Too Boldly Go

Good morning Nerdy Bunch it's Monday!

So this week's theme is travel. I started to think of all the different travel experiences I've had. I've done a lot of camping, most of my travelling fits into that category. I have been to the Rocky Mountains a couple of times (in a trailer with my family). I've only been on an airplane once on a school trip to Montreal, it was amazing. I've also only been out of the country once that I can remember, a spring break trip to the U.S. to go skiing (downhill and cross-country). Mostly these were good experiences I have lot's of fun and exciting memories, but they aren't what I want to talk about.

When I was 16 I when on a thirteen day leadership training canoe trip. that is what I want to tell you about. First some context I started going to sumer camp when I was eleven. The camp I went to in in Northwestern Ontario. It's a place of remote wilderness there are forests, lakes, and rivers. The whole thing is in the Canadian shield. The Canadian shield is the bones of ancient mountains, which have been ground down by time and glaciers until what is left is rocks, huge rocks which are the foundations for the forest and the lake bed. It's the kind of place where you can go and get a sense of what the world might have been like before we were here. So when I was sixteen after being a camper for four years I decided that I wanted to do the leadership training program. This meant two week on the river, a week at our camps smaller and less 'civilized' island and two weeks on the main island learning and helping with girls camp. so at the beginning of the summer I got into a fifteen passenger van with eleven other girls and two of our leaders to go to camp. We spent a day or two on the main island preparing, packing, practicing ourportaging and paddling and learning about whitewater canoeing. then it was back into the van for our drive to our put in spot on the English river.

I can't keep going without talking about the girls who I went onto the river with. there were six of us (myself included) and two leaders. We were a pretty diverse group and we didn't know each other at all when we first met. By the end of the trip we were extremely close, which isn't to say that we always got a long, no we fought after all we were sixteen and living together with very little in the way of privacy for a month. There are some of them that I'm not really in contact with anymore and others who have become super important to me.

Any way back to the river. The first day was insane we had a kilometer long portage (if your not sure what this is it is when you have to carry all of your stuff overland it's French for carry) about half an hour after getting on the river with fallen trees and swampy bits. At this point none of us was in the kind of shape you need to be for this and all of our food barrels were at their heaviest. after that the first few days sort of blend together we had to bushwhack a site more than once and it was really cold then around day five the weather got much warmer and on day six we had our first rest day where we ate pancakes and napped and swam. After that once again things get a little foggy until day eight we only ran a couple of rapids which was a little disappointing, and we did a lot of portaging our whole trip. Day eight was the day we had been kind of dreading our whole trip a three kilometer portage. Basically it took us the entire day we wrote hardcore on our knuckles and chanted beforehand to get pumped up. Afterwards we were all super cranky. The rest of the trip seemed to fly past, there were more portages and waterfalls. there was lots and lots more paddling and sunburn and black flies of course there was also laughter and silliness and friends. At the end of it all I was so glad I did it, it was simultaneously one of the hardest and one of the best things I've ever done. When I was done I had amazing friends and when kids made fun of me in high school I could smile to myself because while they had been at home working during the summer I had been portaging and paddling through the wilderness growing stronger in every way.

Here are a couple of picture of my adventure:

This is us at he beginning of the river I'm in the back on the left.

This is me again sitting on a rock before a portage. So that is probably my most interesting travel experience although its probably not travel in the sense that most people use the word.

Now Nerdy Bunch I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading all of your posts last week. They were all really interesting for the slightly creepy psychologist in me. I can't wait to hear about your travel experiences this week. I wanted to leave you with a little question? I want to know what your listening to? (if your not listening to any thing feel free to make something up!) I'm currently listening to 'I Can't Decide' by the Scissors Sisters which I heard first on Doctor who which makes me extremely happy. That's all for now.

Best Wishes!

Allysa