river course that I'll alway's remember. CL-I, full river, no bumping bottom, Pines and Eastern Hemlock's and a beautiful forest all around. After several non-stop continuos miles of this we came apon the remain's of the Old Oxbow road crossing, now campsite. (drive-in)
There were a couple of truck's parked and 2 guy's were fishing near the old rock crib remain's of the bridge. After some intro's and small talk they were only there to fish and we would have the sites to ourselves that night. It was a nice evening with the group tarp easily pulled over the decrepid pavillion over the picnic table which kept us dry in the sporatic showers that evening. And another well kept outhouse is located here too.

That morning we were out and loaded up on the river by 9:30 a.m. an easy slow morning. We were headed to the LaPomakeag stream campsite just 8-10 miles downriver. As we headed down river that day (tuesday) we were going to be connecting with several large feeder stream's that are also considered headwater trip's, Millinocket stream, Mooseleuk stream, LaPomekeag, and many smaller stream's. Marshall was interested in the Munsungan Branch NMW campsite at the confluence with Millinocket stream. We found it. It was trashed by lack of use and upkeep and the ravenges of ice-out. It would be hard to describe how wet and overgrown it had become. Just a fire-ring with a wet grassy overgrown area in aldlers that couldn't take more than one small (wet) tent. This was the beginning of many campsite dissapointments as we headed downriver. Next was the Mooseleuk Branch campsite. Not used, overgrown, terrible location. We found the fire-ring and a box toilet. But there were obvious issues with over grown brush, tree's down (a long time) and lack of a landing beach (steep drop off in swift current). The next site was our intended destination for that night, LaPomekeag stream. We found it just down stream from the stream's confluence and it was destroyed by ice-out that year. Although, I tend to believe it was already decrepid and overgrown from lack of use. The ripped up tree's from ice-out laying across the open area's where you would be setting up your tents needed a chainsaw, and the 'rut' that was blocked by tree's to get up into the site needed some serious stair building if you didn't want to break your leg trying to climb up into the site.

We made the decision to move on downriver several more miles to the boat launch at the Oxbow check point. Once at the boat launch we were greeted by a open area with no outhouse or fire-ring and a small brush line to set up tents along the river bank field. (not an official camping area) A muddy, dusty pick-up truck slowly ambled along the gravel road and eventually he drove over to the boat launch to chat with us. We explained about the wasted campsites upriver and he assured us we would be just fine camped there for the night and nobody was going to bother us. He left us and we continued to set up tents. About a half hour later he drives up, jumps in the back of his truck and throws out a fire-ring and more split dry wood than we could use in one night. As he climb's back into his cab he say's "Ain't no fun camping without a good fire. I'll be back in the morning for the fire-ring". And away he went. Thank you, thank you !

Now the next morning (wens), we pack up and are looking at our next night's camping option's because our travel segment's are now out of whack. It was decided to just head down river and keep an eye out for acceptable bootleg camping.There was one more NMW site we could check on but it was only a few short miles down river and it was our intended destination (short day) after the LaPomekeag stream campsite. Once we got to the Houlton brook campsite we were extremely disappointed with how the NMW has done nothing to upkeep the sites along this river. Having talked to quite a few local's on this trip about thing's like the tourism trade and lack of yearly visitors to this area of Maine, there are thing's they need to do to get folk's to visit this area more. I'll stand on my soapbox later.

As we left the Houlton brook campsite (multiple downed tree's, over grown) which was probably the prettiest location the whole trip we were just a few miles outside the first town settlement, Masardis, we stopped at the boat launch for lunch. Our discussion was that we would continue to look for an acceptable bootleg site if nesissary but we also had the option of paddling all the way to Ashland where a couple of old timers I had talked to on the phone week's earlier had said we could stay at the Ashland Hunting and Fishing Club right next to the river. As we continued after lunch the miles flew by and before long we passed the confluence with the Machias (the northern one, not the coastal Machias) river and were in Ashland and pulling up to the Hunting and Fishing club riverbank. After scouting the immediate area we determined we would set up camp behind the club's building and kind of 'tuck-in' and keep a low profile while there. Ken started walking up to town about a mile up the hill to get more beer and Marshall had gone for a walk. I was still messing about setting up and had to walk down to the boat for something. As I crossed the club's gravel road to the back lot, another big pick-up truck had pulled in and up to me and stopped. First thing I did was ask him if he was a member here and he say's "Yup, I'm the Chairman of the board, and I've got no problem with you staying there. There some firewood you can use and the outhouse's are right there too. If anyone ask just tell them Charlie Tucker said it was o.k.". Next he say's to me "You ever hear about that show Mountain Men ?" I tell him yes, I've watched it. He say's" Well I'm the Maine representitive on that show". Of course once I get home I look it up and yup, he's the guy ! So we were good to go for another night with the good Karma getting cashed in some more.

