Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/112497
hawaii jokes. Dinners are routinely extravagant. Each day while daylight lasts I habitually scan the shoreline, but by the afternoon of day three I���ve still not seen a moose. After talking with Jorgenson and Harris, I start to get it: trying to spot a moose on a winter lake is a tourist error. As apex predators, wolves will take the fast route on open ice, but when there���s a sub-boreal forest draped with forage ��� those windblown beards of witch���s hair and giant lungwort leaves ��� why would moose risk the exposure of a barren lake? That day I acquire my own fitting backcountry nickname, when Duffy discovers I���ve rejected backpacker protocol by refusing to drink the rinse-water out of my dinner bowl. ���Oh,��� Duffy exclaims, ���he���s a fussy sucker!��� (Except he didn���t say sucker; not quite.) He���s right. Compared to just about any Cariboo resident in any era, I am not only drastically ignorant of moose knowledge, I am effete. Snow shawls down as the afternoon wanes and low clouds hide in the crags of Wolverine Mountain and Mount Peever; while we sleep in our plywood bunks, a foot of snow falls overnight. The next morning, our last, the drifts thicken into oatmeal in the morning drizzle, making it slow going as we retrace our three-day-old trail. But I don���t have to imagine Fred Wells to get back. I���ve started to get the knack of meditation, even in the slog, which feels like a victory: a bit of Cariboo sourdough showing up in my urbanized DNA. Under our ski trails, somewhere in Indianpoint Lake���s black depths, are 20-lb rainbow trout, finning out the long winter. As we ski back onto Kibbee Lake, we spot snowshoe tracks and a hole in the ice: someone has fallen through, then hightailed it back to their car to avoid freezing to death. Grandpa Spud ��� never the most sensitive man ��� would have chuckled. No doubt he could have managed our 56-km trek in two days instead of four. He���d also have slapped me on the back and advised me to try moose-spotting in the North Cariboo in summer. Which is exactly what I plan to do. marketplace Your One-Stop Guide to Travelling & Leisure north america oregon THE OUTFIT Whitegold Adventures runs snowshoe and cross-country ski treks starting at $365. 1-866-994-2345; whitegold.ca GEAR Backcountry 55s are the skis; rent all you need at Rocky Peak Adventure Gear in Quesnel (rockypeak.ca). HOMEWORK The Bowron Lakes, by Chris Harris, is a naturalhistory primer with photos of the Bowron Lakes and its wildlife ��� including moose. Y Member savings and bene���ts for B.C. winter travel: bcaa. com/roadtrips TO ADVERTISE IN MARKETPLACE , PLEASE CONTACT R HEA A TTAR AT 604.299.7311 p28-31-44-45_Hut.indd 45 12-10-26 7:35 AM