Suzies Lake, second week in a row! This time, I went with a friend from geo, who has been out with me before, on the night of the super-moon eclipse! She had just gotten a new tent, and was very excited to try that out! (I may have been equally excited to just see it...) We had a meeting at school that ran until 1915, so we got a very late start, but had no issues because of that (well, except trying to get a bus!). There has been some snow since last weekend, so there were fewer tracks before us this time. With the snow on the branches, the trail felt so much narrower. The hike in definitely had a different feel. We got to the campsite shortly after 2100, set up camp quickly, and then went to bed. In the morning, I awoke to footsteps outside my tent. One of my friends is studying journalism, and decided to do a piece about this challenge, as well as winter camping in general. He and a classmate showed up shortly after 8 to take some pictures and ask a few questions. You can check out that article here: http://signalhfx.ca/dal-student-pledges-to-camp-100-nights-in-a-year/ The trip was short, but sweet, and I solved the ice vs water debate I'd had last week. In the photo above, there are three shades of black/grey in the lake. The bottom left stripe is open water, the other two are different thicknesses of thin and clear ice. Based on that information, I'm pretty sure it was all ice last week!
3 Comments
I just got back from Suzie's Lake, a funny little place! The short hike to the lake begins in the Kent parking lot, and there are lots of clear cuts in the area due to prospective developments, which is terrible. But, it's easily accessible by bus and, therefore, perfect for student trips; I've gone there several times with the Outdoors Society. This time, I just went with one other friend. Check out http://www.bmbcltrails.com/ for mor e information on th is wilderness area! After a slightly delayed start (I got caught up at school) we headed out. It was long after dark, though that's a pretty common situation these days, so we made our way by headlamp (or diving light in her case). After one or two wrong turns, depending on who's counting, we made it to the campsite. We set up the tent and our sleeping things and I looked inside and couldn't help but burst out laughing. Half the tent was sleeping bag, and unfortunately, I don't have a photo, but trust me, I'm not exaggerating! Krista only had a 0C bag, so I brought both my new -23C bag and my older -7C one as well. That -23C bag is huge on its own, so throw it in a 2-person tent, along with two other sleeping bags, and that's a lot of sleeping bag! It didn't help that we were using a downmat and an xtherm f or sleeping pads since both are about 7cm thick! It was a hilarious sight. We hung out by the lake for a bit before crawling into bed. It was beautiful! Lots of it has frozen over, though there is some open water still. The city lights, while unfortunately still present, did make for a neat scene.
In the morning, going back to the lake, it was clearer that the part we had thought was open water wasn't really, it was just much thinner ice than nearer the shore. The other times I've been there were both last year in the dead of winter, so the ice was really thick (we even slept out on the lake the one time!) and the trails were covered in a meter of snow. This time, while there was snow, there were also lots of patches of bare ground, and due to recent warm days, there were many sections that were sheer ice. (Many super graceful moments ensued.) I'll have to check it out in the summer sometime! I am back in Halifax now, after spending my winter break in AB and B.C. As you know, I sent the first half camping out at my dad's farm. The second half, I spent in southern Alberta, with a bunch of people I haven't seen since summer 2014! We had all been students on JIRP (Juneau Icefield Research Program) where we traversed 100s of km of glacier to get from Juneau to Atlin, all the while doing science! It was so great to hang out with some of those guys again! There were all sorts of shenanigans, including investigating a weird wooden castle in the woods (lodging for a summer camp), tobogganing down the best hill ever, downhill skiing in BC, cross-country skiing once in BC and twice in AB, rock climbing on a wall in the barn's hayloft, New Years festivities and sauna-ing, ridiculous games involving things like races to see who can get a smartie across the finish line by blowing on it through a straw first (which apparently I'm really good at), and, of course, so much camping!
I got six nights in while I was there, five of them in a really cool tent, and one beneath the stars. There's a story behind the tent I used. I left my tent in Halifax because I knew I would have access to other tents and I didn't have the space in my luggage. At the farm, I used my dad's old tent (which I went camping in over 20 years ago!) but when I went back to my mom's place, I couldn't find a tent there. Fortunately, or so I thought, the friend who was hosting this reunion had a tent I could borrow. Unfortunately, when I got there, we opened it up to find it damp and absolutely covered in mould. I was trying to sort out how I could get the tent (now found) from my mom when another JIRPer arrived. Mike drove up from the States in his van (which he's decked out with insulation and cedar planking on the walls, a bed, and storage) and fortunately had a tent in the back! It was by far one of the coolest tents I've slept in. It was a Hilleberg tent, which isn't one I'd heard of before. I'm so glad that's changed now. It set up so quickly, and was extremely livable; there was tonnes of head room, and the largest vestibule I've ever seen. I didn't get to test it in super windy conditions, but Mike said he's slept through storms that collapsed other tents! The inside warmed up pretty well, especially considering there was only one of me in a three-person tent, and while it was a little frosty (less than other tents I've used) on the inside in the morning, by the time I went back to sleep it had dried out completely. Mike had to leave one day before me though, taking his tent with him. Fortunately, I had just gotten my birthday/Christmas present for the year that same day, so I slept outside in my super fancy new sleeping bag. (It's the Lynx GWS from Western Mountaineering.) It was only about -17C or so, so that's not the limit of the bag, but it's great to know that it's comfortable in those conditions! Since I'm talking about (non-sponsored) gear anyways, I figure it's a good time for a footwear update! You may remember that Keen kindly supported me in this endeavour. My Revel IIIs are fantastic! I was slightly hesitant about them at first since they are a little wide, but I am in love with them now. I wore them the whole time I was away. My feet were only cold if I was just standing around doing nothing for a while, other than that they were toasty warm, without being super sweaty. I didn't get a chance to really test out the waterproofness; it was so cold, and the snow so dry, that I could have been wearing paper bags and still have dry feet. I'm sure Halifax will give me the opportunity to test the waterproofness soon though! I haven't gotten any blisters in them (yet?) but that may be because I've been using my ezeefits for longer walks and such. However, the fact that I haven't had hotspots from shorter wears is a really good sign, and fairly abnormal for me! I can't wait to test these out in some wetter conditions and see how they hold up. |
AuthorCarmen has successfully camped for 100 nights out of 365. This blog is a record of those nights outside! Archives
July 2016
|