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One of my most beautiful experiences so far;
Since joining up for the Outdoors club at Uni, I decided to make the most of it and go on their first trip of the semester..to Algonquin Provincial Park. It is an absolutely huge conservation area with lots of lakes and forests and general beautifulness. The actual park is about an 8 hour drive from where I live at the moment and we were going there to spend the weekend canoeing (and unknowingly portaging!) around the north lakes.
We got split into driving and camping groups before the weekend, and I ended up in the car of a Canadian boy also with a canadian and german girl. And then in the camping group I was with my friends from Leeds, Lauren and Ben aswell as another english boy, a californian boy, a chinese girl and 2 canadians. As you can tell the outdoors club has a lot of international students! Despite the trips name it didnt really register with me until we got there that it was a canoeing trip, I kind of expected more hiking. Annoyingly I had forgotten to bring all my hiking/waterproof stuff from home, even though I knew I was doing outdoors, so I had to go back to my new favourite shop, Goodwill, basically a charity shop in a warehouse! I managed to kit myself out with waterproofs (Columbia!), a hoody, joggers, hiking socks and some other things all for $40! Its a lifesaver! Although buying brand new hiking boots was a bit of a slap in the face. Anyway it all worked very well and I ended up being VERY thankful for my lovely waterproof trousers!
The first night of the trip we stayed in the Outfitters at Algonquin, we didn't get there until 1 in the morning because we had to wait for everyone to finish uni before we could set off. And suprisingly we managed to get there without getting lost and I was reading the map! The last road we were on however was probably one of the spookiest, rural roads I've ever been on and we were sure it was the wrong way but after going down what I could only call a path we found the cabins! A lot more of a success than the car that went down a ditch, ran out of petrol and the one that took 12 hours to get there!!
The first night was complete luxury, having a big log cabin for about 30 of us to sleep in, just in a sleeping bag on the floor, but a lot warmer than a tent! Then the next morning after breakfast the owner of the outfitters introduced himself - Bill - the most stereotypical wildnerness Canadian, who could possibly be insane. We nicknamed him Mr Canada and he was absolutely hilarious! He began by teaching us how to portage with the canoe - basically carry a canoe on your head!!- something I didnt even know existed to be honest. It was a lot harder than he made it look. And then he went out onto the lake and attempted to shout to us how to steer a canoe. This did not fill us with much hope, especially seen as there was 3 of us girls in the canoe and we all had barely any experience.
We were pushed out though and given some quick tips by Bill's fellow crazy friend, standing waist deep in the lake in his jeans! And I have to say, the first 20 mins were some of the scariest! The weather was not ideal and the lake was unbelievably choppy and despite Mr Canada telling us to always swim with the waves, they then told us we had the head left. We struggled and zig-zagged for quite a while as the steering took a lot of getting used to, but eventually we found our way to the river. The first day was the least enjoyable just because it was so rainy and the lake at the beginning and end was so choppy it was pretty scary. It was definatly an experience though.
We all ended up in bed by half 8 as it had gotten dark and cold very fast, but then one of my friends just happened to look outside his tent and notice how clear the sky was. So most of us ended up getting up again and I have to say I am unbelievably glad I did! The stars were incredible, I have literally never seen anything like it before. We could see the Milky way right across the sky and I saw my first ever shooting star. It is without a doubt the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!
Shortly after this, one of the boys who hadnt gotten up, shouted 'Guys...I think there's an animal in the tent' and he was very right. Turns out a mouse had got in the tent and been running across their faces for the last 10 minutes but Galen who had been trying to sleep thought it was Rebecca stroking his nose! It was hilarious watching them trying to catch the mouse in his hat and it taught us the lesson of always keeping the tent closed!
The next day was alot more fun, it got out really sunny and we switched canoes around a bit so one of the boys was in our canoe - a bit more man power! We ended up doing two 2km portages throughout the day which were hard work but I did really enjoy being out on the lakes. The park was so pretty in the fall with all the leaves turning yellow and red, so much more vibrant than I've seen in England. And I was on the constant look out for Moose or Bears but unfortunatly I think it was a bit too cold/ we were too noisy for them to come out of hiding. I did end up seeing a chipmunk and a bald eagle though.
The next trip with outdoors club is a hiking trip in Tobermory this weekend (4.10.12 - im writing this blog very late) and I'm looking forward to it, despite the fact many people have told us we're crazy because its going to be so cold. We'll survive...its always worth it!
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