I had trouble sleeping. One minute I was scared and the next I was excited. I felt like a kid on Christmas eve. You know the feeling. The feeling of "ooh I hope I see Santa tonight" but also the fear of what would actually happen if you did see Santa "what if he sees me and I'm supposed to be sleeping? I'll get no toys! Crap! Better close my eyes and go to bed. These are the thoughts that ran through my mind "What am I doing? Am I crazy? I'm going to sleep outside in the winter...in a tent! I hardly like summer camping let along winter camping. Will I be cold? Ooh I remember that story John told me about winter camping. Uh oh Will this be fun? Will this be an adventure or a death sentence. What will I eat?"
I woke up on Saturday, packed my gear and got dressed. I put on a pair of wool long johns, followed by polar fleece leggings and a light pair of wind pants. On top, over the woolly long john shirt, I layered an Under Armor turtle neck and fleece shirt. That paired with 2 pairs of wool socks, an LL Bean 3-in-1 Parka topped off with a down parka and pair of winter army boots and I was golden. Off to meet up with the group. I was a mixed bag of emotions. Excited, nervous and unsure about how this trip would pan out.
The group consisted of 9 people. Our Master Maine Guide Polly who lived in Alaska & the Yukon Territory for 15 years, famous author/survival expert Guide Gil Patrick (who was on the trip to write a chapter about Winter Travel for the latest edition of his book-Outdoor Leadership Handbook), John Wayne & his 2 daughters, Lisa (another Maine guide learning about the Art of Winter Camping), Brian who was the chief cook and carer of the puppies and Colin an intern from Colby. I knew I was in good hands. I was the only true rookie, as John Wayne had taken his son on two of these trips before.
First we were briefed on safety. Then we had to round up all 17 dogs and 4 puppies in an orderly fashion. The dogs were big,beautiful and strong. They love to pull so the men could take a dog on their own, but the girls had to team up while bringing the dogs to be loaded into Polly's truck. I was teamed up with John Wayne's daughter, Lilah. Instead of regular leashes they have nylon rope with eye hooks on the end that clip on the dogs collar. One by one the dogs were loaded into the truck. This process took about 45 minutes to an hour. There was definitely a process going on. Polly loaded the dogs in a particular order.
Once the dogs were loaded, Brian loaded the puppies into his truck and I hopped into the front seat of John Wayne's Hummer! Score! Lisa sat in the back with the girls and we headed into the mountains, through Grafton Notch to Lake Umbagog. The drive took about 1/2 hour. Once we arrived, Polly drove her truck onto the ice and unpacked the sleds. We were taught how to lay out the lines of the sled, how to tie the sled up, how to use the emergency break (which was a dangerously big, iron claw that could rip your face off in a heartbeat), we were taught basic commands to get the team going, how to break and how to watch the line for tangled dogs. Then we packed the gear on to the komatick and in the sleds, brought the dogs out of Polly's truck and tied them up to the sleds and away we went.
The sled silently glided over the snow packed ice, the only sound was that of the whooshing snowing between the sled rails and my feet. A feeling of calm serenity overcame my consciousness. My eyes darted from the dogs to the glorious mountains that I was nestled between. I was amazed at how silent the dogs were. Their feet moved silently together in perfect harmony. When dog sledding you have to pay attention to what's going on, you have to be in the moment. You have to forget all your worries of the day. Forget work, forget family, forget trouble and just be in the moment because if you're not paying attention to the "here and now" bad things can happen. Our destination was a bush camp 8 miles away.
Once we arrived at the bush camp, I was expecting to have a chance to relax and reflect a bit on the day. FAT CHANCE. Once we arrived, we had to take all 17 dogs in an organized manner from the sleds to their respective tree lines, where they were tied up for the night. Each dog has their own designated area. Once that was done we had to tie up ropes and turn the sled on its side. Then we needed to give all the dogs hay for their beds and food. After they were fed we had to walk 1/2 mile out on the ice and chop a hole through it in order to get water. The process of chopping through the ice took 4 of us about 30 minutes. The ice was 8 inches thick. It was hard work. Then we dipped the buckets in the hole, filled them up with water and lugged them back to camp so we could boil it for drinking and cooking. Hooray for Swamp Water! Just kidding.
