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Cottage Life

How the U.S. Army Corps plans to stop the spread of invasive carp in the Great Lakes

Photo by Shutterstock/Vladimir Wrangel

The U.S. Army Corps is using its engineering know-how to create nightmarish river obstacles designed to prevent invasive species from reaching the Great Lakes.

The plan is part of a multi-layered solution intended to contain a growing population of invasive carp in the Illinois River. Over the next six to eight years, the regiment will outfit an engineered channel in the Brandon Road Lock on the Des Plaines River, just outside Chicago, with a series of high-tech barriers that will prevent invasive carp from travelling upstream to Lake Michigan while still allowing boats to pass through.

The first barrier will be underwater speakers that emit noise at a frequency that should turn carp away from entering the channel. Next is an air bubble curtain at the entrance to the channel designed to protect against any small carp that manage to slip through gaps formed by a vessel.

Once inside the channel, there will be more acoustic deterrents, followed by an electric barrier. The Corps plan to include electric insulation in the channel to reduce the safety risk to vessel operators and lock staff. Finally, there will be a flushing lock near the end of the channel. This would shoot water downstream through the lock, carrying away any fish eggs or larvae that managed to pass through the other barriers.

Invasive Carp Deterrent
Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps

Politicians and environmental groups are in full support of the high-tech gauntlet. “Invasive species are a growing threat to our entire inland waterways system and to the countless Illinois communities and businesses that rely on strong and vibrant aquatic ecosystems,” said U.S. senator Tammy Duckworth in a statement. “The Brandon Road Project is critical in protecting the Great Lakes’ exposure to [invasive] carp.”

The invasive carp, which include black carp, grass carp, silver carp, and bighead carp, were brought to North America from Asia in the 1960s and 70s, quickly taking root in U.S. waterways, driving out native species. The carp reproduce rapidly, eating up to 20 per cent of their body weight in plankton each day. They can weigh up to 40 kilograms, reaching a metre in length.

The invasive carp have replaced all native species in certain sections of the Mississippi River, and make up 50 per cent of the fish by weight in sections of the Illinois River. Both rivers feed into the Des Plaines River, which, through the Chicago River, connects to Lake Michigan.

How invasive carp catch a lift with ducks

Thanks to initiatives implemented by both the U.S. and Canadian governments, the carp have yet to establish themselves in the Great Lakes or any Ontario waterways. Although, a silver carp was captured in Lake Calumet, the largest body of water in Chicago, and only a few kilometres from Lake Michigan, in early August. After an intensive two-week monitoring period, no other invasive carp were spotted in the area.

Good enough to eat? This state is hoping to revamp Asian Carp’s image

If an invasive carp did manage to find its way into the Great Lakes, experts say they could decimate the region’s $7 billion-a-year fishing industry.

“We are on the verge of an unstoppable crisis for the Great Lakes region, and now is our best chance to stop these aggressive fish from crashing our economy and environment,” said Molly Flanagan, vice president on policy for Alliance for the Great Lakes, in a statement.

In January, U.S. President Joe Biden committed $225.8 million in funding to the Brandon Road project. This is enough to start pre-construction. The estimated cost for the entire project is over $858 million.

Based on current predictions, the corps plans to award construction contracts for the channel and barriers in 2024, with work expected to be complete between 2030 and 2032.

 

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Cottage Life

This fast and easy pizza dough is a no-fail classic

To celebrate our 35th anniversary of the magazine, we asked Ann Vanderhoof, founding editor of Cottage Life for a reliable recipe for the cottage that she still uses after all these years. She tapped this reliable pizza dough from Jane Rodmell long-time Cottage Life contributor and author of many cookbooks. Here’s what Ann said about this pizza dough recipe, “I’ve tried other pizza dough recipes over the years, but keep returning to this one of Jane’s because it’s quick, easy, and no-fail.” Without further ado, here it is!

When there’s no pizza delivery for miles, this quick-and-easy pizza dough can be a lifesaver. Use the recipe to make two crisp, thin-crust pizzas. Or, if you like your crust soft and thick, use it to make one crust and let it rise for half an hour before baking. You can even use this easy pizza dough recipe to create your very own calzones for everyone to enjoy.

