To read part eleven of day six, click here.

I was petrified. I was sure that Bruce and I weren’t going to be able to make one of those turns and we would flip.

One of the instructors went, and made it safely through. One of our crewmates in their canoe went, and flipped. Another one of our crewmates canoes went, and they flipped. After that, it was our turn.

At first I had thought, ok, don’t paddle to much. I figured that if we were going slower, it would be easier to make the turns. We got in the rapids and I needed to paddle to keep us going the way we needed to go. So I was moving us forward, and Bruce was trying to turn us the way we needed to go. It wasn’t really working.

I threw in a couple of correction strokes before going back to paddling. I was surprised to see that we actually made the first turn! But then we had to turn to the left, and we were this close to not making it. But Bruce was able to turn us that time, and I didn’t even have to use a correctional stroke!

So we had made two of the turns. But we still had to make another turn, and we had to go over the big hole.

All I could do was pray, paddle, and pray some more, with an occasional correctional stroke thrown in here and there.

We passed in between the two rocks. I did some big correctional strokes, praying that combined with whatever Bruce was doing, it would be enough to get us over the hole.

The hole was right in front of us. It was massive! It was probably two or three feet deep, and right on the other side of it was a big white foamy spot that was about two or three feet above the surface of the water. I panicked, paddling frantically.

The tip of our canoe went down, and I knew we were going to flip. My paddle was connecting with nothing but air – all I could see was the final rapids of the day, the one that was going to make us flip. Bruce and I hadn’t flipped yet. We were the only canoe to make it that far without flipping, other than the instructors.

I still don’t know what happened there. All I know is that a few seconds after I knew we were going to flip, we were going straight through the big, churning white spot. And when I say through, I mean through. We had over four inches of water in our canoe. But you know what? Our canoe was still upright, so it could hold over four inches of water.

We floated downstream for a couple of seconds before turning abruptly to pull our canoe up on the bank where everyone who had gone before us was waiting. Once we were there we had the fun job of flipping our canoe to empty out the water, and getting it back up again.

When we were done, we got to watch as every other canoe flipped going over that hole.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part ten of day six, click here.

Most of the girls were freaking out. The guys were all cracking up, trying to see the snake. Bruce and I were all the way on the end of the line, and the snake was somewhere near the middle. Apparently it was hanging in the bushes near the place where one of the girls had been holding on. I couldn’t see it, and I didn’t particularly care.

Bruce leaned over, trying to see the snake. I yelped as the canoe leaned over, way to close to the water for my comfort. Bruce sat back up – apparently he had heard my yelp over the freaking out of the other girls.

I don’t remember if the snake actually landed in the canoe or not. I think we moved right after that, and if the snake had gotten in the canoe, I have a feeling that I would remember it. 😀

We headed for the next rapids, everyone eager to get away from the snake. We only had two or three rapids left, and I was eager to get out of there.

The next rapids looked pretty easy when we were coming up to it. It was a pretty long one, but it looked like it was only a shallow one, not a hard one. And then we got into it, and I realized that it was a lot harder than it looked. What had looked like shallows that would have been somewhat difficult to maneuver through, was really deep water with huge rocks all over.

It took all of us a while to get through, but we made it eventually. I was surprised that we didn’t flip on that one, but thanked God and prepared myself for the next one.

The next one was really easy. It didn’t take long at all, and no one flipped on it (which almost never happened).

It was a good thing that no one had told me about the last rapids until right before it. Because I would have been a nervous wreck. (Ok, I already was a nervous wreck. But I would have been worse.)

Our last rapids for the day was a really scary one. You had to go straight, turn to the right, and then turn left immediately. If you didn’t turn left, you were going to go over a shallow spot, and then straight into the big hole.

If you did make the turn, you would pass in between two big rocks. As soon as you were done passing those rocks, you had to turn back to the right. If you timed it just right, you would make it over the big hole and you’d be fine.

Glenn didn’t say what would happen if you didn’t make it. He didn’t need to.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part nine of day six, click here.

I waded into the water, heading for our canoe which was at the end of the line. Bobby came and put a hand on my shoulder.

