As Time Goes On

We coming down to the last 2 weeks of skills, everyone has Biking and Canoe Tripping 1. But some people like myself have electives on the weekends as well. I have Trail guiding for biking this weekend, then Canoe Tripping 2 the following weekend. I am extremely excited for Canoe Tripping 2. We get the chance to plan and set up our own canoe trip for the weekend. Should be very productive and experiential. Should be interesting to see how well the trip planning goes, its going to be hard to organize everything, especially that were trying to work together as a group. The easy part will be food because were doing all individual food packing. The hard part will be determining the route, and campsites.

Once all the skills are done, we'll start having 4 days off a week, which will be great amounts of time to catch up on all of my assignments and projects which the deadlines for are drawing nearer. Its gonna be tight to get everything done in time for there due dates.

New Semester New Challenges

My first time posting this semester, definitely won't be the last. As a second year there is a whole new pile of things to deal with. There are nice advantages to being a second year too though, like the added respect between instructors and teachers. There is a level of trust that has developed between us which allows for greater learning and more developed skills to be acquired. I am loving skills and the electives I have chosen. I have done my Solo white water canoeing and looking forward to my advanced bicycle elective this coming weekend, then my canoeing tripping 2 elective the weekend after.

Projects are starting to pile up and everyone is starting to stress. But I believe that once I get back on task all these worries will become the past. Also getting my osap will help a lot with all my current issues.

Till next I post I leave an inspiration message I left as my facebook name for a while.

"Fear is the mind killer. To truly learn to be unarfraid you must first come to terms with what fear is. Nothing but the unkown and that which fears us most is the little essence of darkness. You must realize that no matter how fear manifests its just in your head, and in there You are the word of power. The mind can overcome it all, as long as you allow it"

School is Over!

Its now coming down to the end of the semester and all Outdoor Adventure Students are leaving or about to leave really soon. Last exams are next week. Overall I really enjoyed this year. Its hard to believe that its already over, but I guess time flies when your having fun.

This year I learned the proper technique of rock climbing, which includes the knots and anchoring parts. I also had extensive white water training, in kayaking, rafting, and flat water canoing.

In the winter there was skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing. Before this I was very nervous to go on the hill, but because of the teachers and the overall layout of the courses, I was able to get over my fears, and now I am a comfortable skier, who is advancing to higher difficulties of skiing. All that in one season, I was very impressed with the overall skill and knowledge from all the instructors.

But not only was all skills amazing, but the class's themselves, were very educational and help broaden our perspective on the multiple levels of our industry not just the guide instructional, but manager and owner, and the impacts of actions, plus overall things to be aware of.

I look forward to next year and everything I'm gonna get to learn, and the people I get to learn it with.

Wilderness First Responder

Over the past four week, we have been undertaking the a course that certifies us as Wilderness First Responders. I really enjoyed the experience. I learned a lot of things that I had no information about. The teachers that taught us were extremely informative, and had a lot of past experiences to share with us to better give examples of situational incidents and the best way to resolve.

There was plenty of hands on skills and note taking, so that we understood the theory side of first aid, but as well were well versed in the hands on skills. There was a lot of pretend situations where we had to act as if we just arrived on scene and had to deal with what we find.

I am really thankful for the opportunity I got to do this certification course, I feel a lot safer now being in a wilderness environment with these newly learned skills. I feel more comfortable being able to go out and travel with friends or clients depending on the situation in a expedition style trip.

Now that I am a Wilderness First Responder I will use my newly learned skills to benefit me in my future career by showing others how responsible and dedicated I am, and with this certification it shows that I have taken the time to learn and be prepared to handle those situations.

Winter Expedition

My group was on the first winter ex which was from Monday March 9th till Wednesday the 11th. It was only me and Rene in our cooking group so we had an easy time preparing and buying food. It was also really easy to pack. We decided to go for Chicken Alfredo the first night, and a hearty chili mix made from dehydrated veggies and chili mix. Both meals turned out remarkably well even though they were just dehydrated mix's. For lunch's we went with 2 bagels each for each lunch (we were to have 3 lunch's in total, so 12 bagels). That was probably the largest portion, the bagels, but I managed to get my water air tight barrel into my bag, so I just crammed everything into it, and it actually worked remarkably well and kept everything dry and still in there original shape. For breakfast we went super simple, portage, the classic campers breakfast.

I joined another group of 3 for the leading portion of the trip. In our leader group we had, Mooda (2nd year ODA), Dan (1st year), Peter S.(1st year), and myself. We were in charge of leading the second day. For each day that each group lead, they were supposed to lead the group to two checkpoints and then to base camp, for the third group instead of base camp they lead us to Wilderness Tours (our take out point).

Our entire group consisted of two leaders, and a mix of four ODAN'S, seven first year ODA's, and one second year ODA, total of 14 all together.

