Warm up: Nope
The thang: Put weight in pack on back, walk ruck. A lot of white stuff was left on the ground after the latest version of snowpocalypse 3 days ago. Yesterday saw a bit of a thaw that refroze overnight, making for patches of black ice. Early into the ruck, Eddie the Eagle located one of these the hard way. Fortunately, he emerged from a surprise spill no worse for wear, and we all trod with a little bit of extra caution. Not being familiar with the BC trails (something YHC intends to work on in 2018!), Rambler was on point leading us around the perimeter of the neighborhood. Mumble chatter was subdued in many parts of the trails by the loud crackling of icy snow under ruckers’ feet. Eddie (the dog) constantly patrolled the ruck line front to back at a full tear and likely covered about 3x the mileage of the ruckers.
Mary: 30 sec PRS (post-ruck sprawl)
COT: There’s a “GORUCK Show” you can watch on YouTube which is simply two of the cadre mumble chattering while drinking beer. During the course of the conversation the pile of Bud cans littering the middle of their table slowly progresses from all full to plenty of empties while the conversation meanders about the theme of the day. Despite the simple format, it’s an amusing show that can serve up some important perspective. Case in point: one episode was titled “Making the time to do awesome stuff” was a nice reminder that even when life is challenging and busy, we should make the commitment to do memorable things, usually of the CSAUP variety, with good friends. This doesn’t have to mean a month long trek in the Himalayas (although, admittedly, that would be pretty awesome!). They cited the example of getting a few buddies together for a weekend of backpacking in the Grand Canyon, but it could be something as simple as, say, rucking for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning with fellow PAX. It was an amusing show that deepened my appreciation for F3 and what we do. Glad to see you fellas in the gloom, and I look forward to next time!
Aprés-Basecamp: At the suggestion of Eddie the Eagle, 4 PAX made it to post-event EC at Breakaway Café. YHC highly recommends this place—outstanding food, including four different styles of poutine! Money quote from EtE: “I sure can Q a breakfast!”