You'll recall that we were a little anxious before the trip: Was Gayle going to be cold? Was Paul going to be slow?
After now having the experience, I think we might have been asking the wrong questions.
As I quickly got to know our trek-mates and adjusted to camp life, I learned that it's all about THE TEAM. Our group was made up of very amazing people who all contributed to the effort. With this team, neither of us had anything to worry about because no one was going to be left alone to be cold and no one was going to be left behind. When it was dinner time, someone cooked, when the fire needed stoking, it got stoked, when gear needed to be moved from one sled to another to balance weight, it got moved, when one person needed to pull two toboggans it happened.
Here's the scenario - we're hiking along frozen lakes. Pulling loaded toboggans. Wearing snow shoes. It's slushy sometimes. The portages between lakes are hilly.
We're working really hard.
With us, we each have a down coat, an anorak, a jacket, a sweater, pants, long underwear, wool socks, lined boots, mittens, a toque and a buff PLUS a duffle full of other clothes.
Most days it was between -2 and -6.
We had to adjust our attire often based on the conditions and what we were doing. Getting cold was unlikely.
For a good chunk for the trek, Gayle had just her sweater on (well, and pants too). At one point, Paul was down to single shirt. Gayle also managed to wear her new fleece lined pants for 9 days straight. Perhaps not a record worth mentioning. Ultimately our preparation (and shopping) served us well.
Was Paul Slow?
You can likely easily predict where this one is going.
Anecdote 1 - Shortly after our arrival, Dave gave us directions to the Base Camp. He said it would take between 90 mins and 2 hours to reach the destination.
For me, it was an instant - "Challenge Accepted". I can't help it. Off like a rocket. I set the pace for the leaders (Gayle, Sandra and Vladimir.) To my credit, I did ask our small group if they wanted to wait for the others after they were out of sight behind us. The consensus was "no", "they can follow our foot prints" so we trekked on arriving at the destination in exactly 90 minutes. Unfortunately, the rest of the group didn't follow the footprints adding considerable time to their hike.
Anecdote 2 - Day 5. We arrived at the camp site. It was the first one that was on land (the rest were in on the lakes). As we assembled the tents it was clear that the entrance to tent 2 was precariously close to a stream. It was mostly covered with snow but the danger was obvious when Vladimir crashed through the show into the water. Right then, I decided to build a bridge. In fact, with the help of the folks getting boughs from the forest, I ended up building 2 snow bridges giving safe access over the water. Jim suggested that perhaps the local beavers might have some competition.
