Trip Journal - Young Adventurers 3 - 2001

Day 1: We arrived at PaddleFoot Base camp at lunch time on Friday and were very hungry! We had a great lunch of Hotdogs with chocolate rice crispie squares for dessert - YUM. While waiting for the van to arrive to take us to La Verendrye we played a few "get to know you games", learning the names of all the people on our trip. We set off on our adventure and heard many requests in the line of "Are we nearly there?". We had a little late put in at Le Domaine (point within La Verendrye Park) and set off on our great adventure. We had a short paddle with a little headwind, arrived at our 4 star site and began setting up our tent. Once we were all moved in we had our first official "toilet" tour - the only bad word allowed on trip, and then sat down to a great dinner of grilled cheese that Clover prepared for us. Dishes was a new experience for many of us - when camping we don't take soap with us we use dirt and water to clean our dirty dishes. Our first night in our cosy tent was a great experience! Niki, Clover and Dave sat with us and we started what was to become an evening tradition; telling mysteries. The one we had to solve on our first night was: There's a man found hanging in a room with just a puddle of water under him, how did he die? (He was standing on a block of ice and when it melted he hung himself!) With the mystery solved we switched off our flashlights and enjoyed a comfortable sleep in our big cozy tent.

Day 2: This morning we woke up to the sounds of "Happy Birthday to You" - today is Sara's birthday! Along with our wake up song we had a few drops of rain. Sitting under our tarp we had our first breakfast - scrambled muffins prepared by Niki. Great to eat but the mixing bowl is not very easy to clean as Aaron found out! The rain stopped before we set off on our full day of tripping, leaving in its wake a strong head wind! Luckily to ease the frustration and weary arms our guides knew a few songs-The moose juice song, and Chelsea taught us The Lion hunt song. Today was our introduction to portages! Our first portage was 400m long.
Not too bad except that we had to do it 3 times in order to get all our equipment across. Tired and weary we fuelled up on a feast of peanut butter and jam sandwiches with a little bit of GORP to top our meal off. Full of energy we set off for the next portages 190m long, and the final 150m! With great team work and encouragement we completed our portages and set off on the final paddling leg of the day. Stopping for a break we found the tracks of a moose and wondered if we would be lucky to see one soon. Sara - our birthday girl appeared to be jinxed on this day as she was either falling in the water, tipping her canoe or some people in her canoe were falling in and getting wet! Strong head wind and white cap waves were our final obstacle before reaching our campsite for the day. With determination and strong paddling we finally arrived at our site for the second night. Despite all that we had to do that day we still arrived in good time and once our tent was set up we were able to go swimming with Dave and exploring. Some of the girls discovered the arts and crafts bag and started making bracelets and necklaces for each other while Clover made a hair wrap in Niki's hair. For dinner Dave made Lazy Perogies, with the help of Aaron and Chelsea who cut up a whole bunch of onions and garlic, and Mitchell who cut the cheese. Once dishes were done we went and sat in a circle on a rock and watched the sun set while doing an individual go around seeing how everyone was feeling. Jon and Scot were also able to do the Loon call with Kim nearly getting it! We shared some candies and then Niki showed us how to do the Stick dance. In the tent we had a mini disco with everyone's flashlights being switched on and off and twirled around in circles. Exhausted after a long day of tripping we fell asleep feeling wary but very proud of ourselves.

Day 3: We tried to sleep in but as usual most of us were awake by 7 am wanting to get paddling before the wind picked up! For breakfast we had pancakes and then set off on the lake at 8:30am ready and expecting a lot of hard paddling. However mother nature was in our favour. We made great time and even saw a Bald Headed Eagle! We stopped at a beach for a hour or so and some of us decided to bury Aaron; and then Aaron and Jonothan in the sand! FUN!!! For lunch we were surprised to have some fresh lettuce for our sandwiches cheese, mustard, mayo on pitas. We also filled up our water bottles with bug juice and Kuba, Scot and Mitchell made some mud balls. Our afternoon paddle was short but very rocky and we had to do some pretty fancy paddling around the rocks. We set up our tent again and the boys set out exploring again, discovering a beaver dam, a great swimming spot, playing with frogs, while the girls sat and made bracelets and Kim started making a hair wrap in Sara's hair, like the ones in Cassandra's and Niki's hair. Scot was also very excited to show every one the secret "toilet" that he had found!! Sean shared his birch bark instead of toilet paper experience with everyone and Cassandra and Chelsea also shared with every one that leaves and not a pine cone were a better option for toilet paper! Dinner was Mac and Cheese with Niki cooking and Mitchel and Kuba doing the chopping of onions and garlic. For dessert Dave took over and cooked us wonderful Brownies. Along with the brownies came a very dirty mixing bowl which Kim took on to wash and a burnt pan that Niki and Clover took turns trying to clean! That evening we played Taboo and some Frisbee. In the tent that night Kim told us her riddle "There's a man found dead on the ground with a short piece of straw in his hand, how did he die?"
There were too many people in a hot air balloon so they all drew straws and he got the short straw and so had to jump - OUCH!