 

Speedy Pizza Dough

Jane Rodmell

When there’s no pizza delivery for miles, this quick-and-easy dough can be a lifesaver. Use the recipe to make two crisp, thin-crust pizzas. Or, if you like your crust soft and thick, use it to make one crust and let it rise for half an hour before baking. You can even use this easy dough recipe to create your very own calzones for everyone to enjoy.

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Print Recipe

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Snack
Cuisine casual, classic, Cottage, grilling, Italian, outdoor

Servings 2 crips, thin-crust pizzas

Ingredients

  

  • 2½ –3 cups all-purpose flour divided
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp
  • Fleischmann’s Quick-Rise Instant Yeast or RapidRise Instant Yeast 1 envelope
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • cornmeal for dusting pans

Instructions

 

  • Toss 2 cups flour with salt and yeast in a large bowl.
  • Heat water and oil until hot (125˚F). Briskly stir or beat the liquid into the flour mixture for about 2 minutes.
  • Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes, adding more flour when the dough becomes sticky. (You may not need to use all the flour.)
  • Shape dough into a smooth ball, cover, and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough in two if you want to make thin-crust pizzas.
  • Grease pans or baking sheets well and dust with cornmeal. Stretch or roll dough to fit. Cover with your favourite toppings and bake in preheated 400˚F oven for 20–30 minutes until crust is nicely browned and topping is piping hot.

Keyword pizza, pizza dough
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

5 easy ways to make pizza on the grill

Read more from our 35th anniversary celebration issue, including:

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Cottage Life

Two kids rescue a woman and her child from drowning in Port Sydney Falls

Cole Paiuk and Thomas Webber. Photo courtesy of Melissa Paiuk.

A woman and her son are safe after a close call at Port Sydney Falls on Tuesday, and it’s all thanks to the quick thinking of two boys, just nine and 11 years old.

North York resident Maggie Chen was travelling to Algonquin Park on Aug. 30 with her two sons and her friend’s family when they decided to stop at Port Sydney Falls along the way. It was meant to be a quick stopover, but after losing their keys, they ended up sticking around for longer than expected. Meanwhile, cottager Melissa Paiuk took her daughter Katelyn, her son Cole and Cole’s friend Thomas Webber to the falls for a day of late summer fun. The boys brought along a tube in hopes of sliding down the natural chute created by the falls, but they quickly decided that it wouldn’t be safe.

“When we got there, we felt that the water was really strong, so I told to them to play at the bottom because I didn’t feel comfortable with them going down from the top,” Melissa said. “There was just too much water.”

Melissa and Katelyn were hanging out on the rocks while the boys put on their lifejackets and played at the bottom of the falls. They noticed Chen, her friend, and their kids playing at the edge of the water, and when the two boys took a break from their swim, the situation took a turn for the worse.

Chen’s 10-year-old son was in the shallow water when he started getting carried away by the current. Chen went in after him, but between slippery rocks and fast-moving water, she soon lost her balance and found herself floating past him. She was struggling to keep her head above water when Cole and Webber ran over to help.

They started by throwing Chen a lifejacket, but when she disappeared under the surface of the water, Cole swam out to her and handed it directly to her. Since she isn’t a strong swimmer and her clothes were soaked through with the weight of the water, Chen clutched Cole with one hand and the lifejacket with the other while they struggled to swim back to shore.

“I was drowning and suddenly the boy, Cole, [was] just there and held my hand and then he told me, ‘Don’t panic,’” Chen said. “Then he asked me to kick.”

As they tried to swim to safety together, they were carried down the river, so Melissa went into the water and helped Cole pull Chen onto the rocks. Having swallowed a great deal of water, Chen was dizzy and started to throw up. Melissa ran to a nearby cottage and called 911 while Webber swam out to Chen’s son, pulled him onto his back, and brought him back onto shore with Katelyn’s help.

“I was scared for Cole and the woman because they were going down the river,” Webber said. “I thought she could have died because she was going underwater and drowning. I am happy I saved the boy and the [woman] was okay.”

Once emergency services arrived, Melissa went to collect Webber and the other kids since they ended up on the opposite side of the river. After that, Chen invited them all into the ambulance with her and thanked them profusely for their help.

