*crickets chirp*

Via UrbanDictionary: Used to point out or emphasize silence. (Well, not precisely silence, since chirping crickets make sound. But you get it.)

So yeah, it’s been a little quiet around the ol’ blog the last few weeks, hasn’t it?

The silence was mainly brought on by the fact that I spent the better part of last week paddling my way through the Sayward Forest Canoe Route with Kirsten, her co-worker Sutty, Tyler, and a plucky bunch of Grade 11 students from her Outdoor Ed. class.

The other reason being partly because as I get back into my regularly scheduled training regime, it is a lot of same-old-same-old. Good same-old-same-old mind you, but same-old-same-old all the same. (Haha, is that a record for the number of times the word ‘same’ has been used in a sentence??)

So, since training has been rolling along nicely (and somewhat uneventfully), let’s talk about Sayward.

Short version...
It was a pretty wicked trip.

Long version...
I’ll admit, there were moments on night one, while lying in the tent, listening to the wind and rain beat down on us (and even feeling the rain splash my face through the tent’s fly), that I questioned my decision to go on the trip. I quickly realized that while I love the outdoors and do spend my fair share of time outside doing fun things, I haven’t really done a lot of overnight backpack camping (or you know, any of it).

I definitely spent the first little while feeling a bit useless. My hands were numb, which made tying knots to hang the tarps difficult (although my general lack of know-how on knot-tying trumped the numb hands). So, I kinda stood around and held up the tarp while Kirsten and Sutty strung it up. After a number of school trips together, they’ve pretty much got things down to a science, so I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about my uselessness (cause they really didn’t need me anyway).

Anyhoo, needless to say, night one sucked, but by the time we started paddling again on day two, and the skies [mostly] dried up, it was all good.

Camp on night two was great. It was dry. We had a good fire. The maturity level of 16 year old boys is pretty much the same as the maturity level of the women in my office (whom I think are hilarious), so some laughs were definitely had, and for the most part I felt pretty comfortable and relaxed. The previous night's deluge was a distant memory.

Side Note: Night two introduced me to what I'm pretty sure is the best name ever for an intramural sports team. Alpa-Kenny-Buddy. Say that one fast. Now imagine it being said over your high school loudspeaker announcements. Classic.

For the first two and a half days I spent most of the time paddling at the front of the boat (and essentially being the muscle), but after a few partner changes, I got to try my hand at steering toward the end of the trip as well, and… I didn’t completely suck at it. Woo!

Camp on night three was an absolutely gorgeous setting, and when the rain started to fall overnight, knowing that the following day was our last one on the water, and that warm showers and cozy beds were waiting for us at home once we crossed the final lake, it didn’t even matter.

The final day of paddling wasn’t the fastest for me and my partner, but the lake was so calm and peaceful that I didn’t mind spending a little extra time out there. The clouds hung ‘just so’ over the forest lining the shore and the movement of the paddles was pretty much the only sound around us (aside from the air horn one of the kids smuggled on the trip that is, haha).

So, while night one may have had me questioning my sanity, it turned out to be a really great trip. All the kids were super fun and well behaved and Kirsten and Sutty took care of me and introduced me to a new world of paddling, portaging and camping.


p.s. I did not take my camera, as I don’t have a waterproof one, but once Kirsten posts some photos on Facebook I’ll poach a few and add them.