tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post975168788327171415..comments2023-05-04T09:56:08.282-05:00Comments on CW Outdoor Ed: WintercampMr.Brouwerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14851803029313082389noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-15245165383921954682012-06-14T00:16:33.070-05:002012-06-14T00:16:33.070-05:00Winter camp was definitely an experience that I lo...Winter camp was definitely an experience that I looked forward to coming into Outdoor Ed for the second time I knew the hardships and problems from the year before and I was ready to learn from them. Still, one of my favorite outings of the year.<br /><br />The weather conditions for winter camp were not the most ideal. The weather was abnormally warm and we even got some nasty rain. The rain definitely didn’t dampen my spirits. As the night went on I was having a great experience at the school climbing into quinzhees and building make shift fires and improving on the quinzeeh, as many in my group didn’t believe it would withstand the weather.<br /><br />As the night got later and later the temperature seamed to drop more and more, but the persistent rain just kept coming. This made for an uncomftorble time getting ready for bed as my boots were completely soaked from the rain and wet snow and getting comftorble in our crammed, soaked quinzeeh was not an easy task. In my quinzeeh I had Jon, Umar and Kyle we believed the quinzeeh would be big enough for everyone needless to say it wasn’t the roomiest .Jon succumbing to the cold and cramped space left us in the night to seek warmer shelter at home. This was more or less welcomed as it meant the rest of us had a much more spacious sleep. Getting to sleep for me was quite the task as it got damper I became very uncomftorble and very warm stripping down to my wicking layers I rode the night out with a good sleep.<br /><br />The lesser part of Jons departure was the fact that I had learned from the year before that bigger was not always better since the extra space also left more room for the cold night air to creep in. Again learning from the year before we built a successful platform were we would stay warm, but still damp. We ended up talking and reminiscing about the great successful day we had just finished.<br /><br />In the morning I was awaken by Jon yelling into the shelter which wasn’t the best awakening. I realized going down to my wicking layer was not the most ideal thing to have done. The quinzeeh was extremely cold mostly do to the dampness in the air. My group laid in the quinzeeh talking about exactly what was going to happen when we removed ourselves from our wet sleeping bags. I had learned a lot more than I expected from the year before, I decided it would be much more efficient to put all the contents of the quinzeehs on our tarp. Once we completed the task, walking in my soaking boots I dragged the tarp straight into the Outdoor Ed room after returning to the quinzeeh for one final inspection I realized that it was warmer outside the quinzeeh, this gave me a quick reminder of how long we stayed in the quinzeeh believing it would be colder outside .I felt pretty dumb but that was to be expected.<br /><br />All in all was the winter camping was definitely one of the high lights of the year and I loved every bit of it. I gained much new knowledge and also many great memories. I hope to one day to go winter camping later in life and use the lessens I was taught from this crazy and fun time.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06873802248613467972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-28647820945603959852012-06-13T12:01:35.853-05:002012-06-13T12:01:35.853-05:00Winter camp reflection
The day Mr. Brouwer told u...Winter camp reflection<br /> The day Mr. Brouwer told us about the winter camp I was sort of in shock, and a little bit in denial that we were actually going to be sleeping outside in the middle of winter! Even though it’s not my usual thing to do, I decided to give it a try. You only live once, may as well try as much as you can. We had all the tools we needed to build the quincee, but once it actually came time to start piling the snow, I realized that it was going to be harder than I thought.<br /><br /> The first day of building my group and I had all brought a shovel to use and we thought we had all the tools necessary, but we soon realized that three small shovels were not going to make a pile of snow very quickly. Luckily we found a big shovel we could borrow from one of the other groups. That was a good idea, but after about 3 times pushing the shovel up a snow pile, I felt like I was going to die. Not only was the snow very wet, but there were also chunks of ice in it, which made it even harder to shovel. Even though we only had four days to build the quince, my group and I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. We all sort of thought that we had more time than we actually did, which left us having problems later that night. The day that we were supposed to be sleeping outside, we spent over 3 hours working on our quincee! After an hour, we started to dig out the middle of it, but then got the devastating news from Mr. Brouwer that it wasn’t tall enough, and we had to keep piling the snow on top before we can dig it out.<br /><br /> After we spent some time working on our quincee we decided to take a break from building because we were all hungry. We went to start making dinner, but realized our group had not communicated, and there were two different meals planned for the night. I was a little bit confused, but I decided that I was going to eat the hotdogs that Tonisha had brought. I definitely think that we should have planned a little bit better because we sort of forgot about the food, and it was very poor last minute planning. After we took the time to eat, we went back to working on the quincee, because it still was not dug out. I was very nervous as to what would happen the rest of the night.<br /><br /> I started to get really worried that we wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep because we were still working on our quincee well into the night. After about 8:00pm we decided that our quincee was not going to be done for the night, and decided to go to option B: find someone else’s quincee to sleep in. Hannah had already had an offer from another group, but that still left Tonisha and I with nowhere to sleep. Travis and his group were nice enough to offer for us to stay with them, but after about an hour, I was getting really uncomfortable because they had no room to move in their quincee. At 2:00am, Tonisha and I decided that we could sleep in there, and tried to find somewhere else to sleep. Everyone else was already asleep, so we decided to sleep outside on the pavement. During the night all my stuff had gotten wet, and I didn’t plan for that, so I was forced to sleep in wet clothing, in the cold. That’s not such a great mix! We also left all the snacks we had brought in the boys quincee, which left us hungry as well. Looking back on that, I really wish we hadn’t slept on the pavement because by the time the morning came, we were completely frozen, and just wanted to go home. <br /><br /> As I look back on that night, I wish I had done some things differently, such as taking the quincee building more seriously right from the beginning, brought more snacks and definitely more clothes, so I could stay dry. Overall, even though I had some major obstacles to face that night, I ended up having fun. I would definitely do the winter camp again, because this time was a lesson to learn from for the next time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-78102775788336569752012-06-08T13:54:48.927-05:002012-06-08T13:54:48.927-05:00On the day of the wintercamp I was excited but I d...On the day of the wintercamp I was excited but I didnt have pretty much any idea about how it would go, people from the last wintercamp told me about how much great fun they had and how they all hung out all night and had a great time, and had a extremely cold sleep. So other then that, I had no idea. One thing I would right away do differently was I would have brought better gloves. I also probably would have gotten better tools to carve out our quinzhee with. We only had a broken garden tool and a shovel too big to be on the inside. Most of the night was spent working on the actual quinzhee because we were behind due to the snow that was very bad the days before, so we had to spend a bit more time working on our quinzhee but in the end me and graham got it done. It was pretty cozy, but it was cramped at the same time. The food that we ate that night was pretty good, me and graham were supposed to have shrimp but firas cooked it while we were working on the quinzhee and gave it to umar and magan who came over, and left none for us which kind sucked for us. But none the less we still ate good, I brought like two two litres of pop and we drank it all that night, along with 2 jugs of juice so we were stocked on the drinks side, But the drinks were next to our quinzhee while our fire was by Jordans and Travis', because