Camping!

We went to Tremblant for our annual camping trip with Dave last week, and it was wonderful, as usual.  We have certain traditions when we camp.  For example: 

• We hike every day.  We don't go fast, we go to take pictures, and to try and find the elusive moose.  We try to find it for Martin, and we fail miserably almost every time! 
• It rains every time we try to set up camp.  Don't know why that is, but this year was one of the best storms ever--if you like that sort of thing.  Personally, I can do without it! 
• We have ice cream, most days.  This is for me--the guys don't care, but they indulge me, and I love them for it.  
• We play Kuuduk, which is a deceptively complicated game.  We play it, and cribbage for hours
• Someone always brings a sudoku puzzle. This year, I brought a samurai sudoku which turned out to be a good thing.  
• Dave cooks.  It isn't that I can't cook, or that Martin can't.  It's that Dave likes it, and he's good at it, and he is always the first person up.  Who am I to mess with tradition? 

I don't actually like storms, ever since the tornado in Edmonton.  They kind of freak me out, and I get teased a lot.  This is where the samurai sudoku was a good thing--I concentrated on the puzzle, and only the puzzle, and in fact finished it.  Did I notice that the food tent was being flooded?  Or that everything in there, including us, was soaked, almost as if there was no awning over our heads.  No, of course not!  

As usual, we saw a lot of deer this year.  They are such gentle and quiet creatures.  However this year, I had a wonderful treat, all to myself.  I was folding clothes by the car, and was

 startled to see a deer running through the empty campsite opposite ours.  He was being chased by a wolf!  It was a magical fifteen seconds, because it was beautiful and terrible at the same time.  How I wish I were a skilled enough photographer to capture that moment.  

Later, I reported this finding to the park warden.  She was a lovely lady but she was French, and so I put my recently acquired skills to use.  It wasn't a perfect conversation but I was proud of myself.  She was able to understand me, she was surprised that the wolf was running through the tenting area, but she did not doubt my report, particularly when we showed her the print left behind. There are actually five wolf packs in the Tremblant area, each with a territory of approximately 200 km.  

When she left, she told me that my French was pretty good. It was a great moment for me! 

Next year?  We find the moose!!