My Adventure: 2010

Day 1 (Saturday, June 19)

The bus took us from Calgary to the Augustana Campus in Camrose - about a 3-hour-drive. We introduced outselves to the 6 leaders and put our bags into our rooms. Yes, that night we still slept in a house. One of the leaders checked our luggage - they told us what we have to take, what we should/shouldn't take. Of course I packed way too much! I was missing isolating layers that I got later from the spares of the university. We also got paddles, PFD's (Personal Floating Device), wetsuits and helmets. We got barrels and drybags and tagged them with our names. We ate dinner in the cafeteria and then had a demonstration on how to pack our barrels/drybags and went through our expectations and concerns. Afterwards, it was our turn to try to fit all our clothing in the two 30L barrels and our daybag. This is everything I took for the 8 days on the river: sleeping bag, longsleeve shirt for night, pyjama pants, HAD for night, 1L waterbottle, plasticmug for hot drinks, journal & pen, caughdrops, 3 bags HARIBO, 3 granola bars, dextro energy, body lotion for dry hands, sunscreen, lipbalm, medicine, bugspray (that I unfortunately never used), hairbrush & hairelastics, toothpaste, toothbrush, tampons, 1 roll of toilet paper, sunglasses, flahlight & extra batteries, camera, 2 cardgames, garbage bag for wet clothes, tower, swimsuit, 7 panties, 2 bras, 3 pairs of woolsocks, 1 pair of socks, 3 pairs of short socks, 2 undershirts, peaked cap, tuke, mittens, tights, 5 tees, sweatpants, gymnasticshorts for under the wetsuit, shorts, fleecejacket, barnjacket, windjacket, rainjacket, rainpants, rubberboots, sneakers, rivershoes. All the girls sat together that night and we just talked.

Day 2 (Sunday, June 20)

We were getting introduced to canoeing and lateron camping. I took my last shower before 8 days without and we enjoyed our last breakfast on chairs. We took the University bus to Twin Lakes where we unloaded the canoes and divided into two groups. I shared a boat with Julia and we got introduced into the basic techniques of canoeing. It was a lot of fun and we all did awesome. It was nice and sunny and we drove for 15 more minutes to get to our first campsite. I wore shorts which was a biiiiiig mistake - misquitos love me!! :D I believe I had more than 100 after the trip, most of them from the first and second day. We got an instruction in how to put up the tents, which we had to do every night from then on. It was difficult that day to figure out the best way. And then after writing in our journals, we all went to bed.

Day 3 (Monday, June 21)

We still had a bathroom and running water at this campsite and therefore I enjoyed the last time going. We had granola for breakfast. It took us quite long to take down the tent and to get everything else organized. We again took the bus to Bighorn Dam where our trip would start. We learned how to pack our canoes and every morning I packed the same gear in the same canoe with Julia. We also learned how to ferry out towards the middle of the river without losing ground. We sat around and waited for one of our leaders to come back because she went to bring the bus to the place where we would end up after all the camping and canoeing. And then it started, I was sooo excited! And with Julia it was no problem because we trust each other. I was the person in the stern (back) who has to steer. We stopped at a meadow where the Aboriginals used to live. I love the landscape!! Unfortunately, it started raining a little. We unloaded the canoes to pull them on land and put up our tent more succesful than the day before. I shared one with Julia and Yin-Yin every night. For dinner, we had perogies with sausage :). By that time it had stopped raining. The night we sat around the fire and just enjoyed being together.

Day 4 (Tuesday, June 22)

Everything was a lot faster this morning. For breakfast, we had scrambled eggs and then we loaded the boats again. I canoed with Marco today, again I was in the back until we switched after lunch. It was so much fun because the turns were tighter today and we had to watch out for trees and rocks. But it wasn't too bad because we all followed the leadboat in a line. We stopped for lunch and it started raining, but after about half an hour it was already over. By now, we figured out how to put up the tents and they are up in no time. We paddled for 4 hours but then we went back on the river to practice some more skills. Once, when I went with Leila, we almost flipped :D. We had an outhouse there and dinner was awesome today! - stirfry with rice and chocolate cake for dessert. The evening didn't look different than previous ones, but we have an outhouse on this campground.

Day 5 (Wednesday, June 23)

We had oatmeal with English muffins for breakfast after we took down the tents. Wake-up calls were at 8.15 every morning (nobody was allowed any electronic devices). We then ot up and took the tents down and put our clothes in the barrels. We waited around the fire for everybody before we started eating breakfast. Then, we washed hands and got served. Afterwards, we put on the wetsuits, loaded the gear in the canoes and then the excitement started! I went in the canoe with all the kitchensupplies where 5 people + leader fit in - my group were Leila, Marco, Top (Thailand) and Julia and we had lots of fun singing! For lunch, we had crackers and cheese and it was such a beautiful day. It rained for 5 minutes, of course right when we put our tents up...Burritos for dinner and I was on cleaning duty with Top and Ivan (Russia). It was so gross!! *Iuu* We played a game with a frisbee called flinch and Julia and I went for a little walk. I needed to be alone for once. This night was quite different: we made banicks (Stockbrot) and listened to people playing songs on the guitar. We stayed up until midnight like all the nights before.