“You’re going to be fine, Brett.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks, Bobby.” I guess the look on my face told him I didn’t believe him, because he started talking again.

“I’m not kidding. You, Bruce and the instructors are the only ones that haven’t flipped yet. You’re doing great.”

He got called by Jordan then, so he headed back to his canoe. I finished walking to my canoe and grabbed my water bottle to take a big drink. I couldn’t get into the canoe until Bruce was there to hold it – I was to short to get into it without climbing over the side. If it was resting on the ground I could do it, but when the bottom of it was over my knees, I needed some help. 🙂

Bruce walked over and held the canoe so I could climb into it. It was a very awkward process, but I managed to make it in the canoe without hurting myself.

We headed off and the next rapids came into sight shortly, after we went around a bend in the river. By now, we knew the drill. When the rapids came into sight Glenn or Patrick would give us instructions, including how far apart to stay. Then we would separate, making sure that everyone was as far apart as they needed to be.

Bruce and I were usually one of the first, if not the first canoe after Glenn or Patrick. I don’t know why it worked out that way, but it did. Sometimes Luke and Sarah Margaret would go in front of us, but most of the time it was me and Bruce.

I have a feeling they did that on purpose. They all did everything they could to help me on the river, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they sent me through each of the rapids first so that I could get that one over with, and I wouldn’t have to see them all flipping in front of me.

On one of the rapids we did after lunch, a couple of people got stuck or flipped. Glenn told those of us who had made it through to go to a little eddy that was next to the bank and wait there.

There were two or three canoes with us, so we all paddled over and waited there. We grabbed vines from the edge and grabbed each others gunwales. As canoes started coming from the rapids, they joined us.

Everyone had gotten out of the rapids, and we all gathered in the shade of the eddy. People were taking drinks, we were talking and laughing, and pretty much just taking a break.

Taking our break.

The peacefulness ended when one of the girls shrieked.

“THERE’S A SNAKE!!!”

There was a moment of general confusion, and she shrieked again.

“IT’S ALMOST IN MY CANOE!!!!”

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part eight of day six, click here.

Glenn laughed and told us that there was a good spot to eat coming up, right before our next rapids. Everyone cheered, and I think we were all moving a lot faster than we had been. I’m not really sure, but my arms started killing me from paddling. LOL

We made it to a spot where the bank wasn’t three feet above our heads. It sloped down to make a (kinda) beach. We all paddled over there and tied our canoes to the plants along the edge.

I hopped out of the canoe and waded through the knee height water to get to land. I went to find a spot to go to the bathroom – Jen had told us to just pee in the river, but there were a bunch of other people hanging out in the river. 😀

When I got back, the cooks had lunch out and had started preparing it. I found my bowl from the stack and sat down on a grassy spot.

Everyone was talking about what we were having for lunch – peanut butter and jelly on tortillas. Nobody thought it would be good.

“You guys, PB and J on tortillas is good! We have it all the time at my house, when we run out of bread. And the boys eat a lot of bread, so we’re out of it a lot.”

They all just looked at me like I was nuts.

I decided it wasn’t worth it, and got in line for my food. Kayce gave me a tortilla and a squirt of peanut butter, and Maggie gave me a big helping of jelly. I almost asked if anyone wanted some of my jelly, but decided that it would be more trouble than it was worth.

I sat down by Bruce and Bobby and ate my lunch in silence. I thought that maybe if I listened to the talking around me, I’d forget that we were going to have to get back on the river.

It didn’t work.

Most of us were done eating when one of the girls yelped. “There’s a huge bug on my leg!”

Bobby went over to look at it. “Huge? That’s nothing! I ate an inch worm yesterday that was bigger than that!”

I didn’t think I’d heard him right. “You ate an inch worm yesterday? Where was I?”

“I don’t know – I think you and Maggie were cooking.”

That made sense. “You ate an inch worm.”

***If you get nauseous easily, don’t read the next three paragraphs. It’s gross.***

“I already told you, yes, I ate a inch worm. It was awesome. I swallowed it whole, and then I felt it crawling up my throat!”

