Medeba: Canoe Trip
Ok, so here's an account of how a few Canadians dealt with the elements...
Second week at Medeba - yes Pamela used her persuasion skills to get me back there! - I was asked to assist in a 3 day canoe trip! How can you pass something like that up? I came back on Monday night after trying to get a few things sorted out at home. What fun! 6 campers were coming on the trip - 2 of them being girls (thus why I was needed). Nathan Dunning was our fearless leader who prepped the kids before I arrived.
Tuesday we left after lunch with pretty fair weather! Using a nicely laminated 1968 map we realized that the portage routes might be a bit hard to find! Especially after Nathan gave navigation duty to one of the campers and we were unable to find the entry point! No problem! We just went in on what looked like a trail...it ended up being a rather rough portage for the first time, being longer than envisioned, and some of the kids a bit weak. But Nathan just took up the slack and did the portage a few extra times - what devotion! A couple of the kids were pretty tough as well! Ben and Katy could both carry canoes solo which was a great help! A couple of hulks!
After that, our trek to the campsite went pretty well! We arrived at a lovely peninsula and set up camp before the sun went down! Even had a fire and some good conversation! Everything was looking rather promising...
Wednesday was a bit gloomy but no rain, we had a good first half of the day, the only major story being that the kids got surrounded by 'angry' loons out in the water! But the kids only thought the loons were giving them a great show...riiight. They also found a dinghy. I mean, what do you say to that? Honestly, that would have been the highlight of the trip...but then the weather started to turn!
Nathan told us it was going to rain, and it did...we sent the kids to their tents and we were discussing what we were going to do when Harrison comes up and says "the others went for a hike". It totally blew my mind! They hadn't told us they were going - bad idea! So Nathan went after them while I put up a tarp with Harrison and Aaron. Nathan found the other four in a hunting lodge playing cards!!!! So he pulled the serious 'card' and made them come back to our soaking campsite. Where we proceeded to start the camp ovens we brought and tried to boil water - which took forever!! By the time we were eating our cup-of-soup the wind had picked up and the rain was getting fierce. That's when we saw a wall of water coming across the lake towards us!! We all huddled in the back corner of the tarp while counting down until the water would hit us! It was insane!! We had to keep pushing the rain out of the tarp while holding it down since the wind was picking up the canoes it was tied to!! Once the weather had settled down a bit Nathan and I went to scout out the hunting lodge just in case our campsite had been too damaged to use, but we both had a bad feeling about it, so came back to check the tents - which had water puddles in them but weren't too bad. And how was the attitude of the campers?! AMAZING!!! Everybody took the rain very well and we had a lot of good laughs!
That night we packed up everything we could and tried to get settled for a wet night! The girls and I had a good time in our tent while the boys all huddled in their tent (which was worse than ours). In the morning the rain finally stopped, we got up to find that our whole tent was wet...Ben, one of the boys, had prunish hands because his sleeping bag had soaked up the water...poor guy. We got out of camp in record time and started back to the pick-up place. Nathan wanted to get back rather quickly so we pushed the kids - by having our canoe be in front! This time the kids had to portage their own gear - which they did amazingly! We ended up getting back in 2 hours!!
When we arrived at the end of our trek we stayed at the lake for a little bit - just because we could...and that is when the whole group decided to throw me in...Nathan's idea...but that's ok because he ended up getting soaked too - having to chase a canoe that got loose in the scuffle. Waiting for the van to arrive was great for conversation - and that's when I was able to have a serious spiritual conversation with a couple of the kids, something I was looking for an opportunity for!
When we got back to Medeba the kids showed their true character in all of the clean-up work! They were great! Never stopping and having great attitudes!
I finally was dry when an alarm went off...it was an emergency drill. All of the counselors had to run through the lake at the waterfront to make sure there weren't any kids drowning. After the drill Joel decided it was necessary for me to get wet...right...because I hadn't been wet for the past couple of days!! Ah well, what can you do! ;) It was a great experience and one that I would do again gladly -- whoops! Don't read that Pamela!
