So yesterday's post was a little short, so I thought I'd go into my canoe trip with a little more detail! First, how do we even get there?? Well, we had three drivers going up to the camp, one of which was my mother. We all met at our church (because I went with my friends from church) and said a quick prayer and headed off on our 4 hour drive to Camp Amnicon (somewhere in Wisconsin...) We stopped for lunch in Hinkley, MN where there was a junction-y type of thing where there was a bunch of different restaurants and things in one area. Me and my friends went to subway and savored every bite for it would be the last food we ate that wasn't cooked over flames for the next week. Once every one was done stuffing their faces we headed off to the nearest gas station for gas. Of course every one piled out and bought mounds of candy (i.e. a 2lb bag of gummy worms for $2!) We then got back in the vans and drove for 2 more hours. Now me and one of my friends Reece had gone to this camp last year and recognized the roads and landmarks on the way and we could tell we were finally getting close! On the way up to this point no one had fallen asleep because of excitement and anticipation. Hooray! We'd arrived around 3pm and got to meet our guides/counselors that we were "stuck with" for the week! One of them, Matt grew up in Bangladesh and his dad owns a film company that specializes in socially networking through film that operates in Bangladesh. So I thought that was really cool! I learned that Bangladesh is actually pronounced [bong-la-desh] and not [bang-la-desh]. So yeah, Matt was pretty cool. Our other guide, Lexi was really funny and had this weird belief that if you sing the Johnny Appleseed song, rain is a given. Me and my fellow canoers tried that conspiracy out and we've proven it wrong, but it sure looked like it was going to rain any second on the last day. Another member of the welcoming committee was our good 'ol pal Ben. Ben is the funniest person, I mean dog anybody could meet! He's a Golden Retriever and is trained extremely well. He's actually a therapy dog and is part of the official staff. His title is "Director of Hospitality" and is apparently on the payroll. They pay him in stuffed animals and food. This is no joke either! When me and Reece got out of the van we immediately said hello to Ben before anybody else! So now we've arrived at Camp Amnicon and met our guides and the other staff members, now it's time to get down to business! We have to go over camp rules, safety regulations, and a bunch of other boring things. But it's our favorite part of the day because we get milk and fresh cookies from our awesome cooks! We then head to the lodge where we sleep and dump our all of our things and pack up everything again into waterproof bags. We also prepare for the upcoming departure by getting rain gear, food, and toiletries such as flashlights (yeah, there's no such thing as soap or even clean on this trip...) into our bags as well. Then we load all of those bags into Duluth Packs (large backpacks) and set them aside for the next day. Then we head down the the Amnicon River, which is right next to the lodge and we do what is called "Swim and Swamp". If you know anything about canoeing you know what the swamp part of that means. Of course for those who don't know, its where you tip and/or flip the canoe over and you have to flip it back up. That's always alot of fun and of course I did sooo awesome at it! (that was sarcastic in case you missed that).
Then we ate dinner and slept for a longtime because every one was exhausted. Yay! You've completed reading about day 1 of the Canoe Trip! I'll pick up where I left off tomorrow because I now realize how long this post is already!
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