Moving out of the quinzhee and into the tent
Wow, has it been a crazy week! April just loves being fickle here in Duluth.
Mountains of snow begin to melt after a warm rain
When I woke up on Tuesday all was well, but by the time I got to school, big, fat raindrops were slapping the pavement. They continued all day. When it was finally time to go to bed, my
parents and I deemed the quinzhee unsafe due to all the extra weight. That, and the fact that it was melting. So, at 9:30 pm, my dad helped me pitch the tent on the driveway behind the back door. The driveway itself was really wet, but I used a camp cot, so I wasn’t laying in any puddles. I hauled my sleeping bags out of the quinzhee and went to sleep, but without the insulation from the quinzhee walls, that night was the first and only night I was actually cold. I didn’t start shivering or anything, but I didn’t get much sleep, either.
It didn’t rain the next day, but it stayed warm. My quinzhee continued to sag and melt, so I slept in the tent again. I grabbed an extra sleeping bag, so I was a little warmer, but still not exactly comfortable.
On Thursday, everyone at school was raving about the snow day we were supposed to have Friday. Turns out they were right to be excited. That evening, we received a soggy, wet heavy snowfall and around 7:00 pm, the weight of the snow actually broke one of my tent poles. Luckily, it was cold enough by then that the quinzhee had frozen up , so I slept out there Thursday and Friday night.
Of course, mother nature decided that it’d be a lovely idea to make me move all my stuff again, so she made Saturday a balmy 40 degrees. If that doesn’t make a snow shelter unsafe, I don’t know what does.
De-evolution: moving back up into the trees
Anyway, I spent Saturday morning shoveling off the tree platform and pitching a tent. It took me a while to move everything, but it’s there now, and with any luck, it can stay there. Of course, given the fickle weather, who knows?
