To read part nineteen of day six, click here.

Patrick opened the cooler, and I stood on my tiptoes to see what was in it. Inside were a couple of ripe bananas, a beautiful red apple, and a carton of strawberries that were just past the perfect stage, but not so far that they were bad.

My mouth watered at the sight of the fruit. I could almost taste the strawberries. I hoped that was what we would get.

Patrick set the cooler down, lifted out the carton of strawberries and opened it. He held it out to me, Maggie, and Kayce.

“Each of you gets one. Don’t tell the other kids you got one – then they’ll want one, and we don’t have enough for that.”

When I heard that, I almost felt bad for them. But the strawberry was so delicious, I forgot about them and just enjoyed the treat. It looked like Kayce and Maggie were enjoying their strawberries too, and I grinned as I thanked Patrick. Kayce and Maggie echoed me, and after handing Patrick our strawberry tops, we headed back to the van.

We sat down for the drive. It was only a half an hour or so this time, but we enjoyed it anyway. The soft seats, the air conditioning, music playing, my crew laughing around me… It was perfect.

We arrived at our campsite, and we were all ready to get camp set up. It was going to be dark soon, and we wanted to have dinner cooking and the tarps set up as quickly as possible.

Jen and Katie called a crew meeting.

“Ok you guys, everyone come over here and get in a circle.”

We all circled up quickly, ready to get this meeting over with so we could get the tarp up.

“Because you guys did such a great job today, Katie and I have a treat for you.”

Everyone looked at Jen in anticipation. You could tell that she was doing this on purpose. She was looking at all of us like, “You’re just going to have to wait to find out what I’m talking about…”

Someone spoke up, tired of waiting. “Jen? What is the treat?”

“Katie and I are going to make dinner for you! You guys did so well today, and we wanted to do something nice for you.”

We all cheered, happy to have two extra people to put the tarps up. Jen told us we could go, and we all ran back up the trail to the sleeping area.

Putting up the tarps didn’t take long – what took a while was standing in line to go to the bathroom. There was a line three people deep for the pee spot, which was up past Jen and Katie’s tarp.

We grabbed our mats, bowls and water bottles and headed down to the dinner area. As we were walking we could smell the food – we were having pasta and red sauce, and it smelled amazing!

We sat down in our circle, several of us on each mat. I was sitting on the edge of my mat, next to Luke and Jordan. When I looked over at where Jen and Katie were, I was surprised to see that Katie wasn’t cooking the dinner with Jen. Instead, she was off behind Jen, cooking something over there. It looked like she was trying to hide it from us, so I didn’t ask.

Dinner was amazing. The sauce was delicious when you added spices from the spice kit, and there was plenty of noodles. I was stuffed to the brim – I love noodles. That was when Katie told us what she had been making. It was chocolate cake.

I couldn’t believe it. I had just stuffed myself, and there was chocolate cake?? I took a piece anyway – someone would eat what I didn’t.

It was slightly burnt, but it looked amazing. It smelled amazing too. I picked off some burnt spots, and ate two bites. It tasted amazing, but I was too full to eat anymore. I elbowed Luke.

“Hey dude – you want the rest of this?”

I showed him the cake in my bowl. His eyes grew wide and he mumbled something, but I couldn’t understand him through the cake in his mouth. I decided that he wanted it, and dumped it in his bowl. He chewed and swallowed, then said a quick thank you before shoving my cake into his mouth.

Once we were done cleaning up, Katie said that we were finally going to play Newlyweds! (Remember when we started it?) .

I don’t remember any of the questions asked. I just remember that Jen and I lost. Like, really badly. 😀

When we were done playing newlyweds, we all went marching back up the hill. It wasn’t long before everyone was in their sleeping bags, tired out from the long day.

Overall, it had been a pretty good day. That I was freaking out about things all day was not good. But the way my crew all tried to help me, made me realize that we were a crew, and we were going to take care of each other. Lunch was really yummy, and it was funny watching my crew react when they heard that we were going to be having PB and J on tortillas. But the best part about that day was the fact that I only flipped once, the whole day. And it was the planned flip! The rapids swim assessment wasn’t fun, and neither was hearing that one of our crewmates wouldn’t be with us the next day. But the dinner and cake were really good!

