The Canoe Trip

Alumni Louis Vulliez, 78, put together this video on his experiences on trail in the 1950s; the land, the water and the people. 

Enjoy.

Punch on plaid trail jackets

Punch talks about the origin of the six-week trail jacket and the beginning of he Camp Stephens wilderness canoe program.

For more information about this summer's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Camp Stephens wilderness canoe program, go to the Y's camp page for a schedule of events and registration forms.

What happened to the plaques from the old rec hall?

Original rec hall/dining hall shortly after it was built in 1911. This photo was taken in the 1920s.

Inside the rec hall in the late 1940s.

Inside the rec hall in the late 1940s.

Rec hall in late 1950s. As you can see it doubled as the dining hall up until Craig Lodge (the current dining hall) was built in 1962.

The old rec hall/dining hall was torn down in the fall of 1981 after Lount Lodge was finished.

The building sat between the lodge and the basketball court.

Before it was torn down (and burned) the plaques were put into storage. 

For a time they were kept in the back room of the lodge, the room behind what's now the counsellors' lounge.

Anyone know where the plaques are now?

Old rec hall; the smaller white building in the second frame is the ice house.

Inside the old rec hall; the last frame is the former kitchen.

"1911 saw the greatest forward step in the history of camp up to that date. In that year the first Rec Hall/Dining Hall was built on what was the baseball diamond. It was the first major structure on the island. Originally the front portion of the building was a screened veranda and the senior campers ate there. For many years the names of campers and staff who had completed their "Five Island Swim: (an event to this day) were recorded on the walls of the building. However, sometime prior to 1946, the names were painted over and unfortunately never recorded." -- Camp Stephens-The Spirited Challenge

Join us for our celebration of the 50th Anniversary of our wilderness canoe program

Dig out your trail jackets, old wool socks and boots.

Don't forget your paddle, although we do have that covered.

Here's everything you should know about dates, times and cost of the 50th celebration at Camp Stephens.

Please click here http://www.ywinnipegcamps.com/campstephens/50th-trail-anniversary/ for what's scheduled Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 at camp. 

We are also offering a five-day canoe trip starting Aug. 26.

The focus of the events at camp - families are welcome - is to go back in time and re-experience the sound of the wake-up bell and jumping in the lake before breakfast.

If a group of you wish to go on a canoe trip, start talking among yourselves now, or if you just want to hang out at camp, you can do that, too. 

There will be a cost, but only to cover boat gas and food.

Remember, it's on an island. In the treetops.

What else is going on?

Saturday, July 13 is the sunrise farewell to this year's six-week trips. It will be held at The Forks at the historic junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. We're aiming for 7 a.m.

Thursday, Aug. 29 is the night before camp. Before we head out to Lake of the Woods, we're holding an evening event in Winnipeg. It'll be a lot like the Nov. 16 social, but with even more people. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please hunt us down on Facebook or at campstephensalumni@gmail.com

We're also collecting everything we can get our hands on about the history of the Trail Program. Maps, recipes, photos, log books, songs, anything.

Alumni Grant Platts is the main contact for trip routes and maps. You can send Grant your stuff at gplatts@shaw.ca.

We're also publishing a book. A big fancy book.

Matt Abra is the main contact. If you've got a good trail story to tell, photos or an idea, send Matt an email at mattabra12@gmail.com. Matt's deadline is May 31.

We've had quite a few emails from people who want to come from out of the country and enquiries from alumni from across years.

Should be good. See you back at camp.

The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal awarded to Punch Jackson

QEII Diamond Jubilee Medal PJ montage from Punch Jackson on Vimeo.

Punch Jackson was awarded recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by Alberta Premier Alison Redford.

The medal honours Her Majesty’s service to our country. At the same time, it serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians.

Punch Jackson is the former Executive Director of Public Library Services Alberta and the Chair of the Leisure Information Network Board of Directors.

 

We know him as the main guy who helped create the Camp Stephens Wilderness Canoe Program 50 years ago this year.

Congratulations, Punch.

1971 six-week Voyageurs log

Front row, left to right: Burton Tutt (Boryen), Ross Stewart, Glen Rodgers, Don Taylor, Hume Miller and Ted Spear. Back row: Glen Rodgers, Bob Fedyck, Tom Crawford and Brad Abbott

Go here on Google+ to read it. For easier reading, hover on the upper right corner of photo. When arrow appears click on it for fullscreen mode.

It's also on Flickr: Click on the magnifying glass in upper right of photo to read.

You can also download it (zip file) Camp Stephens 1971 Voyageurs or download and read it in a PDF file. (No, there are no viruses).

(I made this with an iPhone, a jig with a hole in it placed on two chairs (so the iPhone would not move when I took each photo) and finally reading the instructions for my iMac, which we've only had for four years.)

The Development of Woman’s Tripping at Camp Stephens

By Lynda “Tuck” MacIntosh (Keep)

In the 1970s woman’s tripping did not exist at Camp Stephens. 

I had attended “girl’s camp” for two years in the early 60s and as a youth leader at North “Y” I became hooked on camping. 

At that time the YMCA and YWCA were separate organizations in Winnipeg.  The YWCA ran Camp Kinnaird on an island in the Lake of the Woods near Stephens. Stephens ran for six weeks as a boys’ resident camp and Kinnaird ran for six weeks as a girls’ resident camp.

If you were a female member of the YMCA, your only option for resident camping was YWCA Camp Kinnaird. In the early 60s, the YMCA ran a “trial” girls’ camp during the last two weeks of August under the leadership of Sheila Gawley, who was the Women and Girls Physical Director at North “Y”.

