After 24 years of research I’ve concluded that there is nothing worse than waking up wet and cold. Well this morning it’s not entirely nature’s fault. At the start of the trip Jasmin let us know that if you’re cold at night and you have to pee, then by golly pee! Apparently your body wastes a lot of energy heating up your pee if you have to go. Last night I had to pee so bad. I’m pretty sure I had a good two liters bottled up down town. There was no way that I was going to get out of my bed to drain though. So I laid there and shivered all night, even in my dreams.

This morning brought more snow. Our tent was covered and the ground had a new fresh layer, hiding all of the wet boggy spots. I am one of the first people out and about as I’m on breakfast duty with Super Vero. I arrive in the kitchen to find Super Vero living up to her name. She’s already well into making breakfast. I pitch in and we have it done in a flash. We all eat, curse the weather, and pack up our wet, snow covered gear.

Some of the girls are shivering, not the kind when you get the chills from walking in from the car either. They had the teeth shattering chattering going on. One of the girls actually asked me how I was still in a good mood when things were so awful. I don’t really remember what I told her. It seemed to help though.

We started hiking up once more. Our packs weigh another pound or so because of the wetness and the snow. It’s snowing enough that it actually accumulates on your pack. We’re hiking up a fairly steep grass slope with about 4 inches of snow on it. This makes for a few tricky spots and one hilarious moment. I was sweeping and Catherine was right in front of me (second last in the hiking line). She lost her footing and went down on her butt. She then proceeded to slide 40-50 feet down the hill on her butt, laughing all of the way.

As we got higher and higher the snow was thicker and thicker, on the ground and in the air. The wind also started to become a factor. The wind was blowing the snow into our faces, making for miserable goings.

We hit the proper elevation mark and started to traverse around the mountain to drop into a valley on the other side. During the traverse Matt and I started talking to Catherine about Quebec separating. It was the first time in my life I’ve actually talked to someone from Quebec about their want to separate. Something to keep in mind is that Catherine’s English is as poor as my French. This confuses the whole conversation and a lot of it is actually spent laughing at ourselves. Catherine told us that having driven across the country multiple times that being French makes you feel like you’re in a totally different country when you are in another province. I quickly realized that this must be true as I feel like I’m in a totally different country when I’m in Quebec. The difference is that I have eight other provinces (excluding my own – PEI) to fit in. She pointed out the differences in culture, the difference in politics, etc.etc..etc… The most amazing thing that I discover though is that if Quebec was to separate a lot of people, Catherine being one of them, would not want Montreal in their country. Matt and I were both a little taken aback by this. But apparently Montreal is as English as Toronto and real Quebecer’s want nothing to do with it. I lightened the mood up by offering, on behalf of English speaking Canada, Edmonton as a trade for Montreal.

As we come around the corner of the mountain a huge valley opens up before us. It is absolutely gorgeous, even in the snow. There is a medium sized creek running right down the middle and it is surrounded by peaks. We make our way down into the valley.

We find a good spot and set up tents and the kitchen. But we’re not sleeping there tonight. It’s solo time. Solo is a time where you are on your own for three full days and three full nights. Here’s how I describe it in my Journal on Day 12.

“Everyone is about 200 feet apart on their own parcel of land. Each person gets a small tarp and a small bag of food (nuts, a little dried fruit, etc). They (Matt and Jasmin) take your knife, watch, lighters, and other distractions (books, cameras etc). “

This is a time to be completely alone. While you’re only 150-200 feet from the next person you never see them as it is a wooded area. We are all perpendicular to the stream so we all have a water source.

Matt walks us up to our spots and drops us off. I get a nice parcel of land with a small clearing between two patches of trees. We’re at lower elevations now so the snow isn’t as thick on the ground. It’s also stopped snowing. I get to work building my tarp/tent. The tarp is a rectangle piece of rubberized canvas that is about 5 feet wide by 9 feet long. It has six strings attached to it. From this I have to make a shelter that will keep the wind, rain, and other elements out. I pick a stop with a very slight grade downhill and that abuts a large fallen tree. This tree will server as my wind block for the head area of the tarp. By tying the strings to trees, sticks I pound into the soft ground and eventually my ice axe, I make a shelter that Matt calls “a bomber”. To pass the time I also make a wooden rib to hold the tarp up off my body allowing me to turn in my sleep without rubbing the tarp and getting soaking wet.

Before it gets dark I climb into bed. It’s so cold. It is the coldest night by far. I lift my legs up off the ground and run on the spot while lying down to warm up. I do this 10-15 times throughout the evening to stay warm. I also jump and squirm with each noise I hear. Bear Paranoia. Sleep finally comes. Vivid dreams of Foxesque ‘When Bears Attack” reality TV haunt my sleep.

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