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Day 4 - 5: Radisson to Waskaganish
The storm dissipated overnight and we awoke to blue skies and fresh powder, a perfect travel day. Today we would retrace most of the James Bay Road south and head west to the Cree village of Waskaganish, about a 350 mile drive. Once in Waskaganish, we would stay for two nights.
Most of the landscape along the James bay Road is essentially flat, but a few low hills appear created by the glaciers.
We pass through immense burn zones caused by lightning strikes. There is little to no fire suppression up here, so these can rage for hundreds of square miles.
We got a second viewing of the Rupert River, and today there was less mist and the falls were clearly visible.
Oatmeal Falls, and this is low water season. I'd love to return during spring run-off to see these at full strength.
I noticed the Nissan felt heavy, and upon a closer look underneath I realized a tremendous icepack was developing in every nook and cranny. It must have added a few hundred pounds to the vehicle. The exhaust and driveshaft generated enough heat to melt their respective tunnels, but virtually everything else was encased in solid blocks of ice. this didn't cause any mechanical problems for us, but if it did, I'm not sure how I would have been able to get through the icepack to inspect anything. Even the coil springs and suspension parts were packed in ice.
It's really no different than avoiding trucks on two-lane roads anywhere else, but when you go hours driving alone it seemed more intimidating when these guys approach at high speeds. The few seconds of total whiteout that follows is disconcerting. Then again, taking pictures like this while driving with one hand is disconcerting.
The road to Waskaganish is marked in three languages: French, English and Cree, which accurately reflects the history of this region. Category 2 lands is a political designation that infers native rights to the land concerning hunting, but not necessarily ownership. Only the Cree can use these lands for hunting, fishing or recreation. Non-Cree can participate by hiring a Cree guide. The name Waskaganish, meaning "little house," originates in the 18th century, when the Hudson's Bay Company trading post at this location was an outpost of the larger establishment at Eastmain. Waskaganish is sometimes considered the oldest Cree village as it was here that Crees first gathered to trade with Europeans when the Hudson's Bay Company established its first trading post, Charles Fort, in 1670. (from http://www.creeculture.ca/e/land_people/waskaganish.html)
This map turns the conventional world upside down to illustrate the navigator's perspective of Hudson Bay. The inlet above Eastmain House is Rupert Bay, and the site of Waskaganish. All of the maps from British Atlantic, American Frontier - Spaces of Power in Early Modern British America are available at http://www.umaine.edu/canam/cartography/britishatlantic.html Waskaganish is home to about 2000 people at the mouth of the Rupert River, at southern James Bay, site of Fort Charles and the first place Henry Hudson traded furs with the Cree in 1608. Today I trade with the Cree for wireless internet service. After designing maps of this area depicting the euro-anglo-native trade evolution from the 1600s to present, it is wonderful to stand on the coastlines and rivers that have been, literally, the lines and dots I draw on maps. Additionally, after designing so many maps of the ecoregions and geology/biology, it is really neat to drive thru this landscape and watch the eskers and drumlins appear on the horizon, and see the boreal forest give way to taiga. We're still far south of the tundra line. The only way to fully get a sense of scale and place is to traverse the landscape, and doing so by auto puts the region in perspective considering the last 4000 years of habitation was all by foot. We cover in 8 hours what was a full seasonal migration of native bands.
A cast iron anchor marks the waterfront of Rupert's Bay at Waskaganish. A tribute to the historical fur trade routes.
The lodge sits on the exact location of the original Hudson Bay Trading Post of 1670. As early as 1608 Henry Hudson traded with the Cree from his ships in the bay. This lodge serves as the community social center as well, and was always crowded with Cree villagers socializing over coffee or food in the main restaurant.
The tribal council offices are in this modern building which was designed to emulate a goose from the air. The central column is the head, the portico is a beak, and the offices curve forward as wings. The street signs continue to be trilingual.
The Anglican Church sits facing the bay, and appears largely abandoned now. A newer Pentecostal church was nearby. This Anglican Church sits on the location of the former Rupert's House.
The community of Waskaganish looks similar to any rural town.
The sentiment of the kids sounds similar to any other town as well.
The bank of Montreal also signed in Cree syllabic.
Boats pulled ashore and stuck in time, awaiting spring.
Self-portrait as close to James Bay as I'm gonna get. Technically I'm standing on Rupert's Bay, with James Bay in the distance. I thought about getting my snowshoes and trekking out a mile or so, but decided to retreat indoors. It was, as we say in Maine, wicked cold.
Waskaganish sunset over Ruperts and James Bay, March 2007.
Day 1 - 2 of the James Bay Trip |
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