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Coulonge River, 2000
Okay gang, it's the moment
you've all been waiting for, I'm sure!!! The TRIP
LOG!! To be honest with you all: I had started the first half, lost the
log
(yikes!), panicked, did a major room cleanup and found it somewhere in
the
pigstye!! So, enjoy...
PRE-TRIP
So, we all arrive at Esprit. I don't know how everyone else was feeling,
but probably just like me: nervous, a little shy, and more than a little
cramped from sitting in that bloody van. That night, Dev and Justin broke
out the bug shirts for the first time (sigh). And who could forget our
initiative task: putting up the baker. (Oh my God, we have to do this
every
day?!?!) Of course, there were the practice strokes and t-rescues in the
pouring rain, and the nature walk. The next day: packing the food!
(fun...won't this stuff rot???) And the buggy opening campfire lit by
Dev,
the self-proclaimed pyromaniac.
DAY 1
So, we are almost at our starting point when we hear a pop in the van
and
lose our trailer!! Dev and Justin play the first of many card games. We
finally get out onto the water, and camped on the beach site with that
wonderful A-frame setup. Grilled cheese for dinner. Yum!
DAY 2
What a day. Rainy, with a terrible crosswind, and taking the wrong turn!
(It's all Jesse's fault!) Just our luck we end up staying at the windiest
campsite on earth and sleeping on top of rocks and trees. Blech!
DAY 3
Nice (um...) early wakeup! The POO POO was found, and then cleaned up
promptly by Sean, who didn't waste time lecturing us on why not to do
this!!
For breakfast...the first CREAM OF WHEAT!!! Noooooooooo!!!! When we had
forked enough of that nastiness down our throats, we faced the headwind
again, and canoed to the Pork rapids. We had our first two or three
portages and our first carry-over. When we finally got to our site, we
had
our little hydraulic chat...don't forget the Oahu-Pahu river with Justin's
blind monks that lived in the rock and manufactured (by hand) canoes and
guitars...and Vick's Hawaiian lady lounging on the beach with hibiscus
flowers. Today marked the day we had the last DEET on the trip, and our
first spruce tea! And we were all jammin with Tanya, Vick and Sean on
the
barrels...
DAY 4
Our first swim in the rapids!! (OW...my butt...) Today we canoed to camp
Ward (the bugs! the bugs!) with the magical toilet, all nestled in the
woods, bug-free! We saw the rabbit that Jesse tried to catch, and Justin
brings a pathetic twig for firewood. The night with the surreal sunset,
and
the less-than-adequate sweet paddle pasta (sorry, chef Jesse).
DAY 5
Oh no...another early morning...but it was worth it to see the mist rising
on the lake!! Granola with warm milk and hot chocolate was gobbled up
for
breakfast, right before our first 1-km rapids, where Sean and Tanya decided
they had to SINK! Today was our first really long day (30 km). Oh, and
who
could forget the minor detail of BLACKFLY HELL!!!!! NOOOOO!!! (Note to
self:
for next trip, find bathing suit with sleeves. No more bikinis!) Does
everyone remember the kayaker with no helmet, obviously no brains, and
that
he stopped for a cig in his kayak? We waited on the rocks for the canoes
to
come down, and when we finally DID get to our site, it was the fastest
setup
ever! (Just add blackflies) Tanya gets sick today...bad news. Lazy (read:
watery) perogies for dinner.
DAY 6
No doubt about it: we all looked like topographical maps suffering from
blood loss today. Thank gosh, it was a short day, not much paddling before
we got to the desert site, (however, Tanya did start to stern today! Tanya,
Tanya she's our (wo)man, if she can't do it, no one can!) and set up our
tripod clothesline. We had yummy soup for lunch, and after that, we found
those HUGE moose tracks and the wolf tracks. We ate our first dal for
dinner, and after that, we had our bonding and watched the shooting stars.
(I miss that!)
DAY 7
Paddled to the SUMO SITE, with all the swifts and rapids, we got there
pretty quickly. After a stew of "meat" (mock duck and mock pork),
we had
our sumo wrestling extravaganza!! We all met Vicious Vicky for the first
time (to be honest, so did I!!), world's most ferocious wrestler. Never
say
"Die, Vicky".
DAY 8
This morning, we were treated to Jesse's really super reading from Sean's
book, and it was a looooooong day, one that got us all the way to the
confluence site! On the way there: look out, GIRL POWER!! Sex bomb, sex
bomb, you're my sex bomb! Singing all the songs we knew, and singing them
loud! (PS: I went to see Tom Jones in concert in Sept--he sang Sex Bomb
twice and all my friends were looking at me when I started to cry!!) When
we got to the site, we took down the horrible architecture that had been
left for us, and we had "pasketti". Franimal ate 5 bowls. FIVE
bowls!! To
end the day, we chose our secret friends...twice.
DAY 9
Halleluja!! Our first duff day. We have shop class at the site, and Tanya
uses the AX! We did nothing all day, and made chilli for dinner. Big
mistake. No one slept that night, because of the symphony in the tent,
and
the awful smell. Unfortunately, all that rancid air did not deter those
horrible no-see-ems.