I looked at him in horror. “You what?!?!? It was crawling up your throat?”

“Yep! Then I drank a full water bottle to drown it. And it stopped moving! But then I was nauseous, so that wasn’t cool.”

It’s still kinda gross now, but not as bad as those three paragraphs. 🙂

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You seriously ate a bug?”

“Geez. You don’t believe me? Look, I’ll prove it to you! Gimme that bug, Maggie.”

We all watched, mixed expressions on our faces as he put the bug in his mouth and swallowed. He turned to me. “See? No problem.”

Patrick and Katie came over to us. “Bobby, you know that eating bugs is the first part of ninja training, right?”

“That’s awesome! How many bugs do I have to eat?”

I started cleaning up. I was going to have to do it anyway, and it gave me an excuse to get away from the disgusting bug talk.

While I was cleaning up they took this picture.

A couple minutes later, it was time to get back in our canoes and get on the water again.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part seven of day six, click here.

It was my fault we got stuck. I should have done the proper correctional stroke and turned us. But I saw us heading for a spot that looked shallow, panicked, and did the wrong stroke.

So instead of turning away from the rock, we ran right into it.

“Rock your hips, Brett! Let’s see if we can slide off to the left. Lean that way and rock your hips.”

I did what Bruce said to do, glad I had him in my canoe. There was a sickening groan as the canoe slid a little bit, coming to rest a couple of inches from where it had been.

We kept wiggling, trying to get the canoe off the rock. Seven minutes later, (I remember – I looked at my watch. LOL) we finally slid off the rock. We were free!

I can tell you this – I was a lot more careful after that. 😀

Despite getting stuck, Bruce and I were still the first crewmembers out of the rapids. We sat with Patrick and watched what was going on. It was pretty funny, actually. We had one canoe going backwards, one going sideways, and one stuck on a rock. Jen and Ben were coming straight for us, and the other canoe had flipped.

Glenn was going around the rapids telling people what to do. The canoe that was going backwards managed to turn around and start going forward, but then got stuck on a rock. The canoe that had been stuck on a rock got free and got to us about the same time Jen and Ben did.

We were all floating slowly down the river. Thankfully before we got too far, the other canoes caught up to us.

Everyone congratulated each other for getting through our first rapids. Then we picked up our paddles and headed down the river, heading straight for our next rapids.

I don’t remember how many rapids we did before lunch. I remember that while Bruce and I did get stuck on rocks one or two more times, we never flipped. Which was a good thing, because I was scared of flipping more than anything else.

All of the others flipped, and they acted like it was fun. They would catch up to us laughing, saying they couldn’t wait for the next rapids. But even hearing someone talking about flipping would make me panic.

I’m not proud of my fear of the water. It became a problem later on in my course. And my fear of the water led me to ask Jen a question that I regret asking. (Don’t worry, that was the next day.)

I almost didn’t put this in there. I didn’t really want to write about my fear and let the whole world see it. I didn’t want everyone to see just how scared I was on the river. But I said I was going to write about my trip, and my fear of the running water defined my trip.

Without my fear of the water, things would have been easier for me. I would have been able to enjoy the river like everyone else. I wouldn’t have been terrified every time we had to cross a river or a creek when we were hiking.

So I’m going to write about my fear of the water. It’s not easy to write this, but I want to write everything like it was. I’m not going to sugar coat it just because I want to put it on my blog. I want to write the truth, I just don’t really want everyone to see it. 🙂

After we had done a couple of rapids, Glenn yelled out “Who wants to take a break for lunch?”

Everyone yelled back, “YES!!!!!”

We were hungry. 😀

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part six of day six, click here.

That day was getting embarrassing. First I melted down with Jen, then I panicked when Bruce got into the canoe, and then I froze up when I saw the first rapids.

I stopped paddling and stared at the rapids in front of us. All I could think was “I’m going to die, I’m going to die. I can’t do this…”

“Brett? You need to start paddling. We are getting left behind. Brett?”

