An Emergency Fire - Part 2 of 3 parts.

Read Part one first.
During our hike I had noticed round holes in the deep snow, in various sections of the river. They were no more than six inches across and very deep.

I was in the lead at the time and Jim had fallen behind as he was having troubles with his snowshoes. Every so often he would stop and re-adjust them
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While I waited from him to catch up I snowshoed over to another of the mystery holes. I was trying to think what kind of animal would make such a hole. It was a perfect hole all the way around and there were no tracks of any kind near it.

I decided to get a better look so I bent down to peer into the hole. All of a sudden the snow under my snowshoes dropped about two feet and into the river. As I fell forward I automatically put my hands out . They plunged into the deep snow and then hit something solid and I stopped falling.

It took a second or two to for the situation to sink in. My feet and snowshoes were on a large rock in the river. My hands were on another large snow covered rock and my body made a bridge from one rock to the other, while the river gurgled by below me. The tips of both snowshoes were in the running water and my knees were slowly sinking in as well, because the weight of my pack was pushing me down.

Jim by then had rush closer, still pulling the toboggan. I yelled at him to stay back as there was no point in him joining me. I realized I was not going to stay in this position much longer and the only way to get out was to step into the water and hope it was not too deep

When my knees were about six inches into the water I could feel the snowshoes slipping off the rock so I was going into the river one way or another. At some point I just stepped into the water and in about two strides I was back up again and on the snow covered ice. Jim claimed later, that my feet were pumping so fast he could hardly see me for the spray of water.

Fortunately the water was only a foot or so deep as it was a rocky rapids. Both snowshoes went in the river and before I had gone two feet, the water on them froze instantly and the weight made it almost impossible to move. I quickly slipped off my pack board and just dropped it in the snow. The snowshoes came off next.

I had to get the rawhide ties on my moccasins untied before they froze or I would be forced to cut them off.
As I worked away at the moccasins, I heard Jim calling, “What can I do to help? What should I do?”

I simply replied, “I need a fire and I need it fast. Clear a spot and get wood as quickly as you can.”

I was wearing special duck pants that were water proof so my knees did not get wet, but the water froze on them instantly. The pants at my knees were frozen stiff in a half-bent condition. I got the moccasins untied and then helped get the fire started. We always carried birch bark paper, dried grass, and small twigs in our toboggan box for just such an emergency. Jim brought that to me and I got the fire going and began to add some of the first pieces of small wood he had gathered. I continued to tend and increase the fire as he hauled more wood. We were very fortunate there were a lot of dead trees standing on the bank of the river.

Jim had dumped his backpack and left it with the toboggan on the river below. Once he had a good supply of wood he brought his equipment to the site of the fire. It did not take long before we had a good strong fire going. Jim’s used his snowshoes as shovels to move more snow back.

Once the heat from the fire started to take effect, we started to relax and discuss what had happened. It was all my fault for being too curious and I got caught. We were just lucky we did not venture too close to the other holes. We realized they each indicated where there was fast running water and no ice.

My feet did not get wet but I did change socks. When the moccasins had the ice melted off of them and they were all warmed up, I was able to put them back on. My mitts got a little wet on the outside and were covered in ice but my woolen mitts and hands did not get wet.

We got some coffee going and tried to wind down from all the excitement. Getting wet in the middle of winter was bad enough but getting wet at 50 below zero was very dangerous.

The biggest problem now was that each snowshoe was coated in ice. All the cat gut webbing as well as the wooden frames were thickly coated.. Each snowshoe weighed about twenty extra pounds. It was necessary to take the back of the hatchet and tap the snowshoes section by section against a log, until all the ice was knocked off. The cat gut webbing is strong but it could crack and break if abused. Damaged snowshoes would have been a serious problem.

After about an hour working on the snowshoes we were able to get our kit back together and loaded. We still had a few hours until dark and I wanted to get walking and get warmed up again before we stopped for the night.

Back on the trail Jim took the lead and I hauled the toboggan. He made a point of giving any holes in the snow a wide berth. I noticed that Jim was continuing to have trouble with his snowshoes. He would step aside to adjust the bindings, and would let me pass. If he were not careful, his foot would slip out of the binding and on his next step he would plunge one foot into the deep snow and fall.

I took the lead, even though I had the toboggan, as it made it easier for him to deal with his bindings. Before we stopped for the night it appeared that he had the problem solved, so we had eaten up a few more miles before it started to get dark.

We picked a good campsite that was sheltered from the wind and had lots of firewood nearby. We had used up our emergency fire starter so it took us a little longer to get the fire going. With a strong fire crackling nearby we used our snowshoes to clear a good site for the tent. In no time the tent was up and the sleeping bag were hanging from some sticks poked into the snow near the fire. A toasty sleeping bag was a must.

