I’d like to say that I was very
prepared for this trip, I was for the most part, but a lot of my timing was
off. Let me explain. The week before the trip we had a substitute teacher; I
didn’t know when the trip was and when I asked him he said “I have no clue. Do
your worksheet and stop playing 5 cup” (5 cup is a game me and Ryan Best came
up with to entertain ourselves during class, it involves 5 cups). On the Friday
before the trip I realised the trip was on Monday and panicked because I hadn’t
packed at all and I had to do a presentation the day we’d be leaving for the
trip (this was kind of in my favor because the presentation wasn’t even
complete). Watershed event #1: not knowing when the trip was.
I was a little out of the loop
when it came to food planning, I’m in the afternoon class and most of my food
group was in the morning class so they’d finish all the planning and we’d be
left to say “This is a good food plan” and not do anything. However I did shop;
I messed up by buying wraps even though we already had some and apparently I
didn’t buy enough sandwich meat. I compensated my mistakes when buying snacks,
it wasn’t on the shopping list but I bought it anyways. It was just two bags of
raisins and a bag of pretzels; it was really nice to have. Jesse Spicer told me
she didn’t like raisins while we were on the trip, I probably should’ve brought
some chocolate to increase the variety of snacks, women love chocolate. There
were other snacks so she was fine. I also had a personal stash of candy which I
ended up sharing with my entire group. We ended up using it as poker chips one
night. Watershed event #2: not shopping properly.
The last mistake I made during
preparation was being late. I made sure to pack everything I needed the night
before and this time I packed everything I
needed. I forgot my water bottle and flashlight last year and was not going to
make that mistake again. I also packed these extremely useful water-shoes that
comfortably encased my feet with water; it was like walking on a water-bed.
They were also very warm, I never had cold feet. And lastly I didn’t need to
wear socks in them so none of my socks ever got wet. I didn’t wake up early
enough the day of the trip, so my mother and I were a bit late heading onto the
road. We could’ve made by 8 o’clock with maybe 20 seconds to spare, but I
really wanted coffee. Like… I really wanted coffee. I
thought I missed the bus when we got there but I made it just in time for
boarding. It was 8:15 when I got there. Watershed event #3: being late.
On the trip I was really glad how
co-operative everyone was, there was a good vibe going and everyone was
sharing. John Ignacz didn’t have an extra pair of shoes so I said he could use
mine, they didn’t fit but he said thanks anyways. Everyone was sharing
flashlights, no one was greedy about food and everyone pitched in. It was the
best camp group you could ask for. Only thing I was a little disappointed about
was the amount of candy people took from me, but I had it coming bringing that
much. We ended up gambling with it.
Everyone took a turn getting
water for the whole group which was really nice, I felt bad because I only went
once. My lack of help with getting water motivated me to find a large tall
stick to hold up a tarp we were going to put above the main section of the camp
(in case it rained, it also contained some of the heat from the fire). I
wondered off and found a large collapsed tree, it was probably 500 years old,
this to me was a sign that more dead trees were near. I ended up pushing over a
tall and straight dead tree. I brought it back to camp just in time to realise
we didn’t need it but Matt McKay decided it would be a good idea to go back and
gather firewood, Dusty Summers ended up tagging along. We found so many dead
trees in that area for firewood that we couldn’t bring it all back at once so
Matt sent Dusty Back for some string to tie it up and carry it back. We offered
to share our firewood with the other camps but they kindly declined.
Whenever I tried to put my
wetsuit on in the morning I’d lose all motivation to canoe, it was very cold.
Putting damp clothing over my bare skin didn’t make me any warmer. After like 2
minutes of wearing the suit it warmed up and felt as comfortable as a morning
robe. This is where my water shoes really came in handy, I was so happy to have
those, but I’ve already talked about them so let’s move on.
I had 2 rowing partners over the
length of our trip, Dusty Summers and K.J. Crane. Canoeing with Dusty was very
difficult, if I was in the stern he would still try to steer in the bow. Our
communication was really bad as well. I tried my hardest to speak in the most
calm, clear and encouraging voice and was very careful to say everything I was
doing and everything I needed dusty to do, but he wouldn’t listen. I’d try to
go straight and he’d make a left (from the bow believe it or not). I thought
since Dusty had a very aggressive style of canoeing that he’d do better in the
back so we switched halfway through the day. He still paddled like he was in
the bow and was asking me to pry a lot, because he didn’t know how to steer. By
the time we were at the rapids he was much better, I was able to follow what he
wanted to do much better in the bow. We made a lot of mistakes going down the
first set of rapids, Dusty steered us down the wrong side so we ended up
hitting a rock and twisting sideways. Surprisingly we didn’t tip and continued
down the rapid like nothing happened. Basically, once I figured out Dusty
worked better in the stern everything went much smoother.
Second day I had K.J. It was much
easier to communicate with him, he listened to me when I was in the stern and I
listened to him when I was in the bow. I liked K.J. as a partner better, I
really didn’t want to canoe with Dusty. One thing though is I never tipped the boat
with Dusty. Every time K.J. and I tipped the boat it was my fault. I kept
telling myself not to gunnel grab but I’d do it anyways (and so would K.J.).
The first tip was because I leaned too far into the turn; luckily the morning
water was surprisingly warmed (warmer than the afternoon if you’d believe it).
The second time we tipped the boat, we didn’t sink; the boat just filled with
water… a lot of water. It was when we were surfing, everyone was relaxing on
the wave and we came in awkwardly and somehow squeezed in. The angle of our
boat was off and the wave pushed us back, with no room to slap the water we had
this weird balancing act of leaning back and forth. The boat filled with water
and we drifted backwards to the beach with a canoe full of water. It was pure
luck that we didn’t sink.
Third day I had Dusty again but
we worked together much better than the first day. This was the best day of the
trip (in terms of canoeing). We went down the rapid backwards! Oh my lord,
freaking Blusty. It was his fault, he did it on purpose. He suggested we outdo
everyone by going down backwards and I kindly declined and asked that we go
forwards. He said “okay” and we portaged the canoe up to the top of the rapid.
I was in the bow and he was in the stern. When we were about to go down he said
to me “oh by the way, we’re going down backwards”. At this point there was no
stopping it so I sucked it up and tried to steer us backwards through the big
tongue of the rapid. To everyone’s surprise (especially mine) we made it. Oh my
lord, we made it. Ryan came over to me and said “Me and Shannon tipped the boat
going forwards but you and Blusty make it without tipping by accidentally going
backwards? I hate you.” Made my day.
I had more fun on that trip than
I expected and I’m even gladder I got coffee and made the bus. I had my cake
and ate it too.
No comments:
Post a Comment