Summer '98 I went on a wilderness expedition in Thunder Bay with Outward Bound. It was SO awesome, I wish I could do it all over again. I spent 3 weeks rock-climbing, canoeing, kayaking, leadership activities, and so much more. 12 days were spent consecutively on-trail, canoeing over 150km, and portaging(carrying) all our equipment through breaks in the water. It was tough, but fun. My personal belongings were scarce. All I had was a small stuff sack to put my belongings in. Want to hear something funny? I got to bring 4 pairs of underwear, and I brought a clean pair back!! To see my clothing list CLICK HERE. I had 2 showers in total, both in the last 5 days of the trip, and sometimes I bivied out, meaning slept outside(very cool, literally and just cool). My group consisted of 11 people, all my age(16), plus two instructors. Everybody was awesome. I'll NEVER for get this trip. Check out some of my trip pictures. I guarantee you'll laugh!!
This is a series of pics of me rock-climbing at, I think, the Nonwattin(Not sure if I spelled that right)site.
This was on our first day of expedition, and our first portage. We were all new and didn't know what to expect, so we tried very hard not to get our feet wet(later though we didn't much care). When getting out of the canoe, the boat pushed out from shore, and Devan here is in the splits. It's a good thing she does ballet!!
Also on the first day of our 12 day expedition, we couldn't find our last portage(after that portage we were going to set up camp, so we were all very tired 'cause we'd done 3 portages before this, which were very difficult, and on top of that during one of the portages, we hit a bees nest and a member of the group got stung 4 times)and it was getting dark, so bushcrashing would be dangerous. We ended up setting up camp right there, which turned out to be a spot with LOTS of dry wood for the fire. Anyways, the next morning we still couldn't find the trail, so we took the long way and spent the whole day carrying our canoes down a small river(above pic). Sometimes we hit some waist deep fast moving water, which was really cool. I got my first bee sting of my life this day, and I didn't even know it!
Lake Nipigon! Most of the trip was spent canoeing south down this lake. Very cold water!! Great for drinking though. This is me trying to climb up a rock that was slippery. The campsite we were on was the bomb!! Very cush tent spots.
This was ALL mine for three days!!!!( had a 3 day solo during the trip)
My two fantastic instructors Deb, left, and Dave on the right. This was after our solo, and all of us were chilling out waitin' for the waves to calm down so we could continue our trip. Lake Nipigon is very open and wide so big waves were common. Very cool, but difficult. We encountered big waves several times. You feel as if you've paddled 5km, but you only go 1km.
After waiting a day 'cause the waves were too big to travel(on the way to dropping people off for solo a boat tipped so after that we took caution), we then did a night paddle at 9:30pm to get past a really dangerous area(where the boat tipped)(The waves had calmed down somewhat). The next morning we got up at 4am to beat the big waves(which we did) that start up a few hours after 4am. We paddled over 25km that day, more that usual. We were tired, but during this morning paddle, we were crossing an open area in Lake Nipigon and the sun started to come up. Isn't it beautiful? Alot of us stopped and took pics.
MUD FIGHT!!! This was one of the highlights of the trip. Deb and Dave started it! The fight occured just before a km long portage. I carried a canoe. I was very happy. I felt buff(hee hee). We were on final, which means we lead out own trip. We decided when to paddle, when to eat, when and where to stop. We started final after solo ended. Deb and Dave just followed behind us.
This is Dave, one of my instructors, and me, after the mud fight. Aren't we clean? Actually mud is good for your skin :)
We are back from expedition. This is the day after. We got to use the kayak's for the morning. This is me.
This is my friend Stacey and I kayaking, who was on the trip as well. Oh yeah, nobody knew eachother before the trip started.
We went rock-climbing for a second time after our 12-day expedition. It was at a different site, called Claghorn. The climbs were much more difficult and the repel was ALOT higher(rapel meaning lowering yourself down the side of a cliff. You get to control how fast you go), than the other site. This is me about to go down the repel. Don't worry, I'm safe(this goes for all the climbs). Even though I get to control how fast I go, someone is also on belay(watching and having their own rope tied to me as well as the rope I have to lower myself). I believe the repel was about 80ft or more. Very scary, but fun. The other climbs that you do, you just climb and someone is on belay pulling up rope slack from you climbing upwards so that if you slip you don't fall anywhere. After this climbing day we stayed overnight and the morning we spent at Thunder Bay's Humane Society doing our community service. We cleaned up stuff and then got to play with the dogs and cats.
The third last day of the course we spent on the rope's course, which consisted of rope obstacles up in the air. When you finished the whole course you got to jump off a platform while someone was on belay. This is me jumping off. It was very cool.
This is what happened sometimes when someone jumped off the platform and landed(some slack was given to make it fun)hard. After everyone did the rope's course, it was time for Rendez-Vous where we met all the other groups that did the same course(but different routes) and talk about our experiences and stuff.
These were my companions for the three-week course. I'm very proud of them. The second last day, we had a marathon(1km paddle, 750m portage, and an 8km run)and our whole group crossed the finish line before the other three groups had all their members cross the finish line. There are no awards for the marathon; it's just for fun. However there are two other awards. We won both(not to rub it in or anything):The Silver Can award(for keeping the area in which the food for trips is kept, the most clean after using it) and the Silver Spoon award(for cleaning and putting away our expedition equipment in the cage(where the equipment came from and is stored for future use) the neatest). Rock on Fru-Fighter's!!(That's our group name)
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