 Expedition Journal--August 7Alex PerryOur goal for today was 24 miles, so we woke up quite early and were ready to go at 9:30 a.m. Deb decided to do a lengthy photo shoot, however, so we did not put on the water until well after 10. We landed on a gravel bar for lunch at about 12:30 p.m. and had a group meeting. Deb and Cleve had decided to let us camp independently from them tonight. After discussing safety concerns and the location of our camp spots, John and our instructors departed. We waited for a while, and then set out on our own. I had originally partnered with Jess, but then switched to Bria later on. The day was long and we were paddling against the wind, but I and the others (except for Rachel and Jess) wanted to get to our decided camp. We arrived tired and hungry in camp at about 4:30 p.m., and began eating hugely. My cook group--Peter, Vanessa, and I--were nearly out of food. The other group offered to share their leftovers with us, and I was glad to accept, although I was a bit frustrated because they had refused to share earlier, and they now had a gross excess of food. I ate potato pearls (two bowls), corn bread (about a pound or more), popcorn, more potato pearls, refried beans (about a bowl), and two pieces of gingerbread cake. I went to bed for the first time on a nearly full stomach. We played rummy and all tried to bunk in one two-person tent, but we ended up going back to our separate tents.
Rachel Flood I started out paddling with Bria. It was great. The water was really smooth so we were able to just lay back and paddle. We got to our second break and our instructors told us that they would like to paddle ahead of us so that we could have a shot at camping alone. We thought it was a great idea. The last few days have taught us so much that we are all very confident in our outdoor skills and have been waiting to see how we would do on our own. The instructors took off and there we were standing in the wilderness with only ourselves to depend on. If we had been placed in this situation three weeks ago, I know that we would have done all right, but I don't know that we could have done it "in style." I was impressed by how we got into camp and immediately got our tents up and established a location for our kitchen so we could get started on our dinner. Dinner was quite a production. Since it was our last dinner we decided that we would finish off some of our food. We ate fried macaroni followed by gingerbread and popcorn.
Vanessa Bacher But most of all it's my last night to capture all the precious things around me so that I will know them as memories tomorrow. To top this last night in the field off we camped on our own about three miles away from the instructors. We had our last supper together by finishing off all of our rations which included cornbread, gingerbread, popcorn, potato pearls, hot chocolate, and refried beans. Our dinner lasted about three and a half hours and to top the night off we went for the ultimate bonding experience, we all crammed into one tent and tried to sleep together. I just have to say that that was definitely was a brave move. We all smell like 17-year-olds that work up a sweat each day and haven't showered for 20 days, then multiply that by six and put that smell in a congested area and there you have it. We were roughing it and toughing it in one tent all together. We were all tangled together, having no room to spare and a very little amount of oxygen to breathe, but we all managed to sleep quite comfortably for about two hours when someone screwed up our equilibrium by shifting around. So, we all gave up on that idea and went into our own tents to sleep.
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