Waqqas and Firas were unable to start a fire near ours, so that was also one of the reasons we were unable to get the shrimp because they were cooking it down at Jordans Later in the night when we were going to bed, we all had trouble getting into the qunizhee so we had to go in one at a time, while we were all tired so we were all laughing like crazy. We spent about half an hour in our quinzhee before we all noticed that water was dripping in, and we noticed that the roof was melting. Thinking that it was going to collapse, we decided that we didn't want to stay there so we moved our stuff outside, but it started to poor rain causing all of our stuff to get wet. After it was all wet, and we had nothing else to sleep in, we decided to leave to firas's house, it was unfortunate as I think we would've had a better time after, but it had to be done because we had nothing left to sleep in. I think that we should have definitely not left because after supposedly our roof was one of the more harder ones to break, but it was a split second decision and we genuinely thought that the roof was going to collapse, so we thought it was the right decision. Overall the night was great other then the rain was fairly bad timing, which I believe helped our decision about going home. The temperatures were amazing until once again the rain caused it to drop quite a bit. But other then that I believe that the winter camp was a really fun experience and I enjoyed it a lot, it is definitely a memory that I will remember.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-55917225965298196922012-04-25T14:54:49.420-05:002012-04-25T14:54:49.420-05:00For my first winter camping adventure the weather ...For my first winter camping adventure the weather was not the best. Once school ended my group and I went straight outside to work on our quinzhee that we were working on three days prior. We were done building it but we needed to start digging out the inside. It took a lot longer than we expected but luckily Mr. Brouwer helped us out. We all worked very hard to dig out our quinzhee but towards the end the snow was too dense and hard. My group and I were just not strong enough to break apart all of the snow. We had to break apart all of the ice blocks that had been previously collapsed by whom ever used the quinzhee last semester. Once our quinzhee had been dug out the sun had set and it was time to make our dinner. My group and I had joined with the group in the quinzhee beside us to make a fire. We gathered up fire wood and all pitched in to help make the fire. Then two of us stayed to help keep the fire going as well as start bringing out all our food from inside and the other two people in our group walked to Metro to get more hot dogs before the store closed. We got a metal outline of a chair and put it over the fire, and then we got a metal girl to put over top of the rim. My group and I organized to have cheese burgers and hot dogs for dinner. We had also brought marshmallows, chips, trail mix, vegetables, granola bars, and fruit loops for the next morning. Once dinner was over we hung around the fire with the group in the quinzhee beside us. We talked, had a good time and roasted marshmallows. After that we had a big game of man hunt involving everyone who slept over that night. To finish off the night, the girls and I went inside the school for our last time to go to the washroom, brush our teeth, and change into our pajamas. We brought out all our night gear, such as tarps, sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets, inside of our quinzhee. The only thing I would change that we had done wrong was putting all of our stuff inside the quinzhee before laying down all of our tarps. It made getting comfortable a little more difficult and more crowded. In the end everything worked out fine and we all fell asleep around twelve. Our quinzhee sustained the cold winter night, and my group and I had a good night’s sleep, all things considered. The next morning it was hard waking up because it was so cold and early but by eight A.M. all of our stuff was packed and back inside the school. Then we eat our breakfast and lastly we went outside and we had collapsed our quinzhee. Despite the cold I had a lot of fun and my first winter camp was definitely a success.Janichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10597973132650532934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-42548934674816974512012-04-12T21:21:51.661-05:002012-04-12T21:21:51.661-05:00I had gone camping many times during the summer bu...I had gone camping many times during the summer but never in a quinzhee or even during the winter. At first I thought it would be a near impossible task due to the lack of snow, but we had a great stroke of luck. We noticed that the ski hill if hallowed out would make a perfect quinzhee but were almost certain the teacher would say no. We were surprised when he told us using the ski hill would be fine, from then on I thought it would be fairly easy. By the second day we already had enough room for four people and we spent the next couple of days gathering firewood, improving our quinzhee and helping others with theirs. We were well prepared to spend the night in our quinzhee, or so I thought.<br /><br />The final night was great we had a large fire which we shared with other group members and used to cook things such as marshmallows, hotdogs and even bacon. We were also comfortable thanks to the benches we had made the day before and all our firewood was dry because of a small tent that was also set up the day before. Everything was going great until the time came to sleep. That’s when I started noticing the flaws in our design. The first one we had all known from the start our door was too long and too narrow making getting in and out slightly difficult. In the days leading up to this the only things we had to bring in and out were shovels so aside from being a minor inconvenience it was no big deal. When we were getting ready to go to sleep however it was a big problem because our sleeping bags and extra cloths were getting covered in snow. The second problem I discovered after I finished getting set up to go to sleep, before then I had never spent more than 10 minutes inside the quinzhee. We had forgotten to put air holes in our quinzhee making it hard to breath after a while but this problem was quickly fixed by one of our group members who made a large air hole using a shovel. The final flaw with our quinzhee was its massive size, it was far too large for our body heat to worm it up properly making it fairly cold.<br /><br />Despite all these problems I enjoyed winter a lot and hope that we do it again sometime. I believe it will be much more enjoyable because I will have learnt from my mistakes.shawn sernoskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13293131711308259905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-20212885574069873572012-04-12T20:58:35.535-05:002012-04-12T20:58:35.535-05:00I have to admit, the week building up to wintercam...I have to admit, the week building up to wintercamp, I was a little bit nervous because of the lack of snow. We tried our best to make a quinzhee that would be big enough to dig out, but by Tuesday we realized that that wasn't going to happen, so we had to change plans. So, we decided to dig out from the top, and use tarps and tree branches as a roof for our shelter. Our group planned to make pasta with meat sauce for dinner, because we had done it on previous trips and really enjoyed it, because it is easy to make. However in our meal planning, we forgot fruits and vegetables, so we could have added something in their to make it a more balanced meal. <br /><br />The night of winter camp was fairly mild, so the snow was melting a little bit, not drastically. We had a small hole in our tarp that was collecting water and dripping into the shelter. Luckily, we realized this before we were in bed, and with a quick change of tarps, any big problems were avoided. Early in the morning, the winds must have become strong, because our tarp was flapping around, and in trying to fix it, we made matters worse and the entire thing fell off. Luckily this was only about an our before we could go back into the school, so we went and joined some others who were awake in a different quinzhee. <br /><br />What I liked most about winter camp this year was the mild temperature and the bonfires. We organized a big game of man hunt, which was fun. Also, everybody is always hungry come dinner time, and we all enjoyed a hot meal. What I would change next time around is I would always check the tarps for tears and holes before using them. We were lucky enough to notice early, but if we hadn't, somebody could have gotten quite wet during the night. Also, I would always plan ahead knowing that there is a possibility of strong winds, so making sure that the roof is strong is key.<br /><br />All in all, I had a great winter camp experience this year. With the proper gear and learning from your mistakes, a night out in the Canadian winter really isn't as daunting as it seems!Arden.Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00665866436708898232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-59979089596567223482012-04-12T14:13:29.052-05:002012-04-12T14:13:29.052-05:00This January, the Outdoor Ed classes took part in ...This January, the Outdoor Ed classes took part in winter camp at our school, Cairine Wilson. My group (Shannon, Michaela, Debora, and Jessie) started out our shelter building with the construction of a quinzhee. Unfortunately, the day of the event we realized we wouldn’t have enough snow or time to finish our original design. So with a little guidance from Mr.Brouwer we decided to build a lean-to, which made better use of the snow we had already collected. It made our work significantly more efficient to build the open-sided shelter. It turns out we had just the right amount of snow. <br /> By the time it got dark, around 5:30, we finished up building our lean-to. It was very spacious, and enough room for each of us to sleep. After working long and hard on our shelter, we went inside and collected our stuff to make dinner. We had vegetable/chicken soup, homemade mini pizzas, vegetables and apples. The warm soup was, satisfying and warmed our cold hands. For most of the night I sat around the fire, as it was raining and didn't want to get soaked more than I was. At 10:00 we went inside and got change into pajamas and got ready for bed. We brought out our sleeping bags and once inside our lean-to, talked for a couple hours. By the time I was falling asleep, my sleeping bag had already been affected by the wet weather. I could feel my feet getting wet from the steady stream of water pouring through our not so waterproof tarp. <br /> In the morning I woke up freezing cold after a pretty uncomfortable sleep. My entire sleeping bag was drenched because of the rain we had throughout the night. I woke up at about 6:30, so I had to wait in my sleeping bag for a while before I could go inside. We pulled out the tarp with everything on it out, and we dragged all of our belongings back into the school. It was very cold outside and we were all pretty cold at this point. Once we got inside, we organized our stuff and helped to clean up. I had a great time at winter camp, and I enjoyed the experience, that I was lucky enough to share with great friends. Next year I will make sure to be more prepared for any type of weather. Bearing through the damp and cold night was not a very nice experience, but the lessons I learned and the fun I had made up for it. Once again, I cant wait for next year!Arianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17487662121800929321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-85461682665440537292012-04-09T17:43:17.181-05:002012-04-09T17:43:17.181-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Stevenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03783460002374109992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-3205993783932943702012-04-09T17:41:57.140-05:002012-04-09T17:41:57.140-05:00The Wintercamp this semester provided some challen...The Wintercamp this semester provided some challenges, and difficult tasks, but it turned out to be a great time. The major difficulty I found was trying to keep dry, and more importantly, warm. The Quinzhee itself was fine, actually, pretty well built if you ask me. Incorporating a lean to and igloo into the quinzhee allowed easy build and take down. One downfall to the design would be the amount of cold air allowed to make its way through the tarp, branches, and snow. The amount of rain that fell encouraged dampness to the air, which soaked everything, which froze in the morning, providing an awful wakeup call in the sleeping bags. The Kraft Dinner was good but dinner was better the second time around. I didn’t eat much; snacks weren’t exactly the healthiest choice but definitely provided a distraction to issues in and out of the quinzhee. Preparedness was lacking, not only in the clothes we brought but in the quinzhees themselves, leaks and heat were an issue in the quinzhee, also trying to figure out where other quinzhee members would spend the night. By the end of the night our quinzhee was full with about 9 members sleeping with us.<br /> Some things I learned not to do would be don’t forget to cover the exit with bags and do not be the one to sleep there because it gets cold pretty quick We didn’t have enough candles to last throughout the night but with nine people in a quinzhee it wouldn’t have made a difference I think. Snacks included a delicious chocolate log cake that was passed around many times. Not enough fire wood to last the night, although it looked like enough it was used very quickly. <br />The games were a blast and the chatting and work was worth every raindrop. There wasn’t much complaining but people had their doubts whether it was going to be a repeat of last year’s wintercamp. All in all it is a definite do again the people were great and cheerful the weather left something to be desired and the food topped it all off. What a great night!Stevenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03783460002374109992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-2670122970828337182012-04-02T20:28:00.608-05:002012-04-02T20:28:00.608-05:00Continued from last post
Digging out the quinzhee...Continued from last post<br /><br />Digging out the quinzhee is what I was looking forward too; I thought it’d be the easy part but it still required a lot of effort. For one, starting off is the hardest ‘cause it’s really awkward to dig out the snow. You’re sort of half in the quinzhee and half outside the quinzhee, it’s like you’re constantly battle to try and maybe fit your whole body in next time you empty the snow. By the time I was able to fit my entire body in the little shelter KJ and I dug, it was probably 6:00 pm and Will still wasn’t back. A half hour of digging and most of the awkward positioning required to dig was no longer necessary, you could almost fit in sitting up, this was perfect timing because Will had just returned. I asked Will how far he thought we’d be by the time he came back and he said that this was pretty much it. Will and I squeezed ourselves in to dig out the rest while KJ made sure we didn’t block ourselves in with snow, it finally got done with enough space for all three of us to lie down in and it felt like home.<br />Finally when it came time to sleep in the quinzhee I wanted nothing to do with it. I was proud enough of our quinzhee to feel I had accomplished something without needing to actually sleep in it, it was the end of the day and I just wanted to sleep in an actual bed. I followed through and slept in the quinzhee despite no need for any extra pride. It was really warm in the quinzhee while we were working on it (literally to the point where I took my winter coat off) so when I went to ‘bed’ I slept in my underwear. I had actually brought a mat, and so had KJ, but Will hadn’t. He came up with the genius plan to share the two mats amongst the three of us leaving me split between them. Apparently there were spare mats for people, but there were none left. By the morning I didn’t even have a mat. Having no mat and sleeping practically naked made for a cold, miserable and wet night. <br /><br />Overall it was a great experience; I’d love to do it again. Next time I’m going sleep in long johns.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-44346986284599323012012-04-02T20:27:31.649-05:002012-04-02T20:27:31.649-05:00Wintercamp Reflection
Day one; right off the bat,...Wintercamp Reflection<br /> Day one; right off the bat, KJ, Will and I choose the spot for building our quinzhee. Out of all the places to build we choose the middle of the field where we have to dig for snow rather than near the edge of the forest where we can literally get shovelfuls anytime we want. After about 20 minutes of useless digging I suggested we move our quinzhee near the forest for better wind protection and for the ability to get more snow but Will didn’t want to have our 20 minutes wasted and thought we’d be blocking a pathway to something, I really don’t know why he thought that, especially since there was no pathway we could’ve possibly blocked by building our quinzhee closer to the forest. In the end we didn’t budge and kept digging for snow. <br />Even though our quinzhee building site was kind of in the middle of the field, there were still the sad remains of a previous quinzhee. What we should’ve done was build right on top this warning sign and cut what would have probably been about a day’s worth of work; instead we built right next to it and dug away the ruins of all previous civilization. We didn’t completely dig away the rest of the old quinzhee though (due to tiredness and a better source of snow) so we had a nice ‘snow bench’ to place equipment, food and clothing. Our plan for the bench was to turn into a fire pit but it was facing the quinzhee and would’ve melted it.<br /><br /> The second day was just digging and piling, it was the least amount of thinking I’ve done throughout the course of this building project; it was also the day I decided to wear warmer mittens.