My 50 KM Winter Hike (And Why I Ended Up Sleeping Under a Tarp)

I'm trying to get to a cabin. From where I am now it's about 22 kilometers. I've never been here. After seeing this I don't know what to expect. It's gonna be a lot of hiking and I might be able to get on some lakes too if the lakes are frozen enough. The trail is really really icy. Last night it poured rain and we had a flash freeze overnight and I'm doing a lot of shuffling. I'm giving myself all day to get there but there is a little uncertainty with the conditions and if I'll be actually be able to make it there before dark. All right moment of truth. I was really hoping that I could cross this lake today and it would have been about a half an hour skate but now it's gonna be about a two hour hike around the lake to get to the cabin. This is not the cabin. FYI. This was once a nice cabin but time is taking a toll on it for sure. I'm still hopeful. We're supposed to get some really cold conditions tonight. There's potential that all this will freeze over for tomorrow and I'll be able to do some touring around the lake with the skates. It's been quite a diverse hike. I go through patches where it's just full of ice and snow. Other sections that are flooded to hell and then other sections where it looks like it's late spring with no snow and no ice. I'm getting to the section of the route where I leave the logging road. This probably has the most amount of uncertainty to it because I'm on this small trail now and I think this peters out and there'll be about a kilometer of something before I get on the trail again and it is getting dark soon. Hopefully I can do this when there's still light. Oh man. I don't like this. Don't like this. On a map this is a clear cut but I'm guessing it was an old map. It's opened up a bit. A little boggy but not as crazy thick as before which I'm thankful for. I'll take the bog if I can keep my feet dry. It became a real bog and it looks like I need to get to the other side where that ridge is but I'm gonna have to go far left. I think it tapers out here. Some pretty devastating news. I got swamped out. The map I have it's hard to really tell what's swamp and what just like walkable swamp. I may have considered just getting wet and going through if it was earlier in the day but it's gonna get dark in about an hour and I'm still probably another hour and a half to the cabin on a route that I don't even know exists as of right now. So I think I'm just gonna cut my loss and backtrack. This is a change of plans for sure. It's gonna get dark in about 20 minutes. I found a little nook here. I'm gonna set up my tarp. First thing is just get the fire going. Try to get as much done as possible before it gets too dark. Hopefully this just goes right up. I'm not ready. Guys I think I rushed that. Came in hot without a plan. Pre-take. A little more prepared this time. Let's hopefully it works. I also found a big slab of birch bark. It looks good but it's a false sense of security right now. You still gotta do your job, take your time, and feed your sticks. I'm exhausted. My feet are blisters. My shoulders hurt. I mentally got knocked down by not getting to the cabin. What a day. But I got camp set up. I feel like I'm in a good spot. Got firewood. Got water. Got my tarp set up. I think we're good. Time to toast to the day. That was a tough one. A couple snausages. I envisioned a little more creativity tonight but I'm not in any sort of state to mess around. Not too bad. I was scrambling there at the end of the day trying to beat the light but I got a decent spot here. I don't know what my plan is tomorrow. I'm still gonna try to get to the cabin. I'm gonna poke around and see if we can do it. I don't have, I don't know what to expect. That bog really threw me off today so I'll keep going tomorrow and see what happens. The weather in Nova Scotia is so inconsistent in the winter. It was literally pouring rain. I think we got 40 millimeters of rain two days ago. Two degrees yesterday. Snow last night. So I don't know how well I explained this yesterday. Last night I got pinned at like a peninsula of dry land and I was surrounded by bog. So if I wanted to cross over to the other side where I want to go, I would have been soaked and it's February. Not something I want to do. Last night I was looking at the map a little more and it looks like there's a narrowing. A narrow section of the bog that might be good enough to pass. So that's what I'm going to try today. I came across this little piece of flagging tape and walking in I didn't think much of it because there's no signs of any sort of trail. But based on the topos this is sort of where I should start going going right here. So I wonder if this is a sign left by past travelers. I am going to leave my skates here. I know you guys have been curious why the hell is this guy been bringing skates around with him. Well that's a great question. I thought I was just going to be able to skate apparently. Now they're more of a nuisance than anything. So I'm going to leave them here because I'll be coming back this way on the way out. Another thing I need to be aware of is how long it's going to take to actually get to that cabin because it's still very far away from where we are right now. She's real tick. Real tick. This entire area is just a big swamp. It would be different if I was close to home but I'm a 20 kilometer hike out right now followed by 10 kilometers of logging road. So I am pretty much as remote as you can get in Nova Scotia. I don't know. I'm really starting to question this. It is so thick and once you go in the ground is half frozen over a bunch like maybe about six inches of water. I have to get to the actual swamp bushwhacking through this flooded forest so then get to the other side and hike another I don't know four kilometers. Decent amount of time anyways. Risk getting wet or putting all the effort just to know I couldn't make it and then come back out. I think that's a wrap. I don't know. I don't think I can do it. When you ask someone how something went they say good which you know okay. Wasn't crazy. Wasn't dull. It was just it was all right compared to if they said oh it was a good story. That adds a little more curiosity to it. Definitely not dull and maybe exciting. I would say this outing is a good story. I feel so good to take off. Yes!