We are a strange lot.  We use our leisure and vacation time to suffer some of the time.  Why not a beach for a week?  Why not a cozy cabin on a lake near a town with night life?  I think we know why. 

In the days of the Voyageur, the greenhorns were called Cheechakos.   We started with only one on this trip and she quickly blazed through to full Voyageur status and the only girl to carry an 18' Grumman (the heaviest commonly used canoe) through a portage on any of our trips.   

A mark of an unusually experienced Voyageur was someone with Hivernaut status, which is one who has wintered in the North.   With our trip being the overall snowiest and coldest canoe trip week me I've seen in  44 years going there  (except for my young and stupid mistake of doing one in mid November)  you have all clearly become Hivernauts. 

I’m reading Patrick McManus right now, A fine and pleasant misery. Check it out. We indeed had a great and memorable trip.
The history of sourdough in Alaska. ... “A “sourdough” is primarily a nickname used in the North (Yukon/Alaska) for someone having spent an entire winter north of the Arctic Circle and refers to their tradition of protecting their sourdough starter during the coldest months by keeping it close to their body.  I know Fred is certainly a sourdough after baking bread for us on one canoe trip.  And we must all be considered with the honor of the sourdough title after surviving this winter canoe trip.

What a great group of people to be with. And a crucial part of our ability to thrive so well  up there is the hard and expert work that all of you did, and the high-spirited Voyageur mentality that you all exhibited for every minute of the trip.  As always another thing that is so cool is how some friendships were welded or deepened in the process.
 
What a great group of good friends and Voyageurs to be with.

Sincerely,

Starwatcher

I never slept with sourdough but I have slept with fuel canisters to get them warm enough to run the stove in the morning. To this day I don’t like canister stoves.

I suppose there are still times when white gas can be your friend.

MB

solotripper wrote on Dec 12^th, 2018 at 5:19pm:


It certainly helps brighten up the day and our spirits. Clear and cold at night, but I enjoy a starry night. .

Starwatcher