Manitou Appe 

At our last campsite at Hecla, I met Svea (she’s on the right; Lauren the park interpreter is on the left), who helped lead my guided tour through the woods of Hecla Island. While Lauren told me about the mammals native to Hecla, Svea mentioned a few spiritual beliefs of her indigenous people, the Anishinabe, […]

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Exploring Hecla Island

It’s been a quiet week here at Lake Wobegone Winnipeg. (I’ve always wanted to start a post like that.) Seriously, this little island is rich in cultural history and has wolves on it, but we’re not finding much we can do because: we’re not golfing, the lake is flooded so no beach, and mosquitoes turn […]

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Hecla and Gimli on Winnipeg

That’s not an entirely made-up headline. It’s a scramble of where we are—as a cool-sounding phrase that reminds me of the Star Trek episode, ”Darmok and Jalad at Tamagra,” where Picard has to learn an alien’s language—that’s all in metaphor—to survive. It’s one of my favorite episodes. We are indeed on Hecla Island on Lake […]

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Mosquitos v. Bear

If this were who would win in a battle here in Manitoba: a swarm of these dragonfly-sized mosquitos or an average-sized black bear, I would bet on the bear, based on how I’ve seen Banjo react to mosquitos. She doesn’t, is the thing. They’ll cover her so that we have to wipe them off her […]

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