We now features slideshows of some of our most popular Zenfolio galleries. So click on over to the “Outside Up North Slideshows” page and choose a show. Enjoy!

 
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A Note to the Reader The gang lost their chance to to catch a plane out of Ontario. Now Crazy Dog’s come through for them once again. They hope he’ll help them all get home. But is it a forlorn hope?

 
Our story continues…

 
Chapter Thirty-Two

 
The outboard roared along at full throttle, running south before a freshening breeze. Ed and Brenna’s Old Town XL Tripper tugged at the tow line, darting back and forth in the Rupert House canoe’s wake. Every few seconds the motor canoe’s bow would slam into a wave, throwing a rooster-tail of salty spray back along its twenty-four-foot length. Crazy Dog shouted to make himself heard above the noise: “We been lucky wit’ the weather so far. But ‘less I miss my guess, that’s gonna change real soon now.”

Ed looked around. An overcast sky mirrored the leaden water of James Bay, the only evidence of land a faint charcoal smudge on the horizon to the right, far beyond the endless expanse of foreshore flats. A rich stench of decay rose from the newly uncovered mud. Ed wanted to say something to Brenna about “the perfume of the flats,” but just then the boat slid over the crest of a big roller. The prop lifted clear of the water, and his words were drowned out by a tortured whine. By the time they were in the trough of the wave, the joke didn’t seem so funny.

They were all traveling light now, their personal gear limited to rucksacks and whatever else they could easily carry. Sergei and Pavel kept their Kalashnikovs. Ed clutched Jack’s sextant, and Brenna still had her portfolio of drawings and paintings, double wrapped against the wet. Of the rest of the gear they’d brought downriver, only the packs of sturgeon roe remained. “Best Albany River beluga,” Sergei had said as he lashed them into the canoe, pausing only long enough to tap the side of his nose and wink. “Better than an American Express card. Don’t go home without it!”

Jack was also scanning the horizon. He looked north, and he didn’t like what he saw.… Read more…

 
Hooked? A new chapter in our serial adventure novel, Trip of a Lifetime, will appear every Sunday. If you’ve missed a chapter, or if you’re coming aboard for the first time and want to catch up, just use the hot-linked title to go to the archives.

 
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A REMINDER This is a work of fiction. All the characters are figments of the imaginations. It’s NOT a paddling guide. If you’re planning a trip on the Albany River—or any other body of water, come to that—consult the most recent edition of a good guidebook and be sure you’re thoroughly familiar with all applicable regulations. While maps of Ontario show some of the waterways mentioned here, the places depicted in our story exist only in our minds—and in yours.

 
Our photographer Tony Jancek has been wandering the ancient woods of the south-central Adirondack Mountains, and has come home with dozens of beautiful pictures. Let’s take a peek of a few from his trip, beginning with these shots of the base of a strange old pine on the hike into Auger Falls:

 
Bedrock just about as old as the planet itself is rounded, smoothed, and weathered by thousands of years of glaciation followed by rain, snow, ice, and -40 degree temperatures. Clinging to these rocks is an ancient pine, its roots and trunk like something out of a Tolkien novel or Wagnerian production. Persistent rain pelts the woods, hissing through needles and leaves, but the beauty of the place draws Tony and his wife ever further into the woods.

 
Mist and fog thicken as they push further down the trail…

 
Lush ferns give way to a small cave, formed by a pair of glacial erratics that melted out of a mile-deep river of ice.

 
What’s inside the little hollow? A bright orange mushroom:

 
But the roar of the falls beckons and can’t be ignored any longer. At last, there it is!

 
Let’s get closer…

 
The roar is unbelievably loud, and you can hardly hear yourself think. No one could live in such a place. Could they?

 
Never underestimate Mother Nature. The clouds are breaking but bruised and look as if they’ll bring a downpour. Time to head back. Camp along the river awaits with all its comforts, including a cooling swim on a hot day.

 
Then, later, the storm arrives but doesn’t last. Soon the skies clear once more, and there’s enough time for a bike ride around the campsite before turning in.

 
Want to visit a bit longer? Then go see more photos of the region at our “Trail to Auger Falls Gallery” at Zenfolio.

 
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