DAY 10
Left site early, paddled to Diablo. The girls start hip-hop dancing to
"This is How We Do It". On our second-longest portage, Justin
sprains his
ankle. The "away-team" (Tanya and Bri) goes to the site, and
they discover
people already there!!! Poor Jesse has to paddle Justin around all day,
and
falls asleep in an incomplete baker setup!
DAY 11
Second DUFF DAY! We all heard the scary noises near the toilet...Today
was
Jesse's (quite unsuccessful) bow-drill day. Boo. Tanya cooks all day
today! We had the beautiful moon and Sean and Jesse decide to climb that
tree ("We were communing with the tree. No, really!") while
Fran and Vicky
look on in horror... We had that nasty peppery pasta for dinner...Poor
Tanya
went hungry that night! We all checked out the beautiful waterfall, and
have an overall beautiful night.
DAY 12
Today we paddled 10 km to Die Hard rapids. We witness the first appearance
of the birchbark bandit! Fran and Tan get stuck in stinging nettles and
Sean the witch doctor cooks up an all-natural ointment...with no apparent
results. We ran the rapids in empty boats, and had a blast. Jesse scares
the hell out of Vicky while running the rapid (backwards!!) with his "Draw.
Draw. DRAAAWWW!!!" We see lots of snakes today and we have the stirfry
with
pineapple and ginger.
DAY 13
We have the sweetest rice pudding known to man for breakfast, and we have
a
huge day to prepare for: our 1-km portage along the road. The boys set
up
the baker (hey look!! They're working!) while Jesse, Fran, Bri, Vick,
and
Tan goof off after lunch with the caramel and the spreads...After, Fran,
Tan
and Vick go off to the beach with Sean, the beautiful, beautiful beach.
This
was the most beautiful site, with the gorgeous beach and the two
mini-waterfalls. We find the totally random bicycle out in the middle
of
nowhere, and Sean is baffled by the frog tracks. We have our second dal
and
we see that the birchbark bandit strikes again!
DAY 14
We travel today from Enrage to our last site. We ran some WICKED rapids
today; the river gods were definitely generous to us. Dev takes three
days
off Briana's life screaming ROCK!! Today it rained a little but it was
a
nice, warm rain.
DAY 15-Duff #1
Today we worked on the sauna all day, and have granola for breakfast,
we
make our sculptures (earth, wind, water, fire) and have another spaghetti
for dinner.
DAY 16-Duff #2
We had the sauna today, an amazingly wonderful yet completely different
experience for each one of us. Tanya and Vick made scrambled muffins for
breakfast, and all day we worked on our gifts for our secret friends.
Finally, we have the gift exchange!! Sean and Bri surf solo today, and
Sean
grabs the gunwales (tsk tsk!) We eat quesadillas for lunch and dinner,
and
chat on the barrels in the pouring rain. We ate bowlsful of caramel, trying
to empty the Nalgenes.
DAY 17
Wow, what an early morning! We prepared for our paddle home, and there
was
a definite bittersweet feeling today. Today was also the day of the eerie
silence on the river. As we started to re-enter civilization, we see all
the bikers along the river, and "ZZTop"-"Wanna smoke a
joint?" Don't forget
the kids asking us if we knew there was a waterfall at the end of the
river!! We drove back to Esprit in the car that was moving "faster
than
light" to showers (wow...is that me in the mirror??), fresh food,
and
toilets that flush.
DAY 18
Our rafting day! Full of shenanigans, it was. We did some big water with
Jesse guiding us. Happy birthday to Justin today, a big fourteen! (Awww!!)
A cake with a paddle and a canoe, and we begin this (very tiring) trip
log.
DAY 19
It is our last day. Nobody wants to go. We make our blues notes, and
finish our log. Then it's time to say our goodbyes. Almost everyone has
a
good cry.
TANYA
Quote: "Jesus Murphy!"
-Falls on her face
-Sterns Die Hard-you go, girl!
-Swamps canoe with Sean.
DEV
Quotes: What's for dinner? How many kilometres left? What time is it?
-Always wants to light fire
-Loves that axe!
-Backpaddle is on FIRE!
JUSTIN
Quotes: Huzza! Yaiey! External cable modem...yadda yadda yadda...
-Near-waterfall experience
-Invalid/hopalong
-Never working!
VICIOUS VICKY
Quotes: I'll bite your face off! WHOOP WHOOP WHOOPASS!!!
-Sex bomb!
-Singing
-Hard-core portaging!
-Constant energy--when awake!!
FRANIMAL
Quotes: Suck it up!
-Goofy Fran
-Fishspears!
-Fran--the budding survivalist (when will we be seeing you on SURVIVOR?)
BRIANA
Quotes: Doesn't stop to breathe or talk. Just WORK.
-Bloodiest girl we know!
-Ripped up and torn legs.
-THE WOODWOMAN
-Giggles!!
JESSE
Quotes: Caveman grunts, "staunch"
-Crazy bombproof baker setups
-Known for scaring the living daylights out of his campers
-Everything's Jesse's fault!!
SEAN
Quotes: Anything that rhymes. Know what I mean, Jellybean?
-Walking, talking library
-Sean's songs and his guitars
-Undefeated wrestling champion!
So I hope you guys enjoyed that, please forgive me if I made some typos,
I
tried my best not to, after all, I don't have spell check. I hope to hear
from you all soon!
Love, Not-so-vicious-anymore Vicky
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