Thursday, November 7, 2013

PAD2O Frontenac Hiking Trip #2

In the second week of October the afternoon PAD2O class headed to Frontenac for their 3-day hiking trip. After a gorgeous Fall so far, we had our fingers crossed that it would continue for at least a few more days, although the weather forecast did not look very promising.



The drive up saw plenty of rain and we were getting a bit worried, but upon our arrival, the rain had stopped and the sun had even come out a little. Our first day hiking saw us travel to campsites #9 & 12 with great efficiency. The students moved really well as a group and were at camp in good time, giving us plenty of time to set up camp, collect firewood, hang the bear hangs, make dinner and have time to relax. The sun came out in perfect time for evening supper, but once the sun went down, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. A good reason to head into our tents for the night.


The next morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies and a nice temperature. I didn't expect to be hiking in shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of October, but we did. The day was a gorgeous one as we headed for campsite #5 and the lookout on Big Salmon Lake. This group of students were one of the most efficient groups on the trail that I have ever had. Distances were covered extremely quickly, giving us plenty of time to enjoy the lookout and have a super relaxed lunch.


With one group staying at campsite #5 and the other continuing on to #4, we said goodbye to our friends for the evening. After camp was set up at #5, some of the boys decided to brave the waters of Big Salmon Lake for a quick swim. Quite impressive considering it was mid October. The rest of the evening was enjoyed around the campfire, that is, until the heavy rains rolled after the sun went down. Another early evening into the tents.


The final day started early for the members at campsite #5, as we had to travel to campsite #4 by 9:30 am, which should have taken us about 45 minutes. This is when we saw some of the struggles coming through, as a few groups were lacking in food for breakfast. The students also made a wrong turn on the trail and instead of correcting, they tried to make it a short cut. After waiting up the trail for them for 10 minutes, we still managed to make it back to our friends in 40 minutes.


On the final day, this group was intent on getting out. Probably one of the fastest exits I have experienced with a school group. A cloudy, but warm day provided for a nice hike out. After a quick lunch in the parking lot, the bus picked us up for our ride back to school. Plenty of tired and sleeping faces, a sign of a good trip.


19 comments:

Unknown said...

The Hiking Trip for me was really fun!
Even if it was raining in the evenings, we sat at the campfire, played weird games and had fun. Camping was the most fun, if we would hike a little bit less, it would be better. But the feeling if you're actually managed to come to the campsite was so good, and in the end i thought that i was never so glad to see civilization and actual roads.
It was a good experience and really fun, even if i don't like hiking so much, so i would do it again in anytime.

Unknown said...

I found that the hiking trip was a very fun and interesting time.
Everyone had a chance do every job and learn new things, like putting up a bear hang properly. We also had the chance to play game like manhunt which was awesome to play at night. Even though it rain a lot i think everyone still enjoyed themselves and had fun. Myself i had loads of fun and i wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Unknown said...

I learned so much from this trip and had such an amazing time.
I managed to find wood and cut it, hanging my food, setting up the tent well, all of our meals were good . Even though it rained we still we able to hang around the fire and play games. Hiking with the packs had some getting use to but it was still fun, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

The hiking trip is a trip I will definitely never forget, from all gratifying memories to the dreadful ones; and of course, memories initiate lessons that would help in future life experience and events. The trip is thought to be divided into two major sections, hiking and camping. Each of those categories created roles my fellow campers and I had to cope with.

In my opinion, hiking in our group was done fairly even; it wasn’t done with great passion or with terrible energy. Everyone got off the bus with not much excitement; after all, we were sitting in a yellow box for a couple of hours not stretched out, not ready to walk. I realized it mostly when we were resting consecutively every few minutes and when people were complaining about their aching shoulders and backs. I wasn’t helping out in this region either; I didn’t realize I had an unbalanced weight leaning sideways, because of the tent and the unforgiving loose straps. Otherwise, my backpack would have been stable and organized heavy objects inwards. While walking, I haven't noticed any injuries throughout the group, but I had dehydration affect leading to a mild head ache, which wasn’t noticeable after drinking enough water. While hiking, our group wasn’t separated far from each other; if any separations happen, usually Owen would guide us to stop or slow down for other struggling peers. Finally, I think the hiking distance was not challenging at all and we had extra time to set up in the campsites; I would be able to walk the total of all distances throughout one day.