<br />The third day was a mad rush to get everything finished. KJ, Will and I were getting creative with where we got our snow; instead of digging for it we found a nice area in the forest where the snow was soft and easy to get chunks, the only problem was that it wasn’t the closest thing to our quinzhee. We did eventually find a nice reserve for snow near our quinzhee (which was ironically right where I had originally suggested we build our quinzhee two days earlier). It also finally snowed which made gathering even easier. This was the first day our pile of snow seemed like home to us.<br /><br /> Will was worried we wouldn’t have enough time to dig it out and insisted we start early but we didn’t have enough snow piled to dig it out so we just kept piling. Once school was over it was just KJ and I working on our shelter, Will had a basketball game to play and wasn’t going to be back ‘till six (he ended up getting back at six thirty). We made a lot of progress in the time Will was gone mostly ‘cause Andrew had come over to help pile snow. He was working on it for a good half hour to forty-five minutes, without him our quinzhee would not have gotten done. As KJ and juggled piling snow on the back of the quinzhee, digging it out at the front and occasionally gathering the odd amount of twigs for a dinky fire Andrew was there piling snow like mad, we thanked him with some Doritos that KJ’s mom had dropped off but he said he didn’t want any ‘reward’ so I ate them.<br /><br />Continues on next postAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-67028299024207953672012-04-02T13:17:39.643-05:002012-04-02T13:17:39.643-05:00After the trip being cancelled the year before, I ...After the trip being cancelled the year before, I was super excited to get started on my quinzhee this year. Even though the sleeping part of this trip sucked, it was overall a really fun night.<br /><br />We had a total of 4 days to complete our quinzhee. On the first day, two people were absent and the third person in our group decided to help out another group instead of starting on ours. A little annoying but understandable. The second day proved as a challenge as most of the better spots were taken and our group had to start from scratch. We decided to take an old quinzhee and move it a little to the side in order to mix old and new snow together. Unfourtunatly, there was no "new" snow. We left that day very dishearted about the quality of our quinzhee.<br /><br />The third day a friend of mine mentioned that there was a half finished quinzhee near his that no one was using. My group jumped at the chance and started to build on that one. One of the members didn't show up until half way through the class but I stayed at lunch and after school to finish building so it was all ready for the next day.<br /><br />Now I should mention that I love digging out. However this year was torture. I was soon soaked through and had to change. I was planning on having to change, however not as much as I should have and I soon ran out of clothes. My group found out that one of the members wasn't sleeping over so it only had to be big enough for two people. This ended up being a good thing because we barely had room for us two in the end. This day I was extreamly thankful of the group next to us. Not only did they point this quinzhee out, they helped build it at lunch and after school and then helped dig out. They also collected a lot of fire wood and shared ther fire with us. With out them I do not think Katherine and I would have had any fun that night. It would have just been us attempting to dig out in time to go to sleep.<br /><br />Since the boys did so much for us, I graciously shared my food with them and our supper became more of a potluck. I also found out that one of the boys did not have a sleeping mat and there were no more in the class. I broke the rules a little and contacted my mom so that she can bring my mat over for him. (I had forgotten it that morning.) She also brought a messed up deck of cards that we played with for the rest of the night.When Katherine and I went to bed, we realised just how bad that night was going to be. We had a tarp and a comforter under our sleeping bags and the comforter was already damp. My feet were touching the wall and the ceiling was dripping. I took out another comforter and placed it on top of the sleeping bag to absorb some of the water. I was not prepared for the intense claustrophobic feeling at all and that took a lot of the adventure out of sleeping outside, I was constintly making sure my phone was next to me in case the roof collapsed. The second factor that ruined my sleep was the cold. I was sick all week with a really bad cold, in fact I was missing the first day because some believed I had pneomonia. So being wet and cold didn't really make me feel the greatest. I thankfully was wearing lots of layers so all in all the moisture never got to my skin but you could feel it in the air which drove me crazy.<br /><br />The worst possible wake up call is getting a pile of snow in your face. No, my quinzhee did not break, the boys wanted to wake us up since we were one of the last groups to leave. How did they wake us up? By hitting the top of the quinzhee with a stick. They are genuises. We climbed out and I called my mom to pick me up. The rest of the morning was spent trying to warm up and dry off.<br /><br />The day of wintercamp, I cursed the day I was ever excited for this. Thinking back on it I realised through the pain, the wet, and the cold. It was really fun and something I would definitely do it year after year. With more clothes and when it isn't raining. ;)Gesykahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05607188549482592791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-278012451284424642012-03-28T13:28:41.080-05:002012-03-28T13:28:41.080-05:00Winter camp reflection
The day Mr. Brouwer told u...Winter camp reflection<br /> The day Mr. Brouwer told us about the winter camp I was sort of in shock, and a little bit in denial that we were actually going to be sleeping outside in the middle of winter! Even though it’s not my usual thing to do, I decided to give it a try. You only live once, may as well try as much as you can. We had all the tools we needed to build the quincee, but once it actually came time to start piling the snow, I realized that it was going to be harder than I thought.<br /><br /> The first day of building my group and I had all brought a shovel to use and we thought we had all the tools necessary, but we soon realized that three small shovels were not going to make a pile of snow very quickly. Luckily we found a big shovel we could borrow from one of the other groups. That was a good idea, but after about 3 times pushing the shovel up a snow pile, I felt like I was going to die. Not only was the snow very wet, but there were also chunks of ice in it, which made it even harder to shovel. Even though we only had four days to build the quince, my group and I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be. We all sort of thought that we had more time than we actually did, which left us having problems later that night. The day that we were supposed to be sleeping outside, we spent over 3 hours working on our quincee! After an hour, we started to dig out the middle of it, but then got the devastating news from Mr. Brouwer that it wasn’t tall enough, and we had to keep piling the snow on top before we can dig it out.<br /><br /> After we spent some time working on our quincee we decided to take a break from building because we were all hungry. We went to start making dinner, but realized our group had not communicated, and there were two different meals planned for the night. I was a little bit confused, but I decided that I was going to eat the hotdogs that Tonisha had brought. I definitely think that we should have planned a little bit better because we sort of forgot about the food, and it was very poor last minute planning. After we took the time to eat, we went back to working on the quincee, because it still was not dug out. I was very nervous as to what would happen the rest of the night.