Day 4: This morning was very cold! We packed up and Clover made us some scrambled muffins to warm us up. We set off at 9:30am, doing 2 short portages 165m and 80m, also crossing over a beaver dam. It was very windy today and we stopped to have some lunch, our old time standby - peanut butter and jam sandwiches with cheese! Some of us were feeling very brave and decided to do some rock jumping with Dave. Most of the guys along with Cassandra and Chelsea jumped and had a lot of fun. We also met the park "cleanup" guy that day, he had a canoe with an engine attached to it. That day we arrived at our 5 star site and quickly set up our tent so that we could go swimming. Sean was the first to jump in, one of our reliable sterners, he was happy to have a break from paddling. Scott found a paddle while some of the guys found a dead frog and held a frog funeral for the poor dead soul! The girls set about working on our bracelets and writing in our journals while Jon read his book. Dinner that night took a long time - but finally we had some pasta that Dave cooked for us. After dinner we played frisbee in the water , explored some mini islands. That evening in the tent we did "bang bang bang who did I kill?" ( the first person to speak) and Niki taught us a prayer that her gran taught her modified for our trip. "4 corners to our tent, 4 angels to our heads, Mathew Mark Luke and John, God bless the ground we sleep upon"

Day 5: Today we woke up really early! We had Crepes that Dave and then Niki made for us with Jam and chocolate spread! YUMMY! We set off towards our final site, with Clover leading and Cassandra helping her find the campsite numbers, stopping for lunch at a site where people had set up 3 rock chairs and a rock table! We had GORP for lunch, swam and then played Sardines, looking for Niki and then Kick the stick - all having lots of fun. Some of us even got to see a weasel. The final leg to our campsite was a little windy and disappointing as our site that we wanted on an Island was taken and we had to paddle further to the site where we slept the first night. However we had races and splash wars and were able to have a lot of fun despite the further paddle! Once again after camp set up we swam and some of us played sardines again first looking for Sara and then Dave. Niki and Clover started dinner only to find that the stove was broken and so Dave made a fire (even though there was a fire ban) because we needed to eat and were very hungry! We had a GREAT meal of pasta with a cheese and broccoli sauce and candy for dessert. We played a few games before bed time; pulse and then wink murder, psychiatrist, candy store and broken telephone. That night in the tent we told some jokes and more mysteries before falling asleep at 9:30pm.

Day 6: Our final morning and we wake up to rain! We packed up and had granola with powdered milk for breakfast - it tasted better than it sounded! Once our canoes were loaded and it had stopped raining we sat down and did a trip reflection remembering all that we had done. In silence we got in our canoes and paddled off, only speaking after 4 min. Jon got to stern for the first time and did a great job! Just before we got to shore we rafted up and paddled in as a group landing at 10:59 am! We unloaded the canoes, did a real washroom run and then sat down in a circle for a quick trip debrief. We did the rose and thorn activity - the rose being a high light and the thorn a low light. We then did a store run buying pop and chips and candy and then Chelsea bought a post card and Jon a Chipmunk! Jon was also the dirtiest camper and proud of it!!!! The van arrived and we loaded up having a quick lunch of sandwiches with meat! And fresh vegetables and GRAPES!! Chelsea gave Clover her surfboard necklace as a thank you and we set off to base camp. Once at camp we did a quick van switch, good byes and hugs and set off for home with great memories and a whole bunch of new friends many of whom promised to come back next year and have another great adventure!!

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