Later that night I was the last to zip into my tent about 9:30 p.m. Not 5 minutes later I hear the crunch of gravel on the driveway and hear voices getting out of the vehicule. So I start unzipping my tent door and here comes the big bright flashlight of two Ashland Police officers."Sooo what's going on here?" is the first thing he say's. I tell him Charlie Tucker said it was o.k. He say's "Oh , you met Charlie ? No problem then" and they immediately turn and start walking away. The one I talked to hesitated and turned and said " If you see Charlie again, tell him Jeffrey said Hi". I said o.k. and thank you for checking in on us, goodnight. Did I also mention that it was a 30 mile day ?

Next morning we are up and out the door and on the river by 9:30 a.m. again headed for the Beaver brook campsite about15 miles downriver and the last MFS site on the map before Presque Isle. The Aroostook at this point is a pretty big river, high scoured river bank's, fast moving current and still wild outside of Ashland. There is a channel that break's off to the left above where Beaver brook enters the river. I had been told this was a small site by one of the outfitters I had called earlier, who had actually stayed there and wasn't sure what to expect. Well, we found it and you could maybe fit one solo tent and the gear for one guy, and barely have enough room left to get the fire ring of stones rebuilt to be able to sit around. Another big '0' zero for a campsite. We had our lunch there and discussed our option's. Again, we could keep an eye out for an acceptable bootleg site. But it would have to happen soon because in a few miles we would be hitting our first town of Washburn and there were house's along the river from that point on, and our odd's of stealth camping would have been gone. As we pulled out into the main flow of the Aroostook again out of the corner of my eye I see a break on the opposite shore in the thick brush. we ferried over and were getting out to check it out but there was huge amounts of Moose fur all over the river bank floating and just all over. We get up there and it's a very accomdating location. Just one thing, I didn't feel like sharing it with a Moose carcass just off in the woods from the clearing (skeletal). Otherwise we would have just started pulling gear up at that point and staying there. The other guy's were so-so and we decided that we would probably just finnish in Presque Isle that day. (another 30 mile day, back to back) The rest of the miles flew by, we saw many, many folk's wandering the remote shoreline picking Fiddleheads, the river stayed swift to our take-out and we were at the boat launch next to our cars parked up at Leo's by 6 p.m. Problem, Leo had gone home for the night and our cell phones were in our cars. We had given him our car key's for safe keeping and they were locked in the office.

Keeping it short, I was able to borrow a cell phone from a Fiddlehead picker as they got to the boat launch and finally got ahold of Leo who came down and got us our car key's. We loaded up and went back to the Motel we stayed in the first night we got there. Marshall and Ken were gone the next morning before I woke up (single room, they doubled). Overall a great trip. I actually liked it more than the Allagash trip I did back in Sept. I feel it's more remote and prettier than the Allagash. There are no Ranger cabin's every 15-20 miles (none) like on the Allagash. There is a serious issue with the upkeep of the NMW primitive campsites. If they want more tourism dollars they need to make a gem of a river like the Aroostook more people friendly. It cost a daily fee of $12 a day as a user fee, and $12 a night on top of that as a camping fee, $24 a day! Those are the out of state fee's. Maine resident's pay considerably less for both. I do understand the economic's and labor involved. I also believe the NMW attitude is that those are 'primitive' sites and the wilderness traveller is responsible to keep it user worthy. However, when even a seasoned traveller like myself see's a destructed, neglected site, I won't consider it, and will move on. Thus allowing the site to continue to get overgrown. This was a 90 mile trip over 4 day's, originally planned for 5 day's on the water.
NMW was due to have a meeting shortly after we left up north. Leo is going to bring this issue to the board about getting better service (campsite reconstuction) for the money that out of stater's bring in. I may also be getting contacted by a reporter from the Aroostook county news. She will want my view point in story for the paper on what we encountered on our trip. Charlie Tucker (Mountain men) also is interested in what they can do to start getting 'Sport's' to start coming back to the region. We'll see.
Ken and Marshall were great to travel with. I was excited because I'd been traveling in my comfort zone with my NFCT boy's for many years and we all know each others routines. Going with Marshall and Ken was like being out with new classmates.