So yeah, it was a hard day. But it was also a good one. 🙂

As I fell asleep, I prayed that I wouldn’t flip on the rapids the next day. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way I wanted.

Click here to read the first part of Day Seven.

*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 the last part of Day Six, click here.

I woke up at 5:55 that morning. We had been told to get up at 6:00, and God usually woke me up 5-10 minutes before that, which was nice.

That night I had a dream. It was a very interesting dream, so I told the girls about it.

In my dream, I’m standing in a room wearing a wedding dress. All of the girls from my crew are in the room with me, wearing bridesmaid dresses. (They were a peachy/coral color, in case you wanted to know. :)) Sarah Margaret comes walking over to me.

“I knew you would marry him, Brett! Ever since we met each other on Outward Bound, I knew you would marry him!”

And I woke up right then, so I didn’t get to hear who I was marrying.

When I told the girls about it while we were taking the tarp down, they insisted that I knew who it was.

“Oh, you know who it is. You just don’t want to tell us. Who is it?”

“I’m telling you, I have no idea. It’s not like this is the first time this has happened to me – I have dreams like this all the time! Either I’m getting married, and I have no idea who the guy is, or I have kids and I have no idea who the guy is. It happens to me all the time. I promise, I’m not keeping it from you.”

“You really have dreams like that?”

“Yep! They are really annoying, because I want to know who the guy is, and I never know. But sometimes, I will have the next part of the dream the next night. So if that happens and I dream the next part tonight, I’ll let you know what I find out.”

We packed up and got down to the van as fast as we could. We were late, because it had taken so long to get the tarp down.

Everyone got in the car and passed their bowls up to the front. They started passing bowls back to me so I could pass them back. I looked down at it in disgust – it looked like we were going to be having cardboard for breakfast.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

As I was passing the bowls back, it started.

“Jen, what’s this?”
“Katie, what are we having for breakfast?”
“This looks like cardboard. What is it?”
“Um, I don’t want to eat this.”
“Is there any granola left from yesterday?”

I got my bowl and poured some water in it. Once I had poured the water in and stirred up the powdered milk, I could kinda see what it was. It looked like it was grape nuts, the crunchy kind that I had only ever had on yogurt.

I knew that it was going to be bland. But I was not prepared for the flavors that would fill my mouth when I took a bite.

Not only did it look like cardboard, it tasted like cardboard. Like, really stale cardboard. I knew that I needed to eat. We were going to have another hard day on the water, and I needed the calories. I managed to eat two or three bites before I couldn’t eat anymore.

I asked who had the trash bag and it was handed up to me. It was already half full from everyone else who didn’t want to eat it. I dumped mine in and passed it up to the front – Kayce was a picky eater, and I had a feeling that he wasn’t going to be eating it.

I wiped my bowl out as best as I could, wincing at the nasty taste. I took a big drink of water to try and rinse out the taste, but it didn’t do anything. I gave up and leaned against the back of the chair, enjoying the air conditioning, music, and soft seats.

We were driving through a town, so I looked around. It was a small town, and it looked pretty old. But it was rather pretty, so I enjoyed looking at it.

We pulled into a parking lot next to a bridge, the river right next to it. Everyone tumbled out of the van, ready to get going. I hung back – I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t. I wanted to stay back with our crewmate who wasn’t going.

I got out of the car and went over to Jen. I’m not proud of the fact that I did what I did. Looking back, I don’t really know why I did it. Fear probably played a big part in it. But I’m still ashamed of the fact that I actually did it.

“Jen? Can I stay with _____ today? I don’t want to go on the river, and he/she will be lonely, and I really don’t want to go on the river.”

A part of me knew that I shouldn’t be asking her that, but the scared part of me was a lot stronger than my conscience.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

Jen narrowed her eyes.

“Why don’t you want to go? I know you’re scared, but everyone is supposed to do this. Making ______ stay behind is supposed to be a punishment, and if you are with him/her it won’t really be.”

I nodded, looking down at the ground.

“But, I will talk to the other instructors about it. They will probably say you need to come on the river with us, so get ready like you are going to.”