Day 6 (Thursday, June 24)

This morning was as always with banana/apple pancakes for breakfast. I went in the back with Eniko (Hungary) as my powerperson. It was so relaxing being with her and the day wasn't that challenging. The people on the big canoe prepared a lunch and we ate pitas on the river floating. That was so much fun!! We also tried surfing (being carried by the wave) and were quite successful. Also, we went through some big rapids and we had to bail our canoe quite often. I went to our little "washroom". The shovel was the "key" and once you were done, put a little bit of dirt on top into the hole that they dug every day. It rained for 5 minutes in the evening, the rest of the day was warm and sunny. Pizza was our dinner today with cookies for dessert. We played with the cards that I brought and laughed all the time like all the other days as well.

Day 7 (Friday, June 25)

Today was different, we stayed at the same campground for one more night and therefore, we got up at 10. Breakfast was bread they baked that morning and I was on dishes with Top and Ivan again. It was cloudy, but it didn't rain 'til late at night. We were at Devil's Elbow where there are some biiiig waves. I went through it with Leila after three other boats with guys went and they all flipped. We were the first ones to make it safe!! :) And then I went with Eniko and unfortunately, we flipped. But it was fun :D The first moment is really cold, but then you relax and realize that everything is great. Swimming to shore was just a little difficult but I made it and then started laughing :P. We had burritos again for lunch and afterwards, we collected some firewood to heat up stones for a sauna that night. They piled up all the wood and lit it. Then we continued going through the rapids. I went with Vishesh and then I wanted to get the experience of sitting in the front so I went with Teemu (Finland) and we also flipped :D. One of the rescue boats came to pull me out to shore and I was really thankful for that. After we all were done, we swam through the rapids - so much fun!! We ate chili & rice for dinner and then we went into the sauna. They built a little tent, dug a hole and put some hot stones in there. I was with Teemu, Leila, Ana (Brazil), Marco, Julia, Eniko and Yin-Yin and it was still quite cold. Marco poored water on the hot stones and after 10 minutes we ran into the river. So nice and refreshing. The other group went and then it was our turn again. It was a lot warmer this time and we made the mistake to let the Finnish poor the water on this time! "We felt like boiling lobster." And then we ran into the river again. I was nice and warm afterwards. We had cinnamon buns once everybody was done and changed. We also had an outhouse at this campsite, but I hate them! Also, all our campsites had logs for sitting and a fireplace. It rained for about 10 minutes that night.

Day 8 (Saturday, June 26)

This morning was usual routine. We had oatmeal and English muffins for breakfast, just putting on the wetsuit was so bad, because it was soaked. Luckily, we didn't have any rain today and the sun was shining. I shared a canoe with Julia and once again I sat in the back. Today's lunch was bagels with creamcheese and we chilled out for about an hour because we didn't have far to go. We went through rapids and surfed and found a camp on an island. Dinner was amazing - pasta with tomatoesauce and after-eight chocolate afterwards. We talked about lows and highs during the canoetrip (for me pretty much everything was amazing and I didn't want it to end). Other than that, we played and talked and sang and laughed. I was really sad that night that it was over...we went to bed at 1, later than usually and I was so tired, but I just didn't want it to end.

Day 9 (Sunday, June 27)

The last time taking the tents down...breakfast was just like the first day - granola with yoghurt. I ended up being the powerperson of Ivan and we had so much fun together! The weather was amazing again; sunshine and hot all day long. We went through some rapids and then we were already at the endpoint. We had sandwiches for lunch and unloaded and cleaned all the canoes. We loaded them on the trailer and then went on the bus. After three hours driving, we reached the campus. I slept a little on the bus. We cleaned all the gear; my job was to rinse out all the barrels and then I helped washing the tents and hanging them up. The mosquitos were worse here than the entire time on the river! It also was really hot. I took a nice and warm shower after dinner and then all of us sat together and we prepared a presentation. That night, we danced and played cards 'til about 2 in the morning. I just didn't want this to be over! It was the last night we would all have together...

Day 10 (Monday, June 28)

I slept worse this night than all days before. The breakfast wasn't as good as on the trip either. We all packed up and loaded the bus for the last time. I started crying because it made me so sad to know we wouldn't be all together like this again. We drove to Stettler where we attended a Rotary meeting and presented our presentation. We did some skits and sang a song we made up. It was sooo bad, but we had fun all together :D. Then we loaded our bags on the bus to Calgary. Some people left and it was the last time we saw them :(. The ride back home was really emotional: crying, laughing and everything else in between. Eva picked me up from the mall where the bus dropped us off and over it was. It went by way faster than we all wanted. We looked forward to this all year long and now it was over. I couldn't believe it. It also meant that the year is almost over :(:(:(:(:(

Thanks to everybody that reads my blog. You have been great supporters of the best and most exciting and emotional year of my life! Pictures are coming