<br /><br /> I started to get really worried that we wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep because we were still working on our quincee well into the night. After about 8:00pm we decided that our quincee was not going to be done for the night, and decided to go to option B: find someone else’s quincee to sleep in. Hannah had already had an offer from another group, but that still left Tonisha and I with nowhere to sleep. Travis and his group were nice enough to offer for us to stay with them, but after about an hour, I was getting really uncomfortable because they had no room to move in their quincee. At 2:00am, Tonisha and I decided that we could sleep in there, and tried to find somewhere else to sleep. Everyone else was already asleep, so we decided to sleep outside on the pavement. During the night all my stuff had gotten wet, and I didn’t plan for that, so I was forced to sleep in wet clothing, in the cold. That’s not such a great mix! We also left all the snacks we had brought in the boys quincee, which left us hungry as well. Looking back on that, I really wish we hadn’t slept on the pavement because by the time the morning came, we were completely frozen, and just wanted to go home. <br /><br /> As I look back on that night, I wish I had done some things differently, such as taking the quincee building more seriously right from the beginning, brought more snacks and definitely more clothes, so I could stay dry. Overall, even though I had some major obstacles to face that night, I ended up having fun. I would definitely do the winter camp again, because this time was a lesson to learn from for the next time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-27254088647748214402012-03-25T13:13:16.353-05:002012-03-25T13:13:16.353-05:00The rest of the evening was such a blast. Once din...The rest of the evening was such a blast. Once dinner and dishes were out of the way, spending time by the campfire and trying to play a game of man hunt in the rain was how we spent the rest of our evening. It was also lots of fun getting to spend the evening with friends from outside of the class, who came to visit for an hour or two. <br />Around 10:30 was our last chance to go inside, get warm, get changed and prepare ourselves for a long night outside. I listened to Mr. Brouwers clothing choice advice and was very happy I had. I decided to wear long johns, wool socks, long john shirt and a wool sweater. He advised us to not wear too many layers because to receive warmth from the sleeping bag, you must give some. I stayed pretty warm during the evening aside from a few times when my sleeping bag opened up. I know that many others were very cold, most likely due to all of their layers. <br />The quinzhee we had made was finished and ready to sleep in once we were done our last pit stop in the school. We set up our mats and sleeping bags and quickly discovered that the five of us were going to have a rough night sleeping in a three man quinzhee. We decided that we would be fine if we slept closely. Once all of our sleeping bags, mats, pillows and candles were set up, we headed off to the fire to spend a bit more time with the other groups before heading to bed. <br />When we returned to our quinzhee from the campfire, we found that we had an extra person in our quinzhee taking up all of the room. We knew that five girls in a three man quinzhee was a lot but six was just not going to work. A few of us made the decision to go and hang out in the grade 11 boys quinzhee and ending up spending the rest of the night there. Their quinzhee was much bigger than ours and had enough room to hold the extra people who came and joined in. <br />Sleep was not something I got very much of that evening, tough bonding with my classmates and those in grade 11 was something did get a lot of. Many of the sleeping bags and pillows from our quinzhee were very wet since they were lying on the snow and not on the mats. In the quinzhee we slept in, we ended up sharing a lot of the sleeping bags and pillows since we learned that wet sleeping bags are not useful in any way. <br />After getting 2 hours of sleep, we woke up to a nice sunny and wet morning. Packing up in the wet wasn’t exactly the best but the rain had passed so all that was left were puddles. I cleaned up my equipment and brought things in from my group’s quinzhee. I helped put away some of the dishes in the morning and then went home to a nice warm shower and a long sleep in my bed. On Monday I realised after hearing from Mr. Brouwer, there was a lot more clean up I could have taken part in. I will remember for next time or on the future trips coming up to stay until absolutely everything is clean. <br />Winter camp was such a blast and my classmates and I are still talking about it to this day! I not only had a great time and took away many great memories but I also learned many things from the night as well. If I were to do winter camp again I would make certain changes. First off, I would make sure we worked on the quinzhee every moment we could, that includes during lunches, class time, and even after school if we needed too. I would make the quinzhee much larger in width and in height. It was definitely not large enough for five people. Thirdly, I would not bring as much food; there was lots of Kraft dinner, chips, and other food items that went to waste that night. I would make sure to not get my sleeping bag wet and stay as dry as possible throughout the evening. Lastly, I would have helped a lot more in the cleanup of the camp, like many of the other grade 11’s had. Other than those few things, the night was awesome and I can’t wait for another similar experience throughout the semester!Meghan Brysonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04575404681845223027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-6078954007004817162012-03-25T13:12:20.176-05:002012-03-25T13:12:20.176-05:00Winter camp was such a great experience! It was a ...Winter camp was such a great experience! It was a night full of yummy food, warm campfires, bonding, and lots of rainy weather. Overall it was such a great evening and we took away many unforgettable memories. <br /><br />Before we started building our quinzhee’s, we knew that we were going to have it a lot easier then the first semester classes for a few reasons. First off, we got to use the leftover snow from their quinzhees, which probably eliminated 2 or 3 days of piling snow. Secondly, we got to learn from the mistakes they made while building their quinzhees and got many tips to having a good night. <br /><br />We thought that since half the work was already done for us we would have our quinzhee ready before the day of winter camp for sure. We learned very quickly that pilling snow is a lot more time consuming then it looks, especially when you do not have much snow to work with. Due to the bad weather, there was a lack of snow to use for our quinzhee. We started coming up with the system of pilling snow from other areas into a garbage can and using it on our quinzhee to work faster. We finished building up our quinzhee Wednesday at the end of the period after 3 long days of work. <br /><br />Friday, the day of winter was our first day digging out our quinzhee. We knew that we were really behind so we decided to come in at lunch and work on it for as long as we could. We took turns digging it out since not all of us could help at the same time. We surprisingly got it done a lot faster than we had expected earlier that day. Our quinzhee was done by around 5:00 on Thursday, just in time for the fun to start! The most important thing I learned from building the quinzhee was to bring a lot bigger shovels and to work a lot harder and faster throughout the whole week!<br /><br />After finishing our quinzhee Thursday evening we changed out of our wet clothes and prepared for the damp night ahead of us. By the time we came outside it was time to start our dinner. We made a deal with the boys group that if they maintained the fire for the evening, we would make their dinner. We decided to have the same meal for dinner so that we would only have to cook one large meal instead of doing two separate ones. Nine boxes of Kraft dinner was definitely a challenge to cook, especially when missing a strainer. We came up with the idea to use a plate to strain as much of the water out as we could. It was a very difficult process but in the end it wasn’t too bad. Our meal for the evening was not too nutritious aside from the strawberries for desert but I must say it was really yummy!Meghan Brysonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04575404681845223027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-48033675695950353692012-03-22T09:37:06.628-05:002012-03-22T09:37:06.628-05:00Last year's winter camp didn't go so well ...Last year's winter camp didn't go so well in the second semester, as we had rain, so we didn't have the chance to sleep in the quinzhees last year. Naturally, I would be excited to sleep outside in the snow, especially when I usually sleep with the window open anyway. I also thought it would be easy.<br /><br />Things were quite the contrary, and very little was easy. Yes, I was in the group that got the already built pile of snow, but we figured if we had so much time, let's go get firewood for people who won't have fires and ourselves. I would stay behind after school and work on friend's and others quinzhees to help them along. <br /><br />I personally love digging the quinzhee out, but I ran into a few problems while I was digging. It was after school and No one was really paying attention to me, so I dug, and dug, and dug and dug. Then I went to leave and I noticed I had filled the entrance up with large boulders of snow. I ended up getting some help getting out, but it was then I realized we should put some more air holes in the side of the quinzhee.<br /><br />Another problem was getting the sleeping platform to be even and high enough with a cold sink. We had dug out the quinzhee with a slight incline, so that was evened out and freed up a lot of space for us to maneuver inside.