Bruce shook the canoe to get my attention, and it worked. I realized that we were falling way behind and paddled as best as I could to catch up. We caught up just in time to hear Patrick’s description of the rapids.

The first set was a shallow one, but if we stuck to the V’s in the river we should be fine. We were going to go through the rapids ducky style, meaning we would go one behind the other. In this case you had to wait until the canoe in front of you was half way through before you started.

Patrick finished his speech by telling us to just follow the canoe in front of us, and we would be fine.

“So – who wants to be the canoe behind me?”

Bruce spoke up. “We will!”

I twisted so I could see him. “We will??? Bruce!”

“What? Let’s get this first rapid over with. If we wait any longer, you are going to be nervous wreck. Just get it over with. Besides, you’ll be fine. We’re going to make it through no problem.”

Patrick started paddling. He passed the spot where the water turned white.  He was going a bit more to the left than I would have, and I tried to remember that.

“Brett, make sure you’re watching where he is going. That’s the path we’ll need to take.” I nodded – I knew what to do, I was just terrified to do it.

Glenn told us to go. I said a quick prayer and started paddling, knowing that all of my crewmates knew I was terrified, and that they were all watching me.

We made it about half way before it happened. We got stuck on a rock.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part five of day six, click here.

I panicked. The boat was rocking wildly, and I couldn’t remember what they had said to do when it was rocking like that.

Slowly, the boat started to stop rocking. I turned around to see what Bruce was doing. He was sitting there, in his spot, rocking back and forth with the canoe.

“Oh, that’s what we were supposed to do. Oops!”

“What?”

“We were supposed to rock back and forth with the canoe, not panic and grab at the gunwhales.”

“Yeah. Loose hips, remember?”

“I remember now. When you made the canoe rock like that I couldn’t think! What did you do that made it move like that?”

“I got in it.”

The look on his face told me I wasn’t going to get any more out of him, so I gave up. We turned the canoe around, somewhat awkwardly, but we made it.

At that point, all of the canoes were in the water. Patrick and Glenn gave us a few final instructions, and then we were told to get out of the eddy.

An eddy is the little calm spot right behind a big obstacle. In this case, it was a tree that stuck out into the river. We were all hiding behind the tree and the water just stayed in place there.

Trying to get out of the eddy

It took us a bit of time, but finally everyone was out of the eddy, and all of us were pointing the right way. 🙂

We started paddling, and we were on our way. And it wasn’t long before the first rapids were in sight.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part four of day six, click here.

Jen and Glenn drove off with the car, truck and two trailers. They were meeting someone who would transport the vehicles to the place where we were getting off the river.

They were gone for over two hours.

During that time we learned how to do the rest of the packing, and we spent almost an hour learning how to navigate the river.

You followed the V’s in the river – they showed you where the rocks were. So if the water looked like it was flowing like this, (if you were coming from the bottom of the screen):

v^v^v^v

You wanted to go through the ^’s. The rocks were at the point of the v’s, and you wanted to avoid those at all costs. 😀

Sorry if that didn’t make any sense – it makes sense to me!

Jen and Glenn got back right after we were done with the river lesson. I was glad they were back – it meant we could get on with this and get done with the river.

I wasn’t letting myself think. I knew that thinking would just make everything worse. I kept as busy as I could, but there wasn’t much to do. I think I ended up playing a drinking game with some of the others – and don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It was just water. 🙂

Ten minutes or so after Glenn and Jen got back, we were told to get the canoes in the river.

Katie helping me and Bruce get our canoe in the water

We had to step down these huge steps that came over my knees. Katie came to help me with my side of the canoe, since I was having trouble just making it down the stairs, without even carrying any of the weight of the canoe. 😀

Once we got the canoe in the water, Bruce held it so I could get in. I climbed in and sat the way I was supposed to. I asked Bruce if he needed me to grab the stairs so he could get in, and he said that he was fine and didn’t need me to.

Waiting for Bruce to get in the canoe

I was turning to see how he was going to get in when out of the corner of my eye I saw him jump from the stairs. I had just enough time to think “what on earth is he doing?” before the canoe started rocking, threatening to flip and take me with it.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part three of day six, click here.

