I woke up to find that I had in fact endured the night of stench. Apparently there is enough oxygen in pure stink to survive on. I crawled out of the tent and wished I could put on some clean clothes. I wandered down to the kitchen to find a few others up. I silently wished they could put on clean clothes too.

Today is the start of what Outward Bound calls “finals”. Matt and Jasmin will no longer be with us. They will be “up to six hours behind us’ according to the Outward Bound rule book. Our group is to navigate, camp, cook, hike, set up, tear down, resolve issues, and mountaineer all on our own. We are to use all of the skills that Matt and Jasmin have bestowed upon us for the next four days as we find our way back to a prearranged pick up spot.

After another quick compass & map lesson the ten of us hike off alone. Matt and Jasmin stay back at camp and wave us off. We did manage to tie a million knots in their tent cords on our way by their still set up tent. We heard verbal confirmation of our prank about 15 minutes later when Matt howled his frustration into the mountain air. That was the last we’d hear Matt for the whole day.

The weather was brilliant. The sky was blue and the temperature was perfect to hike. It wasn’t too warm, wasn’t too cool. We hiked a long grueling morning to a creek bed where we ate a pita/honey/peanut butter lunch while watching a nearby marmot that was as equally entertained by us as we him.

Right after lunch we climbed a very steep creek bed up to a flat plateau just below a ridge. It was covered in beautiful alpine heather and we could see up our path for miles. Flat hiking. Perfect. After a group picture we fanned out a little and walked two by two. We laughed, told stories, enjoyed the scenery and generally had a good time. This was probably the single best moment to date in the trip.

We stopped for a snack and a water break. While we ate our peanuts and raisins we began to romanticize about what foods we would like to eat. Julie and I were particularly lonesome for pizza. We began discussing different pizza options. Meat, veggie, should there be pineapple on a pizza? etc… As we talked about the pizza everyone began to lust after the round disc of culinary love. At some point a few days ago Jasmin had told us it cost 1000.00/hour to rent a chopper and that we were a half hour from a chopper site. We started to do the math. It would cost us roughly 110 dollars each to get an extra large pizza up to this plateau. Julie and I immediately put our money where our mouths were. We would have to wait for Jasmin and Matt as they had the satellite phone. After a few minutes we realized the absurdity of the proposal and geared back up to continue hiking. We had gelled though. As a team we were sitting around cracking jokes as if we had known each other for years. And in a way we had. Spending 24 hours a day with people for 16 days puts your “hours together” rate as high as some good friends would have after years of friendship.

We hiked on for another mile or so and then crossed over the spine of the ridge as it neared the end of its path across the mountain. We descended down onto another huge plateau that was crissed-crossed with small streams. It had tall peaks on both sides, framing it much like a photographer would have. We aimed for the middle of the plateau, it was after all the camp site we had picked off of the map that morning. We arrived, set up the kitchen in the small grove of trees and pitched our tents around the plateau. I cooked supper with Super Vero. We all sat, ate and watched a magnificent mountain sunset. We had chocolate pudding for desert to celebrate. Sometimes we talked and laughed. But sometimes we could all just sit there and enjoy the view.

Matt appeared off in the distance and came to check in on us. Apparently he was supposed to do this. He made sure we were fine then went back to where he and Jasmin were camping, which was just out of sight to us. We cleaned up and went to bed.

Bed was interesting. Mice had also decided to enjoy this large plateau. At one point while trying to get to sleep in the frigid night air a mouse ran the entire circumference of the tent multiple times. It seemed like he was racing laps around us. To increase his time he used the inside of the tent walls as NASCAR drivers use the banks of the turns to maintain their speed.

I fell asleep thinking of how big the sky was.

<< Back to Day 16
Move on to day 18 >>

I wake up to the thought, “crap, I can’t sleep this afternoon”. Solo is over. Today I rejoin my hiking mates and we will continue on in our quest for awesome adventure in the mountains of BC, or something like that.