Furthermore, the camping section of the trip was the best part of it. Since I had no experience in the wild or camping, I had some difficulties setting a fire and setting up the tent. After repeating my camp roles over and over, it seemed facile to manage and cope with. The campsite was based on roles that are shared throughout the group members; if the roles were done, we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted. For me, the first role I would perform is setting up the tent, because all the camping days were rainy and it's better to set up tents before night time. Another prior role was to purify water from the lake, because after walking a distance, water is needed in order to keep hydration. The second role I would start, is to collect as much as firewood as possible. Honestly, the first night fire was horrible, because we didn’t fetch fire wood and we ended up using our flashlights trying to find last minute firewood. After all, the last minute fire wasn’t going so well, but when it started raining, the fire was amusingly flaming better than before. Meanwhile, the second night fire was great; there was an excess of firewood, the fire was fierce, and it lasted for long period of time. As for the third role, I would start cooking dinner, but the stoves will take some time to heat up. This role is the one role my group didn’t perform at all. All food we got was ready, other than the potatoes that were baked in the fire. In fact, we didn’t even use a stove or the alcohol/fuel we had; instead, we shared the fuel with other groups. The food was the main problem of the camping trip, not to mention my partner forgot many types of various foods. We had no vegetables (other than potatoes) or fruits. For the mornings, we had protein bars and sandwiches. For lunch, guess what? We had more sandwiches. The first night dinner was ready pasta; the second dinner was baked potatoes. The rest of the foods we had were snacks, including cake, nuts, candy, more candy, and chips. The food plan definitely didn’t turn out well and that would be the first step I would change if I join another camping trip.

After all, the trip was great and I would definitely do it again. There are some lessons I have to learn and to improve from. Therefore, my mistakes on this hiking trip will be the first thoughts that will pop out in my head when I think of hiking/camping trip.

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed the hiking trip we went on. There were some fun moments and some challenging moments.

I learned a lot of new things since this was my first time camping such as, how to correctly pack my hiking bag. I learned how to set up a tent, how to start a fire, and how to hang my food pack up so the animals don't eat it.

What I enjoyed most on the trip was sitting around the campfire and toasting marshmallows, cooking dinner and talking to my friends. I also really enjoyed the campsites we stayed at. The first day we set up our tent right next to a river where we got our water from for our food. By the second campsite, there was another river with very nice black sand that my friends and I went swimming in. Close by the campsite, there was a cliff with a large rock hanging over the river on which we sat with our feet hanging over.

There were also a few challenging moments on the trip. What I enjoyed the least was when we had to hike to the different campsites which took hours everyday and that was very tiring because the bag on my back was very heavy. Our food choices were not the greatest. We didn't pack enough foods with proteins. Some of the food we packed went bad very quickly such as the eggs that someone had opened and had not fully closed. The milk we had packed went bad on the second day, so we had to drink powdered milk which tasted horrible. The first night when we were all around the campfire, it started to rain and we all had to go back to our tents early in the evening. The second night our tent was placed over a bunch of tree roots which made for a very uncomfortable sleep. On the second night we also had a hard time starting a fire and it was very cold out.

Next time I go camping I would pack more food because my group ran out of food, and I would pack warmer clothes. Even though there were a few problems, I would still want to go camping again.

Unknown said...

The hiking trip was fun, but I found it difficult at times. There were things I enjoyed, and things I didn't enjoy at all.