After chiseling the ice, we then had to collect logs, dead trees, branches, twigs and birch bark for the nights camp fire that we were going to set on the ice. I learned how to spot dead trees and then take them down from Lisa. We then collected them in a spot on the ice where Gil snapped them into smaller, more usable pieces. Once that task was complete the women took off to gather fur boughs. First I had to learn how to identify a fur tree from a spruce, cedar, etc. Fur=flat. Then I had to look for boughs whose diameter was the size of a pencil and snap them off and bring them back to camp where they were wrapped in a tarp. The boughs would be used the next day, to freshen up the floors of the tent (really to cover bare spots of snow) in the traditional Cree way. Finally we had to collect sticks, moss, birch bark to make the perfect "twiggy bundle" which was for the wood stoves. The bundles was then tied with twine. It seemed as though the days work was finally done.
So we had water to live, wood for fire to keep us warm, boughs for comfort and now we were off to the cook tent for some din-din which consisted of a sausage patty, homemade mac & cheese, along with a mix of peas and corn. I had a cup of tea to wash it all down then it was onto the ice to light the fire. It was minus 15 when we started the fire and Lisa went around to the different tents to start up the wood stoves. After making a few s'mores it was time to hit the sack and that's when the real fun began.
I climbed into the tent and had to zip myself inside 2 mummy bags. I had on a hat, wool long underwear, polar tech leggings, a fleece top, down slippers, a hat and a turtle. I was looking at these 2 bags trying to figure out how on Earth I could get into 2 bags and zipper them both up. Good grief! The guide told me to get into both bags, zip up the outer one and then, zip up the inner bag. You would think that getting inside a sleeping bag and zipping it up is nothing more than child's play but holy crap let me tell you, it wasn't. It was dark, the only light I had was the lamp attached to my forehead. I was able to zip the outer bag pretty easily, then I blindly had to feel around for the zipper on the inner, which was difficult seeing as though my arms could barely move in the mummy bag and I could hardly see a thing. I finally zipped up the inner bag and realized that I didn't have the hood up. So I had to unzip myself, put the hood of both sleeping bags over me head, zip up both bags again and then try to find the 4 pull strings inside the bag. "Seriously, why the Hell am I doing this? I can't believe this is my idea of fun." I thought to myself. I couldn't find the pull strings, Lisa came over, stuck her hands in my bags and felt for them. "Here you go" she said. So I pulled the top left trying which tightened the outer hood of bag #1 then the bottom left which tightened the chest area of bag #1. Then on the right side I pulled the top right which tightened the inner hood of bag #2 and the bottom right which tightened up the chest area. Okay, I was good to go. I pulled my hat down and my turtle up so that the only thing peeking out of the bag were the slits of my eyes and I thought "I hope I don't have to pee during the night."
The night was long. At one point I started sweating and there was a heavy weight on my chest, I took off my hat and slippers. I think my body was just adjusting to the cold, bluster winter air. It was a really long night. I prayed I wouldn't get frostbite. I woke up at 5:45am and Lisa lit the wood stove. We changed our clothes, washed up, brushed our teeth and headed over to the cook tent where we ate bacon and blueberry pancakes. SOOOOO delish.
After breakfast we packed up our tents, dried the sleeping bags, restocked the firewood, fed the dogs and learned how to lay the bough flooring for the tents in the tradition of the Cree. Then we had to get the sleds ready, bring out the dogs one by one and head out on the trail. Once on the trail we had about 8 miles to mush until we reached our starting point where we had a bit of lunch. Lunch both days consisted of granola bars, tea and fruit leather. We loaded up the dogs and sleds and headed back to to Newry. Once there we unloaded the dogs and said our goodbyes.
So why did I torture myself? I don't really know. What I do know is that I spent 2 days dog sledding in the Bush and in that short amount of time learned a great deal about myself and about nature. I would go again and recommend it to everyone. I also discovered that I want to learn more about living in the natural world. I learned that nature gives us what we need in order to live. I look at the natural world with new eyes and wonder what it means to be modern. I realize that it takes a group of people to survive in nature, one cannot do it alone. I look at all the green-jobs, renewable energy and concerns about global warming and say "Do we need to redefine modernity?" We all need to get back to nature a bit more both collectively and individually. We take nature for granted and have strayed so far from our natural human roots that we now find ourselves and our planet in dire circumstances. We all need to contemplate more and spend more time in the woods, with nature, with ourselves. We need to learn how to respect nature for she is a wonderful teacher and perhaps we can learn to find a bit of harmony within ourselves as we attune spiritually to the rhythms of mother nature.
I enjoyed the tale of your winter adventure. Can't wait to get back to Umbagog again.
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