We were supposed to sleep in an igloo....

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For the first weekend of P's spring break we had planned a special weekend. He started his break on Thursday so Friday we hit the road headed up to Rimouski just before the Gaspe area to spend Saturday night sleeping in an igloo in Parc National du Bic. By the time we left Friday, the forcast for the weekend was looking iffy as it was supposed to possibly get warm and have some rain on Sunday. We hoped for the best and headed out. We stayed friday night in Riviere du Loup at the Hotel Universel. (about 3 hrs or so from home). We wanted someplace where the boys could have some pool time. M went in the pool briefly but decided it was way colder than Florida so he stuck to the hot tub. Thursday night at the end of my wood carving course I hit the end of my carving chisel while cleaning up. They are very very sharp and it sliced deep into my finger. I should have probably had stitiches but didn't want to spend the night at the hospital as I have a very bad cold and wanted the sleep. So the fellow beside me who was a northern nurse told me how I could crazy glue it back together and I carried on. But I couldn't get it wet so I just went in the hot tub and held my hand out. We had a fun night and excitedly went to sleep, looking forward to our igloo.
We woke up the next morning to it snowing and the forcast had got worse. They were now saying 30 mm of rain today or tonight. We called up to the park and they said it was still snowing there but if it turned to rain they could put us up in another shelter, so we carried on. The roads weren't great. Quite snow covered but the drive was okay. In many places we were right along the St. Lawrence but you could barely see it. We went past Parc Bic and into Rimouski for lunch and then back to the park. It continued to snow.

When we checked in to the park it was about 3 pm. The lady said the forcast was still for the snow to change to rain so they didn't want us to sleep in the igloo as it would get wet inside and it could also get unstable. But they did have a "refuge" for us to stay in that had a nice fire and beds. So we went for it. She said we were welcome to go up and play in the igloo as much as we wanted. We got our snowshoes and sled for hauling our stuff and headed out with the first load of stuff for our "refuge". It was a kilometer away from the parking lot along a fairly packed trail. M actually made it the whole way in on his snowshoes. The refuge was a sort of back country hut / basic cabin kind of building inside. In the summer it appeared that it was used for their kids programs and in one part also had washrooms and laundry facilities in the summer. That part was closed up. Our part was like a long dormitory with partitions for 4 "rooms" with 2 beds each and the woodstove and cooking area along the end. The park fellow showed Claude where the wood was and warned him to burn lots as the cabin wasn't very well insulated and had a cold concrete floor. The boys thought it looked great and it certainly was warmer and more spacious than an igloo. We quickly unloaded our stuff and wanted to head up to see the igloo. We headed back out along the same 1 km trail to the parking lot and from there went across a small river and up a steep hill towards the igloos. They were at least a km away too. Claude was pulling M in the sled and P got a ride everyonce in a while. My lungs being weak from my cold were giving me some pretty major coughing fits.

Finally we reached the igloo. We were all quite excited to check it out. It was smaller than we expected. About the size of a 4 person dome tent inside. You crawl in through the entry tunnel and then crawl up to the platform area of the main igloo. M was short enough to stand up in the middle without touching the roof. The floor was insultated with a large piece of reflective foam. The boys had fun in there. P had thought that there would be ice beds to put your sleeping bags on and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything inside. P had promised his cousin A that he would call him from the igloo so we did. We were actually pretty relieved that we weren't sleeping in there. Because it was so warm and humid outside (-2 and snowing hard), it was incredibly humid in the igloo. I think it would have been a very damp night. About a 100 m from the igloo was the outhouse and a small building with a wood stove for cooking and eating in. By the time we finished playing around the igloo it was almost dark. We had brought our headlamps along expecting that. So we headed back through the bush and down the hill to the car. There we got the rest of our supplies and put together the ski chariot so that we could carry M in that and our gear in the sled. It was completely dark by this point. We headed back to our Refuge for the night. In the dark and with my hacking cough it seemed like a long km.

It was after 7pm before we finally got back to the hut so we quickly got supper going. We had chili, boil in a bag couscous, buns and fresh cheese we had bought at the Basque cheese farm along the way. It was a great supper in a cozy camping atmosphere. With the storm still snowing hard outside and being along way from anyone else, we felt cozy and secluded. The boys were tired and were tucked into their sleeping bags asleep before Claude and I even finished our supper. We enjoyed some time by the fire before crawling into our sleeping bags too. I was up a few times in the night with my cold and stoked the fire, but at about 1 am I finally fell asleep soundly. When we woke somewhere between 5 and 6 it was pretty chilly in the Refuge. Claude got up and started a fire so it would be warm for the boys when they woke up, and I snuggled back in for more sleep.

It never did change to rain in the night and we got over a foot of snow overnight. We had a leisurely breakfast of cheese, fruit and porridge. Claude decided he would take the first load back to the car. We decided the chariot would pull better than the big sled so we loaded it full of gear (and handing on it), and he headed out to break trail. He said it was a tough trek through all the fresh snow but very pretty and peaceful. By the time he returned, the park fellow had been through on snow mobile to set the trail. The boys had a great morning of playing in the cabin with their couple of toys and then started making tents and forts with the foam mattresses. We decided later that probably it was just as well that we didn't get to sleep in the igloo. We certainly had a more comfortable sleep and the boys had a lot of fun playing in the cabin. Maybe when they are older we would try the igloo again. I think our next winter camping will be in a Yurt. Once claude returned, we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed back to the car. I pulled M in the Chariot and Claude took the sled of gear. There was a bit of a wind and it was still snowing hard so the going was a bit tough. It was very warm (-2) so you overheated very easily, but you couldn't open up your coat to cool off because the snow would drive into it.

It was probably about noon by the time we headed out from the park. We stopped for lunch in Riviere du Loup and then by the time we got to Montmagny at 4pm we decided that we would stop for the night. The weather seemed like it might be changing to freezing rain and we were tired. We got a room in a nice hotel with an atrium pool and enjoyed a great evening. Through the night the wind picked up and we could hear it howl. In the morning we looked outside and it was a complete whiteout. Claude said that we wouldn't be leaving right away so we phoned back home to cancel P's snowboarding lesson and went down for breakfast. By the time we were done breakfast they had closed the highway so we were staying put. We re-booked our room for another night and relaxed. Claude tried to go out to drive to a Canadian Tire store but there were 5' drifts in the parking lot. He returend to the room, bundled up some more and walked the couple blocks to the grocery store instead. We didn't stick our noses out for the rest of the day. Luckily it was a nice pool and a fairly big room. Outside the room the hallway was like a balcony overlooking the pool area and there was a little table and chairs out there to sit at, so we played some card games there too for a change of scenery. P played a game of pool (billiards) with claude and with me. He believes he is becoming a pool shark : ). We ordered room service in and had another early night. It is kind of a neat feeeling to be snowed in like that.

This morning (Tuesday by now), we woke up to a beautiful sunny morning. The wind and snow had stopped just shortly before we went to bed last night and now it was really nice out. The highway was re-opened and they already had the hotel parking lot and local roads plowed so we packed up and headed out. It was a beautiful drive. They had had freezing rain in the area and the trees were coated with a layer of ice. In the bright sunshine they just glistened. It was nice to get back home, but it had been a fun experience and getting stranded in the snowstorm was pretty neat too.

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Photos

Parc national du Bic
M snowshoeing into our "Refuge"

looking out to the entry tunnel
You don't want to be clastrophobic!