Greetings from Ontario Canada

My list is typed out and I am ready. [I've been ready for months!] Our spring is about two weeks behind this year. It's been a tough winter here too. The Ministry of Natural Resources has determined that we have lost about half of our deer population. Which means of course that in two years time we will have a significant increase in the moose population.

 

Grizzly bears are mostly in the western parts of Canada as you identified. The camps sites that I will be going to on this occasion are not far from the urban area and are - what they call - organized. I have trouble saying...organized. I'm into free spiriting camping as you know. So they have the showers etc but do sleep in various tents under the care of leaders, I'm privileged because I bring my own equipment and share my tent arrangements with myself.

 

I'm planning to come back, hopefully with a story or two.

 

You will do fine. I'm gonna tell yah - soon as I get to a certain point in my travel north the stress and the anxieties just seem to fade away. I hope that is exactly what happens to you and you enjoy every bit of time away. You may think you are an "out of practice camper" - but it all comes back. Reading the material that you have posted suggests that you never lost it. You just had to put it on the shelve for awhile - like a good book. The time will come when you can take it off the shelve and get right back into it. And that will be a happy day.

 

Good for you! When we go tripping it is our practice to keep a journal so we don't forget the funny things that people did. We use to have the Moose Award for the first person who did something really silly. Like accidentally tip a canoe or something else that was funny. I've kept the journals and sometimes when a winter night is really bitter I take them off the shelf and read them. It is like being there again.

 

That's funny. It reminded me once when I was winter camping. I was really tired and for whatever reason I didn't peg the tent to the snowy ground. I just walked in and tried to put up the centre poles. It didn't work of course. In my frustration I came outside to peg the tent like I shouldn't have done in the first place only to confronted by the group clapping [for my idiocy]. "Why are you guys clapping," I said. One guy said, "Because it's the best entertainment we've seen."

 

True...and that's what it is all about. Certainly a different environment and the humour is usually good and rich and wholesome.

 

I feel the same. Sometimes...when things are a bit tough I will journal. It helps me sort things out and release emotions and feelings that I'm not ready to share with others. But most times I use it for preserving good memories with good friends and good times.

 

I get the whole weekend off starting at noon Friday and Monday is my usual day off. I sure hope that the weather will change too; it sure has been miserable in this neck of the woods. Yes, I've set up in the rain more than I would like to recall. The good thing about the Alaknak it stays dry even when it is on the ground. Then when I put in the centre pole it just makes it all that better. Of course I get wet but I change soon as everything is in place.

There is no running water this weekend so I take my wash stand and signal burner stove to heat the water for wash up. The meals will be cooked in a cabin so I don't have to do any meal preparation. Looking at the program I'm not doing a lot anyway. But I'm there as a care person.

 

It doesn't take long to enter the fire season - we will have a lot more this summer. They are predicting a hot one.