It is cold, windy, and snowing and I can hear the mostly happy chatter from the group in their tents.
The second group finally arrived at camp just after 11pm last night with the northern lights dancing in the sky. They had a long journey with two snowmobile breakdowns and plenty of problem solving. Everyone was relieved to be all together.
We finally got everyone settled into bed by 12:30am and I let them sleep until 8 to recover.
This morning was around-10 with no wind and low cloud. It took us 3 hours to eat, melt snow for water and pack up.
We hit the trail with snowshoes and headed south. Quickly the clouds packed in even more and the flat light visibility dropped to almost nothing. At one point I almost walked off a steep snowbank that I did not see until the last minute.
After two hours we got to Owl River shelter and took a break. We continued on for almost 3 more hours not really able to see much of where we were going. Once at camp we noticed the full intensity of the wind as we struggled to pitch our tents. But soon enough we were inside in the relative warmth as the wind blew and the snow fell.
It is time for sleeping now and everyone is doing well. Some are a little sore and some are cold but we soldier on.