Sarah Flotten came to Wabun in 1995 with a whole world of canoe tripping wisdom from her many years at Menogyn. As a novice staff I was charged with the weighty task of teaching Sarah Flotten the “Wabun Way.” I’m preaching to the choir when I say there is a certain pride that comes from our adherence to the ways of the voyageurs and I dare say a disdain for groups that do not. Tump straps, wannigans, canvas duffels and wood canvas canoes despite access to more convenient modes is superior. Leaving stacks of firewood next to our amazing fireplaces a fortress against the wind and essential for directing heat into the reflector oven for an efficiently baked bannock are points of pride within our Wabun circle. We carry an axe and saw to perform the essential task of wood crew – the only way to provide the abundant fire needed for cooking and baking bannock, the main staple of our diet. Cooking with twigs and sticks instead of scanning the shoreline at the end of the day for the perfect standing dead wood felling the tree and sawing into billets and chopping. Lets face it, we judge groups traveling in Kevlar (very light and easy to carry, but not sturdy) or aluminum (not traditional like our beautiful wood canvas fleet) that don’t know about reflector ovens. These things were different for Sarah coming from Menogyn and took some adjusting. I remember early in our time together arriving at the campsite with a triumphant haul of wood, but she was already making dinner having started the fire with what we would call “shit wood.” Over her 30 years at Wabun I would claim that Sarah has revolutionized how we think about canoe tripping while adopting, embracing and embodying the Wabun Way. She undoubtedly has shaped the Wabun Way. My time with Sarah was at a point in my life that shaped me too.
Have you ever had a bean sprout out on trip? The cold, crisp watery crunch is nothing short of revolutionary amidst the monotony of mushy trip food. Fresh sprouts require advanced planning and a commitment to provide the group with an exciting culinary novelty. It involves a system of multiple Nalgenes and strainers, daily rinsing of the beans caring for them until they sprout and grow. The complexity of this task was a completely foreign concept to me. My years as a camper at Wabun groomed me to be a minimalist. It was my superpower. I could rise and roll in one swift motion, my sleek roll slipping easily into the heavy duty trash bag I used as my dry bag. Sarah’s roll was like a clown car offering endless extra warm layers or completely dry outfits for the comfort of a shivering camper, or a game or a book for their entertainment. I watched Sarah wrestle her abundant roll into her tiny dry bag each morning relishing the simplicity of my minimalism. Sarah was always thinking of the good of the group over personal efficiency and yet she was somehow also efficient. She had a seemingly unending supply of werthers and jolly ranchers that she generously doled out after a difficult portage. She had a way of expanding time and making even the most rigorous itineraries feel comfortable and doable as she always noted “one step at a time”. Where I relied on physical strength to power through, she was ten steps ahead setting the stage for others to succeed. She was a real provider.
My first encounter with navigation was my first year staffing with Sarah. I learned from her to treat the maps as sacred objects. To fold them carefully to show the route of the day and to protect them from the elements. She was glued to the maps navigating through intricate islands as I blissfully powered forward making a guess as to the general direction of travel often finding myself on a trajectory several degrees off of where Sarah was headed. Even the best navigators find themselves in unknown places. What separates the novices from the pros is the calm confidence of being able to get back on track. When we accidentally portaged into an un-named swampy pond she made it feel like a discovery rather than a mistake declaring that here forward this lake would be called Mistink Lake.
Sarah-wanting to have the complete Wabun experience-did all the things that were showcased in the old slide show. Those things that feel inconvenient to a minimalist. I had several Wabun firsts during my time with Sarah – Loaves of bread rising balanced on top of wannigans in the canoe on a sunny day, and dough nuts stacked on long sticks and across every wannigan lid. Chocolate, glazed, powdered and cinnamon and even jelly-filled. An epic effort given that these doughnuts were made on our rest day on Wabun lake having carried all that flour through the toughest portaging terrain. I do believe that Sarah is the founder of many of the new wave wabun recipes including SOB and MOL.
My first summer as head staff was my first summer without Sarah and also the summer I understood the extent of her expertise and the weight she was carrying. The responsibility of the sometimes tough decision of when to push forward and when to call it a day. When to run the rapid and when to portage. She was the one that woke up during a storm to tie down the canoes just in case. Now I had to be the one that was glued to the maps and know where we were at all times. I was a much better staff and a much better person because of my time with Sarah. My roll got a little fatter, my daypack better equipped for the group.
She was a master at creating moments that defy time – a hot shore lunch on a cold day, an early morning game of cribbage before waking the campers, baking cinnamon rolls to be served to campers in their tents with the declaration of a rest day. A new Wabun Way.
Submitted by Jess Hatheway Scriver