The overall trip there wasn't too much of hiccups, some people didn't enjoy my leading style. I guess I wasn't as cautious thinking as some others were hoping, and I guess I may have taken then on some rougher terrain than they wanted to risk. I may have used the phrase "Were just gonna Skirt around this hill here", apparently I used that line a lot, and there were a few hills. But we did manage to get past all the ups and downs and eventually found a nice spot of even ground where we set up camp.

The last day was a short one, it felt a little longer near the end though for me. My pack decided to break only a couple kilometers from WT, which made the rest of the hike very hard. But we made it, and I must say that was a great experience. The trip definitely gave me a better idea of how to pack and what to wear and bring for these kinds of trips. Plus it gave me an idea of what gear I still need to get. I am also happy I was on the first group where we actually used our snowshoe's and weren't having to worry too much about melting snow. Overall Great time, look forward to my chance to go on my own winter trip.

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza, the 5th wonder of the world. Thea large pre-Colombian Archaeological site built by the great Mayan Civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula. They no longer allow you to climb anything any more, its all wearing away due to erosion and thousands of people walking/ climbing on it. Plus they found that some people were disgracing it, like vandalising. When I say vandalising I mean like grafting and breaking off pieces to take home, and some even went all the way to urinating on it. So they now have it surrounded by a simple chain, but there are people everywhere.

I was pretty blown away though regardless. There is a spot that if you stand in front of the stairs and clap there will be a ringing echo that kind of sounds like an arrow whipping by, but its just the sound deflection.

There was a giant Cenote where they apparently used to kill or throw 15 year old virgins into for sacrificial purposes. And which what knowledge they have they say that the parents of these kids were thrilled even proud to have there kid picked for this great task.

One of the most amazing sites must of been the Ball Court. Apparently this particular one is the largest one they have ever found. Its suspected to be the most prestiges because of this. It is said that the captain of the winning team will be decapitated. Supposed to be a honor, but I think its just kinda unnecessary, why kill the best player?

Chichen Itza was one of the most intense experiences of my life so far, there was a sense of energy there. As in you know something went down here along time ago, there is so much lost history of that place. The facts we have now are all just guesses and loosely put together facts. We can only hope to one day have a true understanding of how the Mayans really lived.

My Adventure in Cancun

Even though it wasn't really "Outdoor Adventure" type stuff, but it was an adventure for me in other ways. I got to see a completely different culture where it is very different than here. I was really lucky as in this trip was a gift from my mother for my birthday, and she allowed me to take one friend along with me. I decided to choose Piers, a friend from my program.

The biggest reason why I picked him is his previous travelling experience and knowledge of how to stay safe in foreign countries. I think because of him I didn't get nearly as ripped off on bartering on the street. Also knowing where good places to eat and not eat.

The first time we had the chance we took a ferry from Cancun to an island called Isla Mujeres, fairly close to authentic Mexican culture. The Cancun resort area is basically a Las Vegas rip off, where all the prices and attractions are all the same as here or the states. But on the island if you go to the right area's you can get amazing deals for cool souvenirs and good food. The first place we stopped at when they brought us the dip, it looked really healthy and filled with veggies and sauce, but we had heard that we should watch out because sometimes the kitchen may not clean the vegetables enough and we could get malaria, or something. So me and piers flipped a coin, we called heads, and it landed on heads, so we ate. After that we basically stopped flipping, the food was so good everywhere we went it was amazing.

There was this one small restaurant that we found where for 90 Peso's, which is about 9 Canadian dollars, I got three fairly large pork steaks, with a helping of steamed veggies, tortillas and dip, and some papas fritas (french fries). It was so delicious, and for a good price.

Its kind of scary sometimes how different we are to them. Our cultures are so vastly far between. You can see it in how they all sell things to us at markets, they rely on us rich North Americans to come down and buy there stuff for fraction of the price it would be here. Our culture supports many peoples lives down in Cancun. If we all stopped going there, there entire community could collapse. Next Post I will tell you all how Chichen Itza was. Prelude, it was AMAZING.

Skiing and Snowboarding Trouble

I felt I had a little challenge learning this activities at first. Thats because when I was 7 I was just finishing up a ski lesson and we were still near the top of the hill. It was at camp fortune on the far left hill looking up the ski hill. The instructor told us that were done and that we have free ski time now. Well being a foolish child I decided to bomb the hill and see how fast I can get.

Well needless to say I am zooming down the hill, then all of a sudden my left leg hits a small bump and everything went slow-mo, seemed as though time slowed down, I saw myself slowly falling to the right as my left leg rose from the little bump. Then all I could see is white, tumbling down the hill. When I finally stopped my one leg was lying on the ground with the ski still on, and my left leg was facing down towards the ground with the point of the ski stuck in the snow, but I was on my back. I spiral fracture on my left leg, broke my Tibia and Fibula.

