Résumé en français
Des fois ça fait vraiment du bien de ne plus avoir à se battre contre les éléments. Prendre le temps d’apprécier ces moments.
Yet another I-spend-time-in-the-forest summary. No more snow. At all. I was afraid of two black beasts though:
- Black bears should have come out of their caves by that time, I did not see any footprint nor any particular damages on trees. I still hang my food though.
- Black flies were still absent. You have to know that you cannot beat them, they bite you! I learned that the hard way last year so now the end of May + entire June month are blacklisted (ah!).
When the two dangers you can face are absent you feel definitely relieved but even better no more snow means easy access to water, fire starting becomes a matter of seconds and you do not have to rush to build your shelter, yay!
Earn or learn
- earn: I am back at being able to accurately evaluate time given distance left during the hiking part.
- learn: burning my toilet paper when there was snow all around was clever, still doing it close to dry birch bark was incredibly silly. Next time I bring my trowel.
- earn: I wasn’t sure if it was a hiking, fishing or bushcrafting trip and thus a bit afraid to try to do all these badly. In the end it was fun to alternate between these activities.
- learn: fishing is a matter of timing, at 5am I was able to hear fishes jumping in the lake but too lazy to get up by 1°C, later in the day there was no activity anymore so… empty stomach :-).
- earn: I found the perfect spot, a rather big lake with no close human activity and a hiking trail close by. Lots of animals and resources. So happy!
- learn: I took the bus to go and get back from the starting point, it was cheaper but in the end it doubled the time and I ended up more tired than when I drive (I am heavily subject to transports’ sickness). Maybe a compromise would be to be dropped by car at some point and then reach the bus station after a few days to come back home.
- earn: waiting for the bus a few hours (you don’t want to miss the unique bus of the day) allowed me to discover a new place to rest/eat and discuss with local people. Oh, and a route for bikepacking!
Overall, it was good (hence the title) and I even found a place to go with my son this summer, hopefully not infested by mosquitoes. Double happiness.
