Sunday, September 7, 2025
39 deg at 6 am
Still having trouble with the furnace, I went out and surveyed the problem again. Of course there could be one or several problems, so I have watched some videos, which were helpful. All the wires were connected, but the cover for the flywheel was loose and there were a couple of screws lying on the bottom. I remembered that I have had this problem before, and I drilled a hole and placed a new screw. The problem is this whole bracket is plastic and it breaks around the screws. I can find every other part online, but not a new bracket. Since the cover is loose, airflow is not being directed properly.
At 10:00 we hiked the French Portage and French Falls Trail. The portage was one used by Native Americans and Colonials to get around the cascading waterfall. It was a one-hour hike to the falls, then one hour back. The Indians likely used birch-bark canoes, so maybe this wasn’t so bad, but the Colonials were carrying goods to trade. I can’t imagine carrying all that for this distance.
Quetico Provincial Park is known for its paddling. It is a vast area with over 2,000 lakes. We drove into a parking lot beside French Lake. It is a boat launch and the parking lot was full. There are hiking trails in Quetico, but the water trails are the ones most used.
During lunch I searched fishing in Quetico. The best article was one asking which lake is your favorite to fish in Quetico. Mostly, people don’t come to fish. They come to paddle, camp out under the stars with no one else around. Build a fire and let all the worldly stresses disappear.
One commenter said the fish in Quetico die of old age because there is so little fishing pressure. The paddlers might catch two for dinner, but mostly they are paddling. The fish here are smallmouth, walleye, pike and lake trout. These waters are so clean, any of those fish would be great to eat. Motors are not allowed in the park, so that limits fishermen.
People replying to the article like different lakes. The smallmouth are plentiful and can grow to large sizes. I could find nothing about fishing the two creeks running through the park. After reading the article, I looked for some of the lakes they liked. These are not day trips! How do you find your way!
It was time to work on the furnace that sometimes lights and sometimes doesn’t. I have had the problem before, and I remembered there is a plastic two-part cover over the flywheel. Four screws held the two parts together, but the plastic holding them over thousands of bumps are now broken. Only one screw held it loosely together. One video showed taping it back together. I opted for velcro that I might be able to remove. After a lot of searching, I could not find a replacement cover anywhere.
It’s a tight area to work in, and truly it is amazing it has done so well for 10 years. Is it the igniter, the sail switch or the loose cover not controlling air flow? I took it all apart, taking pictures so I would know where all these wires go.
Three hours later i proudly had it all back together. I think I reconnected all the wires correctly. The fan came on, but it still didn’t light. There were no error lights on the circuit board. A man walking behind me asked if I had fixed it. “Well I did what I set out to do, but it didn’t solve my problem. Have you ever done that?” “Many times,” he said, continuing his walk.