Date - May 20, 2018
Length - 10.2 km
Elevation - 192 m
Time - 2 hours 15 minutes
This the second post in our first “series”. The previous post, this post, and the next one cover our May long weekend backpacking trip through an eastern section of Riding Mountain National Park. The total mileage for the trip was 42.6 km. Each post covers one of the three days of hiking!
One way map from EDL to Breezy Hill
Day two was nominally the 'rest and relax' day of the three day trip. We had no mileage planned and were just going to hangout around the camp site. I'll give a bit of an overview of the campsite here, as I forgot to in the last post.
The campsite was large enough for two tents side by side, with a picnic table and a fire pit. The ground quickly sloped down to the water and towards the other campsite in the area so there was not a lot of flat ground, but enough for our group. The camping area also has firewood provided so you don't need to collect your own, steel bear canisters, and a covered outhouse with toilet paper provided. All in all, a pretty cushy camping area.
Campsite 'entrance' looking past the sign in box
To EDL Campsite #1, our neighbours
Open area between Site #1 and Site #2, with the
bear boxes for your food and scented items
Tents stove, and picnic table on Site #2, our site
So, starting from going to bed on Day 1. Overnight the temperature dropped down to 0 C (30 F). Our sleeping bags were good for the temperature, but we had forgotten our sleeping pads. We knew about the forgotten pads the day before, we just didn't think it was a big deal. Tyler had simply decided not to bring a sleeping pad. After experiencing the night on the ground all three of us are going to make sure we don't make the same mistake again.
The problem wasn't that the ground was uncomfortable. The "comfort" part of it was more than adequate. Our problem was the cold. Throughout the night we could feel the ground leeching the heat out of our bodies. It turns out that sleeping bags provide warmth because of their 'loft' and how many air pockets they have for your body heat to warm up. When you lay down on the sleeping bag your body compresses it to the point where there's essentially no loft left in it, so it provides no insulation or warmth. The sleeping pad helps with this by getting you an inch or so off the ground with air pockets that your body can warm up. So, lesson learned, always bring a sleeping pad.
Due to the poor sleeping conditions, animal noises, and growing light, I woke up for good around 5 am, and got out of the tent for the day around 6 am. Roslyn was up a bit before 6 as I dressed, and was out around 6:30. Tyler and I set about filtering water, which I will talk about a bit more later, and Roslyn and I made oatmeal with dehydrated blueberries and mil for breakfast. Tyler and Mathew ate granola bars. The oatmeal was a really great way to start the morning, especially since it was still cool out and only around 5 C.
After hanging around talking for a while it began to warm up. We realized we didn't have any shade, and at around 10:30 am we decided to try and do something about that. We decided on moving to Breezy Hill campsite about 5 km away to see if there was any available shade. Setting up for a quick day trip we packed water and lunch and headed off.
The 5 km trip was fairly pleasant with a good amount of intermittent shade, which was very appreciated. On the way we saw quite a few set of animal tracks, including some faint bear tracks and lots of deer and elk tracks.
Elk hoof print
At Breezy Hill there was a water pump, the water still needed treating, a horse corral, an out house, provided firewood, and three camp sites. Luckily no one was camping here and we moved a picnic table into some shade provided by a tree and waited out the afternoon heat. Around 2 pm we decided to head back to our campsite and were back around 3 pm.
Once we got back to the campsite, we started filtering water. Just as we were finishing, a helicopter started circling the campsite. It made its way over to a dry part of the lake bed a beaver dam had cut off and landed. Three rangers came over to the campsite to put up a notice of the fire ban that was in effect. We were quite happy that that was all it was. We did not fancy the idea of having to pack up and hike out.
Helicopter taking off and going to Breezy Hill to
deliver another fire ban notice
We spent another couple hours sitting around talking before supper, which was dehydrated vegetable flake, bacon bits, and instant mashed potatoes. After cleaning up supper and filtering more water we waited and watched the sun set again before heading off to bed.
Complete still water about 30 minutes before the sun went down
In Roslyn's words:
Day one ended and Day two started with a very cold night due to us forgetting our sleeping pads. I still can’t believe we actually forgot our sleeping pads on a night where it got down to 0 degrees C. Well we definitely learned our lesson. The sleep was not overly uncomfortable, just very cold. I was trying my best to sleep on my side as it was much warmer with as little body touching the ground as possible. I did try sleeping with my pack under my legs but with me trying to stay on my side, this did not work very well. I will definitely try it again when we have our sleeping pads.
A nice bowl of hot oatmeal and hot chocolate warmed us up to a beautiful day. As the morning grew warmer, we decided a hike to the Breezy Hill campsite might be worth our time as our site had no shade. It was a nice easy hike with no real elevation challenges over the 5 km there. The Breezy Hill site was a nice setup if you had horses with you, and we did find some wonderful shade by a picnic table, but filtering water would have been a challenge. The water source was a well and pump which would not have worked well with our hand pump filter. In general our hand pump water filter does not seem like a good fit for us. It is quite large and a hassle to use and clean, prompting us to look into other options for our next trip.
After getting back to the East Deep Lake campsite, we had a bit of excitement with three rangers coming in a helicopter to deliver a fire ban notice (we knew about it already). We were soooo happy that they were only delivering a fire ban notice and not instructing us to evacuate due to a forest fire. I mean, a helicopter is a hell of a ride to deliver a piece of paper. After that, it was a lazy afternoon with a muskrat siting and us trying to stay up to see the stars. I ended up giving up and waking up at 2 am to see the stars without light pollution. Definitely worth it.
Our biggest pet peeve this trip has definitely been the water filter. Its a simple hand pump filter that forces the water through a ceramic filter. Our main problem with it is that after about 2 liters of water you have to wash it or else the flow rate becomes nearly zero. This wouldn't have been a problem if it were just one of us, but we were trying to filter water for four people with the one filter. That being said, it works well for its intended purpose, we were just trying to get more out of it that it could provide. We are currently looking at the Sawyer Squeeze and plan on testing it out soon to see if its the right fit for us. The other option we have been looking at is a gravity filter. Our neighbors on this trip had one and it seemed to work quite well.
Overall, Day 2 was very enjoyable and we would both recommend coming out here if you like backpacking.
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