I think I achieved some kind of personal record of doing nothing. I had decided to do an afternoon hike so I had all morning to do… nothing. The only meaningful (if you can call it that) thing I did was to write the previous blog post. Well, I did say that this was a mini-vacation. I’m taking it quite literally!

In the afternoon I finally set out. I started following the snowmobile trail with the snowshoes but found the trail so hard that I didn’t need the snowshoes, so I strapped them on the backpack. And I have to say once again, I just love the Loka… it carried the extra weight of the snowshoes like a champion!

It had been a sunny day but there were some clouds around, and one of them drifted in front of the sun quite soon. With the warm feeling thus gone, the air felt just as cold as it was (which was a few degrees minus) and I found that I was freezing. I was determined to have a cup of coffee in a snow pit regardless, so I sat down and pulled out my extra sweater from the pack. Without the sun though, it wasn’t very pleasant so I hastily downed my coffee and snacks and rushed to climb up the last little bit to reach the plateau. But then my stomach started hurting… could be the combination of coffee and orange, or all the hiking right after eating, but whatever it was it wasn’t good at all. So that kind of took the edge out of my inspiration but I wasn’t going to quit that easy, so I zigzagged the tundra in search of nice mountain birches. A little bit disappointed to see that there were snowmobile tracks everywhere, so none of the birches I found really worked because I couldn’t find a good angle without the tracks showing. I was considering to give in to my stomach and frozen fingers when the sun started to come out a little bit, which instantly improved my mood. I got a few pictures made in the end but I started feeling more miserable by the minute so I gave up and hiked back.

Not a good hike for sure, but I got back alright and I’m feeling a lot better by now. Even if my backside is still frozen… I think I’ll go and sit on a radiator for a while!