Most of the campers were recruited from the “Y” branches in the city. In 1963 it ran again under the leadership of Ardis MacLennan, who was connected with the St. James “Y”. Although there were over-night canoe trips at these camps, there was no tripping program similar to the boys Voyageur program, which had begun at Stephens in 1963. As a camper and staff member at Stephens and as a leader corps member at the “Y”, I always thought this was really unfair. 

Girls’ Camp petered out in 1964 (not sure why, perhaps lack of leadership or lack of interest). At the same time my parents decided to move to Los Angeles. I attended Grade 12 and four years of university in Los Angeles, returning each summer to work one summer as a counselor at Camp Kinnaird and then for three years at the North “Y in their summer programs. 

I began to work on my dream of bringing girls camping (both resident and tripping) back to the Winnipeg YMCA. I was always bugging Hal Studholme, who was the executive director at North “Y”, about my dreams. I was also constantly haranguing Punch Jackson for ideas and development possibilities. I even wrote a paper on developing these ideas for a recreation course I was taking at university in Los Angeles. 

When I graduated in 1970, I was hired to work as Youth Program Director at the St. James “Y”. Hal and Punch had created the Camping Branch for the Winnipeg “Y” and Punch was hired to direct the branch. He took over in the summer of 1970 and ran the programs out of Camp Manitou. 

At the end of the summer in 1970 Punch became the director at Stephens. This was my chance! I nagged and nagged until I’m sure they were tired of seeing my face and hearing my voice.

In the summer of 1970 they gave me permission to start up Girls’ Camp, to run during the last two weeks of August at Stephens and to develop a girls’ tripping program that would use Camp Manitou as a base, as Stephens was still a boys’ camp for the first six weeks of the summer. Girls were definitely not welcome on the island during this time! At last, girls tripping programs were to be a reality.

The Serendipity Brigade began in the summer of 1970. I choose the name because “serendipity” means the ability to discover the unusual or the exciting…hence the Serendipity Brigade was a program for 12-14 year old girls, designed so that they might have a chance to do the exciting and unusual during summer vacation.

There was initially a lot of opposition to the establishment of a tripping program for girls. We worked hard, under trying circumstances, to develop a quality program that was tailored to meet the needs of girls. 

Although we had lots of terrific counseling staff to choose from, none had canoe experience. We choose three of the best counselors – Marg Law, Joy Ramsay, Pat McDonald- and set about training them in canoeing and other trail skills. 

We set up “base camp” at Manitou in an old abandoned cabin at the north edge of the site on the riverbank. We cleaned out the cabin and used it as a base for our program and to store our supplies. We taught fire-building, cooking on an open fire, setting up of tents and first aid skills to our campers during the first week. In the second week we headed off to Kenora by van and were taken to Channel Island on the Lake of the Woods via the Camp Kinnaird launch.

The Stephens' staff were supposed to come that day with canoes, paddles, and life-jackets for us, but they never showed up. We waited two days, stranded on the island before they arrived. They brought the oldest Vanguard canoes and paddles they could find. The life-jackets were key-holes made of kapok and as we later discovered, they sank when they were thrown in the water. We had a great time camping and cooking over the open fire, sleeping in tents and swimming, but we never did go “on the trail”. We weren’t discouraged, however.

Another trip that summer left from Clearwater Bay and looped around the northern part of Lake of the Woods. Equipment and logistics continued to be problems during that first summer.

The following summer, Serendipity was amalgamated with the Voyageur program which had been running for boys since 1963. Some of the first trippers were Karen Exchange, Michelle Halpin, Patti Pidlaski and Joanne Muirhead. Since that time, the tripping program for girls has grown and developed to include two, three, four and six week trips. 

Below are some brochures and pictures from the archives related to the Serendipity Brigade of 1970 and 1971:

   

Passings

Two camp alumni have recently passed away.

Michelle Belfry (Halpin) died Oct. 30. She worked at camp in the 1970s and took out the '74 girls four-week canoe trip.

Condolences can be viewed here: Book of Memories

Trail staff from 1972: Tom Crawford leaning on Joanne Muirhead (Macbeth), Karen Exchange, Mitch Halpin (Belfry), Jamie Grant, Dave McGimpsey, Patti Pidlaski, Randy Thorvalson with Jennifer Campbell leaning in front. 

Dave McGimpsey passed away Nov. 9. He also worked at camp in the 1970s.

Before his death his family created a fund to help send children to camp. In the photo below, he's standing pointing over the water.

A letter from my brother: August 6, 1982

A letter from my brother from Big Trout Lake, Ont. to me. At the time I was working at KaBeeLo Lodge, a fly-out fishing camp about 60 kilolmetres east of Ear Falls, Ont.

It was held together by duct tape. To read it click on the images below.

Geoff was on the 1982 six-week trip led by Scott McGregor and Chris Dillistone. Also on the trip were John Parsons, Dave Knox, Jeff Hunt, John Kagan, John Lamont and Gord Sims.

The girl's trip that year was led by Carole Deally and Eileen Askew. On it were Joan Sullivan, Kim Knight, Adrianne Cairns, Linda Beckett, Carolyn Bedford, Anna Ringstrom and Pam Jamieson.

I took this photo from the balcony of the just-completed Lount Lodge.

1982 six-week return. Geoff is speaking.

page one

page two

page three

Old-time camp

Old-time camp, a set on Flickr.

Most of these were taken in the 1920s.