To read part fifteen of day five, click here.

Bruce and Bobby were coming up behind us really fast. I was paddling as hard as I could, but my strength against Bruce’s? I knew we weren’t going to be the first canoe past Patrick.

Our one chance to win was if we could stay straight, and the started curving. But I knew Bobby was determined to win this, and I knew he was going to do his best to steer. I stopped looking at them, I stopped thinking about everything except paddling. I started going faster, I think. I don’t really know if I started going faster, or if Bruce and Bobby got slower. Maybe they started steering funny. I don’t know.

Jen and I shot past Patrick and stopped paddling. I turned around to look, sure that Bruce and Bobby had beaten us.

I was surprised to see them so far behind us! They still hadn’t passed Patrick. Kayce and Maggie were passing Patrick, and right behind them were Bruce and Bobby. I never asked what happened – I didn’t want it to seem like I was rubbing it in.

Jen told Patrick that she didn’t need the treat, to give it to Kayce and Maggie instead. She said that she was an instructor and Maggie, Kayce and I were the ones who deserved it.

Patrick told the three of us to remind him about our treat later. Then he said it was time to get our canoes out of the water and get to our campsite.

We all paddled our canoes to the boat ramp, and people hopped out of their canoes and started carrying them up the ramp. I stood out of the way for this – I knew I wasn’t strong enough to move the canoes. I just got in the way and slowed everyone down.

Everyone was helping each other move the canoes – Team A would help Team B move their canoe, and then Team B would help move Team A’s canoe.

There was one canoe left, and everyone was in the process of carrying a canoe. Everyone except Bobby. He was coming back towards me and the last canoe.

“Hey Brett, can you help me move this canoe?”

“Um, I guess. I’m not very good at it though, and I probably won’t be able to do it without someone helping me.”

“Nah, you can do it just fine. I’ll carry as much of the weight as I can, and you can do the rest. Got that? You can do it.”

I picked up the end and tried to move forward, almost dropping the canoe as I lurched forward. Bobby was walking slowly, telling me “Let’s go, Brett, you’ve got this.”

Luke came over and asked if I needed help. I was about to say yes, please come help me, when Bobby spoke up.

“Nope, Brett’s got it.”

I glared at him as we kept walking. Luke shrugged his shoulders and went back to help get the canoes on the trailer.

Bobby and I (finally!) made it over to the trailer, where we flipped the canoe so we could put it on. Bobby said I could get some help to lift the canoe up, since it was over my head. 😀

Tullia and I went back down by the boat ramp to grab a couple of paddles that were still down there. I leaned down to pick up the paddle, and heard Tullia next to me start yelling and shrieking.

“There’s a snake on that log!!!”

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.*