I have a problem, I don’t know, or I can’t remember, what time solo is officially over. Matt said he’d come back and pick us up, but when? 10am? Noon? After supper? As a preemptive strike to Matt’s arrival I dismember my beautiful Muirish home and scattered the many pine bows of my very none Muirish bed. It was probably an Outward Bound faux pas to “collect’ so many pine bows and to use them to sleep on, but with no one around to ask I figured it would be easier to ask for forgiveness. I pack up everything as sat around waiting.

Whilst waiting my butt became very sore. Apparently Mother Nature didn’t take into account the fact that humans needed comfortable spots for their butts in this part of creation. So I took it upon myself to create the ultimate wilderness luxury seat. I managed to wedge my hiking poles between two closely fallen trees so that they leaned back a nice 50-60 degree angle. I then took my ice axe and propped it between the same trees and between my hiking poles. This added a nice support for the poles as the axe is much sturdier, and it provided nice support up the middle of the “chair’. I then took my sleeping pad and placed it over the whole contraption. Blammo! Lazy Boy ala MacGyver. I peed to celebrate my great accomplishment.

After sitting in my wonderful chair for a good long time I decided to take a stroll out to the meadow to see if I would be any less bored out there than in my chair. While standing in the meadow I notice Jacquie just down the hill from me. She had all of her gear packed and had the same “when the heck are they coming” look on her face as I did. I yelled hello and she came up for a visit. We both had no clue when we’d see Matt. We also didn’t know if Solo was still on or not. Oh well. We weren’t going to waste a day sitting around by ourselves wondering if we were going to be picked up or not. I told her to get her ice axe, poles, and sleeping pad. She looked at me like I was crazy, then realized I was and went back to her gear. We made her a chair too.

Matt arrived 10 minutes later to find Jacquie and I playing cards on a log between our two chairs. He did not look impressed (I think it was that fake look of disgust parents put on their faces when their kid has just done something totally wrong but hilarious, like wiping poo on the neighbors cat). Matt told us that we had to complete the “walk of silence” back to the camp. We were not to speak and to sit in silence at base camp until they told us to speak. Matt continued up the hill to tell others the plan. WALK OF SILENCE!?!?!!? It sounds like a Dirge performed at WWE (formerly the WWF) funerals.

Jackie packs up her chair and walks back to her gear. I grab my gear and head back to base camp. I am the first to arrive and find Jasmin cooking us up a load or friendlies. She quietly welcomes me back to camp and tells me to sit down in a large circle around the stoves. How does one person sit in a circle? I think, but cannot say. I sit for a few minutes and watch Jasmine make 911 soup (it was the same kind of soup we had in our first aid gear for emergency meals). People start to stagger in. We all have the “I can’t believe we have to be quiet, we’re frigging adults” look about us. Virge finally arrived and couldn’t look at me because I was making her laugh with funny faces. Finally we were all back, sitting in an oval around the stoves (it was hard to tell them about the circle when I can’t talk).

Jasmin and Matt sat at the focal point. They asked us all how our solo was and Jasmin read us some wilderness poetry or motivational thing. It obviously wasn’t that memorable .

Finally we ate: A nice bowl of soup and a scrumptious breakfast. The first real food we’ve had in our bellies for three days. While we ate Matt and Jasmin told us the day’s plan. We were going to make a peak attempt at Mount Merlot, possibly do some rappelling and rock climbing right off the summit, maybe go for another French peak beside it if time permitted then back to camp. We geared up and were ready to go within minutes.