She turned and walked away, and I walked over to my crew. I sat down until they were done with the canoes. By the time I got over there they had already done the lowest canoes, and I just got in the way if I tried to help with the ones up high.

Once the canoes were out of the way, I got up and found my paddle, lifejacket, helmet, booties, and windbreaker. I put it all in a pile near the bench I was sitting on, hoping I wouldn’t have to use it. I told God that if he wanted me to do this, to make me do this, but if I could, I’d really like to stay behind.

I don’t think I have ever been so scared. It was awful. I knew that I shouldn’t be acting the way that I was, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried praying, but it didn’t help.

Jen came over to me, and the moment I saw her face I knew I was going on the river.

“Brett, the other instructors and I talked about it, and we are going to put you in a canoe with Bobby. Is that ok?”

I nodded my head. Bobby would take care of me like Bruce had, and hopefully we wouldn’t flip!

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

After another twenty minutes or so, we were ready to go. Everyone was in their gear, and we were moving the canoes down to the water.

Bobby came over to me, a worried look on his face.

“Do you want to go in the stern? (the back)”

“No, I actually prefer the front. Remember when they made us switch positions yesterday? (I forgot to blog that part. Oops!) I was in the stern, and that was the closest we came to flipping. And I couldn’t steer right anyway.”

The worried look on his face was replaced with a look of relief.

“Oh, good. I hate the bow.”

We grinned at each other, and then I realized something. We had to paddle on opposite sides of the canoe – what if he paddled on the side I did??

“Bobby? What side of the canoe do you paddle on?”

“Um, which side do you paddle on?”

“I hold the top of the paddle in my right hand.”

He thought for a moment before saying “OK. That’s fine – I can paddle on the other side.”

I wondered if he was used to paddling on the side I was, but didn’t say anything. If I could keep my paddling the same as the day before, it would be one less thing for me to worry about.

We got the canoes into the water and held them for each other so everyone could get in.

“Everyone wave goodbye to Katie and _____! We’ll see them again at the end of the day.”

We all turned and waved, calling things like “Have a good day!” and “Don’t flip too much!” to each other. Then we got the signal to move out, and off we went.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

Our first couple of rapids were about as hard as some of the later ones from the day before. We hadn’t gotten to anything like the final hole yet, and I was really glad of it.

The first day, we had been the only people on the river. This day however, we were surrounded by people. Mostly people on little floaties, and it was really funny watching them bobbing along.

There was this one group in canoes that we kept seeing though. We would keep passing each other, and it got a little annoying.

In this picture, we were getting ready to go through this rapids after taking a break to learn what to do for this particular rapid. We had already let the first boat go when they cut right in front of us. We grabbed at the canoe we had let go and pulled them back – we didn’t want them getting stuck in the middle of the group that was cutting.

You can see the lead canoe of the other group in the background here.

Right after that rapids there was a little island. Well, it wasn’t really an island. It was a bunch of rocks that were all right next to each other, and there were some plants on it.

We took a break there. People got out of their canoes and walked around for a little bit, some people peed, and some of us just sat and held the canoes. I held on to my canoe, but I got out of the water to do it. I sat down, stretching my legs out, and held the painter in my hand.

Approximately three quarters of my crew asked me if I was peeing. LOL

We passed the group of canoes that had passed us, and I fought the urge to cheer. (I might be a little competitive. :D)

The next rapids after that was a special one.

“Ok kids, when you go through this rapids, make sure you wave to Barry!”

“Who’s Barry?”

“He’s the guy who sits there all day and takes pictures of the people coming down the river. “

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

“There’s a guy who sits and takes pictures all day?”

“Yep, he’s there most days. He has a website where you can buy the pictures of yourself on the river.”

I thought that was extremely interesting, and decided that I would tell Mom about it in the next postcard I wrote. That way she could show all of the kids the pictures of me on my course.

Bobby and I were the third canoe to go through the rapids. It was one of the longer rapids we had done that wasn’t just shallows, and it was pretty difficult.

You could see the place where the photographer was long before you could see him. There was a big building sticking out over the river. I remember praying that he would be there, knowing that it would make my family really happy to see pictures of me while I was still on my trip.

