CRAIG MacINNIS CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
Rockin' on the quiet Madawaska
RICH IN SUMMER CHARM, the village of Combermere may be Ontario's best-kept secret It doesn't take long to see that Jim Klinck is a multitasking man. "I'll be right with you," says the 59-year-old bar manager, concert promoter, carpenter, drummer, resort owner and tugboat captain from eastern Ontario's Madawaska region. "I've just gotta take this call from Downchild."
Klinck puts down the electric saw he has been using to expand the outdoor bathroom on the grounds of his Bent Anchor Bar & Restaurant, which he runs with his wife, Gwen MacAuley, and ambles off to talk contract. He returns a while later: "They're bringing a seven-piece," he says of an appearance by the vaunted Down-child Blues Band at his tiny open-air club - a pine-and-cedar pavilion on the bank of the Madawaska River by the bridge in Combermere, about 200 kilometres west of Ottawa.
In addition to running the Bent Anchor, Klinck captains charter tours (up to 20 people per cruise) in his green-and-white tugboat, the Maggie II, which he picked up in the mid-'90s after the 1946 vessel was retired as a logging tug on the Ottawa River.
"I think what's magic about Combermere is all the water around it," Klinck says. "It's amazing the wildlife you see from the boat - ducks, herons, muskrat, beavers." It's a sunny day in June, and Klinck is preparing for a summer's worth of concerts. "Booking shows (at the Bent Anchor) is just my way of getting to hear the kind of music I've liked all my life," he says.
Moving from Elmira in southwestern Ontario to the upper Ottawa Valley in 1971 (part of the influx of back-to-the-landers who settled around Killaloe and in the hills of Wilno), Klinck ran a small sawmill for years and made custom wooden floors. But as a drummer, he also gigged steadily with bands like the Upper Valley's rustic superstars, The Wilno Express, and the blues act Wang Dang Doodle. Besides hoisting the banner for live music, the Bent Anchor presents other benefits. "It's a tourist thing, too," MacAuley says, "because the area does need some kind of revenue. In a way, it's kind of the lost zone between Ottawa and Toronto."
Combermere may be the best-kept secret in Ontario tourism. Despite a year-round population of 600 (which triples during cottage season), the hamlet offers a welter of choices to the visitor. Just across the river from the Bent Anchor is the Catholic lay mission, Madonna House (www.madonnahouse.org), with its gift shop, art gallery, pioneer museum and rolling grounds. William Kurelek painted here. So did A. Y. Jackson. Combermere is also home to the late great newspaperman, John Wesley Dafoe, who was born in the nearby hills in 1866 - a plaque commemorates his birthplace - before moving on to his career as the visionary editor-in-chief of the Winnipeg Free Press.
Just down Highway 62 from the Bent Anchor is Valley Market, the pre-Confederation general store that last month celebrated its 150th anniversary and which does a brisk summertime trade in its huge double-scoop cones. There are also winding rural byways like Old Barry's Bay Rd., which leads to such sights as Crooked Slide Park with its refurbished, pioneer-era log chute along Rockingham Creek. A few kilometres farther out, you'll find a floral-themed barn typical of the picturesque folk art of the Kaszuby region, whose Polish settlers arrived In the 1860s and still call the region home.
Come fall, Klinck and MacAuley won't really have much of a chance to relax. By October, they'll leave for the Caribbean where they own and operate Sea Cliff Cottages (www.dominica-cottages.com), a five-cottage resort on the coast of Dominica.
If you go : Bent Anchor Bar & Restaurant, 613-756-9556, is open daily in summer from noon. (No credit cards. Cash and personal cheques only.) ' Maggie II Riverboat runs one-hour summer cruises Friday-Sunday starting at 2 p.m. Other days "by chance" or reservation. Call 613-756-9556. Hudson House B & B, 19th-century riverside inn: Two rooms with queen-size beds, third room with twin beds. Nightly rate for two including full breakfast is $110. Call 613-756-5908. Chippawa Cottage Resort: Lakefront cottages on Kamaniskeg Lake. Supervised children's programs during July and August. Call 800-267-8507. Stevenson Lodge Housekeeping Cottages and Marina. Call 613-756-3505.
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