The hiking itself wasn't that bad all three days. I had a fairly heavy pack, but midway through the the trip I had become accustomed to it. We saw some really nice views, and at the lookout at campsite 5 was gorgeous. The only thing that I hated about the entire trip was the snakes and the rain, although the rain wasn't that bad as it was only at night. During the day, however, we had beautiful weather.

The first night wasn't as fun as the second night, because of the rain and because we didn't have our friends at the same site. It was still fun, and I got to learn a bit more about my tent group. I found that we were able to to set up camp fairly quickly, although that first meal took forever to cook. I think if we were to do it again, we would precook everything at home.

The second night I found a lot better than the first, for multiple reasons. For one, the rain didn't come until late, after we were all starting to wind down. For another, we were with all of our friends. A bunch of the guys got together and started a big game of manhunt, but I didn't feel like playing so I went and sat down by the little point near our site. After a while, a few of my friends joined me and we talked until the sun went down. Then, we heard a wolf howl across the lake and a few minutes later we saw either a beaver or an otter or something like that swim right near us in the water. Afterwards, we just talked some more and when the game of manhunt was over we all had hot chocolate, which was nice. I think that night was the highlight of the trip for me.

What I liked about our entire group, was that we all managed to stay in a pack except for the odd person that was way out in front of the group. The teachers stayed out of navigating and deciding when to have breaks, so it let some people take on leadership roles, which they may not have been able to do at CW. The leaders I found did a good job of deciding when would be a rest, when would be just a quick water break, but not so much as to when we should stop for a bit so that the second, back half of the group could catch up. There was a bit of a lack of communication to the front, and sometimes they would only stop until the back part of the front caught up, and then they would keep going. At the end of the day though, they did a pretty good job.

On the hiking trip, there were certain things I enjoyed immensely, and certain things I didn't enjoy whatsoever (i.e. the snakes). All in all, it was a fun experience.

Unknown said...

The hiking trip was probably one of my favourite things we’ve done it Outdoor Ed. so far.

The actual hiking itself wasn’t too bad at all. I remember a week or so before the trip, I was dreading it. I thought to myself “I trip over my own two feet all the time without all the rocks and branches, how am I going hike for three days?” But it wasn’t too difficult, it seemed like we always took a rest or a water break just when I needed one. One of my biggest fears going on this trip was if I was going to get lost, but of course it never came close to that. Most of the group stuck together and it wasn’t like an accordion like we were all separated and came together again and then back to being separated. Uphill was the hardest thing for me, it did hurt my legs a bit, but it just made getting up the hill more rewarding. Since the teachers and volunteers let us lead the way, it gave students a chance to take a leadership role and it made us more proud when we got to where we were going.

The camping part of the trip was the best part. Going camping all my life with my dad made me really appreciate the outdoors. But I never noticed how much work it is since my dad was always the one cooking the meals and setting up the tent. I asked my dad beforehand to guide me while I tried putting up the tent so it would be easier when I was on the actual trip. Since it was my tent, the other girls in my group didn’t know how to put it up, but as soon as I showed them once, they quickly caught on and were always there to put it up and tear it down with me. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep very well on the trip, the first night I was too hot and the second night I was too cold and wet.

Most of the supplies we brought were from my dad’s stash, including the propane stove, so again I asked him beforehand how to use it. I remember the first time we were going to use it on the trip because I was terrified. I kept thinking it was going to blow up the camp if I used it wrong, but it never did. Cooking on the first night was somewhat of a nightmare. My group was making a stir-fry, so we had some veggies, potatoes and some meat, but we only had a small pan. We also didn’t have a tarp put up in our camp which we needed to cook under since it was raining. So we set up our stuff under another group’s tarp and began to cook. Cooking dinner on the first night took us around two hours, we brought too much food for that meal and the pan wasn’t big enough. Breakfasts and lunches were simple because they were just wraps and oatmeal, and dinner on the second night was easy too because we just had spider-dogs.