“When we were in the ambulance, the woman told me I saved her life and her family. It feels good,” Cole said. “I am very happy everyone is safe.”

Mike Vadlja, fire prevention officer for the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Fire Department, said it was fortunate that they were able to perform the rescue successfully, but he urges people to exercise caution when visiting the falls.

“The current at the base of the falls can be very strong and unpredictable at times, especially after some heavy rains and particularly during the spring thaw,” Vadlja said. “It is always recommended that a [personal flotation device] be worn when entering any fast-moving water.”

The peace and beauty of the setting can keep people from realizing the true danger of Port Sydney Falls, Melissa said, and the area has seen its share of incidents. That said, she still can’t believe that two young boys sprang into action the way they did and she’s endlessly proud of them for it.

“They didn’t hesitate to get in the water and help,” Melissa said. “They remained calm and made fast, smart decisions during the rescue. They are heroes.”

Chen and her group didn’t end up making it to Algonquin Park for camping, but the trip, despite being brief, made a profound impression on her. Some of the lingering fear remains, but more than anything, the whole situation reminded her just how valuable life is.

“I cannot express my gratitude to Cole and his mom,” Chen said. “I will never forget that day.”

Editor’s Note: Should you come across someone who is drowning, Barbara Byers, senior research officer with the Lifesaving Society, says you should, “avoid putting yourself in direct contact with the person because this could lead to them grabbing you.”

Instead, she says to:
1. Have someone call or get help
2. Assess the situation, try encouraging them or throw them a buoyant object that they can grab onto
3. If none of those options are available, you can go out and get them but bring something that floats that you can extend to them.

Read the original article on Muskoka411.

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Cottage Life

What you need to know about Haliburton County’s shoreline preservation bylaw

Photo by Shutterstock/Artur Apresyan

Haliburton County is introducing a new bylaw to maintain healthy shorelines in the area. The county council passed the bylaw, known as the shoreline preservation bylaw, during a meeting on the morning of August 24.

The bylaw creates a 20-metre horizontal buffer zone along the shorelines of all lakes, rivers, and wetlands in Haliburton County. Under the bylaw, property owners will be required to obtain a site alteration permit from the county if they want to complete any major landscaping or building projects within that buffer zone. This includes altering the topography of the shoreline by more than a metre in height, rebuilding any structures over a metre tall (such as a retaining wall), or removing more than 25 per cent of native vegetation and trees from the shoreline.

Director of planning Steve Stone did clarify during the meeting that minor landscaping activities, such as creating a flower bed, removing less than a metre of topsoil, rebuilding a retaining wall shorter than a metre in height, and constructing a driveway or path less than five metres in width through the buffer zone, won’t require a permit.

Stone also explained that if a property owner wanted to build a structure that infringed on the buffer zone, such as an addition to the cottage or a deck, they would have to apply for a building permit. If the building permit were approved, it would override the shoreline preservation bylaw.

The goal of the bylaw is to act as a preventative measure; preserving the quality of water within the community. While all stakeholders agree that lake health is a priority, this bylaw has been batted around since 2017, receiving its share of community backlash.

During a July 29, 2021, virtual open house organized by Hutchinson Environmental Sciences Ltd. and J.L. Richards & Associates Ltd.—consultants hired by Haliburton County to conduct an independent review of the bylaw document—a number of citizens voiced concerns.

“Some lakefront property owners feel threatened by this bylaw,” said Bill Missen, a director with the Maple, Beech, and Cameron Lakes Area Property Owners’ Association, during the open house. “Owners are feeling they’re totally losing control of their property.”

Missen added that the expansion of the shoreline buffer zone, which was previously three metres, limits what an owner can do on their property. He also questioned how the county planned to police the bylaw, especially when it has nearly 1,000 bodies of water.

Dave Love, a cottager on Haliburton Lake, questioned the need for new legislation. “From what I have learned, the main objective here is to achieve shorelines classified as 75 per cent naturalized or regenerated, and by doing so that will help maintain high water quality, prevent algae blooms, and prevent the risk of eroding shorelines and flooding,” Love said. “Proposing this bylaw…suggests to me that Haliburton’s lakes and shorelines are in such a state of deterioration as to require urgent government attention to save them from serious harm. I have searched for evidence of [this], but have been unable to find any.”

