Senior Canoe Trip
Senior Canoe Trip
All of the preparations for the trip had been made a few days earlier and the only thing left to do was to bring our food to school. I got up at 6:00am and had time to shave my head, shower and get dressed. I packed all of the food for the group into my van and drove to Assumption College High School. My group members, Sarah, Casey, and I split the food three ways and packed our gear into the vans. We departed from ACS at 10:30am and spent the next three hours in the van, which was driven by Mr. White. We stopped for lunch at Wendy’s and Mr. Sub, where I bought an extra sub for supper that night. I also purchased an extra disposable camera.We arrived at the Northern Outfitters at 4:00pm and unloaded the vans. Everyone from ACS stayed in the Hilton 1, which is a large “A” frame. The girls had the smaller top floor, and the guys, being far less in number, got he larger lower floor. We went swimming in Algonquin for the first time that night, and discovered that it was freezing cold. Afterwards, we ate supper and met the owner of the establishment, Wild Bill. He was a 20-year-old man trapped in a 70-year-old body who enjoyed hitting on some of the girls in my group. Of the 50 grids of Algonquin National Park, we would complete 1/10 of one grip during our five-day excursion. Wild Bill had traveled through all 50 grids and had been recognized for his ability as a camper/canoeist. Later on, we again went swimming, and I cut my foot on a sharp rock, and was given medical attention by Mr. White and the trip Nurse, Michelle. We enjoyed the sauna until 10:00pm, I wrote this journal, then retired to my mat on the floor of the “A” frame.
Day 2
The group got themselves up at 6:30 am and repacked all of our gear. The teachers served us omelets on bagels for breakfast. We collected our canoes, paddles, and lifejackets from the outfitters, and hit the water by 7:00am. The water was calm and beautiful and the sky was clear. The group was enthusiastic and energetic. My partner, Casey, and I were poor canoeists and could not travel in a straight line.
The first challenge was a river called The Snake, due to its narrow and winding properties. Due to my lack of experience, navigating this river was difficult and frustrating. Finally, The Snake ended and we did our first portage of about 20 meters. The walk was steep, but short in comparison to the rest of the portages that we would make. We reloaded the canoe and paddled another five minutes to the next portage. With little experience at portaging, I did the two hundred meter portage with my heavy pack, and canoe instead of making two trips. This was difficult and I thought I was going to die. We again reloaded the canoes and paddled to the former cabin of one of The Group of Seven artists. Unfortunately, there was no one there to let us in to the cabin, but I did get some nice pictures. We paddled another 45 minutes to the campsite for the night. We finished the days work by setting up camp and making supper. The day was incident-free and successful, however, Casey did cut her foot on a rock later that evening. The rest of the evening was spent playing frisbee, swimming, suntanning, playing cards and playing the bongo. We ate spaghetti and sat around the campfire until 11:00pm. Notably, Sarah and I used our wit and intellect to cheat Matt Donkers out of winning at a memory game. I was the only person in our group not sharing a tent, and I slept uninterrupted.
Day 3
We awoke at 7:00 am, hastily repacked our entire camp, ate breakfast, and departed by 7:45. The weather was overcast and uninviting. We paddled for about two hours and arrived at what would be base camp for the next three days. We set up camp, and gathered lunch, bathing suits and a camera for a trip to the rapids. The entrance to the rapids was at the beginning of a portage trail where we beached the canoes. The water on the way to the rapids was rough and my group members continually voiced their fear of tipping. When we arrived at the rapids, we changed into our bathing suits and took some photos while swimming in the especially strong rapids. Amy Hoe slipped and accidentally rode the rapids to the bottom. Although slightly bruised, Amy was fine. As we prepared lunch, the weather finally broke. Already freezing from the rapids the cold rain didn’t help and again I thought I was going to die! A warm lunch, hot drink and a plastic poncho from Steph may have saved my life. The weather cleared up just as we were leaving the rapids. When I arrived at base camp I proceeded to put on every item of clothing I had brought and huddled inside my sleeping bag. Later that day we found out that almost all our meats had gone bad and Sarah, Mr. White, Mr. Perras and myself burned it all at a campsite on the opposite side of the island. Again the night ended around the camp fire, with Mr. Perras and Mr. White telling jokes and everyone enjoyed themselves. I played bongo until I went to sleep.
