To read part twelve of day five, click here.

We lined up close to the shore, holding the canoes next to us by the gunwales. Once or twice the person next to me would let go, and I would have to yell at them to grab my canoe again because I was not strong enough to keep our canoes close together. 🙂

As we were all lined up there, I was talking with Rebecca, who was next to me in her canoe. We were laughing over something when we heard all of the others exclaiming “Look everyone, look!!”.

Rebecca and I stopped talking and looked over at the other canoes. The rest of my crew was staring up at the sky, watching something.

I looked up and saw something I am never going to forget.

Right above us, not much higher than the trees, was a Bald Eagle. It was circling the lake, so we got to watch it for a while. It was such a majestic sight, and I remember how when it was gone we all just looked at each other in disbelief. It was so beautiful, and so amazing.

Out there, on my trip, I was constantly amazed at the beauty around me. I couldn’t believe all of the gorgeous things I saw that God has created. Everywhere I looked there were amazing things, amazing views, amazing plant life. Sorry, but I just don’t find insects amazing. All they do is annoy me. 🙂

Ok, so the stinging nettle wasn’t exactly an amazing plant, when you touched it. But it was great to eat! I’m not kidding – if you rolled up the edges so they wouldn’t sting your mouth, it tasted like kale or lettuce. Which was really nice, because we were all craving vegetables. At least, I was.

But you had to make sure you rolled up the leaves. If you didn’t, you would have your entire mouth start stinging. I didn’t find this out, Bruce did. On Day Four when Ben was hurt and we were getting him down the mountain, on one of our breaks Bruce and I were starting to get hungry. I don’t remember how it started, but Katie told us that you could eat stinging nettle.

I said I wasn’t going to eat it first, but if Bruce would and said it was good I’d eat it too. He took one and popped it in his mouth, chewed for a minute and pronounced it good. I picked a leaf and rolled it up – I didn’t want any sharp points poking me. I rolled it so I couldn’t see any of the points before sticking it in my mouth. I was just about to swallow when Bruce opened his mouth, waving his hand in front of it.

“My mouth is stinging!!”

I swallowed, praying that my mouth wouldn’t start too.

Katie came over. “Did you roll up the edges so the points couldn’t sting you?”

“No, why would you do that?” He thought about it for a minute. “Oh, you mean the points did this?”

I felt better about it – I had rolled up the points, so I should be good. I picked another leaf and ate it. It was good, I was hungry, and it was green. It was the first green thing I had eaten since I had left home the day before the airport. LOL

Anyway, back to the lake. We watched the bald eagle fly for over five minutes before it landed in the trees on the other side of the lake. That was when Patrick announced what we were doing next.

We were going to cross the lake.

It was a big lake.

I didn’t really want to cross the lake.

But I had to, and I knew I wasn’t getting out of it. I let go of the canoes next to me and picked up my paddle. We all headed out a bit so we could get enough room to paddle, and then Patrick sent us off.

“C’mon, Brett! Let’s do this. We’re going to beat everyone.”

Did I mention that Jen was pretty competitive? 😀

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.*