I had to start paying attention to the river. It wasn’t the most complicated rapids we had done, but it was still scary. There was a really big rock sticking out of the river, and we came really close to running right into it. Glenn was sitting on it waving people in the right direction, but Bobby and I couldn’t get our canoe to turn as fast as I would have liked. 🙂

Well, Barry wasn’t going to get a wave from me. I was too busy trying to get us through the rapids without flipping. We managed to make it through without flipping, but it was really close. I don’t remember how I almost flipped, I just remember thinking “That would have been great, for everyone at home to see pictures of me flipping.”

Bobby and I pulled over into a rocky spot where everyone was waiting. We turned around to watch the rest of our crewmates come down the rapids, and were shocked to see that other canoe group instead.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven

*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 seven, click here.

“What happened?”
“Where’s the rest of our crew?”
“Did they really just cut in front of the rest of our group?”

I was not happy. I don’t like when people get in the way of me moving on. And because this group had gotten in front of us, we were going to have to wait for a while before the rest of our crew could join us. It was a really big group, and they were taking their time, sending one boat down the rapids at a time.

Which is good. It’s safe. It’s what we did. But the fact that I had to wait for this group that was taking forever really made me mad. 😀

After waiting for over fifteen minutes, the rest of our crew was with us again. I was glad to be back together, but I was even happier to be on our way again.

We discussed the next rapids while we were sitting there, letting the other group get a bit ahead of us. It wasn’t long before we were on our way though, which made me happy. I was eager to get to where we were stopping for lunch!

Lunch that day was pita, cream cheese, and a pasty stuff that I think was called Tabouli. I don’t remember what it was, but I know we had Tabouli one day and I think it was this day. Whatever it was, it was really yummy, and I ate almost half of the pita.

That’s right, half. Now normally, I would have eaten two. I was really starting to freak out because I was not eating enough. I knew that I wasn’t, but if I tried to eat anymore, I felt like I was going to throw up. And the last thing I needed was to throw up all the calories I had just managed to force into my body.

I handed the other half of my pita to Luke, who took it with a grin. By then he knew that I was usually going to give him half of my food, and to not get seconds until he knew that I was going to eat it all.

We took a little break there, on the little beach. It was really nice to stretch out my legs. The position I had to sit in was really hard for me. Because my legs are so short, I had to scoot forward on the bench so my knees could reach the knee strap. Unfortunately, that only left about an inch of the bench for me to sit on.

It was really not comfortable, and it hurt to stay in that position for long. It also hurt my ankle, and I couldn’t imagine how badly it must have been hurting Ben’s ankle.

We got back on the water, and I was feeling pretty good. I was still really nervous before most of the rapids, but there were a couple of them that I knew I could handle without a problem. Unfortunately, the next one was going to be a problem.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

As we were floating near the beginning of the next rapids, Glenn made an announcement that made my heart rate go way up.

“This is the biggest rapids of the day, everyone. After this we have three more rapids, and then we are done.”

He told us what we would have to do to get through this rapids, and I laughed. He made it sound like it was so simple! But looking at the rapids in front of us, I knew it wouldn’t be simple.

“Line up, duckling style! Give me 15 seconds between each canoe.”

Bobby and I were probably the third or fourth canoe in line. We watched as the first canoe made it through, but the next one flipped. After what seemed like ten minutes, but was really only fifteen seconds, Bobby told me to start paddling.

“Brett, wouldn’t it be really funny if we flipped here?”

“No, it would NOT be funny, Bobby. I would NOT be happy. Let’s just get through this without flipping, ok?”

“I think it would be really funny. I might even flip us on purpose! How awesome would that be?”

“Oh, ha ha ha. It would be really funny. And when we were done I would kill you, so you might not want to do it. And I wouldn’t let you share my mat again. And I wouldn’t let you have some of my water. You’d better not flip us on purpose, ok? Let’s just do this the way we have done the rest of the rapids, and we’ll be fine. “

I started paddling, following the trail that the canoe before us had taken. We were doing pretty well, but before I could realize what was happening everything went wrong. We were going sideways, the water pushing against us making the canoe rock. I tried to rock my hips with the canoe like we had been told to, but it wasn’t helping. My paddling wasn’t getting us anywhere either, and the correctional stroke I did just made it worse.

