Ice Break 2002- Part II

Dinner is on and it is chili tonight.

Desert is over a fire baked apples with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and
crushed nature bars. It's a sweet and warm taste right from the campfire. It
warms your mind as you look into the fires warm glow.
You could even have forgotten it was raining.
It rained the entire night; a slow pitter patter for the entire night.
The temperature hadn't fallen to anything real serious degree but I'm sure
we didn't intend to sleep in the puddle either. This is when your just about
to say "Let's go home", I think I heard my buddies eyes saying the very same
thing. I wasn't about to give in and said we need to move the tent to higher
ground, dry out our things as best as possible and get ready for another day
with hopefully colder temperatures. I too found out that you do get cold not
only sleeping in a puddle in the winter time, but , you also really can use
that second insulating layer of an air-rest pad, of which, I forgot.

The day progressed to getting colder, the snow was not as sticky but the
ground snow had been packed and drenched from the twelve hour marathon of
winter rain. I guess we should have expected it to rain, It does on all our
other trips and winter should be no exception. The colder temperature to me,
was definitely a great sign as we trudged through the routes hoping to find
one with more snow and less water. "The winds picked up, picked up enough to
actually blow a man down", sounds like a good saying?! Well, it definitely
was howling quite fiercely and as Franco passed the access to the beach, he
tried to backup and tripped sort of over himself. Not a good thing to do in
traditional style snowshoes.

On our journey to the beach, I brought along my beachwear shirt , hoping to
catch a couple rays; I found the only rays I caught we of my pal thinking I
was nuts( ! ) and wanting to go to the shore's edge. We didn't make it, but
we did get a couple shots of each other in our gear and shoes. I kinda like
my shirt!, It was quick drying in case it were to get wet.....you know, all
the safety precautions were used.

The rest of the day we continued on our snowshoeing and bickered to each
other about my wood splitting abilities, met up with Ranger Rick again to get
a bag since one thing about being Italian, youcan never have enough firewood
and our hearts needed more warmth to survive the second night of falling
temperatures and moist gear.

The snow picked up to nice big white flakes and the temperature steadily
dropped to some good cold weather. Dinner was lighter tonight, just some
stew. Our pallets were still full from the lunch of noodles and sausage
heated to add to a bun. We had no room for dessert, and no will to even try.
We always seem to overestimate the food a little to the heavy side, a good
thing if we had been more remote and snow bound to our campsite.
It's not a bad thing to bring a little more than required, especially for the
winter and the one thing your not ready for is a little change.

It was about 2:00am and I heard Franco , beside me calling my name. I opened
my eyes and about all I could see was the tent walls sagging pretty close to
my face. I kinda got puzzled, wondering why the heck I moved so close to the
back of the tent when he told me that it was the weight of the snow
compressing the tent. Huh? It took me a few moment to come to and notice that
about a good 15 centimeters of snow had fallen onto us that night and the
tent was buckling a bit from the newly added weight. My tarp had also
strained to the new weights and Franco being a little more awake then myself,
let go of some of the tie downs to set the tarp on to the ground. We shook
the snow off the tent and readjusted the poles and material so it looked like
a tent again that we could sleep within.


Winter tip: when the simple nature calls, a portable john is a handy thing!

Here's the idea! It's snowing or raining, and your all comfy in your sleeping
bag with your nice bedtime clothes on. You can either, 'A', put on your cold
wet boots and visit the outdoors or , 'B', grab hold of portable John or
Jane (!) and have the indoor comforts of your tent to not crawl out of... You
decide! It may look funny and even give a few hand pointers, but , when
nature calls, it like heaven not to have to go outside and face the elements!

Well after that first night of rain and then more rain and to add the next
evening for snow and more snow, we pretty well had the weather we wanted, the
weather we didn't and the both of us either felt the wet or felt the cold. It
was time to call it a trip and pack for home. Coffee was freshly available at
Tim Horton's , so we made camp and set our sights on traveling home.
I'd say I had a good winter outing and Franco had a good first time too! In
all, my gear is sitting in the garage waiting for the temperatures to rise to
get the ice a snow off of and I'd bet it's the same for my pal, Franco. The
pots are still a mess and slowly I will get ready to return to another trip
coming this Spring so stay tuned until then!


The trumpeting songs of birds are being heard loud and clear.
The smell of Spring passes its scents for our minds to wander.
The river breathes as it awakens from its rest
and Red Canoe is awaiting to add to the journey's
As Winter slowly fades, the Red Canoe Diaries will soon begin........


Hope you enjoyed my story.

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Email: michael.graves@sympatico.ca