July 6th

Coolish all day b u t nice and sunny.oh yes- yesterday's post that was not my paramedics body, it should have been pajammed body but the iPad did its word interpretation. Got the gunn trophy event started then the young family arrived from Nanaimo to check out the motor home. Visited with friend Audrey who is here for the Todd wedding. Jayke is also visiting (that's Erika's dog). So throwing a ball was a major past time. Oh yes, also took tables and chairs into Todd's for the wedding event.

7.

  Only Jerry and Harv went into the office the following morning.  It was quickly confirmed that after a two-day layoff Harv, Ken and Milford would return and finish the cruise.  This would not be as fast as with two crews but would be faster than just the usual pair.  One man could take all the samples and spell off the one compassing from breaking trail all day.

  The short holiday passed quickly and two mornings later the trio were pulling out just before eight in the morning.  The temperature had warmed up to just below freezing.  By the time they were going through Fort St. James large raindrops were hitting the windshield.  They had taken packed lunches and shortly after noon were at the shack inside the jeep. The rain had slackened to a drizzle but the air was quite warm.

  After lunch, they strapped on their snowshoes and headed up the lake, each with a light pack of a few extra supplies.   The first half mile was quite good snow shoeing as the snow was packing well, but the rain started coming harder and in a short time they were alternating as the lead man every ten minutes or so.  A layer of slush was building up under the surface of the snow and in a very short time their snow shoes were starting to build a cake of half frozen slush along the bottom side.  It took two and a half hours to reach the exit point from the lake.

  Conditions were much better once under the trees; although large chunks of snow were starting to tumble from the branches above, some of them hitting heads or shoulders quite solidly.  They arrived at the camp around four and found the fly that stretched out past the tent had collapsed on one corner from the weight of falling snow chunks.  This was quickly repaired; they got a fire going and settled down to put in a long evening.

  The next morning they were on the trail at the usual time, the moose had again visited their packed trail and had destroyed it worst than the first time.  They again took turns leading and because of new snow and the fact that it was just about freezing the trail packed in quickly and the third man had easy going.

  The new snow and the warm temperature however soon impacted on their speed when once again they were running the strip lines.  The third man system however, compensated somewhat and in spite of being further out on the trail they managed that day to exceed the hundred and twenty chain goal by twenty chains.

  That night the temperature cooled again, the thermometer reading minus fifteen the next morning.  They were almost ecstatic over that.  The snow would be crusty and the packed trail would be hard.  It would still be cool enough so they wouldn’t get wet from the inside out because of sweat.

  Everyday for the next week they exceeded their goal and on one notable day actually completed over two hundred chains, which is what they would average during the summer.  This fete was aided by the condition of the base line trail and they could on the trip out and back go along at a trot.