There are lots. Lots and lots of mosquitoes.
Fort Smith Road Trip: To Kakisa
Every single time I take off down the road I say to myself “I’m going to journal this trip. Write every night about what I did that day.” My best intentions are in those words but then it just doesn’t happen. Some could say I’m living in the moment and taking in what I’m seeing. I try to believe this anyways.
Alas I’m on the road to Fort Smith from Yellowknife. Traveling down for some organization work and to see the sights, again.
We are currently overnighting at Lady Evelyn Fall just outside of Kakisa, NWT. We are at one of four sites being used tonight.
Our journey started after work and the drive past Bechoko was uneventful. We saw a couple herds of bison and some cranes but we unadapted to the environment still so did not stop for long to take pictures. In other words the bugs drove us back into the truck.
As we approached Fort Providence we got closer and closer to a forest fire burning a couple kilometres off the highway. We wandered around taking photos of it, cruising up back roads and trudging through brush.
A bug jacket was unravelled by myself and worn for the duration of the expedition through the bush and while setting up camp.
1Now we are nestled into our site with the sound of the rushing river going crashing over the falls behind us. This sound will definitely rock me peacefully into sleep as the smell of campfire lingers on through the night.
What not to do before coffee while camping.
While camping you sometimes have to get inventive with how you rig something up or fix something. This is not out of the ordinary, it is just a way of camping.
However there are something you shouldn’t do while camping, before you’ve had your morning coffee.
These things might included but are not limited too:
This is just a running list of some of the camp chores the are made hard to accomplish before caffeine has been injected into the system. There will be more added.
I go camping in -40ºC
In my mind going out o the cabin is like going on a mini vacation. I go out there to relax and get away from city live. However when I return home and move around I feel exhausted and sore.
Going out to the cabin is a lot of fun and I enjoy every minute of it but I forget how much effort it takes to get out there and stay out there. First there was getting everything I needed while out there, food, supplies, camera gear. It all adds up and then I need to strap it to my komatik. Then I have to get the sled going to get out to the cabin. That was the easy part.
This was probably the first fire in the cabin all winter, so it took a couple hours to heat up to a decent temperature. And while I thought I was going to have tons of time to do some writing it seems like the time just flew by. Cut more firewood, fixed some insolation issues, laid down some carpet and then it is dinner time. Steak and potatoes.
I had not looked a the weather to closely for the weekend other than to see if it was going to be clear. I was hoping to get some photos of the Aurora, but it got cold and my camera crapped out. When I woke this morning it was -40ºC, the coldest night so far this winter. Thankfully I had keep the fire going all night so the cold was kept at bay.
The tricky task about getting back to town was actually getting the snowmobile started. It was a giant ice brick. The pull cord was completely frozen and would not moved at first. After some gentles tugs it started to moved and then after a good 100 pulls the motor finally turned over. After letting the sled idle for 30 mins it moved but it was still a rock. The seat and suspension were hard as concrete and having to drive over the drifts on Great Slave Lake I’m a little sore now.
A very enjoyable weekend.
Back at the Cabin in the Woods
I’m once again up at Yellow Dog Lodge for the weekend, this time for some hard labour.
The owner of the lodge, Gord, has been without a camp hand for most of the season so I volunteered to come back up and help him close out the lodge for the summer.
Right off the plane I helped him pull in the two big docks, which was no light job. Winching, pulling, prodding, prying. We did it all to get those heavy things up onto shore. So now, because it has been so long since I have done any amount of hard labour, I’m a little sore this morning and my back is tweaked. No pain, no gain I guess 😉
Today will be full of oil changes and winterizing all the small engines around the lodge.