Man and Dog by Justin Barbour

Author:Justin Barbour
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flanker Press
Published: 2019-10-04T19:31:08+00:00

Chapter 10

Cold Spring Pond to St. Alban’s

“I’m not afraid of the darkness. Real death is preferable to a life without living.” — Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer and first European to reach India by sea

Day 35

Shooting through rapids on our way to the third supply drop

Today started dynamically. A burning red sunrise, hanging crescent moon, dead-calm lake, and a misty morning haze rising from its surface all fought to grab my attention. It was 4:45 a.m. and one of the most inspirational mornings of the expedition. The miserable weather of the last four days had finally subsided, and good vibes were leading me to what lay ahead. We were still sixty kilometres from St. Alban’s, and I was eager to break camp after nearly three days of rest. Despite the lack of wind and promises of sun, the weather was still frigid. The overnight hours had brought a heavy dose of frost that coated everything and sucked the life out of my raft. My raft looked for all the world like a tire in a deep wintry freeze, limp and unsafe for travel. After admiring the morning bliss, I got the fire going and enjoyed coffee with a lone forty-gram packet of oatmeal. Its paper casing was battered and wrinkled and showed signs of wear from sitting compressed in my pack over the last 180 kilometres. With the cold and the morning’s awe stimulating me, I wasn’t feeling the effects of the agonizing hunger yet. How long that would last was difficult to predict. Over the last number of days I had found that near dinner hour my stomach began to crave the nourishment of a good feed of grub. A smoke from my pipe was always the answer to push this feeling down.

Saku had noticeable energy in his step today. I thought he could smell his kibble at checkpoint number two. Either that or he was trying to warm his body from the bite of the cold May morning. After his breakfast he rummaged around the shoreline looking for fish guts from the day before. Although he would never eat them, he always enjoyed toying with them in the water. Flicking his paw, he would scoop up a piece and watch it splash in front of him. He always provided entertainment, and that was something I valued. As the sun rose higher over the horizon, I finished putting my day clothes on. I ran the land around the fire as I removed my bed woollens and bared my skin to the elements. Any remnants of sleep were instantly swept away.

I began to take down the tent and shook off frost that had yet to melt away. Surely it would be wet by day’s end as I rolled it up and squeezed it into its casing. That is wilderness life on move. You just can’t wait around for everything to be bone dry. As long as the inside floor stayed relatively moisture-free and my sleeping pad was rolled out on top of it, everything would be okay tonight.

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