To the outside and back again!

We have visited civilization and lived to tell about it! We left here on January 9th and drove as far as Germansen Landing on the snowmobiles. We stayed the night at the cabin of a friend and left early for Prince George with the truck. Since we were leaving on a Sunday, we could not fill up at the store, but didn't think we needed to - our tank showed 355km until empty, and we only had 224km to go. It was snowing heavily when we left and once we got not too far down the main road we were driving through close to 8" of heavy, wet snow. Our fuel mileage dropped in half and the gauge was dropping fast. Once we got to where logging trucks had been on the road we were able to speed up a bit and get the truck into overdrive and get the mileage up again. When we finally got to the first gas station, we were pretty relieved. Our 105 litre tank took 106.59 litres! We thought we might have to stop at the logging camp outside town to see if we could buy enough fuel to get us where we were going.

We were also back in the land of running water, flushing toilets and fast food! The novelty of the fast food wore off after the first stop to A&W though. I didn't care where we ate though - as long as I didn't have to cook it! We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in Prince George that was beautiful and the hosts were very good. They have grandchildren of their own and were happy to have kids around. I was happy to have a bathtub with lots of hot water!

Cohen needed some unexpected dental work, one of the reasons for coming out, and $800.00 later we were on our way... We also had to take our furs in to the NAFA (North American Fur Auction's) depot. It was a neat experience. For trapping being one of the oldest industries in Canada - it was a very modern and up to date process. The furs were counted and the numbers recorded against the trapline/trapping license. Then they were tagged with a barcode. From there they make their way to Winnipeg, where the next auction will be in March. Once there the furs are tumbled to fluff them up and get them in prime condition. At the auction, buyers from all over the world show up to make their purchases.

We also did some much needed shopping. Our Superstore receipt was 4 feet long! After a couple of days though, we were very happy to be on our way back to our haven in the bush. After filling every square inch of the truck box with food and fuel, and putting a cargo net over what didn't fit - we were on our way. At the last gas station we would see I stayed extra long in the bathroom just holding my hands under the warm running water. It had rained the whole time we were out and we were worried about how the logging road would be. We were in luck though, as it had just been graded and was like a highway! We made it as far as Germansen Landing the first night and the next day would head back to the lake on our snowmobiles. Because it had rained a lot while we were out, the snow on the shoulders of the road we had snowmobiled in on was long gone. We had two options to get home. We could wait for it to snow enough to make the road run, or we could trailer the snowmobiles to the trail head about 15km away and start from there. Driving the snowmobiles on ice that long would have meant burned out sliders and/or overheating - neither of which are good for the machines. It was snowing that morning, and with a few good hours of that we could have been on our way. Too quickly, it turned to rain and we had to resort to plan B. With the generous and much appreciated help of the friends where we were staying - we borrowed a trailer and they drove us to the start of our trail. We unloaded the snowmobiles and skimmers and then transferred groceries and fuel out of our truck into them. We were heavily loaded and still had to leave stuff behind for pickup at a later date!

Once on the trail we still had about 20km to go. We soon found out that in the sticky, wet snow that the skimmer I had on behind pulled like a stone boat (the story of this skimmer is for another post!) We decided about a kilometre into the trail that Tim would continue on to the cabin, leave the kids with Heather, unload his skimmer and come back for half my load. When he came back it was dark and I have to admit - I was starting to hear things! In the drizzle I had tried to start a fire that failed miserably so I covered it all with snow so Tim couldn't see. After lightening the load, we were on our way and not too far into it, I sped up a big hill, way too easily. I turned around to find out I was sans skimmer. After turning around Tim said I had lost it less than a kilometre from where we had started off. The hitch pin had broken. He was able to MacGyver something out of his tool kit and we were off AGAIN. We limped the rest of the way home. Heather had a delicious supper ready for us that we were very ready to eat! We have kind of started a custom of having supper ready for the family travelling in from the outside. It makes for a nice welcome home.

We are glad that we are back and even more glad that we don't have to go back out until well after spring!