Encouraged by an easy go of it he announces he is going to break trail to the lower lake. I’m thinking he must be planning to go ice fishing when he says, “Maybe tomorrow we can go ice fishing.”
He runs the machine around the cabin and just before he starts down hill and across the creek he stops and asks, “Is the water on.” “Lots”, I assure him. Two large pots on the stove provide hot water for dishes and showers. Long ago, before I arrived on the scene, Dan showered outside, summer or winter. That wasn’t going to be me so Dan put in a tub with a drain to a cistern made from an old 50 gallon drum filled with rocks buried deep in the ground. A shelf above the tub holds a water tank with a hose and shower nozzle attached that provides a lovely shower. Dan stands on a stool to fill the tank with water mixed to just the right temperature. Just about everything in the woods is innovative and Dan and his friends have explored all the possible innovations for pumping water to the tank but in the end none of the options are better than the one we use.
Off Dan goes to drag the trail to the lake and I follow with my skis. An upside for me on a freshly dragged trail is a perfect skiing surface and I’m not about to pass it up. Maybe I’ll find the sun on the muskeg. Since the trail first goes down hill to cross the bridge then back up to the top of the ridge on the other side I start off carrying my skis and put them on when I reach the top of the hill. Otherwise I would have to do a lot of herringboning and sidestepping neither of which I do well, both of which would wear me out before I got started.
Even at 2 below tromping up the hill gets me hot so I open my coat. The trick in the cold is to manage your clothing to keep you at just the right temperature, not too hot, not to cold. Don't do it right and hyperthermia looms. Dan and William have the art of dressing for the cold mastered but I am usually one or the other, too hot or too cold.
I’m not thirty minutes into my ski when along comes Dan back early. He pulls up along side me, seemingly oblivious to the icicles hanging from his mustache, and laughs. “Why are you wearing all those clothes,” he says, “You’re too hot.” He is wearing just a vest over a light fleece shirt. Mind you, it’s 2 below zero and he wants me to give him my coat to put in the carrier behind the snowmachine seat with his. I pass up that suggestion easily. Just the thought of giving up my coat makes me shiver.
He looks at his watch and decides it’s too early to quit and waste what’s left of the daylight. “I think I’ll drag the gully trail” he says. The gully trail runs through a stream gully and provides a gradual climb to the cabin. When we have heavy sled loads we use it as a detour around the two steep sections of trail from the tracks. There really is no reason to drag the gully trail since we won’t need it this trip but the drag is on the machine, the daylight is burning, and Dan wants some more fun out in the cold, riding around in the snow.
A few hours later I’m back from skiing but there’s no sign of Dan. When he finally arrives its easy to see he got more than he bargained for. Because the gully has a stream that runs under the trail there are lots of holes to fill in and smooth out so his anticipated snow machine romp turned into hours of shoveling instead. He doesn’t seem to mind much because now all the work is done and tomorrow we can fish.