Tim December 1st, 2007

Prior to embarking on this momentous adventure. First to Argentina,(Buenos Aires), then Chile (Torres Del Paine Nat. Park)

Patagonia

and finally Antarctica for the final 11 days. I experienced a bit of pre-trip karma, mostly due to my lack of caution with what I was eating during my expedition planning. Well really it all started before my actual planning. In fact I was in the process of moving my home from glorious Victoria, B.C. Canada to a much less wet environment but no less dramatic landscape south of Calgary, Alberta. Actually to a small town with one main street called Black Diamond. I think I picked that town for 2 reasons. Firstly my girlfriend lives close by on a ranch slightly north of there and secondly because once I rolled the name of that town through my mind It just stuck like maple syrup to the top of my mouth leaving a sweet taste…..yeah it was a cool name, bringing to mind six shooters, saloons and ten gallon hats with huge silver belt buckles gleaming in my eye. Yeah…..I couldn’t wait to tell Ma that I was moving to Black Diamond!

Now the moving day, crazy as it may seem, was only a few days before flying south across half of the Earth towards Antarctica, many things needed to happen with the precision of a Swiss watch. One fowl up and the whole preplanning stack of cards collapses and and the mind starts to fray with the expectant headaches of the ensuing tension when things go awry. Having traveled enough, I know this tends to happen no matter what the planning and you just have to bite the bullet and forge on, trying to maintain all the relationships around you and keep things friendly, despite the hardened jaw and icicle eyes. Nothing like traveling with someone else to truly test your commitment to one another, as these things are inevitable in my experience. So, once we got into the big 35 foot U Haul truck to drive across British Columbia and up the feared Rogers Pass into the Canadian Rockies, driving with crossed fingers hoping that the weather was going to hold. Who in the hell moves to Alberta in the winter, was screaming through my mind! We kept on driving & listening to the radio weather reports expecting the worst….like 2 feet of fresh snow on Rogers Pass, or worse, freezing rain on the descent from Rogers pass….ahhh….hell, freezing rain anywhere would be nightmare enough in a grouchy old U Haul truck. I mean who needs to see the back end of your truck going down hill and start to pass you as the huge canyons of endless space on either side of the road drawing me ever closer like the vortex of my blender screaming for my attention. These are the fears ringing in my mind driving east, starting at the crack of dawn to get a head start on what was to be a long day. As it turned out my fears were averted by the clear skies and full moon night. Never had I seen the mountains with more clarity of dry roads and deerless roadside ditches. We could have almost driven without the headlights it was so bright. As a photographer it was tough not to stop every 2 minutes to shoot prospective compositions, lit by the moon.

Banff Nat. Park

But we had a longer term goal, the mountains of the Rockies would have to wait. Black Diamond was beckoning, as was the trip south. Our schedule would brook no dawdling even for a perfect night through Banff National Park. So you wonder what was all this talk of Karma? Things seem to be going along smoothly. And so I thought. In fact I couldn’t really believe that all had gone so well up until this point. Truth be told, I was even getting cocky! Well that night we pulled into Debbie’s farm ( my Girlfriend)

Tim and Debbie

just north of Black Diamond to stay the night , as my place has yet to be set up and her bed being more comfortable then all my past and future futons stacked one on top of the other. Ahhhh yes, a good meal and a soundless sleep. Having just come from my now ex downtown Victoria apartment I was looking forward to the howling of coyotes and the snorting of dusty muzzled horses winding me into a deep sleep. Now here was the smallest of miscalculations, so small that I only briefly considered it. And I have been kicking myself for a week since. Being slightly cheap with some things and overly extravagant with others I chose to be cheap when looking into my old refrigerator in Victoria and seeing that whole chicken sitting there, waiting to be consumed……but not yet I said to myself. It would be good to have at the end of the trip when we get to Debbie’s place at the end of the day. Not having a cooler available I reasoned that yes, it was cold enough outside and the chicken should fair well through the trip in the back of the U Haul truck. That evening we looked forward to this easy meal of chicken and whatever else struck our fancy once we got home. Being quite late on our final destination of Debbie’s ranch the other part of the meal ended up being a simpler meal of spaghetti and of course the chicken! It hadn’t taken more then a hour since consuming the famed chicken and spaghetti meal and i was turning shades of white, shivering and shaking like a autumn leaf in the chinook winds. Yup, got me a bout of food poisoning. Man I felt dumb, I even considered the possibility prior to eating but discarded the possibility not thinking how this could affect future events leading to my soon to be embarked on trip. But I will leave that for future postings, it being much to late now too type with any sort of decent coherent cognition.

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• Tim Schumm