Woodwalker

The chainsaws ripped through the dry pines and the axes chopped in beat. We were cutting firewood and getting sweaty. At a $100 a cord the sweat was worth it.

I had the job of splitting the wood as an axe was my only investment in this venture. The guys who had chainsaws felled the trees and cut them up into 18-inch lengths. It was fairly cold day in late March and the sap was deep down in the roots for the winter, making the extra dry trees easy to cut and split. This went on for several hours until the cords of wood made the trip worthwhile. We were making money and muscles at the same time, unlike most workout places where you have to pay to get fit.

After a while, the chainsaws stopped buzzing and it was time to get the trail made and load up the high-octane dry wood. With hoarfrost forming on our damp hats, a thermos of tea is produced to quench our thirst and to keep our body warm. The last wood piled up and readied for hauling, we venture back to the cabin nestled in a tiny cove of pines. Built in the time-honoured Hudson Bay fashion, the cabin had been there nearly 20 years and was made from the logs that abounded nearby. Those logs were chopped down by hand with no chainsaw in those days and hauled out by foot back to the cabin’s future site. In those days, being fit was normal.

After our ritual tea and snack, we head back to town with our bounty and deliver the wood before going home to pass out from a long day harvesting the energy to heat our homes. Many people have wood stoves in their homes, which come in handy in reducing the hydro bill and especially for those frequent power failures.

Soon, we had filled our orders and went back again to gather more wood for the people who didn’t have the time to do it themselves or for those who couldn’t get around as easily. The next morning, refreshing our machines with gas and oil, we repeat the previous day, thanking the cold snap for easy hauling and steady customers. Yep, we were woodsmen. Admirably, we were getting buff at the same time and our hard work started getting easier and our muscles ached less. We felt good about it.

Then a plan came together to harvest more wood to fund a trip and head north to Whapmagoostui by skidoo. The following month went by as we gathered our resources to make an expedition combined with hunting and fishing to make the trip more worthwhile. We planned the journey carefully, and readied ourselves to take off.

Upon arrival at our starting point, we noticed that one of the snowmobiles had disappeared but we decided to throw redundancy out the window and make the trip with the two remaining skidoos. The spring warmth and good weather had melted the snow into a smooth lunar landscape by the time we left around midnight. We drove over the bumpy trails etched onto the ice and 45 minutes later reached Seal River. We stopped once to shoot at ptarmigan that were everywhere on the land trails, and then sped off into the night. The trip was high-speed smooth with barely any bumps and the moon made everything super bright and clear.

We slept a night in a sabtuan and headed northeast up the Hudson Bay coast at the same speed as the night before, only to dart onto the land to shoot more ptarmigan. After reaching Great Whale River and spending a few nights, we headed back home, this time in dense fog. Amazingly, we turned at just the right time and found the stash of gas, tent and stove.

We actually didn’t know where we were when chance made its choice. We then realized that we didn’t have a chimney, but we heated up stones and rocks until they were white hot and tossed them into the stove. The stove stayed hot for the next night and full day. Not too much chopping involved, we noted.

The following days, hunting caribou and chasing off wolves, we finally headed home from the Cape Jones area and harvested the ptarmigan until we ran out of ammunition. It was a great way to stay in shape. The only admission charge? Sweat.