I myself didn’t hang up the food bag, I just lent the rope and another group member hung the food a little bit away from our camp. Making the fire wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, especially since on the second day, when we arrived at our site, the people that stayed there the last time left some wonderful wood for us to use.

The end of the day was the most relaxing, because it seemed like everything was done. All we had to do was finish washing the dishes and purify water. My group on the first night was so exhausted so we went to bed pretty early, and ended up talking for a few hours. The second night we stayed up later and sat at the campfire and played games with the other people on the campsite. The second campsite we stayed at was absolutely beautiful. It had this small island and nice rocks to sit on, and watching the sunset that night is something I won’t forget.

Overall, the trip was fantastic and I had a lot of fun. I think the only thing I would change is the food plan, since we brought a little extra than we needed. I would definitely enjoy doing a trip like this again.

Dan said...

I enjoyed the hiking trip.
I was able to do everything from gathering wood to putting up a bear hang to cooking and setting up camp. next time I go camping I will definitely make sure that the tent I use it waterproof

Unknown said...

I really enjoyed the hiking trip. I feel like i learned a lot during the trip and after. It was one of the most memorable trips this year.

The Hiking was actually very enjoyable. The week before we were about to go, I was quite exited. I didn't really realize how heavy my pack was until we got off the bus and stood outside waiting for everyone to be ready. The first day of hiking was very difficult for me, but later on it seemed to get easier and didn't bother me as much. Although it was easier later on, the uphill part was not. It was especially hard on the second day when there was a big part of the day of having to go up hill constantly.

Probably my favourite part of it was looking at the scenery. Even though I didn't take many pictures or videos I still have the views planted in my mind for a very long time. The campsite in the morning was probably the best with the sun on the water making it look extremely beautiful. It reminded me of going camping with my family which i enjoyed a lot.

Going camping with my family was definitely easier than the hiking trip. When I would go with my family we would be able to bring as much as we wanted since we brought the car with us. My mom would cook the food and there was some pretty decent bathroom. The tent was set up by my parents and all my sister and I did was watch. On the hiking trip I actually had to do things, which was a good learning experience for me so I can now help when we go camping.

The first night wasn't that enjoyable since it started to rain early and it took us a long time to cook our food. The food took us at least 2 hours to make since we didn't pre-cook anything and it was very windy so our stove kept being blown out. Next time we will be sure to pre cook everything and just heat it up at night. As we went inside our tent for bed I noticed that the side of the roof was wet but i didn't think anything of it until later that night when my side was soaked. We seemed to have put on the tarp wrong or something like that. We never really figured out what we did wrong. Next time I think we'll make sure we know exactly how to put on the tarp so we wont get wet because that was probably the most miserable part of the trip.

The second night was more fun. We seemed to have gotten to our camp site pretty fast and were very happy that we got the farther one so we wouldn't have to walk 45 minutes extra in the morning. We set up our tent pretty fast and then had a lot of free time with our friends. The second night my group spent more time with people and had more friends around than the first night which was fun. The food was very easy that night and was much faster. The evening was very relaxing and quite for most part. The nights weren't that cold so we spent all the time we could outside. Although it did start raining again and were forced into our tents to sleep another wet night.

I fell like I had a very good group. We all seemed to pull our weight when it came to responsibilities. Our packs were equally as heavy and if someone need to switch something we would gladly help.

During the hiking part I feel like we were all very good at working together. Although we sometimes had to stop and wait for someone, we were very good at moving as a group and at a decent pace. Some people took on leadership roles more than others,but we all seemed to help each other, even if it was just tell the front to stop for a break.

Overall I had an amazing time on the trip and would gladly go again with a mind set of knowing what to fix from this trip to make it a perfect time.

Unknown said...

The hiking trip was a lot of fun, however, there were times that were not so fun.

