A 25-kilometre trek along a mountainous forestry road would be an adventure in itself for just about anyone.
Combine it with winter conditions, snowshoes and backpacks for camping and you have the makings of a wilderness expedition that Kit Weldrum and his companion Angela Van Wiemeersch were hoping for.
Weldrum, a local resident from Fawn Creek Road, is no stranger to the outdoor life around the South Cariboo and even spent some time camping at Cow Camp up Wavey Lake Forestry Service Road in the summer of 2010 with his mom.
His new young friend Angela, a self proclaimed “city girl” from Detroit, Michigan, in the midst of journeying around the continent, heard about his wilderness camping plans and jumped at the chance to join in.
While planning their trip, it was Angela who insisted that “roughing it” would mean taking only four packets of dried broth, two bottles of liquor, coffee, tea, salt, pepper, garlic powder, one-quarter cup of oil and a drinking water filter.
Their plan was to live off fish from the nearby lakes.
Fortunately, night temperatures on Jan. 16 were mild, so they were relatively comfortable.
Their focus from day 1 was to get food. It took beating down a trail in powder snow up to their armpits, and tries at two nearby lakes to finally secure their first of many fish that became their supper, breakfast and lunch staple for five days.
The dip in temperature to below -20C on the fourth night and the heavy snowfall on Jan. 19 was the signal that it was time to return to civilization and they made the journey down the mountain, back to their anxious friends at Lac des Roches. Their first request was food, nuts and, of course, chocolate.
The two-line entry that Kit and Angela put in the visitor’s log at the snowmobiler’s warming hut near cow camp says “Kit & Angela’s Wilderness Cow Camp Expedition,” but the adventures and memories they experienced in those five days of winter wilderness camping could fill the entire logbook.
