Room with a view
This time we are truly here! I am writing to you from the heart of the Vallée du Portage, more precisely from “the sand pit on the road toward Octave’s place,” according to our guide and cartographer Camille. In short, we are deep in the woods, nestled between the Portage River and the Petit-Saguenay River. For the night we chose the spot with the best view and set up our camp there for the next two days.
Let me give you a tour. When arriving, you find the tools, the snowshoes and the wood supply on the right. On the left, the guides set up a full kitchen and built a dome in which we carved a table and benches. Then, a little farther away, we cleared a path and a long platform using shovels and snowshoes, where we pitched our six prospector tents with their stoves. Finally, of course, at each end of the camp we installed a toilet tent (see photos for more details on the system).
Getting hands on
Building this camp took up a good part of our afternoon, though time is hard to measure since we do not have watches, and everyone pitched in. Some developed specialties: tent building for Kiran, leveling the ground for Max, or managing the stoves for Gabriel. Others successfully carried out the missions proposed by Catherine: digging the toilets for Camille or distributing the firewood for Annie-Rose.
On that note, our guide Simon, known as “Grand Pas,” explained the best types of wood to heat the stove in our tent: “birch for the daytime and maple for the night because one log burns for two to three hours.” In the evening during dinner, artichoke dip, tomato and pasta soup sprinkled with parmesan, then brownies, we shared our best tips for spending our first winter camping night. “Pee before going to bed,” advises Andréanne, “keep tomorrow’s clothes at the bottom of your sleeping bag,” adds our nurse Lucie, or even “do push ups to warm up during the night!”
Just one day and only a few kilometers were enough to distance us from civilization. Tonight we sleep under the sparkling Milky Way and tomorrow we will put our skis back on to explore the birch forests surrounding us.