<br /><br />Surprisingly though, we didn't have as much room as we thought we were going to have. I could not sit up in the middle of the quinzhee without hunching over. Turns out our walls were over two feet thick, so we could have dug out a lot more, but in hindsight, it was better to leave the walls thick.<br /><br />Now, it turns out our entrance was way to big, and we had more of a ramp rather than a true cold sink, and our ramp was very long. This made our quinzhee very cold (or at least me very cold) during the night. I had volunteered to sleep sideways in front of the quinzhee because I thought I was more accustomed to cold air than the others were, so I would be moderately comfortable and not make anyone else suffer. We didn't have a bag large enough to cover the entrance completely so the cold blasts of air would hit me. <br /><br />At around one in the morning I started dozing on and off for the next four hours, from being cold to being uncomfortable to trying to breathe. I thought I had put more air holes in the quinzhee. <br /><br />I did sleep, but it wasn't very good sleep. I am unfortunately the kind of person that can't go to sleep or stay asleep when the sun was up so the next night in my own bed was long and restful.<br /><br />In the end though, it was fun and I would do it again. Like Mr. Brouwer I enjoy situations that are difficult to get through. I see it as something challenging my character and I always look to win. If I ever made another quinzhee, I would make the entrance much smaller, the cold sink larger and sharper and more air holes. I think that while I was uncomfortable, I was enjoying myself. I hope everyone else did as well.Andeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13559956600861581503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-85284196177236034382012-03-18T22:34:52.253-05:002012-03-18T22:34:52.253-05:00My second time doing wintercamp was very different...My second time doing wintercamp was very different from last year's, but turned out to be just as fun. It was a lot warmer... But also a lot wetter. Our group had some struggles when it came to building our shelter and when it came to sleeping, but overall I'd say that I had a great night. <br /> Leading up to the wintercamp, my group had planned and started to build a Quinzhee. But on the day of the camp, we realized that our little pile of snow was never going to fit te five of us. So we demolished our mound, and built a lean-too shelter. My group worked quickly throughout the day, and I believe that we managed a pretty great shelter in just a few hours. I only wish that we had planned the lean-too shelter ahead of time, so then we could have made an even stronger (and more waterproof) shelter. <br /> Although it did start to rain by the evening, we were still able to build a fire and have a deliciously hot dinner. After dinner, I hung out mostly outside. I had tons of fun, but I ended up getting completely soaked. When I finally went to bed, I realized that the tarp we used to cover our shelter was definitely not waterproof, and had a couple of major leaks. It made for a pretty uncomfortable sleep, that I really wish we had better prepared for. <br /> All in all, it was a fun night. I learned that it's always important to come prepared for all kinds of weather, and to plan ahead. Wintercamp this year was a great experience.Jspicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13363110499304670666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-1630492380979396492012-03-17T11:26:34.593-05:002012-03-17T11:26:34.593-05:00This was my second time being able to experience w...This was my second time being able to experience winter camping with our schools Outdoor Ed program. Unfortunately for this time we weren’t blessed with the type of weather in previous years, we still managed to have a good time but with a little but more of a struggle.<br /> <br />I was in a group of seven girls for the building process and only five stayed the night. We began by making a pile of snow, which was going to be our Quinzhee, but on the final day of building we were notified that we had not collected enough snow for our Quinzhee to be big enough. This was only one of the minor speed bumps to what felt like the longest night of my life. One thing that I would have changed to make sure we could have built a better shelter was for myself to put a little more work effort into building up the pile and spent more then just class time building our pile. <br /><br />So instead of making a Quinzhee we built a lean tent, which would have been more successful if the weather cooperated with us and did not rain. With the amount of rain we had the tarp we used became completely useless and non water-resistant. The weather in the morning did clear up so we were not being drenched the whole night.<br /><br />We know for next year if we want to make a better Quinzhee to start building earlier and maybe pay more attention to detail. We needed bring more of our owntools so we can always have it so we don’t have to use others and that way we could focus on our own shelter. <br /><br />We did end up having a dinner that exceeded my expectations, we had a mixture of two soups which warmed me up immensely. We had multiple healthy snacks like apples and dried apple chips that gave us energy to maintain our fire and keep active in conversation. <br /><br />Even though we experienced multiple difficulties through out the night we still managed to have a warm and healthy meal and managed to keep our fire strong enough to withstand the rain. We also managed to keep ourselves entertained and enjoyed each other’s company, an over all fun night.Shannon Vezinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01154944561257616769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-57242004044507420482012-03-16T15:36:44.314-05:002012-03-16T15:36:44.314-05:00About one month ago I was able to stay overnight i...About one month ago I was able to stay overnight in an igloo like structure called a quinzhee. For the whole first semester I had to listen to the first semester class tell me about their quinzhee and hear about how they were building them. They even let me go into one to see what it was like inside, and from their stories it seemed like it took awhile to build them. And when we were told that we only had one week to build them I didn’t know what to do. A lot of groups were stuck building the finishing touches on their quinzhee unless you were in my group and still had to finish digging it out. Since we didn’t finish a day before they snow didn’t have a chance to harden and it was raining out so that didn’t really help out the situation. <br /><br />That whole week you told us that we needed to bring clothes to keep us dry and warm. So I packed to meet those requirements but since we weren’t done building my dry clothes got wet and it just made the night even worse. My group also waited to long to get fire wood so all the wood that we got was wet so we had a very bad fire and we ended up sharing a fire with another group. But that group started their fire early and our fire didn’t last very long because the rain started again and put out our fire. So at that point we had wet clothes but we didn’t want to go into our quinzhee so we had to sit in wet clothes and we had no fire to keep us warm. We would look around and see that one group had a huge fire going and we wished that we had a fire like that to keep us warm. When we decided to go into our quinzhee we went and changed into our last pair of dry clothes. Since it was raining outside the snow was wet and the water was leaking through the quinzhee. So when we went to get in the quinzhee our clothes would get wet which made us cold once again. And then with the fact of having four guys in a quinzhee breathing it made it seem like the quinzhee was melting because the water was non stop dripping on us. So by about 10:30 my group decided not to risk it and go home.<br /><br />What I would have done differently would have finished building the quinzhee before they day of, because that would have kept most of my dry clothes dry and would have gave us more time to do things like find wood and help out other groups that were struggling. I would have also made the inside of our quinzhee bigger because we had four people in our group and our quinzhee only fit about three people so fitting in that extra person was very uncomfortable for the time that we were in there. Also I think that we should have put a tarp on top of our quinzhee to stop the water from dripping on us which would have made it a much dryer night for all of us and we would have been able to spend the whole night. <br /><br />What I enjoyed doing was being with all of my friends and being able to stay with them for the night, it was a fun filled day even though the weather wasn’t on our side we made it as fun as possible. I also enjoyed cooking our food on an open fire, it was something that I haven’t done before so it was a pretty cool thing. It’s a lot different then cooking in the oven. <br /><br />In the end I wish that I would have stayed the whole night. I would do it again as long as it was much colder outside and it wasn’t raining so it wasn’t wet outside and inside the quinzhee. But overall it was a fun night.Graham McArthurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02652035640621107501noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-73592507666371703792012-03-09T09:40:14.229-05:002012-03-09T09:40:14.229-05:00Winter camp reflection
