Continuation of Richard Barnes Bio:
My own personal “Week in the Woods” started when I eight to ten years old, I cannot remember the exact year. A few years prior I had discovered brook trout fishing. While at a neighbor’s house I overheard Ed Benz tell my father that there was a big spring hole in Meadow Brook that contained lots of giant brook trout. I did not know at the time that Ed was telling a tall story or that I was, as my father use to say, about to embark on a "fool's errand". I enlisted my childhood friend Roger (age six to eight) to help me find this secret fishing hole. Roger and I told our folks our plan to follow Meadow Brook to its source. We started out one August morning with army blankets, frying pan, ham, potatoes, pancake flour, matches, knives and an axe. The trip started on the Swanson Brothers farm where Meadow Brook flows into the North Fork Cormorant River. We walked along the creek all day looking for the big spring hole, of course we didn't know what we were looking for. I thought it should be a big pool with a steep bank on one side and a large oak tree with big limbs that hung out over the pool so that you could tie a hay rope to a limb and swing out over the pool, then let go for a big splash and swim over to a large sand bar. This creek never exceeded four feet in width all day!!
When the sun started to get low in the western sky we made our way into a thick Balsam and Spruce grove. Just in case it rained we would be sheltered. We built a huge fire, burned our ham and potatoes (Roger remembers it 58 years later as the best meal he ever ate). As the crow flies we had covered two and a half miles, but how many miles of following the brook I do not know. We slept the night away taking turns standing guard duty and keeping the fire burning brightly. Unknown to us our families also spent the night waiting for us to come home knowing we would get scared shortly after dark. They even drove the nearby country roads looking for us. I often wonder how they could not see the glow in the sky from our bonfire. The next morning after eating our burned pancakes we continued our quest. I can close my eyes now and look back over my shoulder to see Roger's yellow blonde hair showing just above the swamp grass as we made our way steadily eastward. We came out of the woods where the highway passes over Meadow Brook on a culvert, and even walked through that, but after another hour or so we gave up the search. We were out of food so we slowly followed the country roads back home and I been looking for these secret places ever since. Yes, I know it was only two days, but that was the start that was what lead me here to Week in the Woods.
At camp I will help you make a Scandinavian style birch bark handled carving knife. In the woods the knife is a very important tool. You can use it to make other tools, shelters, make shavings for fire starting, or cutting an apple in half to share with a friend. I have had a life long interest in knives and being able to share this with you gives me a great deal of satisfaction.