Cold Cold Land

How cold was it camping?

It was so cold that the first night in front of the open fire, I rested my feet on the rim of the fire pit to keep warm. After a while, I felt the bottoms of my shoes grip me. It was like my shoes suddenly wanted to meld with my feet. I stood up and felt for the soles of my shoes. They were warm and soft, in the first throes of melting. I stepped away from the fire and stomped around in the cold to harden them. Then the side of one shoe split. Good thing I brought my hiking boots and I wear old shoes to go camping, although these were my favourite, comfortable old shoes.

The next morning, there was frost on a glass we left out.


There was mist over the lake.


After our hike that day, the cold kicked in again at night. I brought out my faux fur, wrapped my Yemeni pashmina scarf round my head, and put on my gloves. I went to the comfort station to feel the comfort. Two teenage girls were on the floor with cell phones. One looked up at me and gave me a polite, respectful smile. It puzzled me. That's the kind of smile you reserve for old people or foreigners to make them feel welcome. I looked in the mirror. Looking back at me was an old lady wearing fur with a foreign scarf wrapped around her head. (Canadians wear toques and ski jackets.) I looked like a newly arrived immigrant experiencing winter camping for the first time!

The next morning when I stepped outside the yurt, I could barely see ten feet in front of me, the mist on the ground was so thick. We drove along the Hwy 60 corridor. This is what it looked like. You wouldn't think it'd be that cold, and you'd be wrong. We're barely into Fall.