I could see the girls talking to the guy as I started gathering all the water bottles. We needed to get them from the various tables and bring them to the table near the canoes. Bobby came over to help me.

“You doing ok?”

I bit my lip, trying not to cry. It was bad enough that some of the girls had seen me cry. I didn’t know what they had told the guys, but it was probably something like “Brett’s freaking out, so be nice to her”.

“Yeah, Bobby, I’m doing ok.”

He laughed. “Now that you’ve said you’re fine, how are you really doing?” He grinned at me, and I knew he wasn’t going to listen to me if I said I was fine. So, I told him the truth.

“Not good. I’m scared to death of the river, and I don’t want to do this. I’m scared that when I flip I’m not going to be able to get out from under the canoe, I’m scared that”

He cut me off. “You know you’re going to be fine, right? You were doing amazing on the lake yesterday, you will do great on the river today.”

I wanted to believe him, but I couldn’t. I told him thanks, and I really meant it. Bobby always did his best to cheer people up, and while he couldn’t take away my fear of the water, he could make me forget it until we actually got on the water.

Bobby and I finished gathering all of the things we would need to take with us, and put the rest away. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back I saw Jen talking to Bobby and Bruce. I hurried over to where the stuff was and worked on packing it.

Jen came over to me and told me that I was going to be partnered with Bruce that day. I don’t know how to describe the emotions I felt then -I think it was a mixture of relief and fear.

I was still scared of the river. But at that point in time, I trusted Bruce more than any of my crewmates. He was the one who had helped me on the ladders, he had helped me carry some of my weight, and he was with the group who hopped Ben down the mountain.

So yeah, if I had to go on the river, I was glad that Bruce was going to be in the canoe with me. When we flipped he would be strong enough to take a lot of the canoes weight, (What? They were heavy!) so that we could actually get back to shore.

At least, that was what I was telling myself. I was hoping that it would stop me from freaking out.

Let’s just say that it didn’t work.

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part two of day six, click here.

I shook my head. I didn’t really know what was wrong. But then I opened my mouth and apparently my mouth knew what was wrong better than my brain did.

“I’m scared of the river. I’m scared of tipping, I’m scared that the water will carry me away. I’m so small and the river is so big and I’m not strong enough to stop myself from being carried down the river and I’m scared. I don’t want to do this.”

A couple of the girls were close enough to hear me and they came over.

“Are you ok, Brett?”

I shook my head – I was not ok. I was so scared and I wanted to be at home, doing orders, listening to music… really, I just wanted to be anywhere but there.

“You’re scared?”

I nodded my head, brushing the tears away. I was upset with myself – it was the first time I had cried. I had been doing such a good job of being strong. I hadn’t cried before – not even when my ankle was really hurting. And the river was making a baby of me.

“It’s ok to be scared, Brett. I’m pretty scared of the river too. But we’ll all be fine – don’t worry about it.”

I said thank you – it didn’t really make me feel any better, and I was still worrying, but the girls had tried to help. Jen told them to get back to work and she helped me put my pack with the other packs in the back of the trailer.

We sat on the edge of the trailer and she asked me a question.

“Do you know why you’re scared?”

“Not really.” I paused for a bit, thinking over my next words before I said them. “It could be because the river is so big, and I’m so small. And we’re going to be going on rapids today, and I don’t want to go on rapids! Flipping scares me to death, and I know I’m going to flip all of the time.”

Jen nodded her head and was quiet for a bit.

“Would it help if we paired you with one of the guys? Maybe Bruce or Bobby?”

I thought for a minute. I didn’t want to split the guys up – they wanted to be together. But on the other hand, it would be really nice to be with one of the guys. It would be good to have one of my stronger crewmates in the boat with me.

“It might help. Do you think they’ll be upset if they have to split up? They were pretty happy to be paired together.”

“I’m going to talk to the other instructors. Go ahead and help the girls load up the dry-bags – I’ll talk to you in a little bit.”