Leo Freeman is the guy to call for the shuttle if this TR gives anyone the urge to go. His rate is fair. He's the only show in town for this, in the entire area.

I would love to post my pictures but my camera is not responding to the connection to my computer for some reason. Marshall has his pictures posted to his Facebook site and maybe he'll link them up to here. I've yet to see Kens photo's (alot). (Google search- Nanook of the Nashwack) he may have them posted at his personal site.)
AMC Maine guide book is the best reference for this trip.

Saying Goodbye To The Humble Hovel

Burning Down the House

March 14, 2014

For some reason I thought my run of bad luck was behind me.   The year 2013 was one of my worst, loosing my best paddling partner Sadie Dawg, loosing my Grandmother and just the day to day battles that seem to accumulate until it’s an avalanche waiting to drop on your head.  I was so happy to see that year-end and walked into 2014 with an open mind and a better attitude.

Despite a harsh and long winter things were going relatively well!  I had acquired a rare and vintage canoe to rebuild, picked up a skin on frame canoe for after work upstream paddles and was looking forward to warmer weather and getting some more work done on the Humble Hovel.

Now this abode has been a pain like a sharp thorn in my side since we bought it but I have come to love being here.  I know the sounds it makes in the high winds we get, the quirks of the plumbing and electrical systems.  A house to me in many ways is much like a living being, it moves, stretches, breaths.  Since the day we moved in it was and has been nothing more than a going on fourteen-year rehab, which flows like an ebb tide with available cash and time to get each project done.  I was proud of myself on some and completely disappointed on others, the joys of being a homeowner and stubborn enough to insist on DIY! 

On March 14 I watched as all those years of effort came to a one-hour screeching halt as a fire started in the walls and totally destroyed my home.  My better half called me at work and said, “The wall is on fire!”  I asked if she was joking and she screamed no.  As I ran out of the building a co-worker yelled what’s wrong and I yelled back that my house was on fire.  Now I’m six miles from work but by the time I got there the road was blocked off, there were flames shooting into the air from the porch and my better half was standing in the road a trembling mess.  We hugged each other so hard I thought one of us would break the other.

 She explained that she smelled something and going out to the porch where the wood stove was she could see smoke coming from the wall, not the pipe or the stove.  She took a fire extinguisher to it and called 911 and then took the second extinguisher and did the outside wall and that didn’t help.  Flames started and she grabbed Simon the cat and ran out and tried to unlock her truck and put him there but Simon did what all cats do and struggled hard enough to get loose and then ran through the cat door into the now smoke filled house as the flames started.  It was the last Karen saw of him until the firefighters brought him out. 

As I stood there and watched my home burning I was wondering why the firefighters weren’t pumping water on it.  Later I found out they were waiting for tanker trucks from two more towns to show up.  I will say this; those boys are brave and nuts!  They went into that burning mess and starting breaking windows out to get the heat down and to look for Simon.  I wasn’t surprised at how fast the house was burning as I had always said if it caught fire it would be a tinderbox . What I was surprised at was how fast the firefighters got it out once the hoses were pumping water! 

