Go in Stupid
We shared our drinks amongst the 5 and it was time to get Mr. Chain saw out and get to the fist order of business, making a tent space and the poles necessary to keep er' standing up. Sid sent us some information some time before on how to setup up a Prospector tent ( Wall tent ) using the 7 pole method. I guess I skipped over those pages and went right to the picture's and gawked at them for a few moments. He asked me if I had read the write up on how to setup up this tent, I gave the honest reply.....Nope!, I'm going in stupid. That way you can tell me what to do and I'll do it. no questions asked! I think I received the name Sherpa just about at that time. It was a funny moment and we shared some smiles and went about setting up our tent space; packing down the snow, chopping small growth out of the tent be area and cutting down small trees suitable to use for our poles and keep our tent standing for the days to follow. We did what Sid asked and if it wasn't up to par, we'd tinker with it in morning. Mike, our dedicated chef, had his chore of making our fist night's meal, Clam Chowder. A delicious treat that was welcomed, If it were up to any of the other's, we'd be having instant soup, a hot chocolate and a snack and we'd be off to bed. Mike's a great cook, and well worth having great food for winter activities such as this.
Good Morning Beaver Pond!
well Marsh or swail or whatever you want to call it, works fine with me. Day 2, is a day to regenerate, we need to get water going so we can all hydrate and get on with what we need to do to stay for a while. We took out lumps from the night before, and vowed to reset our sleeping platform so we'd all get a good nights rest. It waited for another day before we actually did anything about it. We also have some additional friends going to be around in the next few days so we better get to it. Sid's with the chain saw and chaps since it's his rig and he's the Lead dog.
We downed our morning meals of a muffin mix baked in a Outback oven and second breakfast, was a helping of sausage and bacon and eggs. We ate two meals a day and a few snacks in between. What we came to know of as Breakfast, 2nd Breakfast and Dinner......it's another funny moment for those of you who understand and have watched a certain movie.
Timber
We made way to other spots around us to search out possible pad sites for the next groups. We cleared out areas which seemed just right considering what we went through the first evening
to get our own done, we patted down areas in hopes that other's would already have some of their work done for them. We even had fun cutting down a couple large trees for use as our firewood for the camps. An experience taken almost for granted when the Lead Dog has a chain saw. I have normally used just a Bow saw for wood gathering , so the step up to chain saw was a welcomed event. This Sherpa sure did have fun though, this time we had a job to do but we didn't have to carry much other than what we could hand carry. We were up and down and all around, even Bill had made a home for our Thunder box ( toilet in the woods) and christened it's use.
New Arrival
We made the day go by and rested every so often to regain our strength from yesterday. A day of rest is a good thing when you have been through quite a bit. Water bottles were refilled and each of us spent the day hydrating. Hydrating is good for the body and pushing yourself without replenishing can lead to problems and in our case being far enough away from help, can lead to down right disaster!. We even spent some time ice fishing back at Lake #2, but, for me, I had no luck and Bill had caught a couple Pike. As the daylight was slowly fading away we looked one last time to see if Dave and Hans might be coming in. So far, no sign of them. We called it a day and settled into our tent , we gathered again to pass the time before Dinner and to once again enjoy each other's company in laughter and banter as the sun disappeared. Soon after we heard footsteps of arrivals!
Dave and Hans were here; the Bud train had been delayed in getting to them so they were welcomed to find we hadn't traveled in as far as we planned and even more happy that we had prepared some possible sights for them to set up camp.
Day 3
Day 3 consisted of our usual jovial mood, we had coffee water already prepared the night before and even some water ready to refuel our water bottles! We were almost to the point of an organized bunch. (with the exception of if you looked around our campsite location) Bill prepared a first breakfast of muffins and we enjoyed our second breakfast of Egg McSid's, very tasty indeed!