Working around the fire and cooking our meal allowed the ice on my knees to melt and soon they were dry. It was agreed that we would take turns sleeping while the other person kept a good sized fire going through the long night. We took turns each couple of hours. We slept in our clothes as it was too cold to take even our parkas off.          End of Part 2 - See part 3.

　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Overnight Hike to Test the Equipment

Mid December of 1951 a lot of snow had fallen and we were thinking about getting out snowshoeing.
Jim and I were passionate readers of Canadian stories about trappers and hunters of the North. While we were only sixteen we had done a fair amount of snowshoeing , and we were anxious to plan a winter overnight hike. We felt we were old enough to venture out in to the wilderness on our own.

We were encouraged to take a short overnight trip first, to organize and test our equipment, so we reluctantly agreed. Our present moccasins were not satisfactory so we knew we needed proper moccasins. So, that meant Indian made originals.

Jim’s father knew a source and arranged to order us each a pair. I can remembered the night they arrived and I first saw them at Jim’s house. The bottoms were tough moose hide while the uppers were soft deer skin. The uppers also had fancy Indian beadwork Now we would not only look like trappers and hunters but our feet would be a lot warmer.

I owned a pair of snowshoes and Jim had arranged to borrow a pair. We learned that the trappers of the North used lamp wick to tie their snowshoes on. Many places up north still had oil lamps so we had little difficulty in buying what we needed. We wished to copy the old traditions of the Canadian wilderness.

Our overall plan was to snowshoe the Brokenhead River which lies Northeast of Winnipeg and flows North west to Lake Winnipeg. It would be about a fifteen mile snowshoe hike each day and we would stay overnight.

Before we selected a date for the trip we decided to try out our equipment on a short trip along the Red River south of Winnipeg. We had someone drive us to the south side of the city and drop us off. We quickly discovered the new moccasins were perfect and kept our feet warm. We had felt insoles and wore two pair of heavy socks.

We each had a pack-board with our sleeping bags and personal equipment strapped on. We had a small toboggan to haul the two man tent and camping gear. We took turns hauling the toboggan while the other person broke trail. The snow was about two feet deep so we worked hard snowshoeing.

After a number of hours we picked out a good site to set up the tent and when that was done we built a good fire and made our supper. The weather was not too cold so sleeping in the tent was fine. We decided that we would take turns keeping the fire going all night while the other person slept or tried to sleep. Our test outing was really roughing it but we were satisfied that we had all the gear we needed to make a successful trip.

We had lots to eat and plenty of coffee so there were no complaints. The night did pass rather slowly but we managed to sleep between our duties tending the fire.

The only real difficulty occurred in the morning with breakfast. During the night all our food and water had frozen solid. . We had snow to melt and soon had hot coffee to drink while the bacon fried. The problem was with the eggs that were frozen rock hard.
　
We tried to peel the shells off but they were impossible to remove. Our plan of action was to use our hatchet to chop up the eggs and toss the pieces in the frying pan and then fish out the shells as they thawed.

Jim set an egg on the ground and then gave it a bang or two with the back of the axe. It made not the slightest mark. I was sipping coffee and giving advise. “Whack it with the blade of the axe and whack it hard!”

Jim’s next blow was full power and he hit the egg solidly but the blade simply skidded off and we watched amazed as the egg sailed off sideways through the air and landed about twenty feet away. It disappeared into the snow with a little pouf.

As we endeavored to find it we began to realized the egg was exactly the same color as the acres of snow that lay all around We searched on our hands and knees through about ten square feet of snow before we gave up and headed back to the fire.

It was getting daylight by this time and I stepped forward to take my turn with the next egg. I cleared the snow away down to bare ground and prepared the egg for execution. I am a little bigger than Jim so I put all my strength into the swing with the hatchet.

My aim was on target and I hit the egg perfectly. The next thing we knew the egg was sailing off in the opposite direction. We watched with dismay as the egg sailed about thirty feet and buried itself in a large snowdrift. We felt and looked like a couple of idiots but no one was watching.

We were soon digging into the drift with our hands trying to locate the egg. We notched it up a little and used our snowshoes to search but the egg avoided detection. Try as we might we could not find that very white egg.

At this point we had worked up quite an appetite so went back to the fire to eat the well cooked bacon and about six pieces of toast each. As we sat and enjoyed our coffee, we agreed that we would not take eggs on our next trip.

We broke camp and loaded up our gear and just before we continued on our journey we each took one of the remaining frozen eggs and threw them away as far as we could. No doubt they were still frozen in June.

Other than the egg problem, the rest of the trip went off as planned and we headed home to make the final plans for the Brokenhead River trip.