When it was all done with Simon was dead but not burned, most likely the smoke got to him and they gently and respectfully brought him out and put him in the carport for us.  The fire chief was so apologetic and told us they tried like hell to get him out alive.  We walked in with him to access the damage and it was mind-boggling!  Every room was devastated by the heat and smoke.  All of our clothes, even the items in our bureaus were covered in soot. Our computers were totally melted; keys popped off by the heat and melted into a puddle.  Things on our bookshelves were destroyed but the item next to it was fine.  A book had burned but right next to it was a candle that was untouched and looked brand new.  The stench from the smoke was so thick I knew it would be hours maybe days before I would get it out of my throat and nose.  I will never forget that odor!

  Every room was damaged so badly that I knew that all my almost fourteen years of work would have to be redone.  I tried so hard not to start crying right then and there.  From there began the bear part of contacting the insurance company and by the time the fire trucks had left he was on our driveway.  In the meantime the community had heard.  The calls coming in on my phone were non-stop as well as text messages and emails.  Between the insurance agent, the fire chief, the reporter who showed up and the leftover firemen I didn’t have time for the break down I wanted.

Ok, in the midst of our personal tragedy came an angel of mercy.  Our mail carrier is woman who has watched us try to get this Humble Hovel back to a reasonable living habitat and we have become friends with her over the years.  Karen and her have a lot of the same interests and she loved my Sadie Dawg and Simon, treats for Sadie daily on her route!   When Sadie passed she bought a flower for her grave and a card that I saved but now was lost, I had just looked at the card on Thursday night.  I saw her stopped up the road by the police and it was shortly after that Karen got a call from her offering us a spare home she had until we could get our feet back on the ground.  This was just the first offer of generosity that started.  Before I start there though I must mention the  Land Sharks!

To me this is the asshole that makes a living by honing in on the unfortunate while they are the most vulnerable.  The first one arrived minutes after the fire truck left asking if I needed to have the house boarded up and his company would do it tomorrow.  I already had that covered so to speak but he would not leave and was persistent to the point that I asked him to leave.  Next was a world-class asshole!  If I was he I could not look myself in the mirror every morning.   He is one of those guys that says my insurance company is going to screw me and he can do much better by challenging them.  My hackles got up and I had to tell him this was not the time but he drilled in knowing I was at a weak point.  Finally I asked him to leave as well but that took ten minutes.  I knew he would be back because he smelled blood, mine!  I knew he would be back.

So, what came next was amazing.  People showed up.  My friends, Karen’s friends, neighbors, people who knew me but I didn’t know them stopping to offer help.  The word got out fast.  As the night started on us we had to go but there was a stipulation.  Without the house being boarded up one of us would have to stay for the night.  I found my sleeping bags; borrowed some flashlights and then Karen and I drove over to where we would be staying.  She would be staying there.  I headed back to the Humble Hovel and found my neighbor waiting for me.  We walked down to my Canoe Shed where I would be spending the night and had some cans of liquid courage and just talked for a while.  It was comforting as he is the kind of guy that it’s easy to talk to.  I finally had to call it quits and off my neighbor went. 

Thankfully it was a fairly warm night out and I pulled out my winter sleeping bag and my summer bag and put one inside the other knowing I would be warm enough for the night.  As I lay there I realized that I had only had the clothes I was wearing left and that started me off.  I started swearing at everyone and everything and then the tears started.  I cried for all the efforts I put into that house, the lose of my Simon, the lose of all my personal stuff.  It is so hard to put into words seeing something go up in smoke that you have had since you were a child, something that was passed on to you by a parent, a friend and knowing what did survive the flames was completely ruined by the soot and smoke and heat and a living being that loved to sit on you and give kisses and purr.  It was a hard night.  

March 15, 2014

It was a little after one in the morning when I awoke knowing I wouldn’t be sleeping again.  My mind was racing with everything that had happened and what was coming up.  I lay there for a while and then decided it was time to make some coffee so went to the barn where my camping gear is and got the Almighty Coffee Pot, the one burner stove and then up to the charred remains of my house thinking that there was some coffee left.   Ok, maybe I was dreaming, but I wasn’t.  The new can of coffee was just a burned out mess.  More heavy cursing and admittedly kicking of stuff, what the hell it felt good and it was all ruined anyways!  Suddenly it dawned on me we kept some shit coffee in the freezer, that stuff that you bought thinking it be good but made you gag!  Well, it was that or nothing and goddamn it was cold now. 