I had done winter camp ...Winter camp reflection<br /><br /> <br /><br />I had done winter camp the previous year, so I had a good idea of what to expect. My <br /><br />group got lucky by digging out an existing snow bank, instead of making one for our quinzhee, this gave us a lot of free time to work on side projects like gathering wood, helping other groups, making stairs and benches. This was a much more enjoyable experience than spending hours shovelling snow.<br /><br /> <br /><br />When Friday finally came, my whole group was excited to get out there and we set about <br /><br />finishing our quinzhee. Once Mr. Brouwer said that the fire permit was active we forgot about our quinzhee and started working on our bonfire, which was huge <br /><br />because of all the free time we had to gather wood, even with the wood we gave away. We made a tent out of a wooden frame covered with a tarp to keep our wood dry, it did a great job of blocking the wind to. This large fire brought different groups around to cook on it and resulted in the funniest experience of the night. Kyle had decided he wanted to cook a steak on our fire, so he took his pan and just threw it into the middle of our fire and for some reason he left. By the time he came back his pan had turned a bright red, and he realized that he had no way to take his pan out of the fire. While we were all laughing at him, he decided to simply kick his frying pan, so it went spinning through the air in a ball of flames. Once it was done steaming, he picked his steak off of the ground to find one side burnt black and the other side raw, so he simply threw it into the woods. His next attempt at cooking was just as unsuccessful. Kyle tried wrapping bacon three layers deep in tinfoil before throwing it on the grill we had placed there. After about five minutes he checked it to find that it hadn’t cooked at all so once again his supper ended up on the ground. This time though it was covered in tinfoil so we all grabbed some of his bacon and stuck it on a stick to cook.<br /><br /> <br /><br />After we were done cooking on our fire, we had the bright idea to see how big a fire we <br /><br />could make. By the time Mr. Brouwer came around to tell us our fire was too big, we had <br /><br />stacked the wood to chest height. It was a good thing he came when he did because we were just about to throw the benches we had made on as well. We were all having a good time, but when the fire died down we headed back to our quinzhee to play cards. When we woke up in the morning I was the only one who didn’t wake up wet. <br /><br /> <br /><br />By the next morning my group had learned a few important lessons for the next time. It is important to remember to put air holes before you go to sleep and to properly plug your tunnel or you will wake up freezing. Finally, the last thing that we learned was that there is no point in getting up until the school is open, unless you like standing around outside in the cold morning air.Bigfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02264952078915959200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-29467436906218499432012-03-09T09:38:33.489-05:002012-03-09T09:38:33.489-05:00Winter camp reflection
I had done winter camp ...Winter camp reflection<br /><br /> <br /><br />I had done winter camp the previous year, so I had a good idea of what to expect. My <br /><br />group got lucky by digging out an existing snow bank, instead of making one for our quinzhee, this gave us a lot of free time to work on side projects like gathering wood, helping other groups, making stairs and benches. This was a much more enjoyable experience than spending hours shovelling snow.<br /><br /> <br /><br />When Friday finally came, my whole group was excited to get out there and we set about <br /><br />finishing our quinzhee. Once Mr. Brouwer said that the fire permit was active we forgot about our quinzhee and started working on our bonfire, which was huge <br /><br />because of all the free time we had to gather wood, even with the wood we gave away. We made a tent out of a wooden frame covered with a tarp to keep our wood dry, it did a great job of blocking the wind to. This large fire brought different groups around to cook on it and resulted in the funniest experience of the night. Kyle had decided he wanted to cook a steak on our fire, so he took his pan and just threw it into the middle of our fire and for some reason he left. By the time he came back his pan had turned a bright red, and he realized that he had no way to take his pan out of the fire. While we were all laughing at him, he decided to simply kick his frying pan, so it went spinning through the air in a ball of flames. Once it was done steaming, he picked his steak off of the ground to find one side burnt black and the other side raw, so he simply threw it into the woods. His next attempt at cooking was just as unsuccessful. Kyle tried wrapping bacon three layers deep in tinfoil before throwing it on the grill we had placed there. After about five minutes he checked it to find that it hadn’t cooked at all so once again his supper ended up on the ground. This time though it was covered in tinfoil so we all grabbed some of his bacon and stuck it on a stick to cook.<br /><br /> <br /><br />After we were done cooking on our fire, we had the bright idea to see how big a fire we <br /><br />could make. By the time Mr. Brouwer came around to tell us our fire was too big, we had <br /><br />stacked the wood to chest height. It was a good thing he came when he did because we were just about to throw the benches we had made on as well. We were all having a good time, but when the fire died down we headed back to our quinzhee to play cards. When we woke up in the morning I was the only one who didn’t wake up wet. <br /><br /> <br /><br />By the next morning my group had learned a few important lessons for the next time. It is important to remember to put air holes before you go to sleep and to properly plug your tunnel or you will wake up freezing. Finally, the last thing that we learned was that there is no point in getting up until the school is open, unless you like standing around outside in the cold morning air.Bigfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02264952078915959200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-61226219867890336372012-03-09T09:36:12.342-05:002012-03-09T09:36:12.342-05:00Winter camp reflection
I had done winter camp ...Winter camp reflection<br /><br /> <br /><br />I had done winter camp the previous year, so I had a good idea of what to expect. My <br /><br />group got lucky by digging out an existing snow bank, instead of making one for our quinzhee, this gave us a lot of free time to work on side projects like gathering wood, helping other groups, making stairs and benches. This was a much more enjoyable experience than spending hours shovelling snow.<br /><br /> <br /><br />When Friday finally came, my whole group was excited to get out there and we set about <br /><br />finishing our quinzhee. Once Mr. Brouwer said that the fire permit was active we forgot about our quinzhee and started working on our bonfire, which was huge <br /><br />because of all the free time we had to gather wood, even with the wood we gave away. We made a tent out of a wooden frame covered with a tarp to keep our wood dry, it did a great job of blocking the wind to. This large fire brought different groups around to cook on it and resulted in the funniest experience of the night. Kyle had decided he wanted to cook a steak on our fire, so he took his pan and just threw it into the middle of our fire and for some reason he left. By the time he came back his pan had turned a bright red, and he realized that he had no way to take his pan out of the fire. While we were all laughing at him, he decided to simply kick his frying pan, so it went spinning through the air in a ball of flames. Once it was done steaming, he picked his steak off of the ground to find one side burnt black and the other side raw, so he simply threw it into the woods. His next attempt at cooking was just as unsuccessful. Kyle tried wrapping bacon three layers deep in tinfoil before throwing it on the grill we had placed there. After about five minutes he checked it to find that it hadn’t cooked at all so once again his supper ended up on the ground. This time though it was covered in tinfoil so we all grabbed some of his bacon and stuck it on a stick to cook.<br /><br /> <br /><br />After we were done cooking on our fire, we had the bright idea to see how big a fire we <br /><br />could make. By the time Mr. Brouwer came around to tell us our fire was too big, we had <br /><br />stacked the wood to chest height. It was a good thing he came when he did because we were just about to throw the benches we had made on as well. We were all having a good time, but when the fire died down we headed back to our quinzhee to play cards. When we woke up in the morning I was the only one who didn’t wake up wet. <br /><br /> <br /><br />By the next morning my group had learned a few important lessons for the next time. It is important to remember to put air holes before you go to sleep and to properly plug your tunnel or you will wake up freezing. Finally, the last thing that we learned was that there is no point in getting up until the school is open, unless you like standing around outside in the cold morning air.Bigfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02264952078915959200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-62329942497427932652012-03-09T09:34:15.019-05:002012-03-09T09:34:15.019-05:00Winter camp reflection
