July 9th, Day Three - The Beginning Days
It was rather early when we woke up, right at the break of dawn. I must have
gone to sleep early the last night, as I felt awake and alive today. Andy and Vern
went to everyone's tent and woke them up. One by one, my crewmates stepped outside
their tent. After the normal morning bathroom calls, we started to break down the
camp. Within minutes, we took down our campsite which meant breakfast time! We feasted
ourselves to breakfast bars and oat grains. We quickly ate our meal and cleaned
up to head out for our next camp site.
 |
|
Canoeing down the lake.
|
Before we departed though, our foremen had us stride in the water with our lifejackets
and canoe paddles. Andy gave us an in-depth lesson of proper paddling, enabling
us to steer straight and minimize effort. It was great to learn the secrets of paddling,
as it made the rest of the trip a great deal easier.
We paddled for hours, making portages here and there. At high sun, we parked
our canoes on an island and broke out lunch. After a short stay there we quickly
departed.
Through hours of paddling and portaging, we finally made it to the campsite where
we would be staying. My shoulders were most certainly killing me, more so than my
stomach pleading for food. We set up the campsite and started to cook. My foremen
taught us the Northern Tier way of cooking and cleaning, now we can say we are pros.
When the campsite was clean and the pots were shining, we made a bear trap to
prevent bears from stealing our food and started our reflection period. Everyone
was dead tired; it seemed like we paddled for years. I flopped in my tent only to
blink when the morning sun came out again.
<< Introduction -
< Previous Day Next Day > -
Post Voyage >>
|