I realized that we were going to flip. I kept paddling, but it wasn’t doing anything. As the canoe started to flip, I took a deep breath, pulling my knees out of the straps. We went under and I panicked. My feet found the bottom and I pushed off, desperate to get to the surface. I found myself thinking of the last time I had flipped, and how I had gotten trapped under the canoe. I was just thinking over what I had to do to get out from under the canoe when my head was out of the water, and I could breath.

I was so glad for the air. I took a couple of deep breaths, unaware that my canoe, paddle, and Bobby were all floating down stream, away from me. I was facing upstream, and I realized that was the wrong way when a wall of white water came and hit me in the face, filling my open mouth with foul water.

That was some of the nastiest tasting water I’ve ever had in my mouth. I spit it out, making a face at the taste. I turned around so it wouldn’t happen again, and saw Bobby, the canoe and my paddle over ten feet away. I started swimming over to them, but it looked like they were getting farther and farther away.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

No matter how fast I tried to swim, I wasn’t catching up. We were almost past our crewmates who had already made it through the rapids when I finally caught up to my canoe. I grabbed my paddle from where it was floating next to the canoe, glad to have it back in my grasp.

I grabbed the painter and started swimming for the shore. We were already past our crew – now our goal was to get to shore before we got caught in the next rapids. It was coming up quickly, and there was a pretty good chance that Bobby or I would get hurt if we had to swim through the next rapids.

We had to turn the canoe and start swimming against the river. We were running out of time – the next rapids was so close, I could hear the water crashing against the rocks. I think I told Bobby to swim faster, pushing myself to the limit so I wouldn’t get sucked into those rapids. I thought that going through rapids in a canoe was bad – I couldn’t imagine having to float through it.

My fear of the water was a good thing right then – it’s the only reason I was able to keep swimming against the current to get to shore. It was really hard to keep going, but I’d listen and the sound of the water crashing against the rocks would motivate me to keep going. 🙂

After what seemed like forever, Bobby and I made it to shore. I was exhausted, but I still had to keep moving. We flipped the canoe back and forth, emptying all of the water out of it. When we were done we climbed back in, grabbed the gunwales of the canoe next to us.

“That was the first time I’ve ever seen you grab your gunwales, Brett. Normally you keep paddling, which is probably the reason you don’t flip. But this time you grabbed your gunwales right before you flipped.”

Glenn couldn’t be right. I didn’t remember grabbing my gunwales – I had never done it before.

“I seriously grabbed my gunwales?”

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

“Yep, you grabbed your gunwales.”

I didn’t reply. Why would I want to hear some more about how I flipped?

We headed out from the eddy once everyone had made it through the rapids. The next rapids was really easy, and it didn’t take long. It was so easy it wasn’t even scaring me. LOL

We went around an island and a bridge came into sight. We went through a small rocky area before stopping under a bridge. I thought we were just stopping to get instructions about our next rapids. But that little rocky spot we had just gone through was apparently our last rapids of the day.

I was thrilled to be done. I didn’t have to worry about the river anymore!

In order to get to the van, we had to carry the canoes up a steep hill. And then we had to carry them all the way across the entire canoeing place. It was a long walk, with our without canoes! Add the heavy canoes into that, and nobody wanted to do it. But we had to if we wanted to get to our campsite, and I know I wanted to get home!

I mean, I wanted to get to wherever home was that night. (It actually turned out to be a pretty nice campsite…)

We saw our crewmate who had stayed behind coming towards us with Katie.

“_____, you missed out on a really fun day!”
“You should have been with us today, _____.”
“It was weird not having everyone with us, _____!”

When the “reunion” was over, it was time to bring the canoes to the van. An hour later, the canoes were all there and up on the trailer. It was time to clean all of our water gear. We had to gather everything:

• The mesh bags that held our water bottles
• The knee straps
• The dry bags
• The lifejackets
• The water booties
• The helmets
• The windbreakers

When we were done gathering everything and putting it in the appropriate piles, it was time to clean it. We took the totes that Patrick gave us and filled them up with water. Patrick added a bottle of soap to one of the buckets, a bottle of some antiseptic stuff (I think that’s what it was…) to another, and left the other two buckets alone.