Second week at Medeba - yes Pamela used her persuasion skills to get me back there! - I was asked to assist in a 3 day canoe trip! How can you pass something like that up? I came back on Monday night after trying to get a few things sorted out at home. What fun! 6 campers were coming on the trip - 2 of them being girls (thus why I was needed). Nathan Dunning was our fearless leader who prepped the kids before I arrived.
Tuesday we left after lunch with pretty fair weather! Using a nicely laminated 1968 map we realized that the portage routes might be a bit hard to find! Especially after Nathan gave navigation duty to one of the campers and we were unable to find the entry point! No problem! We just went in on what looked like a trail...it ended up being a rather rough portage for the first time, being longer than envisioned, and some of the kids a bit weak. But Nathan just took up the slack and did the portage a few extra times - what devotion! A couple of the kids were pretty tough as well! Ben and Katy could both carry canoes solo which was a great help! A couple of hulks!
After that, our trek to the campsite went pretty well! We arrived at a lovely peninsula and set up camp before the sun went down! Even had a fire and some good conversation! Everything was looking rather promising...
Wednesday was a bit gloomy but no rain, we had a good first half of the day, the only major story being that the kids got surrounded by 'angry' loons out in the water! But the kids only thought the loons were giving them a great show...riiight. They also found a dinghy. I mean, what do you say to that? Honestly, that would have been the highlight of the trip...but then the weather started to turn!
Nathan told us it was going to rain, and it did...we sent the kids to their tents and we were discussing what we were going to do when Harrison comes up and says "the others went for a hike". It totally blew my mind! They hadn't told us they were going - bad idea! So Nathan went after them while I put up a tarp with Harrison and Aaron. Nathan found the other four in a hunting lodge playing cards!!!! So he pulled the serious 'card' and made them come back to our soaking campsite. Where we proceeded to start the camp ovens we brought and tried to boil water - which took forever!! By the time we were eating our cup-of-soup the wind had picked up and the rain was getting fierce. That's when we saw a wall of water coming across the lake towards us!! We all huddled in the back corner of the tarp while counting down until the water would hit us! It was insane!! We had to keep pushing the rain out of the tarp while holding it down since the wind was picking up the canoes it was tied to!! Once the weather had settled down a bit Nathan and I went to scout out the hunting lodge just in case our campsite had been too damaged to use, but we both had a bad feeling about it, so came back to check the tents - which had water puddles in them but weren't too bad. And how was the attitude of the campers?! AMAZING!!! Everybody took the rain very well and we had a lot of good laughs!
That night we packed up everything we could and tried to get settled for a wet night! The girls and I had a good time in our tent while the boys all huddled in their tent (which was worse than ours). In the morning the rain finally stopped, we got up to find that our whole tent was wet...Ben, one of the boys, had prunish hands because his sleeping bag had soaked up the water...poor guy. We got out of camp in record time and started back to the pick-up place. Nathan wanted to get back rather quickly so we pushed the kids - by having our canoe be in front! This time the kids had to portage their own gear - which they did amazingly! We ended up getting back in 2 hours!!
When we arrived at the end of our trek we stayed at the lake for a little bit - just because we could...and that is when the whole group decided to throw me in...Nathan's idea...but that's ok because he ended up getting soaked too - having to chase a canoe that got loose in the scuffle. Waiting for the van to arrive was great for conversation - and that's when I was able to have a serious spiritual conversation with a couple of the kids, something I was looking for an opportunity for!
When we got back to Medeba the kids showed their true character in all of the clean-up work! They were great! Never stopping and having great attitudes!
I finally was dry when an alarm went off...it was an emergency drill. All of the counselors had to run through the lake at the waterfront to make sure there weren't any kids drowning. After the drill Joel decided it was necessary for me to get wet...right...because I hadn't been wet for the past couple of days!! Ah well, what can you do! ;) It was a great experience and one that I would do again gladly -- whoops! Don't read that Pamela!
In Him,
-Amy-
posted by -Amy- @ Monday, July 31, 2006
2 comments
2 Comments:
Sounds like a great adventure...wish i could have joined you..lol except for the rain part :D
Glad to hear you decided to go afterall!
It was amazing! Though...I'm still finding new and interesting bruises all over my legs and arms! ;)
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