I haven’t been as cold as I was in Algonquin that night although it has been twice as cold up here and then some. Our first week we had a few nights of –40°C and since then it has usually been around –20°C. Any of the above are very comfortable as long as there is no wind.
I have made a hobby of snowshoeing, as the ground will always be covered in snow until the spring thaw comes. My first days at it were the coldest and windiest... When you are green, you are brave. The steam I generate snowshoeing usually creates a frost on my hood. I chuckled one day when Helen, my snowshoeing buddy, had frost on her eyebrows.
I joke that I can tell how cold it is by how quickly my hands freeze without gloves. At –20°C it would take a few minutes, -30°C down to about a minute, especially with wind, and at –40°C whether its windy or not less than 20 seconds and the hands are white and aching.
I’ve also learned that you can’t get a carwash at –40°C even though that is when the streets are dry and the car would actually stay clean for a while.
Oh, so many new lessons with a new climate!!