That was when we started the assembly line. Glenn spread out two clean tarps and told us not to step on them. We started dunking and swishing things in the totes, doing our best to clean them with the things we had. There were sponges in the scrubbing buckets, so you scrubbed everything down first. Then you moved them into the soapy bucket, where you swished them around. After that you rinsed them in the water tote, before dropping them in the antiseptic.

The dirty piles grew smaller and smaller, and the piles of clean stuff on the tarps grew larger and larger. After about twenty minutes of cleaning, we were done. We all felt disgusting, but everything else was clean!

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 seven, click here.

It wasn’t long before we were all in the van, ready to get to our campsite and get it set up before dark. It was a while before Jen and Katie were ready though, since they were talking to Patrick and Glenn.

After waiting about twenty minutes for Jen and Katie, we decided to break out Snack. We opened up a bag of “CRAP” (Chocolate, Raisins, Almonds, Peanuts) and chowed down. We were all really hungry!

Probably ten minutes or so after that, Jen and Katie (finally!) got in the van. They started driving, and we immediately asked for the radio.

Call Me Maybe came on and I was glad that I wasn’t in my normal seat. If I had been in my normal seat, Bruce would have kept hitting my head with his elbow as he danced. (Remember, he was dancing with Luke in the car?)

As soon as the song was over and everyone was done singing, everyone started calling Bruce.

“Hey Bruce, are you still hungry?”
“Bruce, do you want my raisins?”
“So… do you want my raisins, Bruce?”

Bruce sighed and passed his bowl around. When it came back, you couldn’t see the rest of his “CRAP” underneath all of the raisins.

“Why did I tell everyone that I liked raisins? I should have known better.”

I took pity on him and took a handful of raisins from his bowl. Everyone else put Snack away, cleaning up the pieces that had fallen out of their bowls. I slowly munched on the raisins, enjoying my time in the air conditioning.

It wasn’t long before we were pulling off the road onto a little parking lot. There was some gravel, but it was spread around a big area, and there was lots of grass in between it.

“This is where we are sleeping tonight??”

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 eleven of day seven, click here.

No one else said anything, but we were all thinking it. “This would be a really lousy spot to sleep in. There’s no trees to hang a tarp from, it’s gravel so it won’t be comfortable…”

“Nope, this isn’t where we are sleeping. This is just where we are parking the van and trailer. Everyone has to grab their gear, because we don’t want to have to come back for anything. It’s a bit of a trek.”

I grabbed my backpack, struggling to get it on while standing up. I gave up and sat down, a couple of seconds before realizing that there was nothing to help me stand back up.

“Hey guys, can anyone help me up? I’m stuck.”

I could see Kayce trying not to laugh as he grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. He already had his pack on and I wondered how he did it. How he was able to get that pack on his back without falling over – I had tried to lift his pack earlier, and I hadn’t been able to make it move, at all.

The weight on my shoulders was heavy, and at first I thought it was because I hadn’t carried my pack for a while. But then I remembered that I hadn’t clipped my straps, which would make it a lot easier to carry. If I clipped my hip strap, most of the weight would be carried by my hips. So it wasn’t weighing down my shoulders, so I could actually walk.

I clipped the straps and immediately felt better. It’s amazing how the weight could change if you did even the tiniest thing, whether it was simply using the hip straps, or adjusting the straps that held the brain of the pack.

When everyone was ready, we started walking. We went around the old, rusted gate, walking along a gravel driveway. At least, it looked like it had been a gravel driveway. After a couple of feet the gravel completely disappeared, leaving us on a strip of grass that was slightly shorter than the grass around it.

The “trail” split, and those of us who were in the front had no idea where to go. Katie yelled from the back of the line that we were supposed to go left, so we started off again.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 twelve of day seven, click here.

