Friday, February 9^th 2001

Around 6am the alarm clock kicks me out of my short nap. Until 3am Sabine and I have gathered our stuff and have done the laundry (isn't it?). The evening before I packed my backpack which is loaded with three pairs of snowshoes now.

No five minutes later Sabine's calls me. She had a look out of the window and wants to discuss how we start our weekend trip. It is raining cats and dogs, a rain that covers trees and bushes with a layer of ice. The snow around the CLTs looks like somebody had treated it with hairspray.

Rob, Vroni, Bine and I are invited to stay with a couple of friends of Rob in a cabin at Wolseley Bay which is on a branch of French River. In the past days Bine wasn't sure about whether she wants to come along cause actually she has a midterm on Saturday. But nobody could assure her of giving her a credit for this course and the Prof offered her to write a 100% final instead what makes decide to join us.

I already decided to hitch-hike up to the cabin, cause it would be to expensive for me take one of our cars to go up there. Sabine is excited about this idea, but we agreed to have a look at the weather first. Now it is still raining and low probability for a change. However, I ignore Sabine's suggestion to indeed take the car eventually we are prepared for a hitch-hike. Christoph offered us to give us a ride to highway 401 around 6:30am. A bit late we get to the ramp to Toronto shortly past 7am. It is hazy even though the rain stopped meanwhile. We have to wait no longer than 10 minutes as a SUV stops. The driver - maybe in his mid thirties - promises us to bring us to the airport. Great, the first part of our trip is going to be a fast one, at least until shortly before Toronto where 20 km of rush hour traffic slow us down. I talk a bit with the driver while Sabine falls asleep on the shotgun seat. He studied biology but constructs wings for jets. He drops us off at the ramp to Hurontario Street. From here to the intersection with the northbound highway it's only about 20 km, but we wish to have a sign saying something like "Highway 400" to address people other than the commuters. After 30 minutes - Sabine is already desperate - a Quebecois on his way to Montreal stops. Sabine takes a seat on the backseat while I squeeze myself and my backpack onto the shotgun seat. Only as we approach the intersection with highway 400 our driver seems to realize that he can't drop us off on the highway and a bit unwilling he does us a favour with dropping us off at the first ramp on the 400.

Here we have to wait for some time without anybody stopping. After some time a women pull beside us and give us the hint to use the other ramp (same direction), cause on the former ramp only short distance travellers would pass.

Even though we wait 30 minute until two guys stop and offer us a ride up to highway 9, about 30 km north.

Where we get dropped off I was standing about 3 weeks ago on my way to Sudbury. But now it is not only icy, but it started raining again and the wind lashes the raindrops into our faces. More than half an hour we stand in pouring rain, then a man pulls over and gives us a ride up to Cookstown, another 20 km north. Here we warm us up in a McDonald where we ask people for a ride. Bine is already sitting in a car that goes northwards but on the wrong highway. Fortunately we discover our mistake in time. We leave the McDonalds and try our luck on the ramp again. We are lucky and get a ride up to highway 64, about 250 km north. He drops us off where we have to leave the highway 69 eastwards onto a small side road.

After only five minutes we get another ride. The men is commuting to Sudbury (about 100 km one way) every day, but resists to move into the city. After 20 km he would normally take another road but he smiles and tells us that his wife isn't expecting him before 5pm anyway. So he make a 50 km detour over gravel roads that are covered with a thick layer of ice in order to drop us off about 1 km away from our destination.

The remaining kilometer we tread carefully on the icy road until we reach Wolseley Bay. Nobody is here so far and so we have to wait a bit until Rob, Vroni an the others from Sudbury arrive. Finally two jeeps approach. We get to know Al, Jackie, Ronda and Dave and then we unload two skimobiles from Al's trailer. Al wants to transport the backpacks to the cabin using the snow machines and so Vroni, Rob, Bine and I start to walk over the lake on snowshoes, heading for the cottage. After the first couple of meters we realize that the walk could be much longer and wetter than obvious. On the (safe) ice layer about 50 cm of snow are fallen from which about 40 cm are soaked with water. Even without the backpacks on our shoulders we sink in deeply from time to time, only my rain pants and my gaiters prevent that my boots get flooded.

