Q: How many smiley faces makes it romantic?
A: None. They're smiley faces.
-Sarah
@->---
Sunglasses
Pretty Cool Glasses!
Thursday 22 September 2011
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Northwoods Canoe Trip 2011: Day from Hell
Some of you know, and others of you don't, but I am a, I quote a MYWOC staff member, "A hardcore nature/canoe tripping girl". That means I am a canoe-tripping fanatic. When I'm not at home. At home I am a violin rock-god(ess). Or am trying to be.
Anyways, this summer, I counceled the Northwoods canoe trip that MIni-YO-We offers. I was one of 3 councelors, 2 females, and 1 male. We had 10 camper on our trip, all ranging in age from 14 to 16. Opposite to popular belief, 14-16 year olds are actually really easy to handle in the wilderness (tip: always keep the food barrel in the councelors canoe). Just kidding! They are an amazing group of kids, every year. Thought provoking, and sensible. Most of the time.
Everything went well until the 2nd last day, when we hit the Class 3/4 rapids. Usually, the Stairway to Heaven (which holds the rapids) is passable. This year, however, most of the rapids were dried out. Earlier that day, one of the girls had slipped on a wet rock with a pack on her back, hit her head, and passed out. We decided that she had a concussion, and she took it easy for the rest of the day. The reason she hit her head was because instead of doing the 200metre portage like they were supposed to, most of the campers kept going instead of turning where they were supposed to, turning it into a 3km portage. 7 of our campers disappeared off the face of the earth. Not even close to do-able. Then, when they were as far away as possible from us, the girl suffered a concussion and passed out.
So we are 3 hours behind schedule, and we have to be at our take-out the next day before dinner.
We hit the rapids, and the male councilor decides to test it out with his canoe. He goes down, hits a log, and tips. Campers, packs, canoe, paddles and other little bits are all starting to either sink or float away. The 2nd canoe, with a councilor, floats down to help them, and tips. The 3rd canoe, no councilor, just campers, goes down without a drop of water in it. I have the girl with the concussion, so I back up and do the portage.
After getting to the bottom and seeing only 1 canoe, I go back up with 2 throw bags. One of the tipped canoes is wedged under a log, but all campers and packs are safe. We then spent 3 more hours trying to pull the canoe out of the Class 3/4 rapids. Smart!
We ended up leaving it, which gave us 3 canoes. Tight space! Two 5-man canoes and one 6-man canoe. Harsh, but in the end, it was so fun!
The hard part was breaking it to everyone else.
The moral: Look before you strike.
-Sarah
Hard to the core
Anyways, this summer, I counceled the Northwoods canoe trip that MIni-YO-We offers. I was one of 3 councelors, 2 females, and 1 male. We had 10 camper on our trip, all ranging in age from 14 to 16. Opposite to popular belief, 14-16 year olds are actually really easy to handle in the wilderness (tip: always keep the food barrel in the councelors canoe). Just kidding! They are an amazing group of kids, every year. Thought provoking, and sensible. Most of the time.
Everything went well until the 2nd last day, when we hit the Class 3/4 rapids. Usually, the Stairway to Heaven (which holds the rapids) is passable. This year, however, most of the rapids were dried out. Earlier that day, one of the girls had slipped on a wet rock with a pack on her back, hit her head, and passed out. We decided that she had a concussion, and she took it easy for the rest of the day. The reason she hit her head was because instead of doing the 200metre portage like they were supposed to, most of the campers kept going instead of turning where they were supposed to, turning it into a 3km portage. 7 of our campers disappeared off the face of the earth. Not even close to do-able. Then, when they were as far away as possible from us, the girl suffered a concussion and passed out.
So we are 3 hours behind schedule, and we have to be at our take-out the next day before dinner.
We hit the rapids, and the male councilor decides to test it out with his canoe. He goes down, hits a log, and tips. Campers, packs, canoe, paddles and other little bits are all starting to either sink or float away. The 2nd canoe, with a councilor, floats down to help them, and tips. The 3rd canoe, no councilor, just campers, goes down without a drop of water in it. I have the girl with the concussion, so I back up and do the portage.
After getting to the bottom and seeing only 1 canoe, I go back up with 2 throw bags. One of the tipped canoes is wedged under a log, but all campers and packs are safe. We then spent 3 more hours trying to pull the canoe out of the Class 3/4 rapids. Smart!
We ended up leaving it, which gave us 3 canoes. Tight space! Two 5-man canoes and one 6-man canoe. Harsh, but in the end, it was so fun!
The hard part was breaking it to everyone else.
The moral: Look before you strike.
-Sarah
Hard to the core
Friday 16 September 2011
Thoughts
Quote of the day: "Turn your walkie down! I can't hear mine!" -Paige Gillard, MYWOC staff
-Sarah
Shop! In the name of love!
-Sarah
Shop! In the name of love!
Thursday 15 September 2011
Camp-ites
Right now, I am at Camp Mini-Yo-We, working on Fall staff for our Outdoor Centre. It is cool, and by cool I mean, the temperature is 8degreesC right now with mini gale-force winds. Try teaching a class of 13 year olds how to kayak in that weather! Shoot me now.
For those of you wondering, but haven't said anything, I am having a good time, filled with great food and people. (Do those two go together in that sentence?) All of the people here with the exception of 2 are MYWites: Olivia is total new to the camp scene, but needed a place to go after highschool, and Matt is an ex-Pioneer staff member who is my boss's assistant. We kid Matt because usually, you are a (enter camp name here)-ite for life, so Matt is an exception to this rule.
So far, it apparently has been good times for all, because we can still stand each other. The other night we were all sitting in our common-room, talking, but all clicking away on our respective tech equipment, with the usual interjection of who showed what on Facebook, or who was stupid on Twitter. 7 seconds later, we were busting a gut laughing because one of the girls helpfully pointed out that in 2015, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are going to merge to form YouTwitFace.
Going back to the coolness of the weather, through no choice of our own, we were each planted in a group that did the activity block rounds. Kayaking and canoeing were two interesting blocks. I fished 5 kayakers out of the water, and no canoes. Yes!! I came back from each 1.5 block with no feeling in my hands. On of the guys noticed that my lips had changed a colourful hue of purple.
-Sarah
I always was colourful!
For those of you wondering, but haven't said anything, I am having a good time, filled with great food and people. (Do those two go together in that sentence?) All of the people here with the exception of 2 are MYWites: Olivia is total new to the camp scene, but needed a place to go after highschool, and Matt is an ex-Pioneer staff member who is my boss's assistant. We kid Matt because usually, you are a (enter camp name here)-ite for life, so Matt is an exception to this rule.
So far, it apparently has been good times for all, because we can still stand each other. The other night we were all sitting in our common-room, talking, but all clicking away on our respective tech equipment, with the usual interjection of who showed what on Facebook, or who was stupid on Twitter. 7 seconds later, we were busting a gut laughing because one of the girls helpfully pointed out that in 2015, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are going to merge to form YouTwitFace.
Going back to the coolness of the weather, through no choice of our own, we were each planted in a group that did the activity block rounds. Kayaking and canoeing were two interesting blocks. I fished 5 kayakers out of the water, and no canoes. Yes!! I came back from each 1.5 block with no feeling in my hands. On of the guys noticed that my lips had changed a colourful hue of purple.
-Sarah
I always was colourful!
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