When Katie had said it was a bit of a trek, I thought she meant it was maybe five minutes from the trail head. I wasn’t expecting a shallow creek that I was barely able to jump across, piles of old junk everywhere, and a breeze that made me shiver. It was pretty cool junk though – the place had been used as a illegal dumping ground for a while, and there was some cool stuff in there. There was a whole truck sitting there, completely rusted and without any tires. But it was obviously a truck! There were a couple of other things that were rather cool, but I don’t remember them at the moment.

Ten minutes or so later, the trees thinned out. We could see two little clearings, one of them by the trail and another one down the hill. I could hear a creek in the distance, but I had no idea where it was. I prayed there would be time to rinse off my arms and legs, but told myself to not get my hopes up.

Jen told us to stop and she pointed down the hill.

“See that clearing there, girls? That’s where you are sleeping tonight. Katie and I are going to sleep in this clearing here, and the boys are going to sleep over that way.” She gestured further down the trail, so we all looked that way. I couldn’t see a clearing at all.

“Katie is going to start setting up our tarp, I’m going to take the guys to their campsite, and then I’ll be available to supervise dinner. Whoever is on cooking tonight, take care of your gear and then come with me. Sarah Margaret, I believe you are on dinner?”

Sarah Margaret nodded, glancing down at the clearing where we were sleeping. “I’ll be right there, Jen.” She started walking down towards our clearing and I followed, being careful not to slip. There wasn’t really a good way to get down there, and it was pretty steep. But soon enough we got down there.

The creek was close by – I could hear it rushing along somewhere near our clearing. It sounded like a pretty big creek too!

I set my pack down and looked around me, trying to find the best spot to set up our tarp. The other girls decided that they were going to set it up in a spot that I wouldn’t have chosen, but it wasn’t worth making a fuss. So what if it was going to be a little more uncomfortable for the girls on the edge. (AKA me and the other girl who got stuck on the outside that night. :D)

There weren’t that many sticks we could use for the tarp in the clearing, so I headed into the woods nearby to look for some. I walked a little ways, and it wasn’t long before I saw the creek.

It was pretty wide, with lots of big rocks in it. I really wanted to step out into it and wash off, but I knew that I needed to get back to the clearing with the stakes (decent sized branches) that I had found.

I told myself that I was going to come back, and headed back to the clearing. We didn’t have the tarp up as quickly as I would have liked, but we got it set up before dinner. Everyone started trying to get their packs into the middle, and I knew Sarah Margaret was going to be on the other edge that night. She wasn’t there to claim a good spot, so she was going to get the one that no one else wanted.

Putting my stuff down didn’t take me long – I was right on the edge, the same place I had been every night. Because I was on the edge I had room to maneuver, something that the girls in the middle didn’t get. So I had my stuff set up in about half the time the others did.

I pulled out my postcards, writing one to my family. On the bottom I put this.

“tuckshot.com aug 2nd red canoe orange PFD.”

I prayed that they would understand it, and put my writing materials away. Sarah Margaret had just come to tell us that dinner was ready, and I was hungry! I had no idea what we were having for dinner, but I was ready to eat anything.

Ok, so I probably wouldn’t have eaten Grape Nuts again. 😀

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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 thirteen of day seven, click here.

Grabbing my eating things only took thirty seconds, and then I was ready to go. I followed Sarah Margaret up the steep hill, glad I didn’t have my pack on. It was a slippery slope, and I didn’t want to slip and get muddy.

Sarah Margaret led us on the trail going towards the boy’s clearing. Two or three minutes later we were in another small clearing where dinner was laid out. Sarah Margaret showed us where the baby seal and soap were, so we all put our stuff down and washed our hands.

The smell was growing stronger, and I still couldn’t identify it. It smelled really good, whatever it was, and my stomach growled.

“Jen, what’s for dinner?”

“It’s something called Falafel, and it’s really good. We’re going to have it with pita or tortillas, whichever one you would prefer.”

Everyone sat down and we started passing bowls around. I decided that I was going to have a pita pocket, thinking that it would hold the falafel better.

The food started coming past me and my stomach growled again. I said a quick prayer as I passed the last bowl, so I would be ready to eat as soon as I had my food.

All of the bowls were where they belonged, so we were told we could eat. The falafel was really good!

As I was eating, I realized something. I was more than half way through the portion, and I was still hungry!

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*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.*