Love cited a 2019 lake health report from the Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners’ Associations that stated 60 of Haliburton’s largest lakes had nearly achieved 75 per cent naturalized shorelines already.

The consultants and county staff took this feedback into consideration when drafting the most recent version of the bylaw. Yet, council members still had questions during the August 24 council meeting. Coun. Cecil Ryall pointed out that the differentiation between projects that required a permit and projects that didn’t require a permit remained unclear in the current bylaw draft.

In response, Stone suggested that if a property owner is concerned about violating the bylaw, they should call the planning department before they start digging. Stone also said that the department plans to create a website devoted to the shoreline preservation bylaw, which will include more concrete examples of what does and doesn’t require a permit, photo examples of healthy shorelines, the types of materials you should be using for projects in that buffer zone, and education material on appropriate types of trees and vegetation you can plant along your shoreline.

The bylaw is scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2023. Any projects started before that date won’t require a permit. After April 1, the fee for a site alteration permit will cost $100, and it will be up to county staff to approve the application. Stone said that to avoid tying up contractors and hindering work, staff will aim to approve site alteration permits within two weeks of being submitted.

To police the bylaw, Haliburton County plans to hire three new compliance monitoring and enforcement officers devoted to the area’s shorelines. The county estimates that it will cost around $200,000 a year to sustain the bylaw.

Minor infractions of the bylaw will cost culprits $930. A major infraction, however, could result in a court appearance with fines ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the amount of damage to the shoreline. Plus, the property owner will likely have to pay to replant the trees and vegetation taken down.

“The permit system,” Stone said, “is just an element of the greater thing that the council wants to achieve, which is healthy shorelines.”

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Cottage Life

Hemlock trees have a new invasive enemy

Courtesy Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

Ontario’s latest forest invader looks like “invasive fluff,” says Canadian Forest Service research scientist Chris MacQuarrie. And really, how scary is that? 

Plenty scary for anyone who values the province’s dense stands of hemlock. 

Despite its fuzzy appearance, the aphid-like Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) literally sucks the life from its victims—a tiny vampire that “quickly overwhelms the tree’s ability to defend itself,” MacQuarrie says. “It’s another invasive that kills its hosts really quickly and has the potential to change ecosystems.”

The HWA landed in Virginia on Japanese nursery stock in 1951. Since then it has been spreading through the eastern States towards the Great Lakes, riding on infected wood, catching a lift on the wind, or even cruising on migrating birds. In 2017 the HWA was discovered in southwestern Nova Scotia, where MacQuarrie says it’s causing “significant mortality.” 

Nature scrapbook: meet the hemlock tree

Now it’s Ontario’s turn. This past summer researchers found the bugs in hemlocks near Grafton. Infested trees were found within about 40 acres of a mixed woodlot, with many displaying extensive damage, though an exact number of trees killed by the pest is not available. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has delivered a Notice of Prohibition of Movement to the property owner, which restricts them from moving any wood or wood material from their property. The CFIA has provided information to them on the restrictions of movement of hemlock that could contribute to the spread of this pest.

It’s not the first sighting of HWA in Ontario—during the past decade, isolated infestations were wiped out in Toronto and the Niagara Gorge, and another Niagara outbreak is contained by farm fields and development. But the Grafton bugs are close to Ontario’s hemlock heartland, stretching from the Ottawa Valley through Algonquin Provincial Park to the Kawartha Lakes and Muskoka District. If the bugs spread, the ecological impact could be severe: hemlock provide crucial habitat for everything from moose and deer to brook trout and Blackburnian warblers. The trees’ towering foliage also cools riparian areas and buffers shorelines and ravines from erosion. 

Battling invasives with slingshots

So while researchers look for ways to control the bug, MacQuarrie’s asking cottagers and landowners to track new outbreaks by scouting for telltale woolly fluff at the base of the hemlock needles, and reporting sightings to the CFIA or the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. 

The HWA secretes this waxy, fuzzy coating to protect and insulate itself and its eggs. Infestations usually start near the tops of the tree and work downward. “Be observant if you see declining hemlock,” MacQuarrie says. “Usually once the insect gets down to eye level it has already been there for a while.” 

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Cottage Life

Cottage Q&A: Will this trick banish outhouse stench?

