Expedition Journal--July 30

I was sleeping in the tent when I awoke to the sound of a distant airplane! I leapt out of bed and grabbed the radio for the adults, but they were already on theirs. We gathered our stuff extremely quickly, forgetting a few odds and ends, and rushed out to get the resupply.

After receiving everything and dropping off our trash and packs, there came an odd calm as the excitement fell and everyone realized that we still had to wait for the river to drop. The day was spent lounging around, socializing and eating. I found that having the group together has caused everyone to kind of lose focus on our goals with Leave No Trace (LNT), as well as some other important issues. I guess I should take some time to explain. As an outcome for this trip, we will all get diplomas as LNT trainers. The information LNT offers appeals to me very much; I agree with everything LNT stands for. There are six main principles LNT follows:

1) Plan ahead and prepare
2) Camp and travel on durable surfaces
3) Pack it in, pack it out
4) Properly dispose of what you can't pack out
5) Leave what you find
6) Minimize use and impact from fires

For each principle there are extensive explanations of how they apply to all types of environments. I am sincerely interested in all of the ideas they represent.

Rachel Flood
It was miraculous. The plane was actually able to come in this morning. Everything was better from there on. The sun came out, our socks were dry, our entire group was here, we had food. Things really could not be better.

We had a discussion tonight about our goals for this trip and how they have changed since we began the trip. We're halfway through now and the rest of this trip is just going to fly by. This trip has been something that we've all been anticipating for months now and soon it will be something we will look back upon as one of the best times in our lives. It is really important now for us to make the most of every moment we have here before we have to return to the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives.

It is always so interesting to talk about goals because it never fails that someone will bring up something that I have overlooked. I think that it is imperative for all of us to take on some more responsibility. So far, we have all been a little hesitant to take things upon ourselves. Part of the purpose of this trip was for us to be put into a position of leadership and to be independent in our decision-making.

Vanessa Bacher
At the moment, I am in my tent listening to all the soft chatter from the tents around me. I love to go to sleep to the sound of soft laughter because it reminds me of how lucky I am to be here experiencing how to survive in Alaskan wilderness. Today was a good day to really think about all that I have experienced on this trip because today was our layover day and we used that time to get reorganized for the canoeing section. It seemed strange because today was the first day in a long time that I slept in. I woke up early and began getting ready to do our regular daily routine of jumping out of bed, packing my gear, taking down the tents, and making breakfast before we headed out for a long day ahead of us. But today was different because as soon as I woke up I was informed that I needed to sleep in, not that I could sleep in if I wanted to, but that I needed to sleep in order to save my energy. That seemed very odd to me, but I was too tired to think about it, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. Later I was woken up to the sound of Alex thrashing on my tent telling Jess and I that if we saw ptarmigans running around we need to kill them. At that point I was really confused but Alex explained to me that because the weather was so bad the plane for our rations may be delayed for several days. We had basically run out of food and the thought of lying in bed all day long to save energy because we may not eat for several days provoked all kinds of thoughts running through my head.

Well, I decided to stop wasting my energy by thinking so I went back to sleep. I awoke again a few hours later, but this time by the sound of a plane. I yelled in excitement to Jess that our rations were here, so we jumped out of bed as fast as we could and packed our things and went to the landing strip (crossing two rivers in the process). Although we received our rations we still had a relaxing day because the rivers were at a flooding stage so they were too dangerous to canoe.

It was so wonderful because yesterday the sun came out for the first time in six days so we all had a chance to dry out all our clothes. Believe me, we all needed to dry out.