I watched her walk over to the other adults as I headed for the picnic table that had all the stuff on it. I could see a bunch of my crewmates watching me and I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let the rest of my crew make a big deal of this.“

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part one of day six, click here.

Kayce got into the car, food in his hands. I looked at what he had and grinned – it was granola!! Granola was like, the best breakfast food we had. It was amazing! Even with powdered milk (which was not a good experience after drinking goat milk for the last 6-7 years) it was still good.

Everyone passed their bowls forward eagerly. Granola was the one meal we all agreed was yummy, and we were all hungry! I took the bowls from Kayce and handed them back. In your bowl was granola and powdered milk – you would add water from your water bottle.

Once they had their bowls, everyone else poured their water in. I chose to wait until after we got off the gravel road. Which turned out to be a good decision – everyone else was wet by the time we got off the gravel.

When we were on a real road, I took my water bottle back from Bobby (who had borrowed it because his water bottle was rolling around on the floor) and poured it into my bowl. As I was pouring it, we went over a bump. So despite trying to not get wet, I still got wet. Stupid bumps. LOL

We got to the “put-in”, where we were getting into the water. We all grabbed our stuff from the van and put it onto the picnic tables scattered around. One of the adults told us where we could go pee and than told us to start unloading the canoe trailer.

I stayed out of the way while they got the canoes down. I was too short to reach all but the bottom ones, and by the time I was done cleaning out the car the bottom ones were off the trailer.

Once the canoes were off the trailer, the adults called us together to give us our canoe partners. The guys were all hoping to be paired up with each other, and they stuck next to each other. They started reading off names, and I was paired up with Jordan. There were only a few people who got the partner they wanted, but we weren’t allowed to switch around.

There were only a few people who were happy with the partner they got – Bobby and Bruce were together, and they were happy with that, and I think Luke and Sarah Margaret were relatively happy that they had been paired up.

I had forgotten something in my pack, so I asked Jen if I could get something out of the trailer with our gear in it before it left. She unlocked the trailer and helped me find my pack.

We pulled my pack to the front of the trailer and I sat down to open it. I looked out of the trailer, at the river, and couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Jen looked at me, clearly confused.

“Brett? What’s wrong?”

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part of day , click here.

I woke up on the sixth morning a couple of minutes before Bruce’s watch alarm would beep. Bruce and I had an arrangement – he would wake me up if I overslept, and I would wake him up if he overslept.

There was only one morning he had to wake me up, and I never had to wake him up. Most mornings I would wake up five minutes before his watch would beep, and as soon as I heard it I would sit up and peek out from underneath my tarp at the boys tarp.

Bruce would sit up and wave or give me the thumbs up sign. I’d wave back and we would both do our thing. I usually waited a couple of minutes before waking up the girls – I needed some peace and quiet each morning.

When I’m at home, I wake up an hour before every one else. I sit on the couch with my computer, and that is when I work on stuff like my email, doing some schoolwork, stuff like that. That hour gives me a good, quiet, peaceful start to my day.

On Outward Bound, I didn’t have an hour. I couldn’t wait an hour before waking up everyone else, because they needed to get started on their wake up routine. They took a while to wake up. 🙂

So I would only wait five minutes before waking up the girls. Once the five minutes were up I’d pat/rub the girl next to me on the shoulder, and once she was awake she’d wake up the next girl. Sometimes shouting at them worked, but I didn’t do it too much, because it didn’t always work and it usually made them mad. LOL

We weren’t going to have time to eat that morning – we were going to have to eat in the car. I packed up all of my gear as quickly as I could, and then a bunch of the guys and I took down the tarp. Some of the girls were still doing whatever they did in the mornings, and the guys and I didn’t want to be late.

The guys and I headed for the car. We put our backpacks down by the trailer and grabbed our bowls, running to claim the spots we wanted in the car.

It took a while, and we were late, (we were supposed to be out of there at a certain time) but sooner or later everyone got to the car. Because I was one of the first in the car, I had gotten the spot I wanted. I grabbed my bowl from underneath my seat and held it in my lap. I was hoping for a good breakfast!

