My buddy, Oscar de

My buddy, Oscar de Miranda, drove up from Marietta, GA, on a recent Thursday. We left Flint Hill about 8:00 the next morning. Oscar had towed his open semiv boat and motor for use in the bigger lakes, but a fellow hit the back of his boat in Wytheville, VA, putting the motor out of commission, so we left that rig in Flint Hill. I had my flat bottom on top of the truck and a little Mercury outboard for the smaller lakes and portages.

We made Buffalo, Peace Bridge and the Canadian border about 4:30 that afternoon, and, amazingly, breezed right on through. Stayed the night at Parry Sound, above Tbronto, on the Georgian Bay, off Lake Huron, and pulled into Shining Tree and Three Bears Camp about noon on Saturday.

This was Oscar’s, first trip to Shining Tree, although he had made two fly-in trips to lakes west of there. If I am counting correctly, this was my sixteenth trip to Ontario. I always wanted to do a fly-in, to some secluded lake where the pike are as long as your leg, but, while the remoteness of that adventure is very appealing to me, fishing the same lake for a week is not. I like variety.

This part of Ontario is on a latitude that is called the arctic watershed. I am told that this is the place where, north of here, the rivers and streams flow north, to James Bay, and south of here, the rivers flow south to the great lakes. That would make you think that this is the high point, as far as elevation is concerned, and, since water doesn’t run uphill, that must be so! But to this observer, raised in the Blue Ridge, it looks awfully flat.

And, when you are driving, it seems you must surely be about as far north as Ontario goes. Believe me, that is not the case. Ontario is huge, and there is a heck of a lot of it still north of Shining Tree. Enough geography.

You got to

love this place

I am very, much impressed