For the second night, we sleep in Craig's Creek camp, right next to the river of the same name. We occupy three of the five tents of the camp. The largest one is a dormitory for the boys of the expedition, eleven participants and two mushers. It is also where we gather to cook, eat, or just relax. Three girl participants, and Chantal and Karly, the two other mushers, sleep in a second tent, which is a little smaller. Finally, the remaining adults sleep in the third tent. The space is a little tight, and we must be careful not to lose our things, but the atmosphere is really nice.
To warm ourselves, we have a wood stove…very effective, but we must not forget to feed it regularly, even at night while all others are sleeping! To feed the beast, we must find… wood. It is not what is missing in the forest, which is good, but it needs to be chopped and carried, which is a different story. Today, we went with Seppe, who cut down a tree with a chain saw, before cutting into smaller pieces. After, we loaded the pieces on sledges and we did as the dogs do; we pulled and pushed our load to the camp, where we unloaded it, and cut it into even smaller pieces. Finally, all that was left to do was to distribute the logs in each tent.
Yes, life in wilderness is not easy, all the little comforts that we take for granted at home, here, have to be earned. Water for example. Rather than turn on a tap, we must … break the ice on the river with an ice pick, then fill a bucket and cans. The water has a funny yellow color, but that doesn’t matter, it’s just minerals. However, just to be safe, we boil it for several minutes. Then, it is used to make delicious hot chocolates and fill our water bottles.
Because in the wintertime, it is important to drink a lot, especially as we are working hard. Today, we have not stopped one single minute. As we were returning to the camp at night, we were able to leave luggage there and we traveled 27 km at an average of 9 km / h! However, as the landscape was hilly and snow was thick, we constantly had to get off our sleds and run while pushing it to help the dogs. Quite a challenge with our winter clothes and heavy boots! The reward for all this is a landscape, amazing and breathtaking at every turn.
Tonight, we made a big fire and Seppe offered to talk about our best memories of the day. For many, it is the landscapes that will remain engraved in their memory. For others, like Elliot, it is the long hours talking about everything and anything on the sled. For Esteban, it is the opportunity to supervise uncoupling the dogs from the sleds, a noteworthy moment, “an opportunity to take responsibility.” Well, for many, like Brandon, dogs remain the most significant thing. “They’re so” cute “that I would sleep with them!”
There, snow keeps falling again and again; tomorrow, we will still have beautiful fresh snow to continue our journey towards new adventures.