Canada 2005

We departed from Mel Anderson's driveway at 5:27 AM on Thursday June 23, 2005.

We had a father and son team of Mel and Phil Anderson, an uncle and nephew team of Bob Bennett (my first cousin) and his nephew Tyler DeNeui, and two friends, Jim Snyder and yours truely John Bennett.

Our destination was Dreamcatcher's Lodge on the English River, Grassy Narrows, Ontario Canada. Mel had calculated it would be a 12 hour drive and shure enough we arrived at the boat landing at exactly 5:27 PM, about 30 minutes ahead of the storm that had been building for the last 90 km. The boat landing operator called the lodge and they promptly arrived 20 minutes later. We loaded our gear - put on our rain gear and motored accross to the lodge which is about a 15 minute boat ride (in the 18 ft /40 hp boat or about 20 minutes in the 16 ft / 25 hp model).

We arrived at camp and 5 minutes later the rain and wind hit with great force. The storm lasted about 30 minutes and then all was calm and muggy. About 90 degrees of calm, and 6 hot bods later we sat down to our first meal. The first night all 6 of us were in one cabin with one bath/shower. Togetherness is great and adds to the fun. The next day they moved us to different cabins - 2 to a cabin. Spartan but very adequite.

A great time was had by all except for Mel. He had a reaction to one of the meds he was on for his rather ugly cold and sinus infection. By Sunday afternoon he was most uncomfortable and collectively (but without Mels knowledge) we elected to leave Sunday afternoon rather than wait and leave on Monday. We departed camp at 8:30 PM traveled through the night and arrived in Sioux Falls at 7:20 AM. Mel checked in with his doctor and was given a steroid to conteract his reaction and is feeling better as I write this.

My pictures show the fun that we had. A wonderful time, great friends, beautiful area, really nice fish, and a chance to really observe up close and personal the Indian guides. They truely are "one with nature" when in this setting.