The hike up was long and tiring. A very long steep grass slope brought us to the base of the mountain where we began the rocky part of the climb. We were able to follow goat paths up a lot of the ridge but they disappeared after the terrain became more granite than soil. We stopped for lunch in wind proof alcove just below the summit. Fog and mist had moved in and visibility was down to a few hundred feet at best. While eating lunch I decided to wipe cream cheese off of my knife with my thumb. Slice. My knife was faced the opposite way I had thought and also much sharper than I had ever though. I sliced a nice straight line diagonally into the pad of my left thumb. Blood flowed freely. I asked for the first aid bag (not in the dramatic Hollywood style where a war wounded soldier cries for a medic). I bandaged up my thumb and finished my pita for lunch. As I was eating the last bites I noticed the blood running down my thumb and further down my wrist. Crap. More bandages, then my mitt.

We climbed to the summit and set up shop for a session on map and compass use. I removed my mitt to grab my compass. The blood was still seeping down my wrist. I also noticed I could not feel my thumb past where I was cut. Extra crap. The bleeding wasn’ stopping because of the higher altitude and the cold, and my thumb was starting to freeze. I missed my tarp and my meadow. Luckily for me Catherine and Petite Vero noticed and came to my rescue. Petite Vero grabbed my thumb in her hand to put pressure on the wound and warm the thumb up while Catherine prepared more dressings. After my thumb was good and warm a nice much tighter bandage was put on and I was good to go. I just didn’t know where as I had missed the map and compass lesson.

We decided to forego the rock climbing as it was freezing cold, rainy, foggy, and I had cut my thumb. We also decided to give up on the other peak attempt for the same reasons. With that decision made Matt and Jasmin decided that we needed to be on our own. They told us to figure out a way back to camp and they would stay far back out of site and meet us back there.
We wandered down the opposite side of the mountain and back around through an absolutely gorgeous valley carved into the rock by glaciers. We followed the water down, great wisdom passed onto me by Super Vero, to our campsite. One the way we saw up Marmots. The Alpine Beaver if you would. Ugly creatures. Some thought they were cute. But in all honesty they looked like large rats.

Back at camp we made supper and headed to bed. I was in a Kiva with Ernie and Peter – please note they did not bring the luxury item of a deo stick as I had. The smell from our three bodies was nauseating. To survive, I slept on one side of the tent with my mouth out the bottom trying to suck in enough oxygen to keep my vital organs intact. I fell asleep wondering how people hundreds of years ago in animal skin tents around the world coped with their foul odour.

<< Back to Day 15
Move on to day 17 >>

In less than three days I have developed a well ingrained routine. I wake up mid morning, eat, sit around for a bit, go back to bed, get up in the afternoon, eat, sit around some more, then go to bed. Today was no exception. The day turned out to be clear again, a little cooler than yesterday, but still nice. I while sitting on the rock in the meadow I did a lot of thinking and writing. A surprising amount actually. Eight pages of thought came out of my head in a somewhat coherent way. Thought topics ranged from relationships, (sounds cheesy I know) to business ideas and everything in between.

As the sun began its slow descent behind the “brown molar”, a hill/mound/mountain we later traversed, I began my slow and predictable crawl into bed. It felt like the night was going to be the coldest. I made sure I was warm and well dressed before I zipped up the mummy bag. Tomorrow will be much more exciting as I will get to see again, what are now very good friends. As I think about this and the boringness of my day sleep snuck up behind me for a surprise attack.

<< Back to Day 14
Move on to day 16 >>

The night once again brought frigid temperatures and scary noises. A couple of times during the night I actually said out loud “Hey Bear”, the sentence Jasmin told us to say if we saw, or thought there was a bear nearby. It’s strange how “city” my ideas about wildlife and survival were. Before Jasmin and Matt enlightened me I would have sworn the best thing to do when a bear was around was to hide and make as little noise as possible. The fact that the opposite is true surprised me.

I woke up a little earlier than yesterday, my first full day of solo. I peaked out of my tarp and saw that the sky was once again clear. My full second day of solo looked like it would be as good as the first.

