That is my 'job description', which for the most part is accurate. This week however, I experienced the 'real'. Now the 'real' includes all of the above description, but had a marvelous series of additions. This group was four 11 year olds, one 12 year old and two 13 year olds. I quickly found out that they were not at a place in life where they had developed the ability to take care of themselves (surprising huh?) This meant that when it came to dressing correctly for the weather, setting up camp, canoeing, and keeping their stuff dry, I had to make sure that they were all on the ball. Unfortunately, I did not realize this until we were already on trail, after we had left camp. This knowledge came about when the cold rain came upon us, and despite my detailed description of what they needed to bring with them, many did not have rain gear or a dry change of clothes. By day 3 I had a fairly near hypothermic kid, and a couple more that were canoeing in the rain wearing cotton clothes (if you know anything about the outdoors, you know that cotton steals body heat and is a no no on trail). We didn't go that far that day, arrived at camp and got them all warmed up with the fire (btw, i made a fire in the rain with wet wood. 2 points). our day ended with a cool nature sighting of 2 loons swimming (underwater) between our canoes, and then with a duck being chased by a bald eagle which was being chased by 2 ravens. We left the next day with no rain and what we thought was our rough day of the trip behind us. The one thing i learned this trip is how happy i am that i cannot see the future. If so, my moral this trip would have not existed. That day turned into a slow, long day of paddling to a camp site that wasn't that far off, but was crazy far away when traveling with middle school aged paddlers that aren't so hot in the speed department. We pulled in at 5:30pm (my usually daily target is 2 at the latest), with a camper that was very sick. Sick enough that i was very close to taking him back to camp right away while leaving the rest of my group at the camp site until i returned. It turned out that he just needed to get off the water however, and recovered remarkably quickly. Phew. The next day we set out again with no rain, win, but it was a little blustery, manageable. Within the first hour i had a camper emotionally explode, dealt with it, but then came the wind. It wasn't terrible, but for the 3rd canoe that did not have either me or my adult adviser sterning it, it wasn't passable. I was in a tight spot where I needed to get them off the water, but also needed to get to a place where we could get back to camp the next day, or risk running out of food. I decided to take a long route that included hiding behind islands and slow making our way to a camp site near home base for our final night on trail. we make it for the first leg, but got stopped at a point where there was a thin piece of land, that on the map looked like water entirely passable through water. we managed to portage over it to the over side (yay 10 foot portage). when we reloaded on the other side, the wind had gotten way stronger and my campers could no longer handle it. I needed to get them to a camp site to wait out the storm over night, and the closest campsite was not far, but against the wind. We continued to try and hide behind island and peninsulas to try and make it to the site, but the 3rd canoe was no longer able to fight the wind. My solution became to canoe with the first 2 canoes to a sheltered place on the water, then hike the shore back to the 3rd canoe and stern them back to the rest of the group. Slow, but worked. I only had to do this twice to get where we needed to go, but on the second jaunt, the wind became gale force and I couldn't battle it either. This led to us being stranded from the group for 2 hours, which is a nightmare on trail. we had an eventual break in the wind, long enough to get to the rest of the group. We set up camp and had a rest time, where i realized that I had been in 'survival guide' mode for the last 4 hours and was spent. i napped for an hour. i don't remember my head hitting the pillow (aka life jacket with a sweater on top). That recharged me and i made dinner for the group and then went to sleep for the night. The next morning (yesterday) i was up at 4:45am (not unusual) and could hear the wind and rain coming down. I was worried we wouldn't get back to camp. We didn't have far to go to get to a channel that would shade us from the wind, but the little piece could prove impossible with my inexperienced campers. I watched it for the 2 hours that it took us to have breakfast and pack up camp, and made the call that the wind was passable. we island hopped again and make it to the channel without trouble. We then returned to camp just in time to watch our search party head out to try and find us. home safe.
As I look back on this crazy adventure, I see a week of adventure. My campers required me and my adult adviser to hold their hands the whole time, which included telling them that leaving their stuff outside in the rain meant that it would get wet (i kid not). I had to keep my kids alive and try to also help them have a fun time while doing it. But I had a great week. The kids were mostly awesome. They were always excited about everything (the one girl that was stranded with me in the wind storm jumped up and down with excitement the whole time). The fact that it was crazy intense was just part of the job. I looked at what I had to do to get my campers safe, and did it. They all appeared to have a great week, both during and after, and some talked about coming back next year. To them, this was fun adventure too.
I love my job. I didn't feel stress all week as much as I was just tired from the days events and wanted a short break from the kids to hear my own thoughts again. I have another group coming tomorrow already and aside from my equipment still being wet because the weather forbids it from drying right now, I am entirely ready to go out again. I might sleep 12 hours tonight in prep, but that's fine by me. I drove into town today (which is an hour away, another great feature about that place) and was overwhelmed with how much i loved doing what i do. To me, this is the life.
thanks for reading, i hope my future posts wont be a chronicle.
catch you all in another week!
No comments:
Post a Comment