Trip Report: Day:4 Lower Missinaibi River - Mattice to Moose River Crossing.

Day 4: July 3, 13.
-Km's Paddled: 80km
-Portaged Meters: 0
-General Weather: Sunny, No clouds
-End Of Day Camp.

Something getting built in the bottom right.

We awoke Fresh after a good sleep. While I break the tent down, Andy gets breakfast going and casts a few lines. We have a quick breakfast semi bug free. The night before Andy had gathered some trees for making a rig. and we lash the Moose shed to the bow deck plate and dub our canoe "Thunder-Moose". It is quite the ship now with its rig and mounts! ready for s full day in the sun and on the water. Today were suppose to paddle 50km, but we knocked off 15 last night so we have only 35 to do.

"Thunder-Moose"

As we push off, maybe 2 km in we notice a slight tail wind. Seize the opportunity, we go ashore and set up the sail. Any chance to try this out, and if it works...not to paddle would be great.  So Andy and I set up and cast sail. we followed the instructions in Haps Book for the solo canoe, and with out hitch it is wonderful. Through the gusts of wind we cruse along, sometimes the gusts are so strong we make a great deal of wake. The only down side is you cannot always see what is in front of you. So we deal with this as Andy opens the sail up to rise like a kite and I being the rudder guy, takes a quick look and navigates accordingly. It works great and in no time we have worked out the big bugs and make out way north in record time.

Tarp Sail, Full Steam Ahead.

As we cruise along the Missinaibi we see on the map the note about a grave site maintained by the HBC, A unique site in the middle of the bush for sure. As Andy mans the sails I keep watch looking above the 20 ft shoreline for any sign of a trial, I catch a glimpse of the gravestone and veer hard to the left to beach "Thunder-Moose". We scramble up the side of the hill and pay our respects. Quite eerie and neat all at one. From another online picture a Gent named Steven Gray left this info possibly about Mr. Marten

According to the Ontario death registry 1869 to 1934 available at www.ancestry.ca, Joseph Martin was born Dec. 16, 1860 in St. Remi, Que., son of F. X. Martin and his wife, Clemence nee Gagne. Joseph was a laborer. He lived in Ont. for 44 years, and the Hearst area for 6 years. He died of paralysis at age 64 yrs., 8 mos. and 6 days at Hearst, Cochrane District on Sept. 6, 1925 and he was buried Sept. 9, 1925. The informant was Ernest Martin of Hearst, his son. The undertaker was N. Darby of Hearst.
There is an error somewhere in the dates of birth and death, and age at death. The dates of birth and death on the headstone differ from the official registry. The surname is also spelled differently. Perhaps someone can check the local newspaper to cross-check when he died. In the meantime priority should be given to the official death registry as submitted by the physician.
In 1891 Joseph Martin, 35, a laborer; his wife, Lizie, 30; and their three children, Yaphen, 6; Ernest, 3; and Josephine, 2; all born in Que. (sic), all Roman Catholic, lived in Springer Tp. (area), Nipissing Dist., Ont. Joseph Ernest Martin was born Jan. 3, 1888 at Springer Tp., Nipissing Dist., Ont., son of Joseph Martin, a farmer, and his wife, Elisabeth nee Simson.

Quite interesting. I have been on other Canoe trips and sometimes you will find shires build in the middle of no where with statues of Mary etc. All very creepy to me anyway. We press on as we have the wind on our side, and we are going to take full advantage of it today. We end up doubling our mileage and clock in a full 80k today. We felt very privileged to have the tailwind and to have the chance to set up the sail and try it out. We end up paddling to 6pm, Spirits high from the great day, and easy on the back. Chatting and laughing all day was great. The Site we find on km 140 is gravelly, no bugs at the moment, but no shade. We set up everything and have a great evening almost bug free. However the second we go to bed the Mosquitoes come ot in full fore. It was so Loud with buzzing it literally kept me up most of the night. I got a lousy sleep, but at least I was rested.

On To Day 5.