The winter trip was great fun for all. Monday morning, we all loaded our gear into our cars and off we went. Soon after arriving we made quinzhees, and unpacked our stuff into them. These would be our new homes for the week. On the second day, we did all of the fieldwork for our mapping of Perch Lake. Some worked on mapping out the perimeter of the lake, others measured the depth of the lake at various points, while others recorded the altitude of the land surrounding the lake. After a lot of hard work, we went 'home' to camp, and made ourselves some well-earned dinner as well. Wednesday was an action packed day of snowshoe hiking which, thankfully, ended with dinner as well. Our intrepid leader AK succeeded in leading us up the summit of a mountain (or large hill) that was in no way on our planned route. Hmm, compass lessons anyone? Thursday was very fun; the Tamarack Winter Olympics were exciting and made for some great teamwork challenges. We all found our own place at the edge of Smith Lake, and spent two hours on a 'solo' to reflect on the week. On Friday, we packed our bags, broke our quinzhees and said our godbyes to the fire pit that we had gathered around every night. After carrying our gear out to the cars, and leaving Smith Lake for good we drove home satisfied that we had successfully completed the first of four great trips.