Click here to read the next part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part eighteen of day five, click here.

After what was probably close to an hour, Glenn stuck his head out and announced that we could get out. The storm was far enough away, and as a bonus, the rain had stopped!

We all got out and collected our black mats from under the car. We had shoved them there because there was not enough room for them in the car.

One of my crewmates saw his/her wet mat and lost it. I think he/she had been close to losing it in the car, but the wet mat was what set him/her off. He/she went running off into the darkness, down the road.

The rest of us looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Someone said “we need to get to bed…” so those of us who had mats grabbed them and we headed up the trail. Everyone was carrying their bowl and spoon, everyone who had a water bottle was carrying it, and everyone who had their mat was carrying it. It made it rather difficult to walk. 😀

We made it to the spot where we had made dinner and we all stopped. Sitting there on the ground was all the stuff that we had made dinner with.

It still needed to be cleaned up.

I would have stayed and helped, but I still had to lay out my stuff for the night. Most of us headed up the trail, while Luke and his partner stayed behind to clean.

As we were leaving Luke called after us. “Um… Does anyone have a head lamp I can borrow??” I told everyone to wait for me as I ran back to give Luke mine. I caught back up to the rest of the crew and we headed up to camp. I needed them to wait for me because I wouldn’t have been able to see without their headlamps.

The tarp was still standing – the girls had done a good job with it. It was pouring so hard I had worried that it was going to come down. I ran over to check on my backpack. It was completely dry! There were a couple of straps that had been hanging out in the rain, but other than that there was no wetness.

I said a quick prayer to thank God and started pulling my stuff out. I borrowed Maggie’s headlamp and spread out my stuff, trying to keep the wet mat from getting my sleeping stuff too wet.

We heard voices coming up the trail and got out from under the tarp. It was Luke and his partner, (still can’t remember who it was) and our crewmate who had ran down the trail. We all went and stood together and he/she apologized. We all said it was fine, and I thought that was the end of it.

I went up to Luke and asked for my headlamp back, handing Maggie hers. As I was heading back to the tarp, I heard Bobby asking our crewmate what we could do to help him/her from losing it again.

I don’t remember what he/she said, I just remember thinking that it was going to be hard. It was something like “keep the bugs away, keep all my stuff dry, don’t make me hike mile after mile after mile…”

Okay, not really. 😀 But it was something like that, something that we had no control over.

Bobby said “Ok everyone, ____ needs a hug from all of us. Let’s go, everyone get over here and give ____ a hug. C’mon, don’t be shy.”

I gave my crewmate a hug and got out of the way so I wouldn’t get squished. I headed back to the tarp and took off my boots, putting my headlamp , compass, and stuff from my pockets inside them. I crawled into my sleeping bag, getting as far from the opening as I could. I really didn’t want to get wet!

I thought about what had happened that day. Being able to use a toilet had been amazing! And even though we had the phone problem, we had managed to recover from that and come out stronger as a crew. The cheesy grits for breakfast weren’t that great, but I was able to have fun in the car! The whole “I’m the smallest, I don’t fit in half the gear” thing wasn’t the best, but at least I was pretty good at paddling a canoe. And sorry, but I can’t think of a good thing to combat the hour in the car. Oh – yeah I can. The fact that none of my stuff was wet!

I was starting to have fun. Of course, I hadn’t seen the river yet, and that was going to be one of the harder things I did on my trip. 🙂

Click here to read the first part of Day Six.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part seventeen of day , click here.

I got to the campsite and looked under the closest tarp. It was the girls tarp, and it was obvious where I was going to be. On the edge. And it was looked like it was going to rain.

I shoved my pack as far away from the edge as I could without putting it on Sarah Margaret’s stuff. I didn’t want it getting wet! I pulled my headlamp and windbreaker out of my bag and put them on, not knowing what was going to happen. Everyone else was heading back down towards the kitchen, so I went with them.

We got to the kitchen, only to see that it was no longer a kitchen. The food was being carried down to the car, and everything else was all piled together.

While I had been trekking up the hill and putting my stuff away, the storm had grown closer. So even though it was not raining, we still had to get into lightning drill.