By stbar1964/Shutterstock

My brother-in-law (a chemist) puts about half a cup of vinegar and a handful of dry leaves down the outhouse pit, to help with odour. Anecdotally, it works. Why might that be? Does it do any harm?—Full of Piss and Vinegar

Even after contacting Health Canada, Environment Canada, the National Research Council, the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health, vinegar manufacturers, several university research departments, and chemical engineering and wastewater treatment experts—not to mention hours of Googling—we still couldn’t find anyone who would endorse your relative’s outhouse trick.

“From a wastewater perspective, I’d see little value in doing that,” says John Rowse, the executive director of the B.C. Onsite Sewage Association in Victoria. “To my mind, it would really have little or no effect.”

But is it harmful? Well, as Mark Green, the chief building official for Ontario’s Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit points out, “Pit privies are designed to receive human body waste. Leaves and vinegar aren’t the same as the material you have coming out of your intestines.”

6 things that should never go in your septic

Studies on eliminating food-borne pathogens and disinfecting hard surfaces show that vinegar has antimicrobial properties. Perhaps useful if you’re washing fruit or cleaning your kitchen counter, but in an outhouse pit, where you need bacteria, not so much. “Vinegar is an acid,” says Fraser Sneddon of Sun-Mar, which makes composting toilets. “It’s changing the pH. If anything, it could kill some of the bacteria.” As for the leaves, they’re a bulking material, and they might helpfully soak up some of the moisture in the pit, says Rowse. However, Sneddon warns, because they bring extra carbon to the equation, it’s possible that too much could ramp up decomposition and produce more methane, sulphur, and other stinky gases.

What causes a smelly septic holding tank?

All that said, it sounds like your brother-in-law is using this cheap, simple trick sparingly, and it’s working for him. “I think you would really have to overdo it with the vinegar and the leaves to have any negative reaction,” admits Rowse.

But if Mr. Chemistry starts dumping great sackfuls of leaves and pouring litres of vinegar into the pit, shut the experiment down and tell him to ventilate.

Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.

 

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Cottage Life

Toronto woman swims in 54 lakes to celebrate 54th birthday

Photo by Maria Herman

How many lakes have you jumped in this year? Maria Herman will hit 54 by Labour Day.

“Just knocked off lake 48—Lac Saint-Louis in Montreal,” Maria sent via text. “Now heading to a cottage on Lac Loranger where I’ll spend the weekend and knock off a few more.”

It all started last summer when friends and family shared an article with Maria about a Saskatchewan woman jumping in 51 lakes for her 51st birthday. “If there is a body of water around me, I feel almost compelled to jump in it,” she says. “This woman exuded that same energy, and that’s why my inbox was flooded.”


But just how do you find 54 lakes to jump into? Since many lakes in southern Ontario are developed, Maria says it was hard to find access points and often had to contact cottagers and resorts and find boat ramps ahead of time. She spent one day knocking off 24 lakes on her list to make the planning process more efficient. “I drove along highway 35 and jumped in lakes all the way up,” she says. “I started at Lake Scugog and went up to Lake of Bays.”

Maria had to contact resorts and lakeside campgrounds to ask for permission to use their water-access points. “People are loving it. Even the ones I cold-called,” she says. “If we drove by a lake and I saw some people on the dock, I would just say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a weird question for you.’ And they were thrilled to hear about it 100 per cent of the time.”

While many of the lakes have been beautiful, Maria says there were two or three that she wouldn’t jump in again. “I can handle weeds, no problem,” she says. “But the lakes with the sludge on the bottom, where you can’t even kick to get out, that wasn’t a pleasant experience.”

Surprisingly, the challenge hasn’t been all about the water. “I’ve been able to enjoy small little snippets of life with strangers,” says Maria. “We even ended up signing one family’s cottage guest book. Everyone’s got a welcoming feeling about it.”

One thing Maria always shares with the people she meets is her challenge’s mission: to raise money for the Centre for Addiction and Mental health (CAMH). “I feel very fortunate that I know getting into the lake can, in a way, improve my entire outlook on life,” she says. “Hopefully it encourages others to find what makes them feel like that, whatever it is to help get them out of a bad space.” 

