Winter Charlevoix

The Charlevoix region of Quebec in winter. The region in immediate proximity to historical Quebec city offers much in terms of available area to undertake activities such as cross country skiing or snowshowing in an appealing mountainous environment... Click on the image to expand it... If you need to see some really impressive peaks just look further east in the Groulx mountains which are immediately north of Baie Comeau... For those which feel that they can tackle the fridgid winters visiting the relevent regions, being well prepared may include using a little creativity to assure a certain comfort during a treck and once the day is done . While portable solar powered heaters aren't formally part of the market it is always possible to improvise, at least for daytime considering the high outputs of some flaxible portable panels.As for nightime use,, Apart from the heat pad, something cheap can be TRIED to procure a minimum of comfort...Since the darkness of long nights are a part of winter I guess that a couple of the small 4 hour candles (which sell at 20 for a dollar) that are properly enclosed (to prevent any contact with a direct flame ) should give enough warmth on those cold winter nights. There are always the bold that may be tempted to try using such apparatus as the advertised heater for those artificial fire places (advertised in papers and magazines ) sold by the Amish religious community (which I suspect must demand a hugh amount of power to operate or use gas making them irrelevent...). To be honest, while a small quantity of quick-lime can quickly boil water (the created slaked lime being insoluble and henseforth relatively non toxic) , such solutions are definitely odd considering what a can of butane can accomplish. Although I was tempted to try calcium carbide which sells in stores specialising in caving , the compound itself delivering acetylene with water such acetylene delivering a 3500 degree celcius flame thus making a relatively small quantity of the compound sufficient to rapidly bring water to boil... Mind you, if I had an assured supply of air I'd be tempted to get the electro-generator described on pages 217-221 in a 1990 science supplement to encyclopedia Brittanica titled "Science and the future". I'd get it moving with something other than a refrigeration pump ! Who knows, maybe the aquarium air puimp would do wonders ! But then you might be tempted to attach a small electrical motor ... Mind you, the portable alcool based fuel cells do wonders to give cheap electricirty in the middle of nowhere...No need to go into science fiction with devices that pretent to rotate like is the case with the following blueprint: http://s188.photobucket.com/albums/z313/picturedreams/?action=view¤t=Blueprint-2negative.jpg http://trees-arbres.tripod.com/id1.html