Glassy Falls Camp

Sean Dowling

9/15/17

            I was woken this morning by the sounds of rain drops hitting the tarp above our terrible tent and hoping that it would actually keep us dry because I hardly had any energy to do anything about it if didn’t. After another 30 minutes of precious sleep we were all woken by another sound but this sound was of something rummaging around our tent site. Thankfully though, it was not a bear, wolf, or the more devious Red Squirrels that was outside our tent. Nope. It was Julia, looking for one of the two shovels that we had left to use between our three tent groups. After our longer than normal morning routine of getting ready to get back on the river, we headed out 45 minutes late (I blame the rain).

Though we only had about 4 miles to go today, we also had to do one of our most frightening portages, as well as, our most exciting rapids we had done so far. Fortunately, I had Boz on my side to tackle any and all obstacles in our way. The first was Little Beaver Rapids, which took a bit of strategizing. The first part of our plan went smoothly but the second part of our plan didn’t involve us heading towards the largest part of the rapids backwards. Fate was on our side though because as soon as I heard Boz yell, “Flip!” I was immediately reminded of her story where her and her previous ECOEE partner got caught in the same situation on the SAME rapid and they just turned around in the boat, making the bow the stern and the stern the bow. So that’s exactly what we did and got through without sinking or flipping. Our second obstacle was a short portage that was filled jagged, slippery rocks of death both up and down hill that would have claimed any lesser group. But with everyone working together we conquered that too and moved on to our last home on the river.

Here we would have to deal with dreaded sand once again but we were blessed with an unseen gift. Jeff the Grey and his apprentice Boz were leaving us to retrieve the One Van our college Bob the Bald told stories about. For now we are on our own though we were warned not to partake in the sins of partying or orgies while they were gone. We used our time to cook lots of food from what was left over in our barrels and somehow got wood dry enough to start a fire to keep us warm on this cold night. As the fire dies out in front of me I think back on how quickly our time in Canada has gone by say bon farewell before going to bed… as well as a short prayer that it doesn’t rain tonight.