Earlier in the day I had to pry the refrigerator door open where it had melted to get to some cans of liquid courage I knew were there and by God despite the fire they were still cold!  I pried the freezer door open and got out the bag of what we call shit back up coffee and went back to the Canoe Shed where I got the coffee going.  The jug of water I pulled off the floor of the kitchen stunk of soot but it was either that or melt snow.  I was getting cold and needed something hot to drink so opted for the water jug.  Hell, I was filthy anyways from being in the burned out mess anyways.  While the Almighty was perking I warmed my hands by the flames and started thinking again.  I knew that this community would be hearing of my lose, I knew my friends and neighbors would be coming in to help.  My conundrum was and is that as much as I like to help others I don’t like getting help unless I’m backed against the wall and need it.  My better half says that is my biggest weakness and I’m stubborn about it.  I just feel I can do it on my own, I don’t need others.  Not sure why I am this way but I is what I is like Popeye the Sailor Man!   I knew I was going to have to take offers of help despite my dislike of doing so. 

Somewhere around five I decided I needed more than the swill I was drinking and headed into town for a real cup of Joe.  Heading back home with a cup of Newman’s real coffee Karen called me.  She was at the house wondering where I was.  We met at one of the schools I work for so she could check her emails and then went back to Micky D’s for some food and another cup of joe.  We both had only the clothes on our backs and needed more so we headed into Concord to Wally World and bought a couple of sets of clothes to get us through the next few days. 

When we got back to the house my neighbor, the contractor, was there.  Today we had to get the windows boarded up.  He took off to pick up materials and then folks began showing up.  For the rest of the day people were stopping in with kind words, and offers of help.  One woman stopped and told me I didn’t know her but she knew me through someone at work and she offered to let us stay with her as she had a large home.  Others stopped and asked what we needed and left us their numbers.  Others just stopped to give us a hug, a handshake and moral support.  And our phones were ringing non-stop. 

In the midst of all of this madness someone called and said he was on his way.  My brother who I hadn’t seen or heard from in almost three years was on coming over.   It was a pretty damned good reunion.  In the end he promised to be better about being in touch.  There was more but that there be personal.

By somewhere around five we finished and Karen and I headed out to the new digs.  I hadn’t eaten since Thursday night, was living off adrenaline and emotions, pretty much a raw nerve.  The house we were offered is beautiful and it would take too much time to describe it.   I smelled of sweat and soot and headed for a hot shower after which I basically passed out. 

March 16, 2014

I woke up at an ungodly hour and made some coffee.  It was only in the single digits out and was so angry about how cold and long this winter has been.  The dreaded thoughts I had been trying to hide from since this started finally found me and I began to cry, not hard but long.  I hate crying for probably all the typical male reasons but I couldn’t stop.  What really got me going was thinking that Simon and my Sadie were back together again sitting on a step somewhere like they used to at the Humble Hovel, Simon cleaning Sadie’s face and ears and just watching over her.  He was always her protector.  I just could not get that image out of my head and probably never will. 

Now in the meantime the district I work for rallied.  We are a close-knit community, not just the schools the entire community.  At the local store someone set up a one hundred dollar tab, which started to grow, the staff of the schools started collecting money for us and the offers started coming in for clothes, food, places to move into, and more.  From an email that was forwarded to me:

“Doug’s services are invaluable to our district, let show our support in this time of need. “

I am nervous about going back to work; I work in the shadows and do not like being in the limelight but know it is going to happen.  It is the nature of this type of event.  I will have to grin and bear it and pray I don’t break down in front of folks.  My biggest worry is I just don’t know how I will be able to pay back all of the people who stepped up to the plate on my behalf.  

Now in the midst of all of the carnage humor has to make it's way in.  When I opened up the new undees and socks it was one of those moments that just has to make you laugh a little.  I bought the wrong size underwear, too big, and the frigging socks were those ankle high ones which I count as just about useless!  Yeah, we laughed hard about that only to find that Karen had bought the wrong size undees as well!   