Day Four
The group was allowed to sleep in later than usual because the days work was probably the hardest of all the days at Algoniquin. Instead of going on a long canoe trip, the group was doing mediocre c anoeing distance and a 2-kilometer portage on, both ways. Although 4K and a short canoe trip may not have been excessive for Wild Bill, for softies like us, it was challenging. We packed a lunch, bathing suit, rain suit(this time…), towels and cameras and set off for the portage. The entrance to the portage was directly across a small lake from our base camp. The day was again gray and rough, so for safety reason we paddled in groups of three instead of groups of two. Chris and Leanna were my partners. Since Chris and I packed light we got to share the weight of the canoe, unlike the other groups that only had one person carrying each canoe. Leanna carried the paddles and the backpack. Chris and I determined that we had to be first and kept a fast pace for the two Kilometers. At the approximately three quarters of the two K., we came to a large puddle. Although we tried to avoid it, Chris and I still managed to get our only pairs of dry shoes wet. In anger at our shoes we jogged the rest of the path and arrived at the end five minutes before anyone else. After everyone arrived we set off again and completed the relatively short paddle to the cliffs. The long portage was worth it!
Although the cliffs were slightly smaller than Chris and I expected, they were still great. There were two cliffs, one about thirty feet from the water and the other about fifteen feet. I was only allowed to jump and dive off them, until Mr. Perras did a front flip, which allowed me to do them too. I jumped constantly, and except for possibly Mr. Perras or Amy Hoe, I jumped the most. Afterwards, we dried off and got some lunch at a nearby campsite. We were allowed thirty minutes to rest or sleep, which I did before departing back towards the portage. Chris and I had no ambitions of being first this time and kept a slow but sturdy pace. We burrowed some wood that had been left at an unoccupied campsite and took it back to base camp.
We arrived at base camp at about 2:30 and relaxed for the rest of the day. Although all our meats had gone bad the day before, the teachers still gave us some extra chicken they weren’t going to eat. Later on, after everyone had cooked their food the teachers were cooking steak and Mr. Perras burned himself. On the bright side though, while giving Mr. Perras medical attention, the teachers’ steaks were getting cold and the students were instructed to take care of them, which I did happily. Afterwards we talked, played some bongo and then went to sleep.
Day Five
We were told the night before that this would be the last day of paddling and portaging, but it would be a long one. The entire group was up around 6:00am. and cleared camp and hit the water by 6:30. It was cold from the wind and hidden sun on our side of the island, but when I went to get the bucket containing the meat that had gone bad I found the teachers sitting on the other side of the island, free from the wind and in the sun. Mr. Perras seemed like his burn wouldn’t hinder him too much on the way back. We packed the canoes, I got some necessary breakfast and we left. We needed to have all the canoes manned so we went in groups of two, Sarah Miller was my partner. We paddled hard the way we came. We arrived at the Island we stayed on the second night of the trip around 9:00am. and had some snacks and rested a bit. Some male campers were occupying the island.
We left the island and progressed back the way we came all the way to The Snake. The Snake was filled mostly with international students, or F.E.S.es who were generally poor at canoeing, giving Sarah and myself a well-needed laugh at their expense. We made subtle jokes about them and passed them with ease. My ability to maneuver our canoe had increase drastically since we first arrived at Algonquin. When we finally got back to the outfitters. We unloaded our gear into the Hilton II and put or paddles, canoes and jackets back. This time the girls got the larger floor of the A-frame and the guys the small loft.
The afternoon sun was out and I had a nap on the upper balcony of the A-frame, which was really nice after the day’s trip. Everyone one else played cards, relaxed, slept, swam or used the sauna. To my surprise we left some steak in the possession of the outfitters and instead of Mr. Noodles again for supper we had a streak and baked potato for supper.
Throughout the day my group, consisting of Donkers, Emmitt, Lauren Bialais, Joanna Long and me, rehearsed a skit for the evenings traditions. The traditions started after everyone was done supper and Mr. White and Mr. Perras were done serving Wild Bill’s family supper, which is also part of the tradition. The night started for the students with Mr. Perras telling a particularly funny joke. Then the students preformed skits based on inside jokes that had happened over the course of the trip. Part way through the night Wild Bill’s son came in and told some jokes and recited the entire poem of “The cremation of Sam McGee”. The traditional part of the night ended with prizes being allotted to students on the trip for standing out in various ways. Mine was not being able to differentiate between a freezer and a fridge and not freezing our food. I got a chocolate bar. Everyone stayed up late of the last night at the outfitters and some people ended up never even going to bed.
Day Six
Those of us who slept get up at 7:00am to pack and clean the A-frame. We left the outfitters by 7:30. We arrive at the Huntsville church at 8:30 and stayed for mass. We hit the road for six hours stopping only for lunch and a break. Wendy’s service really made us realize what we take for granted on a daily basis. We arrived at ACS at about 3pm and everyone went on their separate ways.
