LA RESERVE BEAUCHENE

8th – 16th October LA RESERVE BEAUCHENE

On Wednesday 8th October we met up with an ex-colleague of Eric’s who works in the North Bay office of the Ministry of Transportation, for lunch at a Polish deli called Christina’s.
He had generously agreed to allow us to leave our trailer in his driveway for the next week. However in the end, due to the fact this would leave it too exposed to passers-by, we decided to leave it in the campground where we had just spent 2 nights, for a nominal fee.

From the restaurant we headed to our previously agreed upon rendezvous, a grocery store, to meet up with our dear walking/running buddies from London, Don and Aggie. With no trouble at all we found their van and parked right beside it. It wasn’t long before we saw them with their 3year old grandson Amon in hand coming out of the store, clutching good things for little boys to eat in the car.
Don and Aggie had invited us to check out their new venture and spend a week with them in their cabin at La Reserve Beauchene. We followed them northwest to Temiscaming, a small Pulp and Paper Mill town just across the Quebec border and on the upper Ottawa River. From there we travelled for about another hour along a rough logging road, thankful not to be towing, and into the beautiful wilds of Beauchene.

“La Réserve Beauchêne is a magnificent, exclusive 205.7 square kilometre (over 50,000 acres) territory in the high hills of Quebec. The province of Ontario can be seen across the beautiful valley of the Ottawa River. La Réserve Beauchêne contains over 3 dozen lakes each of which offers some of the best fishing in Canada and there are many other lakes in the territory waiting to be explored.”

As we chatted to Don and Aggie we came to understand this is a fish camp which functions as a partnership. They had recently bought into the partnership and in that sense they own one of the cabins, Loon Cabin, and have access to all the benefits the partnership brings. It is also open to the public, a place where people can rent a cabin or a more remote outpost camp, or stay in the lodge. This is of great appeal to those who love to fish or are looking for some peace and quiet in a beautiful setting.

We spent 6 thoroughly enjoyable days with them. The weather was sunny and comfortingly warm. Aggie gave us guided tours of the other cabins and Don took us on a couple of exploratory boat rides on the large Beauchene Lake. We relaxed in the glorious surroundings, went for walks through trees in their fall best and beside lakes, or cozyed up to a log fire and chatted or read.
We enjoyed the company of little Amon who gloried in the constant attention of 4 adults. He soon gained the skill and confidence to climb up and over rocks under the guidance of Eric and Don and willingly succumbed to the bedtime songs and stories with Nana Aggie.
Aggie and Don’s daughter and son and daughter-in-law (parents of Amon) joined us for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Dinner was held in the large dining room of the lodge and we were able to meet some of the other partners.
After the long weekend Amon went home with mom and dad and we stayed on for a couple more days.

It was such a treat to have one final adventure at the end of our journey.

From there we headed back to North Bay to pick up the trailer and drive the last piece south, spending one night in the Cookstown area, before arriving in Nairn at about 1.30 on October 16th.

We had been away exactly 18 weeks and were welcomed home with great purring and cuddles by a healthy happy Nootka.

How fortunate we have been to have such a trip, knowing that our home and cat were held in the safe hands of Annette, Margaret, George, Max and Sam.