Oh yeah, I did get to buy some new boots!  Now that was kind of nice but I'm still aching to get a set of Muck Boots soon as I use those for so many different environments and  rely on them for how well they are made.  In all this insanity, especially shopping this tune came to mind!  Made me smile!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmbUNF1Q4R8&ob=av2e

So this tale is far from over, it is in its infancy.  I know that the battle will be long and hard before I am back to my Humble Hovel.  We’ll have a new house when it’s done and over with, I am praying.  We’ll have a new grave for Simon the Wonder Cat, and I have a new appreciation for my community and friends.

Week of March 17 – 22

It has been a week of total madness and I can’t believe I have lived through it.  I can’t write about the day to day stuff, it is just to mind numbing.  Meeting with this person and that, worrying about scumbags trying to break in to the burned out Humble Hovel for scrap metal, that is a whole different story.  The running around to get clothes, food and other essentials.  I can only thank the blessing of Tara to let us stay with a warm and comfortable shelter on a beautiful lake to stay on.  It was the only sigh of relief.

Today is the 22^nd of March and the snow pack is so thick that we can walk on it like concrete.  We have a mobile home for temporary shelter coming Monday so I had to hire my neighbor who is a contractor to move about three of snow and ice off a section of our field so the home can be put into place.  Now in the meantime my poor Simon needed to be buried and with the thick layer of snow and ice I just didn’t think I could dig a grave for him.  What I did not know is that my contractor neighbor had just bought an excavator, a big honking machine and he had told Karen he would bring it over and dig Simon’s resting place.  So he did by driving that bad boy through the woods, across two fields and up to where we wanted the final resting place to be.  Holy crap!  The snow pack was so solid that that tonnage never broke through more than a couple of inches.  In the end we had to laugh about this as Simon was a unique character that was revered by many.  Hell, how many cats get buried by an excavator?

March 28, 2014

It has been two weeks since the Humble Hovel burned and in that time Karen and I decided we could wallow in our lose, our pity, our emotions but choose to move forward and we did at a furious pace.  We got done in one day with the help of many friends the cleaning out of the burned out hulk of the Hovel, got a mobile home delivered to the property and started shopping for new items.  It was a mind numbing experience and every day ended in us being in an exhausted state knowing we would have to do it all over again! 

Today was a pivotal day.  The mobile home finally got power so electrical and water was soon flowing!  Tomorrow we start moving back in so we will be on our land again and the stresses of not being there will end. 

March 29, 2014

Today we started moving from the lake house back to the new home, the mobile home!  When we arrived at the lake house we had only the clothes on our backs literally.  The generosity of so many people and some dreaded shopping saw us taking several trips to get our modest belongings into the mobile home which I have decided to call The Camp!   I'll take a moment here to describe The Camp.  It is 12' x 44' with a "master bedroom" at one end and two small bedrooms at the other.  From the master bedroom the bathroom, washer and dryer and closet live and then the rest of the area is an open area with a kitchen and living room area.  Ya don't want to have a party in here!

March 30 - April 4, 2014

It has been a whirlwind.  Between getting cable hooked up, computers, kitchen stuff, more clothes bought and going to work I am having trouble remembering what I did each day.  On top of that the hook up for water started leaking in the basement and of course my sump pump decided to shit the bed so I had go buy a new one and deal with that for four hours or so.  The plumber finally arrived and fixed the problem but I was so wiped out by then that I couldn't do much more than sit down.  I think I had finally hit my wall.  If you asked me what day that was I wouldn't be able to tell you.

Between the last two weeks of trying to stay as positive as I could, putting on a happy face at work, burying my cat, dealing with insurance, dealing with the scum that kept stopping to ask for scrap or the remains of my woodpile and worrying about break ins on my out buildings found I couldn't move.  I finally laid back and fell into a long and deep sleep, maybe nine hours worth. 

It was dark when I got up and meandered my way down to one of my sheds where I work on my boats, this is my therapy place.  From the doorway I have a good view of the Humble Hovel and just stood there for a long while staring at the burned hulk wondering why all this shit was happening to me, to us?  I like to think that I'm a good guy, that I do good for my friends and community!  I am not a church goer but do have my conversations with what I believe in and had to ask what have I done to have this happen?  One of my thoughts was that we were in year thirteen of owning this house and as I've mentioned I thought 2013 was a shit year and was over it.  Maybe in my fogged mind the number thirteen was really as unlucky as its reputation and I still had four more months before we were into fourteen years of living here and maybe then my luck would change.  It is truly amazing what blazes through your mind.

