The Hades Islands - Lake of the Woods, Ontario

The first photo is a view of a small area of the northern section of the Lake of the Woods in a normal winter. The lake is frozen with at least a foot or more of snow lying on top of the ice.

This little adventure is about two young men from Winnipeg, Manitoba who wanted to go snowmobiling on the Lake of the Woods in Northern Ontario. It took place in early November of the late 1960’s. They drove a 1953 Chevrolet and towed their snow machine behind the car in an old wooden trailer with high sidewalls.
Four brand new winter tires had just been mounted on the vehicle, so it had great traction on ice or snow.

They proceeded south of Kenora to the Long Bow Lake road, and followed it to the east shore of the Lake of the Woods. Conditions on the lake were very unusual because it had not snowed since the lake froze over. Normally, after the lake freezes, enough snow falls to insulate the ice, and then it takes many weeks of cold weather before the ice is strong enough to drive on.

When they reached the lake they discovered bare, slippery ice. Vehicle tracks, leading down to the lake and onto the ice, left by people ice fishing, showed the lake was safe to drive on. With little hesitation, the pair drove their vehicle onto the ice, along with their trailer. They were now able to drive anywhere they wished, and decided it was not necessary to unload their snow machine.

Once out on Bigstone Bay, they headed west into an area of a few dozen small islands called the Hades.
Local maps showed a boat channel led from Bigstone Bay westward, through the island and out into an even more open portion of the lake.

They were quite comfortable in the vehicle and had removed their jackets. Our two adventurers were quite please with the fact that they could drive where they had planned to ride their snowmobile. Not another person was in sight and they had the whole expanse all to themselves. They were normally summer time visitors so they knew a little bit about the area, but this was their first winter excursion.

When they were about five miles from the mainland and in the middle of the Hades Islands boat channel, the front wheels of the car suddenly broke through the ice, and the car started to sink. As the front of the car slowly settled into the water they found that the doors were pinned shut by the ice.

Without wasting any time they rolled down the windows and climbed up onto the roof of the car. The trailer with the snowmobile was heavy enough to slow down the sinking car. The two occupants slid down the trunk of the car, and crossed to the trailer over the tow bar. They jumped into the trailer, which by this time was standing in water and slowly being drawn into the open hole, by the weight of the sinking car.

They quickly dragged the snow machine off the trailer and onto thicker ice, away from the open water. They watched the car disappear, followed by the trailer. At this moment they were at least five miles from the mainland, which lay to the east.

Acting quickly, they got the snow machine running and jumped on. Without any jackets, gloves, or hats, they were thoroughly chilled in no time. Because of the cold, they could not run at full speed and had to throttle back so the cold wind was not so brutal.
By the time they reached an occupied cabin where they could seek warmth, they had frostbite on their faces and hands.

In the aftermath of the experience they sadly learned that they had driven onto thin ice because the current in the channel passed over a large reef and that brought warmer water to the surface. This helped keep the ice from freezing more than a few inches thick

The reef was plainly marked by a buoy which was just ahead of them when the car went through the ice.
Later, the trailer broke free from the car, and floated to the surface, and was salvaged. The value of the car made it uneconomical to hire divers and a recovery crew.

This channel was the regular route of the Argyle, a large tourist ship, that gave daily cruises around the lake in the summer months. The car, where it lay, was now a hazard to boat traffic.

Early in the spring , the local Department of Transport tug, that regularly serviced and maintained all the buoys and markers on the lake, checked the channel. Rather than raise the car, they hooked onto it and dragged it into deeper water, where it now rests.

At various times some individuals talked about diving down and salvaging the four new tires. It was never done because they could never figure out how to unbolt the tires without them surfacing with great force and injuring the diver.

The latter two photos show different views of the channel. These photos were taken some days after the event, when snowfall covered the ice. The darker object is a person on a snowmobile, while the lesser object is the buoy. The ice was thick enough to support the snowmobile and driver. None of the cabins visible in the photo were occupied at the time of the accident.

Separation Lake Hunting and Rescue - Part 1 of 3 parts

It started as a two man deer hunting trip and grew until there was six of us.

We drove north from Kenora, Ontario up the Jones road about fifty miles to the Grassy Narrows Indian Reserve where we left the vehicles. We put the three boats into the English River and headed west, down stream.

The English River flows in a westward direction through a chain of lakes from the dam at Ear Falls until it joins the Winnipeg River’ close to the Manitoba and Ontario border. Our destination was a large Tourist camp that sits on Separation Lake.

It was late October and the camp had already been closed for the winter. One of the members of our group knew the area well as he had spent many summers as a fishing guide at the camp. His parents managed the camp and he obtained their permission for us to use a couple of the cabins.

During the twenty five mile boat trip down the English river and through the lakes we failed to see another hunting party or anyone else for the matter. It could turn cold very rapidly and freeze the lakes and rivers so you could get trapped by the ice if you were not careful. Our plan was to hunt Saturday after noon and stay overnight. The following day we would continue hunting but quit early enough to make our way back to the landing where the vehicles were parked.

To protect the camp from vandalism during the hunting season, a couple of Indian summer guides were hired to stay at the camp. They came from the Grassy Narrows reserve, where we left our vehicle. They would stay at the camp until the lake had frozen and was safe enough for a plane on skis to land and pick them up. They would finish closing the camp and fly back home the twenty five miles to the reserve.

When we arrived at the camp only one older Indian was there. The rest had gone back to the reserve by boat and into Kenora to pick up enough groceries to last them until freeze up. This was an annual ritual that had been going on for a long time.

Once we had unpacked our gear and settled into a cabin we arranged to spend the rest of the day hunting.
With two hunters to each boat we set off to hunt the many islands on the lake. We had done this before so we had a system. We would go to a medium sized island and look for deer tracks in the snow.

Once we established that there were deer on and island we would go by boat to the opposite end. The first hunter would be let off with just a shotgun. The second hunter would take the boat back to the other end, where we had seen the tracks. The hunter with the shotgun would start to drive the island and he would shoot any Ruff Grouse he flushed. He would walk a zig zag path in order to drive the deer ahead of him. He would shout once in a while so that the posted hunter would know where he was.

The hunter in the boat would go ashore and find a good place to view any deer that were driven his way. This system worked most of the time but some deer were smart enough to leave the island and swim out of danger. Usually a single shot was enough to down your deer. The kill was always close to the boat so it made the recovery of the game easy.

At the end of the first day we had three deer and many grouse. It had been a long day so after a few drinks we made plans for the next days hunting. We were all in bed early, as Sunday was going to be a busy day.

Read parts 2 and 3 that follow.