I learned many things while preparing and experiencing the hiking trip. I learned how to pack my bag so that the weight would be distributed well. I also learned how to make a fire and cook meals using a stove. Another thing I learned was how to set up a tent.

What I enjoyed the most about the hiking trip was the times when we arrived at camp because it allowed us to have some time off from hiking and to do our own thing. I really enjoyed making our meals because we were pretty bad at making the meals which caused some funny moments. I enjoyed the meals because even though we were bad at making the meals, they turned out to be very delicious. I also making the fire because it was something that i have never done before so making the fire seem exciting and fun.

The things that I enjoyed the least would be the hiking to the camps and sleeping. The hiking to the camps were difficult because of the heavy pack that we had to carry but as the days went on, the pack became lighter so the hiking became less difficult. Also the pack was uncomfortable. The sleeping was difficult because of the spot where we picked to set up camp. The spot we picked was not sheltered from the wind and rain so the spot where I was sleeping was wet at the edge of the tent and the tent would be blown into my face. The ground was uncomfortable because there were debris all over the ground where our tents where so it made sleeping harder. The cold also made it hard to fall asleep.

What I would do differently would be to bring warmer clothes because I was freezing at night on the first night but I wasn't as cold on the second night. I would also change how I packed my backpack because the pack was uncomfortable because I think I didn't pack the pack very well.

Even though it was cold and windy as well as it was hard to fall asleep, I would to the hiking trip again if I could.

bossman said...

I learned a lot on this camping trip about myself.The trip showed me that I was able to walk for such a long distance with minimal water.
There were many adventures that I will remember for a long time. One of the best memories of this trip is sitting by the campfire and laughing.
There were many lessons learned along the way. I learned about how useful birch bark is for starting a camp fire and keeping a fire going.
Another lesson was how important it is to pack your hiking bag probably. If the bag is not probably packed it would be lopsided and you would have trouble walking. I also learned that I brought to many clothes. It would have been easier to walk with fewer clothes.
I enjoyed the time I spend getting to know my friends on the trip. The part that I didn’t enjoy was the first night when it rained in our tent. The tent we had, had holes in it. We put a tarp over our tent but it still was very wet inside.
The things that I would do differently would have to be the menu. I would have brought more food and better meals. The only good meal on this trip was on the second night.
In conclusion it was a good hiking trip for my first time. I learned many things that I will keep for the rest of my live when I go camping/hiking. By Mathieu Deschamps

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I had a very fun time on the hiking trip and learned a lot of new things about both hiking and camping, this is my reflection. The first day we hiked a long way to the first campsite, out of our whole group: me, Mathieu D., Jake, and Nathan I definitely had the heaviest pack the first day. I did not pack my pack very well though, I put the light stuff on the bottom and heavy stuff on the top making my bag top heavy and unbalanced, when I go again I will make sure to put bulky items on the outside, heavy items at bottom, light items at top. I feel that we set up our camp very good, while the other groups at our campsite ate once they got there we set up our tent and then got some wood and birch bark to start a fire. That night we had Beans, Hotdogs and Smores witch I thought was a good supper.

