Ice Break 2002- Part I

Enter the Snowshoe.


A man made invention of yester year.
A work of art when you envision the tales it were to tell of its history.
A spirit in you with a new breath for life's adventures.
A journey to take you along...



It's time again, for the Red Canoe Diaries and a trip story.
I'm not the best person to speak on the behalf of this art of snowshoeing, but
I'm happy to tell you of this journey.
It's been a long time coming for me, I have been awaiting the day that I
would be able to go on a winter trip with my good and long time friend.
I guess it would be a long time coming for him to?; i never really asked, but
I could tell....Time to un-wind and take a breath from urban reality for a
while.

It started in the Fall, for me, I had chatted with an internet friend on my
favourite canoe website, CanadianCanoeRoutes.com. I had been on the website
about looking for snowshoes and met up with a man by the name of Tony.
Tony and his wife Patty were going to meet and greet some of the folks who
frequent the website; an internet Gathering....actually not a first
gathering, but a Fall get together a swap lies and stories while we see faces
to names of folks we have conversed with.

Well, Tony and Patty, had a pair of traditional snowshoes and I wasn't about
to let go of getting them. I had been searching through the auction online
and kept getting bumped so I was definitely ready to get these shoes!
So you kinda get the idea, it's Fall, I'm with my buddy and we're two guys
coming home a great get together of internet friends and as we pull into the
landing to be greeted by a couple of canoers about to pull away from shore.
We chat a bit, and as one guy looks into the canoe, you see these
snowshoes.........
I can't tell you what he was thinking, but , I could guess a few choice words
they might have!

So there's the snowshoes, now if only we can muster the time.

Well time sometimes works out as it did for my buddy and I, and we finally
got to go on a short getaway. I missed out on the winter gathering this year
just North of Sudbury at Scouter Joe's and Carol's , but , one day , I'll
make it up to visit and and travel through the snow. Sometimes you just have
to wait.

The time for myself and Franco came a little later so we took our trip to
where we could have some easy access, some winter camping, and a little
snowshoeing to boot.
We chose to get off to MacGregor Point P.P. for the time we had and had
called ahead to make sure they had some snow. It's kinda the most important
ingredient to a snowshoe adventure! Well they had some so the night before I
gathered all the things I thought I should bring and headed onto the highway
to leave in the morning with my pal. A few comments earlier in the week as
Franco suggested we bring some chili he could dehydrate and as I sat back,
thought a second to myself, replied ; "why don't we just bring some cans of
food and open it up and eat when we get there?" . It made sense to not bother
with dehydrating for a short trip and most likely we would be just car
camping , so weight was not really an issue.

Franco, he's a kinda guy that doesn't let too much bother him. If things go
one way ,they go that way, If it changes midstream, then it changes.....He
has a very similar personality to myself and I think it makes for a great
team effort to carry things through, especially for the challenges of
adversity.

We arrived early at the park office so we made way to the camp sites to look
around and spot the best one. It must be the trait of the canoer for us to
look at each spot and want the one site that set's us away from being crowded
in. I know we look for the same qualities when we canoe, that perfect spot.
We returned to the office gate to await the office to open. I took care of
getting to know nature as it called and Franco greeted the gent when he came
to open the office. So , I heard that the order of the day was; " Which Yurt
will you be staying in ?" and when the reply was something to the effect of ;
"Oh?, No, we came to do some winter camping and thought site 82 would be
great for us" , Ranger Rick, just popped out of his early morning eyes and
remarked on the fact that we didn't want to stay in a Yurt. He sort of
hustled about getting the proper paperwork in order and indicated that it
would be fine for us to camp where we wanted, he also indicated that it was
most likely unimaginable that another group would want to do the same sort of
camping and our small site would be remote from the folks who would be
yurting.
( A Yurt is a tent structure with roof and insulated walls, usually
comes with a heat source and cots to sleep and sit in. )

So we get to our site where the snow hasn't been touched at all and put our
snowshoes to work first thing. First thing to do is to pack down the site
where the tent will go and to clean out the fire pit and seating , since they
had tables there. Not too bad since the snow has not come like it did the
year before, we just made do with what we had, since it was all we had!

Franco manned the tent and I manned the tarp to shelter us from the winds and
elements should they want to spoil the trip. I had brought a second tarp too
so made good use of it and sheltered us even more from the other direction
should the winds change their directions. With the trees around us, we had a
good shelter from the elements unless ti wanted to come right down on us.
Never predict Mother Nature! She will change her mind when she wants to and
at a moments notice!

After muffing about the campsite for a while, we decide to head into town for
the last few items, of course, we forgot. Forgetting something is part of the
trips, being close to civilization to go get it is sometimes the trick.

OK, we're ready and back at the campsite and decide to go snowhoeing.
Franco has been given the 10 second demonstration, when we patted down the
campsite, and now it's time for the real thing. We grab our gear and
hopefully all adjusted, and we're off! Well, not really , Franco's ahead a
bit but falling behind. It seems that the shoes are slowing him down quite a
bit. A few more steps and he's adjusting again.....a couple more and he's
tinkering again! So, I go back after the few shots I took and we realize that
he's too far forward in the shoes for the shoes to flex at all. The steps he
had to take were to lift the shoes completely into the air to avoid digging
into the snow. After a few changes with the shoes, things get a lot better.
He's now able to move the shoes without so much effort and now gains distance
in his travels. As a matter of fact, he probably shoes a whole lot faster
than me, so maybe that wasn't such a good idea to fix the feet setup?!
We journeyed thought the woods about 2 and a half hours. The lands in this
region are quite rocky and we were forever looking to find a safe path around
them. Most of the time we had to step onto the rocks that were smaller. Had
there been more snow, we would have had less problems with the rocks.

Another problem, for me was the stickiness of the snow. My shoes ended up
being twice their weight after we were done with all the snow bunching up
onto the shoe. The legs were tired and feeling every minute of the lengthy
action to lift, drag, and shoo sh, them mighty heavy slippers.

We took refuge when complete back at the camp. It was time for a well
deserved meal and drinks. A campfire was made and as I always enjoy,
splitting wood for the quicker heat source to maintain a good core
temperature for the bigger logs we brought to burn for the evening.
It's my fun when I'm camping to take a larger piece of wood and split it.
I'd say it's also Franco's fun to comment on the making of such pieces, not
leaving them to burn bigger than a good hand size. We have fun with it anyway
and it passes the time until the dinner bell.

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Email: michael.graves@sympatico.ca