Exercise Wapoose Lake

Exercise Wapoose Lake

Members of the Hudson's Hope patrol recently completed a winter recce exercise to Wapoose Lake, located north of Hudson's Hope.
Now, in the eyes of a Newfie lad like myself Wapoose Lake barely ranks as a pond, but there it is on the map and during our November meeting somebody suggested it might be a good destination for a Winter Ex. The date was chosen because there was to be a full moon that weekend. Considering the long ours of darkness the idea of moonlight on a snowy landscape was appealing.

Under a lead grey sky with light snow falling we set out. It was decided that one Ranger would recce ahead on snowmobile to determined the most appropriate route and beat the trail. The rest of us would make use of cross country skies to get to our destination. While we were all fairly comfortable on skies the addition of heavy backpacks and deep snow with no set track was a fairly novel experience but that's all part of the Exercise's purpose.

The entire route was just over 8.5 KM. With about 2 Km remaining the sled's progress was stymied. If we were to reach our objective the skiers would have to break their own trail. This was no easy task as the snow was very light and sugary. Each Ranger spent 10 minutes in the lead before stepping aside to allow the next in line to set track. This was physically challenging as it involved pushing you way through snow that came 16 to 18 inches up your leg. This was if you were able to follow the moose tracks which were left behind by some merciful ungulate days earlier. If you left those tracks you sank a good two feet into the lovely white stuff. You saw very little of your skies and after a while lifting ones poles high enough to clear the snow was felt by your shoulders and arms. This leg of the route took us 90 minutes to cover under 2 km. The sight of Wapoose Lake was welcome indeed.

Having reached our destination we set about following the standard camp routine of shelter, fire then food. Each Ranger set about constructing a shelter of spruce boughs and snow to keep them comfy that night. While we all settled on the same basic structure it varied with the user. Those whose bodies aren't as flexible as we would like opted for higher if not as cozy, while others, chose comfy but a little more challenging to enter.

After an invigorating day of skiing and shelter building we were all ready to hit the hay or snow early. Personally my goal was to get through the night without having to answer nature's call until I was good and ready the next morning. You can say all you want about remaining hydrated but if there's a chance of me having to crawl out into a snowbank in my skivies in the middle of the night I'm saving my hydrating for morning.

After a pleasant nights sleep cuddled up to our boot liners to prevent them from freezing, we all filled our bodies with warm fluids and vittles. Breaking camp was easier and returning on tracks set the day before and frozen firm enough to take our weight was very pleasant. The same tortuous portion of our route which took 90 minutes on the inbound trip took but 35 minutes on our return trip. The fact that the sun was shining made the day even more pleasant.

In the end the Ex was a success in that we gained good knowledge of winter routes in an area of which we had little previous knowledge. We improved our ability to use another method of winter travel. More experience was gained in the construction of winter survival shelters and finally we all enjoyed doing all this as Rangers and friends.