More To Come.

April 5, 2014

Today's lecture begins with the insurance stuff.  We were lucky to have a great company who has stood behind us every step of this difficult way.  They got us money right off to live off of, they were there an hour after the fire was out.  But now came the difficult part and you may want to pay attention to this if you have read this far.  You have to inventory everything!  This means clothing, TVs, electronics, personal belongings from underwear to pictures.  This means knickknacks, kitchen stuff, cleaning stuff, mops, everything in your home.  Please keep this in mind.  The agent counted my shirts as I pulled them off the hangers and then he asked me how many hangers I had in total.  I said they were junk but his point was that they cost money to replace and so we counted them and put them on the inventory sheet.  This is how detailed one has to be in this situation!

Take a few minutes to walk through your home and just do a visual inventory of what you JUST see, not the stuff in closets or other hidden places.  You will need to make an account for ever single item so it can be claimed.  This process is hard, you suddenly realize just what you lost.  What hit me hardest was all of my caoneing journals from each trip, those are so much a part of me and I spent the time each day to enter my thoughts into my notebook.

Yes I did have most of them on line but the one that I lost that I thought was safe dated back to 1974 right after my father died and I was still fresh off those feelings and we were way up in the Canadian wilderness in some not to nice conditions.  At fourteen years of age it was a hard go but one that made it a life changer for how I guess I've turned out.  To lose that journal was truly a tear jerker for me and I had to walk out back and give myself a few minutes.  I think I mentioned I am not a true patriot of crying but I do have my moments.

Today also was a banner day for both Karen and myself.  We had her daughter, our grandson, and her new beau come down from VT for a visit.  It almost brought me to tears to see a mother and daughter hug each other so hard and long, I finally had to call a time out and then break out the tissues.  I think the best part was our grandson seeing the emotion going on and starting hugging them both.  This was a moment where I fell in love with this family all over again, a moment I will always have in my mind. 

So that is my triad for this moment.  Since I can't work on the Hovel I'm going back to work on the boats, hopefully!

More To Come.

April 6, 2014

Well neither of us wanted to do this but we had to go back into the house and try to finish off the inventory shit.  It's just plain nasty.  It's dark despite the spotlights I have in there, it stinks so bad you have the taste in your mouth and almost burns the back of your mouth and you just know you will have that oder on you for a while.

http://picasaweb.google.com/115656493558573181332/HouseAfterTheBurn

We got the kitchen done and boxed so the agent can take a look before we haul it to the dumpster.  It was really difficult to see all our stuff go into the trash heap.  My bread cooking pans and bowls that my mother gave me, the first cook book I every bought that had years of recipes written in the blank pages, yes, I do love to cook but what really set me off yet again was my Sadie Dawgs bowls and her camping mattress now bound for the trash.  It was not the stink in my throat is was my heart breaking and I did something I never do, I hit the charred remains of the wall hard as hard as I could and tried to fight off the tears that I knew were coming.  It just hurt me so bad.!  I had to walk out back yet again to get control. What I love about Karen is when I do get like this, not often, she gives me some room to breath and then comes to me to see how I am doing, a hug, a kiss, reassurance so I can move on.  And so we did, the kitchen got done and so what is left is her stuff.  A friend came over to help her with her business stuff and I'm taking a break.

I keep asking myself why I am putting this stuff out there but I got an email from someone who I respect and admire despite the fact I've never met him.  He told me:

"Keep on writing.  In catharsis lies salvation"

These are fine words and I am going to follow them.

More To Come.

April 6 - 11, 2014

Things are starting to settle down despite knowing the real shit storm will be coming down the road.  The contractors/inspectors came out a second time and stayed for over four hours to take measurements, more pictures of the foundation and asking questions about the double roof and especially the foundation.  We are hoping for the report early next week to see where all stands with the rebuild.  Delay upon delay is eating me up. My biggest fear is being stuck in the Camp when next winter hits.