As of Sept. 2, Maria has raised over $2000 for CAMH. “I think some people are waiting until I finish the challenge to donate,” she says as the big day approaches. 

Maria says she’s on schedule to cross the last lake off her list on Labour Day weekend. But which lake will it be? “That one is a surprise,” she says.

You can follow along on Maria’s journey by visiting her Instagram. To donate to CAMH on behalf of Maria, click here.

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Cottage Life

7 (other) Canadian cocktails to try

By Cabeca de Marmore/Shutterstock

Move over, Caesar! These seven cocktails have Canadian roots too.

Moose Milk

The Canadian navy, army, and air force all claim to have invented this one. The milkshake-like concoction includes rum, coffee liqueur, ice cream, and maple syrup, plus nutmeg and cinnamon. Huh. It’s possible that we’d rather drink actual milk from a moose, but sure.

Get the recipe.

The Caribou

Combine red wine, rye whiskey, and maple syrup for this sweet take on mulled wine. The drink allegedly originated from an old fur-trapper’s drink that mixed whiskey with caribou blood. Well, desperate times call for…something desperately disgusting, apparently.

Get the recipe.

The B-52

A bartender in Banff, Alta., named Peter Fich created this cocktail in the late ’70s. He named the drink—a layered cocktail containing coffee liqueur, orange liqueur, and Irish Cream—after a New Wave band from the state of Georgia. He concocted all kinds of drinks, all named after his favourite bands, but the B-52 was the only one that became popular.

Get the recipe.

The Raymond Massey

The who? Raymond Massey was a Canadian actor most well-known for playing Abraham Lincoln—he portrayed the man in multiple plays and movies, including Abe Lincoln in Illinois, for which he received an Oscar nomination. The drink is a mix of whiskey and ginger syrup topped with champagne and garnished with lemon peel.

Get the recipe.

The Angry Canadian

Another drink that includes maple syrup, the Angry Canadian is a twist on the Old Fashioned, invented in 2013. It’s a combination of whiskey, bitters, club soda, and, of course, the syrup, which replaces the sugar in a traditional Old Fashioned. Why is it angry? Unclear. Maybe if you drink too many you get riled up.

Get the recipe.

The Donald Sutherland

If you don’t know who Donald Sutherland is, you have no business calling yourself Canadian. Just kidding. But also: watch Six Degrees of Separation. Or Outbreak. Or The Italian Job. Or…tons of other movies. Sutherland is apparently a fan of rye whiskey—this twist on a Rusty Nail includes the spirit.

Get the recipe.

The Sourtoe Cocktail

Okay, so maybe “cocktail” is a misnomer, since this drink, invented in Dawson City, Yukon, is just a shot of whiskey. Oh, with the addition of a preserved human toe. Allegedly, in the ’70s, someone found a jar containing a human toe in a remote Yukon cabin—the toe was left there by a pair of brothers, one of whom had frostbite, so the toe had to come off. And be put in a jar. Obviously. And then the jar-finder decided to make a drink that involved the toe. Because…? Well, Robert Service did say that “there are strange things done in the midnight sun,” so we’ll just go with that.

There is no recipe. It’s whiskey. And a toe.

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Cottage Life

35th anniversary celebration: Headlamps are superior to flashlights

Illustration by Katie Hicks

Into the early 2000s, we published a series of “Classics.” The writer would argue for something that you could not live at the lake without—watermelon, beach towels, a beloved web chair. Twenty years on, we’re asking, what are the new cottage classics?

My husband can run from the dock to the cottage, up our steep, root-encrusted path, in the dark. When it comes to using lights outside, we prefer to avoid them to better view the stars or enjoy a campfire. 

One summer, though, even a simple flashlight might have saved the day, or the night, as it happened. DH (Dear Husband)’s ribs would have thanked him had he taken just a moment to slip on the best light in a cottager’s arsenal—the hands-free headlamp that’s embraced by serious campers and coal miners alike.

Anyone who doubts the superiority of a headlamp over the flashlight on our ubiquitous cellphones has only to imagine nighttime visits to the outhouse. Consider the acrobatics that ensue while you clutch a phone in one hand. You could set the phone down, like a regular flashlight, where it will illuminate the ceiling, or wall, or anywhere other than where you need it. But that’s risky. Those black holes where light can’t get out? They’re not just in space. A headlamp is safely attached to your skull, can be set at an angle, and also ensures that, when you get up to pee in the night, you don’t get sucked into checking your work email. (Curse those notifications!) 

