I’m eight days into my visit to Canada. I’m here to learn more about traditional winter travel and put some of the learning into practise. Some in depth articles will follow. For now here’s a quick round up:
Most of Canada has been experiencing abnormally mild weather. Many places usually snowbound at this time are snow free leaving residents scratching their heads but enjoying life without the extra layers and snow boots! Fortunately the first proper snow of the season arrived here in Nova Scotia a day before I arrived and there’s been snow on the ground ever since. Daytime temperatures hover around freezing and nights dip down to -12 or so. Pretty comfortable.
The snow has provided some opportunity to see signs of the local inhabitants. One of those much in evidence is the Coyote. A young woman died after a very rare coyote attack near here a couple of months back. There are still calls in the press for a cull but as usual with this sort of thing it seems like everyone has their own agenda. It doesn’t make sense to me.
The first day or two were taken up by making some felt mukluk liners and starting some mukluks. Mukluks are the traditional winter footwear of the northern Native Americans. They’re impressively good and they provide some interesting insights into the shortcomings of modern footwear and the efficiency of natural materials.
Next up were snow shoes. Ian had a pair of frames ready for lacing. For a comparison to the traditional rawhide I used nylon tape. Several hours of crossed eyes and crosser words followed!
The past four days have been spent felling a decent sized birch, planking it up and using the planks to piece together the secrets of toboggan making by trial and error. The traditional way of carrying a winter load, toboggans are simple creations but like most things require working knowledge and skill to get right. An absolutely fascinating four days split between the woods and the workshop spent crafting, chewing the cud over primitive and modern construction techniques and marvelling at the ingenuity of it all.
We now have two toboggans ready for a test run in the morning. Their first job is hauling a new tent and stove into the woods for a trial run before heading out on the trail for a few days
Sounds wonderful. I’d love the opportunity to develop some of these skills.
Yep, it’s a real privilege. Fascinating to think about the technology and how it’s evolved and giving some of it a go.
Great stuff. All the best Nick and take care.