Another tree was felled ( timber!) and we prepared a few more potential sights for today's big group of travelers. We expected about 13 more in and they would be earlier than Dave and Hans just because of the timing of the train. We had a chance to talk with Dave and Hans since they spent their evening setting up tent, when they were finished, we were all in bed for the night. It's good to say hi and talk to people that you have come to know through the Internet. Canadian Canoe Routes.com has brought a flavourful group together and it's nice to picture whom you have chatted with. No Axe murders in the bunch and a friend willing to help or even share every step of the way.
And Good afternoon to you!
We padded down the next sights and retired to the tent for warmth and replenishments and I took the time to take off my clothing right down to a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. The day was a beautiful sunny day and since our camp area is out of the wind, you hardly feel the -20's temperature!
So as I spent the time in the tent, I was quite warm; as it happened, you'd have to step out of the tent every so often just to cool down and it was about that time that the other arrivals had showed up. I'm there, outside, trying to cool down as folks with parka's and snow wear were arriving.
I guess I'm just good timing for the funny moments?, since folks had a laugh or two at the guy with just shorts on.... Everyone found a site to begin their tent setup's, some had just normal tents as you see in the Spring through Fall and some had the full blown tent similar to what we were staying in but just different variations. Not one was the same, but each were unique to each traveler who came to stay for the few days remaining.
Breakfast , Second Breakfast! and Dinner
We spent the rest of the day, chatting away; I, of course, got my thermal underwear on and my paddling dry pants and we continued to chop into pieces the rest of the felled tree hoping to give enough firewood to our new camp mates as well as ourselves. As the day went by and afternoon too, we took some time to go back to Lake 2 to fish in a different spot. Bill took another pike ( hot dog!) and released it, being so small. Jim , new to ice fishing came out with us and Moe the retired jester added a few suspenseful moments playing a trick on Bill. I think he had us all that time!? He's a character that knows how to let out a little humour just at the right time. ( Where's the other Axe?, Do you have another saw blade?, and I thought that the fishing ladle would float?) Dinner, was my turn to make and tonight it was Ham dinner. We didn't wait too long to fish since they seemed to be few and far between , so we headed back to camp so I could make dinner for the group. I also used Mike S. to help me with the fixin's to go with our meal. The fun part of this was using our tent camp stove to bake the Ham. I used a heavy tinfoil to wrap up the Ham, added cloves to spice and flavour it and added some white wine and honey as extra flavours. It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to do, but, I don't think anyone was hungry after that?! For the four of us we had Ham, Cauliflower and Broccoli and cheese as well as mashed potatoes with a cream cheese and chive sauce. Dessert was a favourite at any time; Bill took the time to make a Cherry Cheese Pie for the evening once our tummies had some time to settle. We don't dine like this at home, but eating two meals a day and snacks in-between is a great reward when your roughing it! ( Wink!)
After Dinner, the night lights ( stars) came out and we talked around an evening campfire with our new camp mates. Tony CC had brought in a telescope and gave us the rundown of some of the stars. I hope I'm able to remember at least some of them!? Early to bed and early to rise, the night is growing colder and it's time to rest again. Our tent didn't go to bed until after a few funny comments to ease the aches and pains of today's workout.
Scouter Joe!
"Are you ready Georgi!" is all I hear as a shovel passes through the door of our tent
I don't think I even had a chance to have a coffee yet! Scouter Joe's a great pal, we have met some times before and as best as I can describe him, he's Clint Eastwood! He's got a great attitude and a rough and tumble look and work ethic, he could one handed get you out of trouble even if you were surrounded by 4 sides! All that and he's funny too! Same goes for Carol, his wife who was not with us at this event. I think she likes the warmer weather? ( wink!) Today is Quinzee building day.
I wanted to know how to build one, and the offer from Scouter Joe to show me the ropes was there, so off to work I go, shovel in hand and nothing but snow everywhere!
