Mrs. Zroback is my grade 4 teacher. She used to scare me a little. She spanked Gloria in the back of the classroom one time because Gloria was talking back, and that scared me. I never talk back. Mrs. Z. taught some of my older brothers and sisters, so when it was my turn for grade 4 she already knew what to expect from me.
Mrs. Zroback is not much taller than me. She always dresses really nice like my Mom in a dress or skirt. She has reddish gray hair and glasses, and sometimes she takes my school bus to get home. She sits by herself on the bus, in the front seat behind the driver. With her school bag on her lap, she looks straight out the window. I wonder what she's thinking of? Maybe the Times Tables. I think she likes to get home to play outside, just like I do, and I'll tell you why. Because her husband is Scouter Nick. He is the leader for the boy scouts and they get to do the Best Things! Like make a campfire and sleep outside in a tent when it's not even Summer and not even in the Back Yard! My older brothers all know Scouter Nick and really like going to scouts. So with somebody like that around, you can't help but like to play outside.
Mrs. Zroback asked me to come up to her desk at lunchtime one day and I was afraid maybe I did something bad. But instead, she asked me if I would like to go Ice Fishing with her and Scouter Nick! On the Weekend! I said I would have to ask my Mom first but yes, I would really like to go. She said there would be another girl about my age to play with, and we would all be camping! Overnight! In a Tent! In the winter! I was so excited I could hardly wait to get home to ask my mom.
The weekend is finally here. I have all of my warmest clothes on, and spare ones packed. I have borrowed my brothers warmest sleeping bag, and I am ready to go. My Dad drops me off at my teacher's house up the Airport Road, and they are already outside and ready to go, waiting just for me. Scouter Nick has a big skidoo that pulls a big toboggan behind it, and it is all packed and organized. I wonder for a minute if I'll have to ride in the toboggan too, but after popping my bag in, Scouter Nick covers over the whole thing with a tarp to keep the snow out, and ties it down.
Mrs. Zroback has her own skidoo. She looks so different from how I know her at school, wearing her skidoo suit, boots and helmet. The front of her skidoo says "The Galloping Grandma", and I realize I didn't know she had kids, never mind grandkids. She gives me a helmet to wear (a little bit too big), and I put it on over my toque and buckle it up. It feels really heavy on my head, but it's nice and warm in here and even a little quiet.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked me, smiling, her eyes sparkling and crinkling up from behind the helmet visor and her glasses. I smile back, nodding, the helmet slipping down a little over my eyes and almost putting me off-balance.
"Okay, it will be a really long ride, so you'll have to hang on tight. If you need me to stop, just tap me on the shoulder."
I stand beside the machine as she kneels on the seat, both hands on the pull cord. She gives a couple of quick, easy pulls and her machine roars to life, the sound muffled by my helmet. Scouter Nick has already started his machine, and is patiently waiting for us just at the edge of the back yard, where the trees fill in thick except for one narrow trail leading into the dark forest. Although it's a beautiful sunny day, it's really cold out and the snow is dry and squeeky. We've had lots of snow this winter, and the trees with their white coats are thick in the woods.
With a nod from Mrs. Z, I pop on the back of the snow machine. It occurs to me that I've never sat this close to my teacher before, and I'm hoping that I won't be in the way or make it hard for her to steer. As we slowly pull away from the house and yard, I wiggle around a little bit as I search for and find the handles to hang on to. I thread my mitts through and hang on, excited for my adventure to begin.
As we enter the trail the trees are so close I could just reach out and touch them - but I don't think I should let go. It's kind of hard looking out sideways at everything going by me so fast and so I try peeking over Mrs. Z's shoulder, but it's just too high. I spend some time inspecting the blue material of her skidoo suit, looking at the pattern the threads make, and the way the light blinks on and off as we drive through sunshine and shadows. I'm nice and warm here behind Mrs. Z, she blocks most of the wind from me and my boots are still warm and dry. The noise from the machine makes me want to hum along and so I do. As the trail winds it's way through the trees, the skidoo noise goes up and down as we speed up and slow down, and makes a nice little tune for humming along to. This is perfect for day-dreaming and so I pretend that I am an orphan and I am with my new family who is going to take me into the wilderness to live with them and help them survive.
We go for what seems like hours through the woods, weaving through the trees, up and over hillsides. When we get to the first lake, Scouter Nick stops his skidoo and we stop behind him. With the skidoos suddenly quiet, the magic of the humming and the daydreaming evaporates. Scouter Nick gets off the skidoo and walks over to talk to us, his beard all frosty. I can't see any other tracks on the lake, and I wonder how he knows where to go.
"There might be some slush on the lake," he said to Mrs. Z, "so we won't be stopping on the lake at all. Just make sure you don't follow too closely, and stay on my track. How are things back here?"
Mrs. Z nods and then turns to me with a smile, "I had to reach back a few times to make sure you were still there! Just give me a tap now and then, would you, so I know you haven't fallen off?"
I nod and smile back, pleased that I wasn't getting in the way, and then look over at Scouter Nick.
"How do you know which way to go on the lake? It's so big and it all looks the same to me, all that white..."
Scouter Nick smiles his big smile, tanned leather and wrinkly, and then points just ahead of his skidoo to the lake. I can see a bit of green poking up out of the snow, like a branch or something that had blown onto the lake from the bush.
"See that evergreen branch? If you look ahead, you'll see more of them. The first people across the lake mark the safe trail so that others can follow. Tracks disappear in the wind and snow, but the green branches show the way."
Sure enough - as I squint out at the brightness of the sunshine on snow, I can make out a dark dotted trail of branches leading out, away from the shore. So it wasn't a random branch after all, but a path set out by someone who had gone before. What a neat idea!
"Are you warm enough?" Mrs. Z asks me as Scouter Nick heads back over to his skidoo.
"Yes," I nod, and she nods back and turns to start the skidoo. I wait for her to get the machine started again, then pop back on behind her. As we head out on the lake I watch for the branches. There aren't that many, just enough to keep you going the right way. We go through a few slushy spots, and I can see why we don't want to stop in them. The machines could get stuck in the slush pretty easily, plus we wouldn't want to get our boots slushy wet.
We stop a couple of more times - once for Scouter Nick to chainsaw a tree that had fallen and blocked the trail. Just as I was wondering how we were going to get around the fallen tree in the thick bush, Scouter Nick went to the toboggan trailing behind his skidoo and uncovered a chainsaw. He is truly ready for Everything. Mrs. Z and I help by pulling the cut branches off of the trail, and in no time at all we are back on our way. The second stop is at a creek bubbling along beside the trail. It is a good size creek that isn't frozen right over, and the water is moving really quickly over the icy rocks and logs. Scouter Nick got off his skidoo and knelt beside the freezing cold water, working at something there with his hands. I wasn't sure what he was doing, so I asked Mrs. Z.
"He's checking his traps," she said, simply.
I wondered about what he was trapping, and why, and with what, and how it all works, but I had no time to ask as, finding them empty, we continued on.
As much as I love a skidoo ride of any duration, I am starting to wonder if we are EVER going to get there - where ever "there" is. Then, as quickly as the ride started, it is over. We had just crossed another lake and I figured we were starting onto another trail when both skidoos suddenly stopped. As I step off into the snow, I now can see that there are 4 other skidoos already here, and a path leading through the deep snow away from them and into the woods. We're Here!
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