Played scotch pairs in the am then continued with Tournament in evening. Won handily in the tournament, tonight will be final game. Weather still hasn't cleared up, rained overnight and is 14C at present.
Getting lots of action on my Honda generator.

  Harv and Ken agreed they would switch places every ten chains so that the blazer could have a rest and the one compassing the line could warm up.  They made good time and by just after noon had blazed out sixty chains of line.  A light snow was still falling and both were damp from their exertions so when they found the stump of a broken tree that had pitch rivulets congealed on the exposed wood they called a halt and started a fire at the base of the stump. In minutes the pitch was melting and the whole stump became engulfed in flames.  They stood in front of this pyre and slowly rotated, first getting warm then quickly getting dry on the outside.  When the fire died down a bit they both cut forked sticks and thawed and toasted their packed sandwiches.  One small thermos of sweetened tea they shared.  In the winter they had always found that leaving the warmth of a good fire after lunch was always difficult, today was no exception and they didn’t start out again for over half an hour.

  All things come to an end, and once more they headed out on their westerly bearing.  They crossed a couple of small openings which eased the blazing for a few moments but necessitated making sure that the line was well marked on either side of the openings.  In a couple more hours they had completed another forty – five chains of line, the base line was now just short of two and a half miles long.

  Harv called a halt while studied the aerial photos then said, “Ken, lets get another fifteen chains in then tomorrow we will make the jog south from there, its about a quarter after three, so we will be getting back after dark, although I’m easy we can just stop here, what do you think?”

  Ken just shrugged, “We’re going to be in the dark anyway the last ways.”

  “Okay then, lets change every five and get this bugger done. We can blaze a little lighter and do a few more trees when we come back tomorrow.”

  They headed out once more and just before four o’clock were heading back to the camp two and a half miles away.

  An hour later the glow of a lantern and the smell of wood smoke welcomed them as they arrived back at camp.  The other two had got back almost an hour earlier, started the fire and started preparing supper.

  As they talked over their meal they discussed a problem that had already emerged the night before.  All of them were awakened through the night by the cold.  They realized that this would happen every night because as soon as the fire was out the cold pervaded the tent almost instantly.  In spite of the spruce bows and cardboard the cold came up into their down sleeping bags. Jerry said he could keep the fire going as he usually had to take a leak every couple of hours, but it would be hard on the wood supply.  The consensus was, ‘keep her going, we’ll cut the wood’!

  Everyone slept better that night, even Jerry as he found getting back to sleep each time was easier with a bit of heat.

  The next morning the light snow had stopped and the thermometer was reading thirty below.  By the time they had finished breakfast and were on the trail it had risen two degrees.  The moose had not revisited the trail so they made good time.

  Harv had decided that when they did the jog in the base line he would cruise the forty chains as one of the cruise strips as it had no value as a baseline.  By the time they completed this half-mile and reached the point where the base line was to recommence they had already put in three hours and it was getting noticeably colder.  At first the cold was passed off with their much slower pace but when they recommenced blazing line the lead man could not stay warm.  When lunchtime arrived they again found a broken stump but much older than the one of the day before.  However once their fire got going it provided adequate heat and they ended up putting in well over an hour before they could push themselves to carry on.