HE - WHO - FLIES - BY - NIGHT

Chapter Three
     
BO JOU - BO JOU

KEEWAYDIN - BY GAR

HE- WHO -FLIES- BY- NIGHT

KEEWAYDIN  - THE NORTHWEST WIND

AT WINTER'S END

FURTHER READING

PAUL HAMMERSTEN

THE TRAIL OF BEAUTY

ASANTE PAPA

  

Years later,
while browsing in Parnassus Bookstore on Cape Cod, I was surprised to come across a signed copy of " Tales Of An Empty Cabin " by Wa - Sha - Quon - Asin { He - Who - Flies - By - Night }...Grey Owl. This gave me confirmation that there really was a Grey Owl. I learned he did indeed guide for Keewaydin in 1910 and 1911.



  Keewaydin Canoe Camp
on Lake Temagami on Ontario, Canada, is one of the oldest camps in North America, beginning in 1893 in Maine and moving to its current location in 1903. Keewaydin had hoped to " keep it's heart and soul " by staying true to it's inheritance by once again tripping entirely with wood and canvas canoes in the traditional North Woods Way of Grey Owl's day. However it is no longer possible to re-capture what Keewaydin Camps in Vermont and Keewaydin Wilderness Trips has has already lost. Only in a " living history way " can one experience what it was like to canoe during the golden days of classic wilderness tripping with wood and canvas canoes...for...the ' old time ' North, of waters absolutely unpaddled by white men and woods and portage trails on which only the feet of Indian families have tread, is no more.

I learned that Grey Owl
was indeed an expert canoe handler,packer,and hunter. Later in life he had a change of heart. Abandoning the hunt, he put down his gun and took up the pen. He became the foremost Canadian writer of his day. His four books became best sellers and today are considered classics in the literature of the North Woods.

Donald Smith reveals
in " From The Land Of Shadows ", the definitive biography of Grey Owl, that Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin became " one of the greatest forces for the protection of the Canadian wilderness in this century. " He also had to stow his paddle to keep up with the demands of his popular lecture tours.

Sir Richard Attenborough who produced and directed " Grey Owl ", saw him lecture over 60 years ago. " He was an unbelievable celebrity," said Lord Attenborough, in " Che-mun ", the journal of Canadian wilderness canoeing. " He was as big as the Beatles later became and he had massive charisma. He used his extraordinary fame to sound an early warning about our environment. He was also mainly responsible for saving the Canadian beaver from extinction. For all of his faults - and they were many - Grey Owl is one of my heroes."

THE MISTISSIBI
Paul D. Hammersten takes his Trembley Canoe down the Mistissibi. This was the first time the river had been run by man - red or white - since Grey Owl's day.



" If a canoeman were to be cross-examined as to his Wilderness Tripping Days, it would be enough for him to say that he paddled and portaged thousands of miles in THE GREAT KEEWAYDIN WILDERNESS in a wood-canvas canoe."

Grey Owl
Beaver Lodge, Canada