Not only did we have to fit us in the car, we had to fit all the food, eating materials, and Glenn and Patrick in there. Let’s just say it was a tight fit. I was in the back with Tullia and two of the other girls, and Tullia and I were miserable.

It was hot, stinky, and loud in there. I was in the back, (which I can’t do) and I was feeling nauseous. Tullia had a really bad headache, and one of the other girls did too. Basically, we were a mess.

And we were stuck in the car. It had started to pour, and it was pouring hard.

We probably spent an hour in the car. After eating one of two bites of dinner, (which would have been really good if I hadn’t been so nauseous!) I passed my bowl to Bobby. He looked at me in concern when he saw my completely full bowl and told me I should eat some more.

I told him that I was nauseous, and he nodded and started eating. He asked if I had my water bottle with me and I handed it to him.

Sitting in the hot, stinky, loud car was not fun, but it was necessary. And it was definitely better than the alternative – sitting under our tarp, trying not to get wet… Better than that.

I sat there praying – it was raining so hard, and I was convinced that my stuff was going to be soaked. I just sat there and prayed that none of my stuff would be too wet.

Click here to read the next part of Day Five.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part of day , click here.

I looked over by Tullia and saw what she was looking at. I stepped back a step, stepping into the water.

The snake on the log.

Luke came over to us and asked Tullia if she knew that it was dead.

Tullia and I looked at him.

“The snake is dead and no one told us?!?!?”

“Apparently not. Isn’t it a cool snake?

I cut in on the conversation. “You think that’s cool? It’s creepy! Boys are so weird.”

“How can you think that’s creepy?”

I tuned him out and grabbed the paddles on the ground. If I listened, we’d be arguing all day. I didn’t really want to spend the rest of the day arguing about how creepy dead snakes are. LOL

After getting all the gear put away, we put our boots back on and changed if we were changing. I decided to keep my wet clothes on – Jen and Katie said they would dry faster if they were on us. I did put my long pants and a sweatshirt on over my wet clothes, because I was cold!

We all piled into the car for the drive to our campsite. Everyone was damp, but at least we all smelled a little bit better! I know a couple of us took advantage of our swim assessment to try to get some of the stink off. 😀

While we were in the car, I thought back to when Bobby made me help him move the canoe and realized that it had been good for me. Pretty much my entire course I was afraid to help with things, because I was the smallest/weakest and I just got in the way. But by making me move that canoe with him, Bobby made me see that with help, I could do things.

That doesn’t mean that all of a sudden I was super helpful and helped with everything, even if I was getting in the way. I still didn’t help too much with the bear hang, unless it was my night, and I didn’t do much with the canoes without lots of help. But there were things that I did that I wouldn’t have done before he made me do that. 🙂

We got to our campsite and opened up the trailer. Everyone took their packs out and we stood in a (sort of) circle to get our instructions.

Maggie, Katie and I were going to work on dinner a little bit up the hill, and everyone else was going to go set up the camp further up.

People started pulling kitchen items out of their packs. I don’t remember how we got it all up the hill – I think Katie made them carry it up for us.

I grabbed my pack and headed to where we were going to have to cook. Maggie, Tullia, Katie and I were talking, laughing, and working on dinner. Tullia was with us because she had gotten dehydrated, and Katie was making her drink two of our water bottles.

Guess who got to cut the salami? Me!

Colter and I agree – the knives we had on our courses were the worst knives we have ever used. It took me almost an hour to cut the salami.

We were in the process of frying the salami to add to our alfredo noodles when we heard the first thunder. Maggie, Tullia and I looked at each other in alarm. I muttered a prayer – I really, really, really didn’t want it to rain.

Katie told me to bring my backpack up to camp and put it under the tarp, in case it started raining. I put my pack on and started up the hill, groaning. After one day of not using my hiking muscles, my legs did not want to go up that hill. LOL

But I had to, if I didn’t want my stuff to get wet. ‘Cause it was about to start raining. I could tell.

Click here to read the next part of Day Five.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*