The past months have been a flurry of gear procurement, food packing, and fundraising. The majority of our personal gear (packs, head-to-toe merino outfits, sleeping bag, etc.) has arrived and I’ll be relieved when I confirm that it’ll all fit into the 115 L dry bags we’re each allocated. The trip schedule has been revised numerous times and we’ve now confirmed our contact people for re-supply locations and bike cart shuttling throughout British Columbia. Despite our current geographical dispersion, crew members have been busy contacting media, dehydrating sauces, and acquiring funds via Steak Night fundraisers, significant bottle returns, and much appreciated donations. We meet weekly via Skype to discuss progress and to assign a fresh set of tasks. Thanks to the much appreciated help of friends and loved ones, two full weekends have been successfully dedicated to preparing food for the re-supply boxes. We double bagged all of the dry ingredients for over 800 breakfasts, lunches, suppers, snacks, and treats! I’ve posted an outline of the menu on the website “gear” tab. We’re extremely grateful for the support and food donations provided by the amazingly kind people at Greenline Distributors, Nutter’s in Saskatoon, and Nature’s Best in Regina. We also thank our terrific friends for their help with our grocery fundraiser where we “faced” or organized products at a local grocery store. Steph and I have been familiarizing ourselves with the camera and camcorders and have been posting some of this material to our facebook page (be-friend Cross Canada Canoe Odyssey) and Flickr stream. With about a month to go before our departure date in Vancouver, I’ve been thinking about all the snow that still needs to melt in the mountains to allow us to pass, and hoping that these large snowpacks lead to a speedy crossing of the prairies. <Nathalie>