The next morning we got up and ate oatmeal cooked over the stove, then packed up our tent and bags really quick and were ready to go before the other groups since we cleaned up and put most of our stuff away the night before. Then we set out to the other campsite to meet up with the next group, I found that that day of hiking was a lot easier than the day before because all my muscles got use to it. Once we arrived at the next campsite (the Outlook”) we put our bags down and right away started cooking some hotdogs because we were very hungry, next time I go camping I will not bring as much hotdogs because for most of our lunches and one supper we had them, I would mix up the meals so it was something different every meal. After that me, Aaron, Dane and Nathan went for a swim in the freezing cold lake and while Aaron and Dane felt very cold I didn’t feel cold when I got out. We chose to stay at this campsite and started to gather wood for our fire witch we started very efficiently but we did not get enough wood so we had to take some of Mr. Brower’s wood (sorry), next time I will make sure to go by the saying and get 5 times as much wood as you think is enough. On the flipside, that night we had a great supper, we boiled some noodles and cooked spaghetti sauce on the alcohol stove, it was very good and there was plenty to go around. Our tent was also a lot better than it was the last night, the last night we did not secure the rain cover of our tent properly and got very wet, but we learned from that and pegged it down tight and were very dry that night.
The next morning I was starting to hurt from carrying the packs but at least they were lighter because we switched up who carries the tent, stove and tarp every time, and on the last day I got the tarp witch was very light. I think we packed up fairly fast but we were sick of oatmeal and not wanting to eat, in the future I would definitely at least bring a nutrition bar to eat because after a while I got very hungry. Then after I think the smallest hike out of the three days we finally arrived at the parking lot, and since we were starving we took out our stove and the 20 hotdogs we had left and started cooking them up, which was a bad idea because the bus could’ve came, I should have made a more portable, less time consuming meal to eat like a sandwich.

Overall I had a very enjoyable time on the trip with many fun moments. We had some good meals and I think that our group was very efficient and we worked as a team to set up and take down, when someone went for wood we would go for wood or stay back and prepare. We would not stop working until everything was ready and we could sit down and eat at the fire. I felt like I went into this trip with good knowledge of the outdoors, I start fires at my house because we have a wood burning fireplace that I start every day in the winter and this helped me make fires on the trip, I also cook supper at my house a lot and know how to cook the foods on the trip very good. We would not stop working until everything was ready and we could sit down and eat at the fire. I would definitely go on this trip again, but I would prepare my meals better, get more wood, pack my bag better and make sure our tent is waterproof.

Unknown said...

The hiking trip was the best trip I have been on at school in a long time. I had a blast, but there were some problems.

I have been camping before but I learned many new things like, packing a hiking bag correctly, how to set up a tent, how to start a fire, how to hang food, and how to use a camping stove.

I enjoyed talking to my friends while roasting marshmallows with them. The first night our campsite was right next to a river, so we had easy access to water. But the first night it started raining so we had to go to our tents fairly early. The second campsite we stayed at was my favorite. We were next to a river again so we had access to water but there was a huge cliff next to the campsite so my group and the other one we stayed with climbed up which was no easy task. But once we made it up it was worth it. The view on the top of the cliff was great.

But there were some problems. I was not used to walking with a hiking bag on my back, so it was uncomfortable for most of the hikes. I would change our food choices because we ran out of food for the last day, and we didn’t pack enough food with protein, so that didn’t help with the hiking problem.

Next time we go camping I would pack more and better food. Despite the challenges, I would go camping again and would not regret it.

Unknown said...

The hiking trip was great.
We had some trouble with the meals and Aren did not pack very much warm clothes but that's about it besides that we did pretty well. We had no problem evenly sharing the load and I feel like we hiked at a good speed except for some people who walked ahead of the group. The meals were fine but a little bigger and heavier then what I would have had if I was by myself but we're a group so I went with the rest of the group on that one. Aren also did not bring very much warm clothes so the last morning I gave him some of mine. the good part is we had all the gear evenly distributed David and I had more room in our bags then Aren and Jhad so we took more. I enjoyed it and would o it again.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

The trip was a great experience for me. We were really exited to get going. All though we did have one missing presence, Tom. None the less we continued to make funny jokes amongst ourselves and really hammering them into the ground until you can't use them anymore. The first day I was full of energy and we had a slower pace to start off the trip, kind of get used to this adventure though then afterwards people started going ahead as they were getting bored and wanted a bit a more speed. Thus we started to spread out a bit more. The first night we had a nice meal, lot's of water and fun games from playing cards to chasing Matt in the forest. The night though brought some unpleasant surprises. A strong storm was brewing up and our tent was the most exposed due to the lack of trees covering our tent. We felt the cold that night, our summer sleeping bags, didn't help the cause.

