Chief to lead canoe trip via traditional routes

By Rick Garrick

Pic River Chief Duncan Michano has rescheduled his 10-day Long Lake #58-Pic River canoe trip until August due to scheduling conflicts in June.

“We’re going to put our canoes in at that old church in Long Lake and then paddle up the Making Ground River over into Seagram Lake, which basically is the height of land,” Michano says. “And then from Seagram to McKay, and McKay Lake down to Pic (River) to Lake Superior.”

Although Michano had originally scheduled the canoe trip from June 12-20 to celebrate National Aboriginal Day, he says the postponement will allow him more time to plan the trip and clean the portages.

“The top part (of the canoe route) has a few portages, one long one about a mile long, so you need to be a little bit physically fit,” Michano says, noting he usually splits the longer portages into stages with walking breaks between carrying stages. “The canoeing is easy; it’s the portages that are a little bit tough. The whole idea is to bring the least amount of gear as you can. You don’t want to do a carry more than three times, twice is ideal — you take the canoe and then you bring your gear.”

Michano encourages the canoeists to take lightweight food on the trip.

“You can’t be carrying steaks and canned food,” Michano says. “For the first couple of days we can bring fairly fresh food like some vegetables. But after that it will almost be all dry food. During the day I typically snack on gorp, which is a mixture of nuts and raisins.”

Michano also plans to do some fishing during the trip.

“I would imagine there will be some good bannock cooks,” Michano says. “And things like pancakes in the morning, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Michano says a group of Long Lake #58 canoeists plan to join him on the canoe trip.

“It will be good to get the two communities together because we are related,” Michano says. “Our communities have a lot of close family ties and that river basically was our highway that connected those two communities.”

Another group of canoeists plan to join the trip at Manitou Falls, which is located about three days up the river from Lake Superior.

“They won’t have to portage anything,” Michano says. “The river is flat from there — it’s just got one small rapid and you can run those.”

Michano plans to take his time on the portages.

“I’m going to take it easy,” Michano says. “We want to enjoy this trip; it’s not a race.”

Michano began canoeing when he was about six or seven-years old.

“I was always fascinated by canoes since I was a kid,” Michano says. “It’s a really good way to get around; it’s the best way to get around if you want to go into the backcountry.”

Michano says First Nations people once crossed the whole country with their canoes, noting they had “routes everywhere.”

“(Those routes) are all grown in now, but they are there,” Michano says. “I could put my canoe in now in the Pic River and go to the Northwest Territories. It’s not hard; it would take a lot of muscle power but basically the canoe will take you anywhere you want to go as long as you’ve got the will to do it.”

Michano has posted photos from many of his previous canoe trips on his blog at mishomis.blogspot.ca, including a black and white hunting photo from 1963.