Headlamps rule when you crawl under the cottage on your belly to address a plumbing leak, or you indulge in cross-country skiing at night, or you need to gather wood in the dark for the fire. Keep one beside your bed or under your pillow, ready for duty just like any other flashlight. 

It’s true that even headlamps have shortcomings. A blinding flash when your buddy turns toward you is like meeting a car with its high beams on. And don’t be surprised when moths fly into your face. Remember, there’s a beacon of light shining out of your forehead.

Like other flashlights, headlamps require batteries, a problem when they accidentally get turned on in your bag. A canoe tripper I know solves this potential mishap by stowing the light with one battery installed backwards. Finally, the strap that you find on cheaper lamps can get stretched out over time, becoming as useless as the elastic waistband in worn-out underwear.

But straps can be replaced. So can headlamps, for that matter. Thus, there was no excuse for my DH to be racing up the hill in the dark of night, except that after 50-plus years, he knew every rock and root in the path. What he didn’t remember was the pine tree that had fallen across it just days before.

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Cottage Life

Swimmer breaks record to raise funds for neurodegenerative disease research

Art by Taylor Kristan / photos by Sean Nuttall

Swimmer Sean Nuttall took on a 100-km swim across Lake Ontario to raise funds for neurodegenerative disease research, breaking the record for longest unassisted open-water swim by a Canadian in the process. 

Nuttall swam from his hometown of Toronto, Ont. to St. Catharines, Ont. and back—a trip which totalled 42 hours. Not only was this the longest unassisted open water swim by a Canadian, it was also the longest unassisted swim in Canadian waters, and the eighth longest on record in the world. 

Nuttall took on this challenge to commemorate his father who passed away five years ago after struggling with a neurodegenerative disease. His goal was to raise $50,000 for the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases out of the University of Toronto. “Because this was the five year anniversary and because this was the biggest swim that I had tried, I wanted to do something in his memory,” he says.

The swim was unassisted, which meant Nuttall couldn’t wear a lifejacket or wetsuit, or be helped by any currents. He was in the water from Friday at noon to early Sunday morning, swimming through both Friday and Saturday night. He only returned to land to briefly reapply sunscreen at the halfway point.

Nuttall had a crew in a boat to guide and accompany him as he swam. To help him refuel, Nuttall’s team would attach food and water to the end of a line of rope, and toss it out to him. Nuttall would retrieve the supplies and consume them while treading water, and his crew would reel the line back in. 

This wasn’t Nuttall’s first kick at the can as far as long-distance open-water swimming goes. He’d finished three other long-distance routes regarded as the “Triple Crown” of open-water swimming—the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, and the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. 

Other swims felt more physically demanding, says Nuttall, but this swim had its own set of challenges. On the second night of his swim, Nuttall started to feel incredibly cold. His team was monitoring his internal temperature, and despite how Nuttall was feeling, they found he was still maintaining his internal heat. Nuttall relied on their reassurance to continue through the frigidness, fear, and pain. “You’re basically naked other than a Speedo. And your reptilian brain is telling you this is not okay,” he says. “I relied really heavily on my crew to get me through that time.”

The swim also had some incredible high points, says Nuttall. He happened to be swimming during two astronomical events: August’s supermoon and the Perseid Meteor Shower. “Both nights I watched that huge orange orb come right up off the lake,” he says, adding that he could also see shooting stars from the meteor shower flying overhead. “It was magical.”

When his journey was finally over, Nuttall was greeted by a large group of loved ones who came out to show their support at Budapest Park in Toronto at around 8 a.m. on Sunday morning. While many of his previous long distance swims finished in cathartic tears, this one ended with a moment of jubilation. “It really quickly just became a moment of shared joy,” he says. 

Nuttall says he is extremely close to reaching his fundraising goal, a mark he hopes he can still hit. While more long distance swims may be on the horizon eventually, Nuttall is now taking some time to recover. “My immediate goal is to be able to lift my arms again,” he says. 

Donations can be made at https://www.seanswims.org/.