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
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