Fall River Camping - It snows

Our daughter's visit home from New Zealand was an excuse to go camping, actually Erin said we had to do it. And it had to be river camping. Mid-October is a grey and cool time and Erin compounded the challenges by convincing her mother to come along. This significantly raised the bar on the comfort levels required for a successful trip.

We planned out meals and gathered together our gear, the biggest difference from our usual kit was the wall tent and wood stove. The wall tent is bright and spacious, 4 metres long, 3 metres wide with a 2 metre peak. However it requires eight 5 metre poles to set it up. I spent an afternoon in the woods behind the house picking out suitably straight jackpines, dead ones are much lighter and stronger than green ones but rare in our forest. We added two big tarps, miles of rope, you can never have too much rope on an outdoor trip, and the camp kitchen - stove, pots and pans, salted nuts, chocolate and a crossword puzzle book.

We had planned an early morning start but we needed a few more things from town. As I started home the snow began. Almost immediately the roads were glazed with ice and cars skidded wildly. Once home we loaded the boat and wondered if we could make it to the boat launch, 5 kilometres away. There was some discussion about why I hadn't yet put the snow tires on the truck.

The road was giddy and the windshield plastered with slush. Slow speed and empty highway, we made it to the river and launched the boat. With great relief I locked up the truck and we pushed off. Once underway I relaxed, we were so much safer on the river and it was way more fun.