Stormer Lake

We were out at Stormer Lake Thursday morning through Sunday morning. It worked out really well for us because the family that lives there was ready for a break and we were ready for a break too. Someone has to be at the camp to keep the fires going and to be available for people who come through. It was so nice to be out there and to feel like we were also helping out somebody else.

The camp is a little over an hour from Red Lake. There is really no one around. It’s FAR from anything else. Pikangikum is the closest community. It’s a reserve about an hour away in the winter. When the lakes are frozen, there is a winter road that comes out close to Stormer Lake. Later in the winter people will be able to drive trucks in and out- right now it’s just snowmobiles.

There are cabins people can stay in at Stormer. People also stop to buy gas, use the phone, or buy pop and chips. The camp is also used for kids’ camps and other camps. The people who live there also do intensive counseling and sometimes people come for an extended time of that.

Anyway, it was strange to be out so far from anything, but to have people driving through every once in awhile or coming to pick up a vehicle they had parked there. I will admit that Kendall and I both got slightly freaked out at times. Seriously, out there, anyone could come and do anything. What would we do? We had the Pikangikum OPP number. (Ontario Provincial Police) We were also told that we could call the Red Lake OPP. But what would we say? “We’ve all just been robbed and brutally murdered and the murderer is taking lots of pop and chips and not paying…You can be here in an hour? Okay, we’ll see you then. Try not to slide off the road or hit a moose on your way out here. But if you do, we’re laid-back Canadians: we can wait.” (That really didn’t bother us too much, it was just weird to think about. You know, the makings of a movie I would never want to watch.)

In spite of all that, we were so glad to be out there and would do it again in a heartbeat. Hopefully we can do it again. They say that they have a hard time finding people to watch the camp when they want to be gone.

Unfortunately, it was so cold that we really didn't spend lots of time outside. It was well below zero. Kendall, on the other hand, spent lots of time outside. He had 4 fires to tend. They had to be stocked morning and night and wood had to be hauled to each of the fires.

He also got to go on a "service call." Two people came out from Pikangikum. They had come out to pick up a car parked about 15 minutes away and take it into Red Lake for snow tires. Unfortunately, they got locked out of it with the door handle broken off. They got a ride to Stormer and were half-frozen by the time they arrived. They came in for hot drinks, then Kendall took them back to the car with a hanger. They still couldn't get it unlocked, so they used an axe.

On the snowmobile.




This is how the boys looked after a very cold ride across the lake. I rode in the sled with them to help keep them warm. Because of the dangerous cold, we faced backwards. At one point, something felt weird, then I saw we had just gone through slush. I hate that. It scares me.

It was only later that Kendall told me that I had ice an inch thick on my back and on the back of my hood after the splash through the slush. It made me laugh to think if I had been facing forward. Can you imagine an inch of ice on my face?! Kendall reminded me that I would not have been laughing if it had really happened. That's probably true- I was annoyed enough about the slush as it was.

Eli was the best-covered of all of us. His fancy goggles (a second-hand gift from Lamar) did the trick.




Thursday night the boys woke up often during the night. By morning Eli was in bed with us. Evan came to our room and said, "My tummy hurts." Then he laid down on top of Kendall's clothes that were on the floor. Then he started heaving. That got us out of bed much faster than any alarm clock. Of course, after witnessing all the retching, Eli said his tummy hurt. Here they are immediately after. Eli has his puke bowl and Evan has water and a cracker. Thankfully, that was the end of that. Seems like the same thing that happened to Eli over Thanksgiving.




We played hockey in the gym.