Quinzee
It's the name of a shelter used to keep you warm and out of the elements, built from snow or into a drift of snow and can come in as many ways as you can get the thing to stand! Some people would
consider an Igloo as a close family member to this type of shelter, but both are built by different methods. First thing is to find a suitable place to build up the snow, you need about a 10 ft radius of 2 ft of snow to build one for two people or more. In my case, we forgot about that and started to shovel snow into a central area just 20 feet from where our camp was. We piled snow on top to make a mound and then at some point when the weight of the snow on top becomes heavy, the entire mounts shifts down. A cool moment if your watching! From there, you keep piling on the snow and packing the sides of the mound. The sides are packed to be used as the support of the quinzee; if you don't do this you may have problems later on in the process. It took about an hour or so to pack the snow to about 6ft high and once that's done, the side are packed, you wait..... and wait and even wait a little more. I had some other things to do so in total , I waited about 3 hours before I began the next stage. Next stage, is to hollow out what the inside. I started with my snowshoe to create a fair sized opening. I even went and talked to Scouter to see if their were any last comments before I get really into it and he said ; dig up till from the inside and then wider after that, you should see light through the snow and that's as far as you need to do then widen your insides. SO, that is what I did; I went till I could see some light, even had a couple jokers trying to fill in the hole as I'm digging like a dog to remove the snow. It's actually hard work! You are covered with your shell and gear to keep you warm and your digging out the snow and getting wet that way too. I don't see how anyone could have done this without getting wet, but I have heard it said, I just don't see how?!
I played and toyed with removing snow and found that I had to make a floor above some downed trees that were under my shelter. Oh well, next time, location location location! It turned out quite well! I dug and dug for a couple hours and even had a nice floor laid out to call it home.
As it turned out their were three other folks out trying the same thing, but their efforts had failed and the quinzee's had collapsed. I offered to them the use of mine, they were disappointed that there's failed and I still had use of the hot tent so there was no trouble in offering them my abode. Jim, on of the camp folks had stayed in a tent and I asked him if he'd go in it for a night, I'd go with him.
He understood and we let the two British folks have at it for this evening. They also were going to rebuild their own and so Jim and I would be able to sleep the second night in it.
The night went by and more lessons on stars too, as we gathered again around the campfire
and share stories of our canoe trips we've taken and trips we were planning on. A warm and happy time is shared by us all. The stars and their beauty we can rest to again.
Fishing Lake #4
Today's the day! no work just play, we're off to Lake #4 to investigate hopefully bringing in a Lake Trout of something bigger than a hot dog! We gathered some gear to pack on our backs and settled off the broken trail that other's did yesterday. A great thanks to them , they helped out or we'd only be in Lake #3 today. We made off to the end of the Marsh we were in and to Lake #3. Completes our cross Lake 3 and rested before settling back down on the trail through the woods. Each person rested when they needed to and Bill and I were startled a bit by a Grouse at the edge of the trail.
Apparently grouse use the snow to bed down for the night and this one just popped out like a mini explosion from the snow and across the trail and on through the woods. The line we took was a trappers line and every so often you could see a Martin trap box along the way. The hills were great to go through and a change of pace then staying at camp and doing chores. We made it to Lake #4 and the wind was quite strong. It was kinda funny though, at the snow and ice level, the sun was melting the surface snow and just above that the wind would be whipping at your body and freezing you! We even brought a campfire with us! Okay , well we made a campfire once we got there to warm up and chat around. Looks like the fishing sucks here too? Probably just one of those timing things?
This area doesn't seem used that much and so it's sheer luck to find the right spot to fish. With the wind so strong it was soon time to head back to the camp and await another time to go fishing.
My travel back was slow, since I'm a slow paced kinda guy, I just don't seem to be able to walk as fast as the others so Sid ( Smokey) my camp partner stayed along close tome and gave me a lesson on trees. As a South Westerner, Christmas tree and not a Christmas Tree are typically what you see this far North. With Sid's help I came to understand a few more like: Poplar, Balsam, Tamarack or Larch, White Pine and there's probably a few more, but now I forget! At least it was fun to know a bit of my surrounding. We made it home and called it a night, preparing water for coffee and refilling our
water bottle from the day's events.
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Part Three - No really there's a third part!
