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Any outdoorsman can relate to the feeling of anticipation of a trip that has been in the works for months on end. I don't think I have ever personally anticipated any trip quite as much as this one, for a variety of reasons, but primarily because this would be our first exposure to truly remote winter camping. 10:30 pm...depart from North Bay wide-eyed and excited. By 6:30, we had arrived, and quickly geared up for what we knew would be a killer hike in. The area had gotten a huge dump of snow a few days earlier so we were dealing with 3-4 feet of powder without any sort of packed trail just about everywhere [more in some places]. We decided to both lug in our flashers and a couple other goodies in which definitely didn't help our case on what was a 99% uphill journey to the lake, but it proved to be worthwhile. Digging out camp... Which eventually became... It didn't take long for the cold, mostly windy weather and deep snow to point out the flaws in much of our equipment. Battles with wet feet (actually, wet everything), sore muscles, and a seemingly constant hunger and thirst was met with mostly open arms and good spirits. It didn't take long to realize that we were in for more than we prepared for, and in a way I'm glad it turned out that way. Amidst all this, we squeezed in a couple hours fishing each day, and iced some truly gorgeous (and truly delicious) lakers. Fishing was relatively slow, and with only salties, having the flashers to coax fish was the dealbreaker. 10 fish were hooked in what was probably a total of 12 hours fishing. The nightly huddle ritual... The morning of departure greeted us with what was probably a sustained 40 km/h wind with frequent gusts to at least double that, which may have just been a blessing in disguise, as we packed everything up in record time! Since I'm starting a new job in northern Quebec next week, this will likely be my last trip of this caliber for some time, but my love affair with this park has only just begun...