As we get to the cabin Al just arrives on one of his snowmobiles. The other snow machine had been sunk into the slush twice already and so the baggage has to wait until the surface is refrozen again. Instead we have a welcome beer and go to heat up the cabin already.

After an hour it is cosy and warm inside, a few beer help, too. Later on some more friends of Al - Lee, Nicole and two others - arrive, too. As we get hungry, Vroni and I get going back to the cars in order to grab some food and our backpacks. It will take some time for the surface to freeze, so snowshoes are the best choice. To bring along most of the stuff we use the slay that we find in Al's jeep. The way back is even more exhausting and with the back pack and the slay behind me I am glad about having spikes on the snowshoes that allow me to walk-on the icy road. In contrast on the lake I sink into the slush up to my knees. Vroni is a bit better off on the lake with her classic style snowshoes, bout on the road she had trouble to walk.

As we come back we prepare a yummy dinner and talk for the next hours as we minimize the beer supplies ;-)) Finally we get into our sleeping bags in another (ice) cabin nearby, the stove isn't capable of heating it up in such a short time.

Saturday, February 10^th 2001

The next morning sunshine wakes us up. Now we can see in fact how beautiful it is around here.

After a delicious oatmeal breakfast and after Al has brought the last baggage over we go for a test drive with the snow machines. Lee brought along two of those as well and so we can go for a little tour later on.

The morning passes rapidly while we use the ski-doos to get a slay that is used to transport fire wood with the snowmobiles.

In the afternoon we get on a little snowshoe tour which leads us through a landscape that is deeply covered in snow, passing beaver dams, lakes and woods that are dipped in sunlight.

As we get back to the cabin we warm us up first. In the evening we have some great Käsespätzle and hot apple wine. Later on Vroni, Al, Lee, Al's brother and I take the snow machines to drive to a nearby pub at the end of the lake. Temperatures have already dropped down to -20°C and the air stream adds -20°C wind chill to that. Unfortunately my visor fogs up so that I have to leave it open it in order to see where I am going. As we arrive in the pub my nose is almost frozen, some days later the skin will peel off like a sunburn. As we get going (this time I am wearing my facemask) we take s narrow trail which runs through some spruce and pine woods. It is pure fun to speed ahead on the trail that is only illuminated by the snow machines headlights. At one spot the slushy snow has piled up during the day but is frozen again by now. One of these piles catapults me off my snowmobile, my backside cushions the impact (what is rewarded with a bruise the next day ;-)), otherwise I am fine. The ski-doo runs over a little tree and very kindly come to a halt in front of a much bigger one.

But I am not the only rowdy, Al manages to miss a branch on the trail and turns his mobile a bit to fast. He slide sideward for about 5 meters, then his 250 kg heavy snowmobile gets caught on a snowflake and overturns three times. Al touches down in soft snow and the machine beside a broken windshield only got some scratches. As we pass the jeeps we fill up gas on my ski-doo (the tank holds 70 L which last for only 200 km!). On the lake again we take the groomed snowmobile trail an speed it downwards. The ski-doos accelerate enormously (somewhat the gas has to be burned for ;-)) and one can reach velocities of 160 km/h, I am satisfied with 120 km/h in this night to have some fun ;-))

The rest of the evening we spent in the cosy cabin before we get into our sleeping bags.

Sunday, February 11^th 2001

We have breakfast together and then Bine, Vroni and I go for a snowshoe walk towards a nearby Island.

After our return we go ice fishing in front of the cabin. We have to drill some holes, prepare the rods and wait. As we wait for the fish to get hooked Rob brings us some grilled sausages from the barbeque ;-))

After two hours we give up. The morning passed too fast, now we to pack our stuff and around 3pm we get on started.

Jackie gives us a ride up to the highway where we arrive shortly before sunset. We get dropped off at a service station where a bus line stops every now and then. But we are lucky and no five minutes later we get a ride down to Coldwater from where we get the bus to Toronto and the connection to Waterloo. Around 1:30am we arrive at the University of Waterloo and walk the short way over to the CLTs.