“Weather
what an unpredictable life lesson”! 08/27/13
Today
the group awoke to cloudy skies at a very early 6 am. That’s actually sleeping
in for us! During the early morning hours the camp was awash with sounds of
burning stoves, and the intoxicating smell of dehydrated food. After the group
cooked their breakfasts everyone packed their gear into their dry bags, and
loaded them into their canoes.
As
I began to pack Rosie Roxanne the name of my very own special canoe, I started
to contemplate the possibility of rain in the coming morning. Before the packed
canoes left the shore we heard the distant sound of thunder. We didn’t think
anything of it and we proceeded to leave the shore and head to our next
campsite. About twenty minutes in it
seemed as though the heavens split in two and emptied all the water it had.
When we saw the lighting we proceeded to paddle to the far side of a small
island and we set up our canoes using the lighting drill. Each canoe was about
35-40 feet away from each other and we had our feet of the floor and on our
feet were up on the seat. We were all extremely worried because we sat there
for what seemed like an eternity until the lighting stopped. During our wait I
started to reflect on how vulnerable to weather changes we are out here in the
backcountry. Once the storm passed I stopped thinking about our vulnerability,
and I focused my attention strictly to paddling to our next site. Once we found
the designated site we realized it was way too small for fourteen of us, so we
decided to look for a bigger site. Luck was on our side now because someone in
the group saw a sign far off in the distance. Once we came closer to the sign
we realized that there was a small cabin located here. Some of us went ashore
and we realized that the cabin was owned by the Manitoba Government. We then
started to unload our canoes and while I was standing in waist high water I
started to think about how fortunate the whole group is, to have found the nice
cabin in a safe location. I also thought about how lucky we are to have all of
these unique individuals that bring all of their strengths and weaknesses to
the group. Once everyone had their tent set up we changed out of our wet cloths
and proceeded to debrief the day.
During
debrief Jeff reminded us that he would not have let us leave the previous
island if he knew we couldn’t handle the storm as a group. He also said he had
a plan to keep us all safe if we needed to get off the river quickly. After the
meeting everyone cooked dinner and went to bed to prepare for the 5am wakeup
call tomorrow. I don’t know about anyone else but I will be dreaming of West
Texas tonight!
“Roses
are red
Violets
are blue
I’m
soaked and cold
And
so are you”!
-
Quinn Moore
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