Mashed Potatoes and Leeches

Julia Fetty

8/31/17

            I woke up to a chilly morning with a bowl of warm mashed potatoes. I must say, I have no complaints to this mistake. Consuming mashed potatoes was much more enjoyable than cream of wheat. (Thanks Bob!)

            After breakfast was through, we left my favorite campsite yet. I loved the rusty old water tower, bear prints and I will always remember teaching my first outdoor education lesson there. We started out with excitement, having our canoes packed and ready to go before 7:30. (score!)

            We traveled smooth waters and headed out of the portage, our eyes zoomed toward our destination, frightened. We saw white caps ahead, so we decided to stay back and camp, hoping that the winds will die down for tomorrow.

            I ended my day with a massive leach sucking my blood out of my left ankle. Let’s just say that my mashed potato morning beat my leech afternoon.

Rest Day

Emma Ngati

August 30, 2017

Rest Day

Today we woke up to a much needed day off paddling. Although we received a break physically, today was mentally strenuous as we sat through a full day of lessons. Today was one of the first days many of us have officially taught a lesson and it was interesting to see how our work since last semester (or lack thereof) has paid off…

We managed to survive a night in bear country although many of us heard something peculiar roaming and rummaging through camp last night. Thankfully we all smelled so badly that the bear was appetized by the stench. Lows tell us we have a medium- long to long day ahead of us tomorrow. We are still over two weeks away from reaching our goal of Mattice and are already feeling the strain. With that said I have faith in this group and I know we will push through and work together to achieve our goals. I am excited to see how the rest of our trip turns out.

Emily Maze                                                                                                                                              8/29/17

Bearly A Water Tower

Sean woke up to the dark morning without hearing rustles of bags being packed. Everyone was still sound asleep. That is how our day started. We ended up loading the canoes and getting in our convoy an hour later than we expected. Our navigators, Julia and Sean, were leading us the wrong way, but luckily it was corrected pretty quickly. After a short while of paddling, we docked at a couple of logs in a bog for our second portage. Ashley D. and I got out to check the area and I sank knee deep in what looked like very shallow water. Eventually, all our gear was unloaded so we could start portaging. With my 60lb food barrel, I carefully plodded my way, but after 20 or so feet, my left leg was sucked far into a hole. Chris helped me up but when he put my barrel on my back again, the hole succeeded in trapping me again. Sometime along the trek, I was humming and singing bits of Bohemian Rhapsody. Emma and Ashley caught on so we could sing the overlapping voice parts and some awesome instrumental parts. Minus the mud, this portage was way easier than the last. A few more hours of canoeing and we collapsed at out new campsite. There is an old train water tower that looks like a gust of wind will blow it down. Kara taught a lesson on mammals where adorable manatees and Aye Ayes were mentioned and Julia learned that birds are not mammals. Ashley D. found a great teachable moment: bear scat. Guess where it was located: ten feet from Emma, Kara, and Sean’s tent and not too much farther from everyone else’s tent. I guess we’ll see tomorrow who is left to survive the quest of the holy van. 

August 28th

Chris Friday                                                                                                               

It kind of figures I would get the journal today, it is my birthday after all. Despite my best efforts to keep my birthday to myself, everyone somehow, magically knew anyway. I should know better than to expect things to remain a secret with this group of individuals. I tell one person and naturally, everyone knows. It was a pretty good day none the less though. The island we slept on had some of the worst mosquitos I have ever experienced and they just never stopped their assault on us until the moment we left their island. We left with a rather awkward amount of weight to our canoes. This was due to us having one extra person than the canoes allowed for. Emily had to sit on all the barrels and bills bags, which made things much, much harder to control than the fetch we experienced the day before. One exceptionally pleasant thing about today was that I finally was able to paddle with Emma. Despite several people thinking it would result in us fighting, it went great. This was definitely our most efficient  paddling day as a group yet, mostly due to us finally being able to stay together as a convoy for the first time ever. This was truly a big step for us. For dinner, Bob made this chili mac concoction that ended up being the best meal I have had on Ecooe thus far. I may have spilled about half the noodles, but it still worked out pretty good. We all found out later this night that Bob can indeed be sensitive. He opened up to someone for the first time ever. His rock, Jeff. As I am trying to fight off the latest mosquito hoard of our new camp spot, I have come to one realization. Bob was right, the deet elixir doesn’t in fact work.

The ECOEEian Saga: Part 2

Bob Schnoes

August 27, 2017

It has been several days since our victory at Gate’s Hollow over an army of the blood suckers and that battle now seems meaningless, for even now they dog us as we sail down the river. Lucky for us though, their movements are predictable and sloppy. For during the day, they merely track us and plan, and it is in the dead of the night do they launch their attacks. Knowing this gives us time to prepare our defenses. We erect thin walls to sleep behind that only the slyest of them can get through and these are quickly dealt with to prevent further causalities. And when we must venture out from the safety of the walls we coat ourselves in an elixir called “Deet” to keep the blood sucker army at bay. This elixir was recommended to us by the wizard called “Jeff the Grey” a bitter old man that has already cast two of our members into oblivion. And on top of that the Deet didn’t work, can we really put our trust into this greybeard. But even with the failure of the elixir and being under constant attack, we must carry on towards our destination, Mattice. For it is there that we will find the one van. For this is our only hope of salvation from this deadly river and the continuous pursuit of the blood sucker army. But then again, it is Jeff the Grey that is promising us salvation and after the Deet incident, should we trust him. However, I will give him this though, after several days of traveling with my companions his advice was proven true. The men of Mars will never understand the women of Venus - - -

Little Stoney Portage

Austin Orr

8/26/17

Waking up this morning to my 5:30 alarm I realized that I get to sleep in today so I shut off my alarm and fell back asleep until 7am. On ECOEE this was definitely sleeping in. getting up and out of my tent I was looking forward to making pancakes and ending my week as a LOW. I soon realized this wasn’t the case. I had forgotten that I am a two-week LOW.

As the day progressed we traded out the two old LOWs for two new LOWs as well as traded tent partners. I was looking forward to cooking with new people and the smell of new concoctions. We tried a few new dishes making mac & Cheese with sweet peas, fried chicken, and even made an Oreo cake. All of these hit home and made me realize we aren’t as far away from home as most might think.

As the day passed I started finishing up plans with my new LOWs to plan out as much as we could for the next week. After taking it to Jeff and Ashley for advice we were constantly reminded that we have plenty of resources to make this trip successful we just need to believe in ourselves and each other.

I also forgot to mention that I have discovered no matter how much I love fire these stoves are not toys but tools. My stove lighting skills need much improvement, hopefully I don’t burn Canada down in the process.

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” – Norman Vincent Peale