Our second day went poorly, our eggs had cracked and our whole diet consisted of macaroni or spaghetti and we weren't consuming enough nutrients to really keep going and I felt light headed on day 3 due to this. The second day of hiking I found myself starting to split up as well. Usually one of the farthest guys ahead. I tried reading the map here and I was having a hard time to compare the distance on a map to the distance in real life, but towards the end of day glancing at the map, I started getting a better sense of distance. At the end of the day, I was exhausted. I had blisters all along the inside of my feet and my heels where really sore, though that did not stop me from playing some man-hunt where I was foolish enough to carry my phone around with me and as a result lost it. I found this game really entertaining because I was running in the dark without a flashlight and was able to see perfectly, I felt like an animal stalking prey even though I was the one being hunted. This night we had a little more fun as the hot chocolate and the larger amount of people aided in conversation. Though this was the worst of the two nights. It was raining heavily and our tent leaked some water through the bottom edges, my sleeping bag at my feet touched the water and I couldn't catch any sleep for the rest of the night. The sleeping bag was wet, I was cold, I was tired, it was late at night and I overall only caught some sleep late in the morning. After that night I felt frustrated and acted carelessly for example. I just stuffed everything into my hiking bag not caring much how it was placed. Negative effects started kicking in like walking faster. Being in pain from the blisters of constantly being on my feet, but I kept going. I was determined to get on that bus home as fast as possible to catch some sleep.

I think I broke down after the second night with little sleep and a lack of different nutrients, so for next time bringing more variety of foods. Furthermore, put my sleeping bag into a garbage bag and also get a warmer sleeping bag as well. Other then those few things I really enjoyed the trip and looking forward to another one.

Unknown said...

Going into the hiking trip, I didn't have high expectations. I thought it would just be a whole lot of walking (which it was), but I was kept busy by talking with friends, and the time just flew by.

I would say that the first day was the easiest, mainly because we only had to cook one meal and set ourselves up for the night. Our first challenge was putting up the tents. I had gone camping a few times before, but it wasn't me who usually put up the tents. I was familiar on how to set up the tent, but Alex and myself had forgotten how to, until we got the help of Mr. Brouwer. In the end, we got the tents up and it was now time to start the fire.

Getting the fire started was harder than it seems, mainly because it was our first time in the class making a fire. But we ended up starting a fire with a paper plate, which didn't last too long, but gave us enough time to collect some more items to build up the fire. It ended up dying out, but then we wrapped a few napkins around a stick and made a type of torch. It lit up quickly and we added wood onto that for a bit longer until we went into our tents.

We set up our sleeping bags and all our things in the tents and hung up our food after dinner. We would have went to bed, but it was still 7:30 so we had some time to kill. But Daniel didn't mind going to bed that early, he had a long day of hiking and and was tired and ready to sleep. Too bad he had group members like us that wouldn't let him sleep and would annoy him. We tried to get him out of the tent multiple times, but he wasn't giving up on sleeping early. We went and visited the other tents, played some cards, and even played a game similar to man hunt in the pitch dark.

The second day we got to sleep in a couple hours longer than the other pack, because they had chosen to go to the closer campsite on the first night, meaning they had to travel to us in the morning to pick up where we left off. I believe the second day was about the same amount of walking, if not maybe a bit less, but it definitely felt shorter. Again, we decided to go to the further campsite so we could have a little extra shut-eye in the morning. We had eaten most of our food by the next morning, and had a few granola bars left, and wraps which we planned to eat before we left. We walked the rest of the distance to the bus, and waited while socializing with friends.

We brought the perfect amount of food, clothes, and other necessities. Nobody had too much weight in their packs, and all in all we were happy with how the trip went. We have a lot of jokes left from the trip, and made a good bond with each other. We will definitely group up with each other again for other outdoor ed activities and trips. Thanks for the trip Mr. Brouwer!