Now in the meantime another act of kindness came in, yet another on top of all the others.  All the teachers at one school collected scarves for Karen as all sixty-four of hers were ruined.  Now how the hell someone collects that many is a mystery to me and hell it was my house as well but I never knew, probably typical ignorant male stuff!  Every teacher in that school wrote a personal note to add to the scarf and there were a good amount of them.  The one that was the most heart touching was from a teacher who gave Karen her sister's scarf who had passed five years earlier.  Let's just say there wasn't a dry eye for a bit.  How do you repay that kind of kindness and personal sacrifice?

A basket of scarves

It was a very nice and personal touch to the end of another long and difficult day.

More To Come.


April 26, 2014

We are in a lull.  Bureaucratic stuff while insurance and contractors/inspectors get their shit together so they can tell us where to go from here.  Frustrating and despite my calls there is always a delay.  Don't the bastards know I'm not sitting here with my thumbs up my ass because I want to?  It is because of their delays.  So I'm sitting here in limbo which is like feeling as useless as I have ever felt.

On this cold and rainy April day I spent most of it in my canoe shed just staring up at my house and it was memories.  I miss so many things outside of being in it.  I raised and loved my dawg in that abode.  It was all she knew and let us know it was her abode that we provided just for her!  Same for our slew of cats we had over the years.  I recalled the massive amount of renovations we did, the hours of time put into rehabbing this hovel, the money and blood and sweat into each room.  It was close to a tear jerker day but my skin has gotten thicker and will need to do so down the road when we finally get a determination about the status of the house and then dealing with those who rebuild for us.

All I can say is that I am spent.  I look forward to falling into the bed every night so I forget the day I just had.

More To Come.

May 5, 2014

It has been a while since I've said anything.  It has been a crazy ride of digging holes and filling them in, waiting for someone else's  timeline to give us an answer that turns up with the true facts so we can move forward.  Yet despite the delays we are making some headway in more ways that I care to get into.

The dreaded inventory is close to being done and this weekend I closed the final chapter on my nine year relationship with Simon.  Buried he is but his marker was not ready and I needed to finish that off.  In the end I put a marble piece down and surrounded it with birch logs to celebrate his white fur.  I mentioned earlier I know that Simon and Sadie are now together and it's a thought that gives me some peace.  It was a good night to sit out and watch the stars.

More To Come.

May 23, 2014

It is a done deal.  We confirmed with a contractor for the rebuild, the insurance company is good with it and goddamn it will probably start next week!  When we met with the contractors are first question was how long?  Three months is the estimate which puts us at around Sept barring any delays which of course there will be but snow will not be here yet!

It was a relief to call the dumpster company to finally have them haul that away although it will be replaced next week for the demo that is coming.  The house will be gutted of almost everything and then the City will come in and look for code, notify the contractors and then they start the rebuild.

I almost can not believe we are going to get things going.  It has been a such a long hard road of the waiting game, calling folks, having inspectors out again and again.  To many days of feeling like I'm doing nothing more then pounding my head against the wall.  Now the rush is on.  We still have shit to move out of the house into the barn, finish inventory and finish some final small time bullshit stuff.

Now in the midst of all this madness something happened that took me by such surprise I literally did not know how to react for a days.  A package arrived one day with a check from folks who I grew up with, went through the rigors of making it through Jr and Sr High with.  Many I haven't seen in more then twenty-five years and yet the bonds of being raised in a small New York village makes for strong bonds.  We don't forget each other when it comes down to it.  As one friend said, "the bonds of a small village never cease to amaze me."  One can go through this journey of life but the bonds and friendships of the now and the past are the ones that define you is all I can think. I am a lucky man to have so many people watching my back!

More To Come.

Two Years Later.


I tried like hell to continue this story but it got to long, ugly and in the end we ended up in a new house without all of my building  mistakes. To say it was pleasant process would be a lie but sometimes one has to put the chapters of life behind them and move on.  I still have my days when I miss the old and have a hard time with the new but it is growing on me.  The one thing I will never miss as it is embedded in me forever is my Simon and Sadie on the steps loving each other. 

I guess this chapter is over.