There are two sides to everything
Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2004 @ 20:17
It feels weird to type, walk on flat ground, and carry nothing on my back. We were constantly doing something. I did not want to return knowing that there would be school the next day, although we missed three days. I had the greatest time ever on the canoe trip.
My first day was kind of awkward. I thought I would be harassed by Aaron and Alex the whole trip because they were super annoying on the 6-hour bus ride to Collarnia. But I just listened to Evanescence and Metallica. We stopped at Wendy�s on the way but I did not eat anything there.
As soon as we arrived to pick up the canoes and unpack our gear, we got our picture taken as a group. Then others walked around throwing rocks in the water and I picked up a black feather as a beginning memory.
We paddled for about three hours before we arrived at our first campsite. I was in the lead the whole way. Once there we had to find flat ground for tents. I ended up with the oddest tent mate ever. Tina is annoying, loud, blonde, from British Columbia, gullible, and has a chipmunkish hyena laugh. She�s so gullible because she seriously thought we brought ice cream for dessert. Like hello, it wouldn�t even last the bus ride. She was the youngest one there so instantly Aaron and Alex annoyed the hell out of her, but she never really got mad.
Matt, another guy, was picked on a lot because he�s younger, very small, and eats like a chickadee. I was too only because everything of mine was black, even a water bottle, and I always had to wear the black life jacket. I got so mad when Tina snatched it on me. So I attached my black pouch to it. No one ever took it again.
As soon as our tents were set up, I unpacked as quickly as I could and jumped in the lake with Thomas. The water was freezing, yet refreshing. We instantly swam across to the next closest island and rested a bit. We reluctantly swam back, dried off, changed clothes, and had to gather firewood.
The canoe trip is very important to the out door education credit so we helped out a lot. So every night we had to put our food on the water in canoes to keep them cool and away from bears.
There was this large flat rock near the water which became our niche. Aaron, Thomas, me and sometimes Candido relaxed there, especially at nights because of the full moon and stars. We wanted to sleep on there but there was a bit of a cloud cover meaning that it could have rained.
The second day we went on a hike to Silver Peak. According to the map, Silver Peak is 1500 feet high. I was the only girl in the first pack with Aaron, Thomas, Herv, Candido, and that coach. Yeah, he also runs the out door program. We were fast and still the hike took three hours long. Some parts of the mountain were so hard to climb up. Sweating to death, I almost fell countless times. It felt like we were climbing to 5000 feet high.
We eventually reached the top of the mountain where we met a group of guys from Buffalo. We waited for 20 minutes before others from our group showed up. It was very windy up there, and I was desperately hungry. Luckily we planned to eat there. We fed on gorp, bread with cheese, and the rest were feeding on dried meet while the coach was secretly giving me mini chocolate bars.
The hike back down seemed faster. I was part of the lead pack but C. wasn�t since he had fallen. We arrived back at the campsite about 45 minutes before the slow people.
The days were incredibly warm and nights were very cold. Fortunately I brought Vaseline to moisten my lips. I curse the sun for making me tanned.
The third day we got to our second camp site. It was rather small and our tent was very far from the guys. We found a quartz rock to hang out on. It was a huge area of pure quartz, which lead to a big drop down to the choppy waters. All we really did there was spend the night.
The fourth day we got to a really nice campsite. It took us a while to get there. My hands were in pain because of blisters. I should have had a fiberglass paddle, but I was stuck with this really wide, thick, old paddle. Once there we discovered the campsite was actually two sites in one.
We got there around lunchtime so we took our time and relaxed. We ate a huge lunch, and then went swimming. Thomas and I pushed this guy (he coaches younger kids) so that he could swim with us across the lake. It was quite a distance but he gave in quickly. It was fun to see him all tired. Then we got back again and swam around some more trying to escape the bullets of rocks Tina and Matt were throwing in the water.
There really was no hang out spot, so we just stayed around the lake. That day was the most fun. Aaron and I pushed this guy over a rock and into the forest. He couldn�t climb up the rock, he tried for like half an hour. We ran away as soon as he said, �You guys are dead.� He eventually got up the rock and chased us around. Then we tried pushing him in the lake. I couldn�t be a part of it since I could be pulled in by my finger, so Alex took my place. No one was more than knee deep in the water since the adults got mad. We got in shit for trying to push Tina in, and she only got her foot wet and was laughing about it.
That night Thomas and C. were kind of distant from the rest of us. I tried to talk to them but they were being blunt and walking away whenever possible. I was sure I didn�t say anything bad.
I woke up in the middle of the night and it was poring rain. That was the only time it rained on the trip. Even the whether was sad it was our last night.
I woke up in pain. There was this big spider bite on my leg. The size was like half a fist. I couldn�t walk right, but thankfully I wasn�t sick. I wasn�t happy about leaving but still looking forward to a nice cozy bed. We took down our tent first and packed before the rest of the crew, so we had to help others.
We didn�t rush at all that morning. We just took it all in. The adults talked amongst themselves and we talked amongst ourselves. We chatted about how much fun we had, the highlights, and the fact that we didn�t come across any moose, bears, deer, and didn�t even hear any wolves. We got to know each other very well outside of school and it was nice to see a different side of them. They really are cool people.
At one point I just wandered off. Thinking. I collected all my thoughts. The trip has inspired me to write songs. They are kind of sad, but I guess that�s how I wanted it. It came naturally to me. I just let my mind do the talking and singing.
I got back to the others and we ate all the food we could, and then got ready to paddle back to civilization.
After putting away the canoes and loading up all of our stuff, we got our �dirty picture� taken. Kind of like a before and after idea. In our after picture I�m sure we didn�t look that great from being in the wilderness for five days. Once Thomas looked at the photos, he got mad at me for doing the bunny ears on him.
On the bus it felt weird to be moving and not needing to paddle. I finally got to listen to my CD player and the radio. We also stopped at Harvey�s on the way. The coach started talking about Canada Games and that we could get gold metals and that you can�t attend if you are over 20 years old, and it�s only every four years. I almost cried. I don�t want to swim but I had no idea that it would be my last chance to make it. Thomas for sure wasn�t going to miss it. He is so easily bribed. I sure had something to think about though.
Jenna
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