LOTN: Don't be mistaken. That is not LOT N, as in a specific location of a property with a cardinal direction. Noper, that stands for Lure of the North, Dave and Kie’s business!
Tump: the leather part of the (sled) rope harness used for pulling the sled. It can be positioned fashionably either over the shoulder or across the hips, depending on user preference.
Tank: the canvas material that forms a coffin around your gear on the sled. Packing your frozen and snow covered tank each morning was tough, as it was kinda like a snowy or icy game of Tetris (including a few curses under the breath). No mitts, and a lot of brute force required. Extra fun on the icy-cold mornings.
Anorak: a traditional winter coat made of canvas, with a big ass hood rimmed with animal fur. Put this baby on to break the wind (not fart) and pull the hood up to provide a serene warmth and calm in the worst winter conditions.
Tingleys: not sure if I’ve spelled this correctly, but this refers to the fancy rubber boots worn in possible slushy snow conditions. They fit nicely into snow shoes, and with wool liners, provide warmth even when wet. Watch out for post holing, as these boots are mid-calf height.
Post Holing: What happens in snow when you are not wearing your snowshoes and should be. Envision it - foot step, sink to your crotch, grumble something about should have my snow shoes, and try to lift your foot out of the hole and hope like heck your boot comes with it while keeping your other foot from post holing.
Icers: Can be worn with any footwear to provide more traction. These were essential for the uphill climbs. Also known as ice spikes.
Ass slushing: An extremely unfortunate fall backwards on your ass in slush. It’s like a foot soaker, but 100 times worse. Not cool. Witnessed it, and thanked God it didn’t happen to me.
Lymph clearing: according to Jamie, slapping yourself to activate your lymph. Jim would say a series of exercises (arm swinging, body twisting, hand patting) to get lymph moving around your body. A great ritual to come together and start the day, and laugh at how silly you look doing it.
PBB: The best peanut butter balls I’ve ever tasted. These were part of the morning cedar or spruce tea ritual. As an aside, I’m convinced cedar and spruce tea have laxative properties. Just saying.
Appies: Looked like "apples" on the cooking instruction card perhaps because I didn’t have access to my reading glasses. To be honest, I wasn’t sure where those suckers got to the entire trip. In fact, appies were perogies and meatball snacks enjoyed before dinner after camp set up.
Meat Up: This is NOT a typo, but in fact a clever double entendre. Mid-trek our two groups met and set up camp together. Supper was a treat that night when Kie rolled in on her snowmachine, towing a bbq on skis! The spread was incredible, complete with bbq’d sausages, toasted buns, salads, veggies, and a sip of maple whiskey to finish off an amazing meal. It didn't get any more Canadian than that!
Stoker: a camp job that involved making sure the fire kept burning all night. Depending on the type of wood being burned, this meant setting an alarm every 2.5 hours, wiggling out of your sleeping bag that was sandwiched between two others, crawling up to a hot stove, finding the gloves and re-loading it while half asleep. Danger pay was not included.
Splitter: a very satisfying camp job that involved splitting logs with an axe. Thank gosh we camped two nights in a cedar marsh because splitting cedar can make anyone feel like an Olympic Champion Splitter!
The learning curve for these terms was steep, much like the day 4 hills, but once mastered, instructions became very clear. Imagine that!