Last week on the Interweb we got an urgent memo notifying us of the desperate cold expected in Quebec for the time period of the Coast Raid August 21-24. Water temperature is expected to be ~3C. Although weather prediction for the region is spotty, the weatherman guarantees this particular prediction by 100%. [Seems like hypothermia is on our agenda.] To take advantage of the high life I've been living for the past week in Alberta and British Columbia on a class geology field trip, I started training today for the challenge of bum-numbing cold.

The specific location for the training exercise, supervised by honk-happy truckers and snap-happy tourists, was the ice-covered Moose Lake in British Columbia off the Trans-Canada Highway. Snow-capped mountains bordered the lake on either side, which practically guaranteed the desired and dreaded single-digit water temperature. Much to the consternation of my geology professor, I gracefully removed my hikers, rock hammer, two-layer sock system, 5-day-dirty sports bra, and other fascinating clothing items in order to wrangle myself into my hot-pink bather and my pack. The pack was necessary in order to simulate racing conditions.

The training experience can be summarised in one exclamation: AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lesson learned: polar bear dip is for polar bears only.

salut.
tess