I wandered over to the kitchen, devoured a few handfuls of GORP, and a few granola bars I smuggled into my solo site. The sun was shining and things were starting to warm up so I decided to clean up at the water source. My water source was the same as everyone else’s, a beautiful mid sized stream that carved its way through the middle of the valley. I sat at the edge of the stream and washed from head to toe (one part at a time) with my little sports towel. The freezing cold water was invigorating. I filled up my nalgenes and headed back to my tarp. Exhausted from the 50 meter trip I crashed back into bed and slept until the middle of the afternoon.

At mid afternoon I crawled back into the world. Another very weird part of solo is the lack of time telling devices. You are not allowed to bring a watch. I went nuts trying to figure out what time it was. The strange part is that it doesn’t matter what time it is. You still want to know though, for some strange civilized reason. I wandered out to the meadow and watched a hawk circling above for an hour or so. It starts to sink in that I have nothing to do but watch, think, smell, sleep. I enjoy the view of the mountains, the mice running around the fields, the hawk in the sky. A large mouse/small gopher scurrying by brought life lessons from Walden, life in the woods flooding back from first year philosophy.

I grabbed a few more bites of food and went back to bed with the sun still up. While I was lying in bed Matt and Jasmin came up for a visit. They were doing their “interview’ section of the course. They talked to me about my expectations before and during the course, told me I was great with people skills, had natural leadership skills, etc..etc.. It was a fairly “feel-good” experience, but it seemed genuine. I found it weird being alone with them. They’ve been our group leaders. Without the rest of the group around it was strange. I realized as they talked that we are the same age. For some reason my brain had blocked this out and falsely assumed that because they were ‘in charge’ and more knowledgeable than me that they must be older. Jasmin was only two years older, Matt just a little less.

Matt and Jasmin moved on to their next interview and I drifted into a dawn induced sleep. My nice slumber was interrupted sometime later that night by the frigging cold. Running on the spot and small inside-sleeping-bag jumping jacks were required to bring things back to sleepable temperatures. I drifted to sleep for the third time in one day thinking about home and how it’s been two weeks in the mountains. Two weeks that have felt like months or maybe even a semester at university.

<< Back to Day 13
Move on to day 15 >>

It’s quite scary to wake up and not know where you are. When you find out you’re totally alone and in the mountains you’re not sure how to react. Last night was my first full night alone, now I face my first full day of my solo. I look down at my watch, 10:30am. It’s the first time sleeping in past nine for over two weeks. For those of you who know me, this is much more remarkable than climbing numerous mountains.

I squeeze out of my tarp and stretch out the night’s stiffness. It was a long cold miserable night. Other than being frozen and having to once again wear fleece mitts on my toes, I was terrified by the noises around me. What was probably a chipmunk, I would have sworn was a bear just about to devour my feet.

I walked over to the kitchen, where I hung my bag of food from a tree, and had a few bites of GORP for breakfast. My water was extra cold as it had frozen a nice thick layer throughout the night. As I sat and ate I realized that I had nothing to do. When I realized and recognized this feeling of having nothing to do, I panicked. I haven’t had a day with nothing to do since grade 11 summer. The feeling was so foreign to me and so buried in my past that I had a hard time adjusting to it. Instead of dealing with it I went back to bed.

A lot of people think that being tired is a result of not getting enough sleep yesterday. The solution is to sleep more today and tomorrow you’ll be fine. From my experience tiredness creeps up on you and gradually adds weight to your shoulders and the bags under your eyes. It’s very much like a tractor pull when you come to think of it. As you drag along further and further, often months at a time, the weight gets closer and closer to you and eventually becomes so unbearably heavy that you stop dead in your tracks.

I woke up at three o’clock in the afternoon. The sun was beaming down on my tarp raising the temperature inside to the temperature of my living room at home. Very nice. I quickly scrambled out of my tent and brought my damp items out to the rock in the meadow to dry. I sat in the sun for hours, soaking in as much heat as I could.

As the sun started to dip I returned to my hut with my warm and dry gear. I gulped down more dry food and crawled into my tarp for another freezing cold night of bear dreams.

<< Back to Day 12
Move to Day 14 >>