I had done winter camp ...Winter camp reflection<br /><br /> <br /><br />I had done winter camp the previous year, so I had a good idea of what to expect. My <br /><br />group got lucky by digging out an existing snow bank, instead of making one for our quinzhee, this gave us a lot of free time to work on side projects like gathering wood, helping other groups, making stairs and benches. This was a much more enjoyable experience than spending hours shovelling snow.<br /><br /> <br /><br />When Friday finally came, my whole group was excited to get out there and we set about <br /><br />finishing our quinzhee. Once Mr. Brouwer said that the fire permit was active we forgot about our quinzhee and started working on our bonfire, which was huge <br /><br />because of all the free time we had to gather wood, even with the wood we gave away. We made a tent out of a wooden frame covered with a tarp to keep our wood dry, it did a great job of blocking the wind to. This large fire brought different groups around to cook on it and resulted in the funniest experience of the night. Kyle had decided he wanted to cook a steak on our fire, so he took his pan and just threw it into the middle of our fire and for some reason he left. By the time he came back his pan had turned a bright red, and he realized that he had no way to take his pan out of the fire. While we were all laughing at him, he decided to simply kick his frying pan, so it went spinning through the air in a ball of flames. Once it was done steaming, he picked his steak off of the ground to find one side burnt black and the other side raw, so he simply threw it into the woods. His next attempt at cooking was just as unsuccessful. Kyle tried wrapping bacon three layers deep in tinfoil before throwing it on the grill we had placed there. After about five minutes he checked it to find that it hadn’t cooked at all so once again his supper ended up on the ground. This time though it was covered in tinfoil so we all grabbed some of his bacon and stuck it on a stick to cook.<br /><br /> <br /><br />After we were done cooking on our fire, we had the bright idea to see how big a fire we <br /><br />could make. By the time Mr. Brouwer came around to tell us our fire was too big, we had <br /><br />stacked the wood to chest height. It was a good thing he came when he did because we were just about to throw the benches we had made on as well. We were all having a good time, but when the fire died down we headed back to our quinzhee to play cards. When we woke up in the morning I was the only one who didn’t wake up wet. <br /><br /> <br /><br />By the next morning my group had learned a few important lessons for the next time. It is important to remember to put air holes before you go to sleep and to properly plug your tunnel or you will wake up freezing. Finally, the last thing that we learned was that there is no point in getting up until the school is open, unless you like standing around outside in the cold morning air.Bigfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02264952078915959200noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-75691535909849845622012-03-08T15:11:07.348-05:002012-03-08T15:11:07.348-05:00Winter camp sounded great to me, and I was really ...Winter camp sounded great to me, and I was really excited. I still think it was a really fun night, except now I also know about the sheer coldness that comes with 4am winds. Everything lived up to expectation but it was the unexpected that ended up getting you by morning.<br /> <br /><br />We finished piling snow on our Quinzhee and started to dig out the day of winter camp. Looking back, if we'd had had more time we probably could have started to dig out a day or two before the actual camp and would have realized that it was a bit too small for five people, and have been able to do something about it, like making it bigger or opting for a lean-to type thing instead. <br /> <br /><br />I think I was well prepared for all the melting snow. We went in through out the night and changed to dry clothes and dried our wet clothes, what I was not prepared for was our Quinzhee melting on my sleeping bag, making a -40 useless in -6 weather. If there was a water proof layer you could get for a sleeping bag I definitely would have. I also would have tried not to lose my hat half way through the night because, as I know know,when hair gets wet and half freezes all your heat goes really fast, and then you are really cold. <br /> <br /><br />Our fire and food was really good and it fed the people it had to with leftovers, the one difficulty we had was when it came to straining the noodles for our kraft dinner and we didn't have a strainer, and using plates is good for a funny story after but not so much if you want to actually keep noodles in the pot. <br /> <br />In the morning, after we all went inside to get warm and clean up started, I went and got my stuff outside and then mainly stayed inside, aside the few times I went to get garbage and stray items. I definitly could have done more with the clean up and got changed out of my boots too fast, therefore making me useless when it came to collapsing the Quinzhees. We had done all our dishes the night before so we were good the morning of. <br /> <br />I had a good time at winter camp and probably could have done more during clean up so others wouldn't be the only ones doing the harder work. I felt that it was a good team effort and it made it a good camp asides from the cold. If I were to do it again I would rather have tempratures at -20 or -25, becasue at -6 the Quinzhees felt colder inside then out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5586396691865552296.post-30123048295778549382012-03-08T15:10:52.373-05:002012-03-08T15:10:52.373-05:00Winter Camp Reflection
By: Mallory Champagne
Wi...Winter Camp Reflection <br />By: Mallory Champagne <br /><br />Winter camp sounded great to me, and I was really excited. I still think it was a really fun night, except now I also know about the sheer coldness that comes with 4am winds. Everything lived up to expectation but it was the unexpected that ended up getting you by morning.<br /> <br /><br />We finished piling snow on our Quinzhee and started to dig out the day of winter camp. Looking back, if we'd had had more time we probably could have started to dig out a day or two before the actual camp and would have realized that it was a bit too small for five people, and have been able to do something about it, like making it bigger or opting for a lean-to type thing instead. <br /> <br /><br />I think I was well prepared for all the melting snow. We went in through out the night and changed to dry clothes and dried our wet clothes, what I was not prepared for was our Quinzhee melting on my sleeping bag, making a -40 useless in -6 weather. If there was a water proof layer you could get for a sleeping bag I definitely would have. I also would have tried not to lose my hat half way through the night because, as I know know,when hair gets wet and half freezes all your heat goes really fast, and then you are really cold. <br /> <br /><br />Our fire and food was really good and it fed the people it had to with leftovers, the one difficulty we had was when it came to straining the noodles for our kraft dinner and we didn't have a strainer, and using plates is good for a funny story after but not so much if you want to actually keep noodles in the pot. <br /> <br />In the morning, after we all went inside to get warm and clean up started, I went and got my stuff outside and then mainly stayed inside, aside the few times I went to get garbage and stray items. I definitly could have done more with the clean up and got changed out of my boots too fast, therefore making me useless when it came to collapsing the Quinzhees. We had done all our dishes the night before so we were good the morning of. <br /> <br />I had a good time at winter camp and probably could have done more during clean up so others wouldn't be the only ones doing the harder work. I felt that it was a good team effort and it made it a good camp asides from the cold. If I were to do it again I would rather have tempratures at -20 or -25, becasue at -6 the Quinzhees felt colder inside then out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com