I got really lucky though the way it broke they just twisted the leg back and the bones went back into place, so it healed strong. The end result was a fear of the ski hill, but because of the great instructors they have available to Algonquin ODA (Outdoor Adventure Program) students, they helped me through the steps and now I feel like a am a competent skier and a pretty good snowboarder. All that in under 6 days of lessons.

My comfort on the hill has gone up so much, I don't think my past injury bothers me at all anymore. Bob, the ski instructor gave me a lot of really helpful advice on how to focus on making both legs work together and separately but still remembering to have proper balance. Just amazing though, I never thought I would have become this relaxed and confident in skiing and snowboarding, but here I am parallel carving on ski's and doing full edge carves on snowboards.
Couldn't of done it without the dedication and skills of the Mount Pakenham ski instructors.

Past Summer Camp

When I was young my parents made many oppurtunities available to be to me to have plenty of outdoor/camp experience. My most memorable most likely was my Camp Otterdale experiences. I was a camper there for nine years and a counselor for three. I started by doing the regular two week intervals for a couple years, but as that turns out that wasn't enough time for me, and I started going for a month at a time.

Camp Otterdale was a overnight coed camp which offered a huge variety of activities with fun responsible staff. Just to give an idea of the activities we did here is a list:
Archery, mountain biking, canoing, kayaking, sailing, windsurfing, snorkeling, arts & crafts, rock climbing, woodworking, and even drama. There was other activities that were experimented with over the years like ping-pong, golf, but they never got too popular so not many got involved with it.

A fun side to the counselor side of the camp was that all the staff had camp names, so you wouldn't know their real names. My camp name when I became a counselor was Beenz, not sure where it came from just happened to get it. I had some of my most memorable camp experiences at that camp.

When I was on staff I was put in charge of Canoing and Archery, both of which I love. Sometimes they made me look after mountain biking, which was cool because I love to bike as well. Overall I feel that I learned most of my base leadership and outdoor experience to this camp, plus some of the best time of my life.

Con't Past Exerience

At the end of that day we were just getting on to the Petawawa River. Which is probably the longest river in Algonquin Park. Its also one of the most fun, because of its easy rapids.

At this point my dad and I decided to skip most portages and attempt to ride the rapids in our canoe filled with stuff. I must say I was a little nervous at first, but after a couple I started to gain some confidence in my dads skills as a canoeist. Unfortunately during on of those fateful rapids, we got pinned on a rock sideways horizontal to the river, so we had the entire pressure of the river pushing on the entire side of our canoe onto this one rock. We were lucky that we decided to get the Kevlar canoe because if we hadn't any other canoe would of snapped in half. My dad told me even for being so young I didn't panic, I listened to what needed to be done and we managed to get off the rock safely. Was definitely on of the scariest moments on the entire trip

We continued down the Petawawa the fourth and fifth day. On the fifth day we came upon some fairly large rapids, where we saw a fairly hardcore couple sitting on the shore looking at the rapids. I say hardcore because they were dressed up in all river gear and whitewater canoing stuff. My dad just hopped out and scouted the rapids, and figured it looked safe so we hopped in and took off down the rapids. As we started we accidentally ended up spinning and going down the rapids backwards. It must of been quite a site for that couple seeing my dad wearing no life jacket and his son who's eight sitting calmly in the front smiling waving as we go pass them.

The remainder of the trip was a series of rapids quick decisions and current guiding. If it wasn't for all my fathers past experiences this trip could of ended up way worse, but because of him it gave me a whole new profound look at outdoors. Thats most likely the reason why I decided to go to the course Outdoor Adventure at Algonquin College. I want to experience the thrill of the outdoors, like how I did with my dad.

Past experience

When I was eight years old, my father and I went on a week long canoe tripping adventure through Algonquin park. This was my first real outdoor experience. My father chose to put in at Grand lake and for the first day we paddled north till we got to the longest portage in the entire park, almost six and half kilometers.

The funny thing though was that traversing that portage turned out to be easier than the one we had to do the next day. The biggest reason for that was, even though the longer one was farther and had a lot of elevation changes, there was fresh spring water bubbling out of the ground all up the trail and down the trail. That was the best water I have ever had in my entire life.

The second day portage was about five and half kilometers, but was very hard. The reason for that was due to the fact that there was no water during the whole trek. The only water source we found was a swamp which we had to strain then purify before even thinking about drinking it. It tasted awful, but it hydrated us enough to finish the portage.

On the third day we were slightly ahead of schedule so we rested on White Partridge Lake (which was beautiful). Took the chance to relax and regain energy from previous portage's. Mostly just swam and slept in the lake. Once we had our rest we took off up north again and did a smaller 2.2 kilometer portage. After that we had about 8-12 kilometers of creek to traverse, which was a spectacular voyage.

There is so many living things in forest, I saw so many little bugs and insects, and as well as a majestic moose. Even though it was slow going through the creek it was a nice peaceful pace to kind of get a chance to really experience what the outdoors have to offer.

Thats just the first three and half days of my trip, next week I shall finish the trip off.