The best vacation in his life

[Pickle Jello†]

Jake stepped out of the car. He was cramped in for three days. Not without stops, of course, but much of his time was in the van, watching movies on a laptop. He was in the van for this long because it was Boy Scout High Adventure trek to Northern Tier, Canada.

Northern Tier is a very large place with miles of lakes. It is a very common spot for people to visit while in Canada. It is filled with miles and miles of lakes. It is one of the three usual places for Boy Scout High Adventure treks. In this High Adventure trek, his troop was trying to get the 50-mile canoeing award. High Adventure treks were for scouts age 14 and older. Jake was 15, so he could finally go to one.

When he stepped out, he did what everyone else would do. He stretched. When he looked around at the other scouts in his troop, he saw that Mikey was carrying a rock with a face drawn on it and "Cursey" was written on it.
"What's with the rock?" asked Jake.
"It's Cursey," replied Mikey. "I have to carry him."
With the name Cursey, Jake suddenly remembered. It was a troop tradition for High Adventure treks. If you swear, you have to carry a rock with you. The more you swore, the heavier the rock. This was Jake's first High Adventure Trek, but he saw pictures from earlier ones when he was younger of other scouts carrying huge rocks. Of course, that applied more to hiking than canoeing. Cursey didn't look too heavy, but it definitely wasn't something that Jake would want to carry around everywhere.

Now, to introduce Mikey. He was a fellow Boy Scout who's most recognizable feature was the fact that he was very flirtatious. Whenever he'd see a girl who was anything above unattractive, he'd flirt with her. He did that throughout the car trip whenever he'd see a girl, from a waitress to a guide to a museum. He had dirty blonde hair that was a little long and straight.

Jake and the rest of the scouts carried their bags to the campsite. There were several cabins, so Jake was glad that he got to sleep in a cot and not just on the ground, like the past few days. A young man with short, black hair told him and a few other scouts to enter one of the cabins. He placed his bags on a cot. The young man introduced himself as Bryan, their interpreter. He also told them that "interpreter" was just a fancy word for "guide." In Canada, for someone to be called a guide, they have to go through certain tests. "Interpreter" was just a loophole. He also added "Ask what I interpret and I'll just say 'Uhhh... the land?'" He also bragged that he never swamped a canoe before. They planned out what their route would be. They decided to stop at a few islands for campsites, stop at the White Otter Castle, a building that was supposed to be cool, a World War II POW camp, and go through only two portages, points where they would have to get out of their canoe and walk across land to their next point.

Afterwards, they went to the mess hall to have dinner. Jake sat near his friends, Mikey, still carrying Cursey, and Matt. Matt was a boy scout one year younger than him who was of Native American descent. He was very kind-hearted. They humorously talked about what tomorrow would be like when they started canoeing.

After dinner, they went back to the cabin to organize their bags as to what would be their wet clothes for canoeing in and what would be their dry clothes for being on the campsites with. They put them all in grey whales, very large packs that were water resistant. That night, although he was anxious to start canoeing, he was stressed out and nervous. He cried himself to sleep. The next day would be the start of the best vacation of his life.

They started off that next day by preparing everything for the trip. While Jake was waiting, he started to get annoyed by mosquitoes. They were everywhere and were bigger than what he was used to. After a few hours, he finally got on the bus that would take him to the beginning of the long canoe trip.

After he got off the bus, he walked on the shore of a freshwater beach. He unloaded canoes. He was assigned to a canoe with Bryan and Jim. Jim was an adult leader who was obese and definitely one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest people there. As this was a bad idea, putting two heavy people in the same canoe, it was even worse, because Bryan made Jim the bowman, or man in front, Jake the duffer, or man in the middle, and himself the sternman, or man in back. The heaviest person is supposed to go in the back of the canoe and the lightest in front. Jake didn't have to do anything, so he sat in the canoe. While he sat in, the waves were high and water started to get in the canoe. The water started getting deeper. Bryan blamed the winds and high waves. Inevitably, the canoe swamped. Fortunately, the canoe was close enough to the island, so the three could swim it over. When they hit the shore, they waited for the other three canoes to get over there. They decided to take a break and have lunch there. After eating lunch, Jake and the other scouts decided to explore that island. It was full of bushes and wasn't very pleasant to walk through, but it wasn't very big.

When they started canoeing again, Jake, Jim, and Bryan were put in the same positions. Inevitably, the canoe swamped again.
"Fuckin' instable canoes!" Bryan shouted angrily.
"Instability? Yeah, right," Jake thought.
This time, they weren't very close to land. They had to do a T-rescue. A T-rescue is when a canoe capsizes and another canoe comes and the capsized canoe is put on top of the other canoe upside down. The canoe would then be taken out of the canoe right side up and the people inside would have to jump back inside. Needless to say, it was difficult. Jake managed to get through the first steps easily, but he had to try a few times to jump back in the canoe. Because of the panicking, he had to be the sternman for a short time and row steer. When they finally got to the nearest island, Bryan decided to do what he should've done from the beginning and put Jim in the middle and Jake at front. The canoe never swamped again. The best part was that Bryan bragged about never swamping the canoe, but he ended up swamping twice within the first hour.

Being up front was tougher since he had to row. When he was doing things wrong, Bryan told him how to row with better technique. Jake looked around and managed to see the tranquil beauty the place had. Since it was windy, Bryan said that they should go sailing. The four canoes in the crew went next to each other and tied some ropes together to start sailing with the wind. Unfortunately, as soon as they managed to tie the sail up, the wind got lighter.

The weather wasn't the best for canoeing, so the crew didn't want to go through the first portage. Fortunately, they found a campsite right near the portage. They stopped at that campsite for the night. There was a freshwater beach on the shore and a mountain for looking for firewood. However, there were also a lot of mosquitoes. That entire evening, Jake was anxious to get canoeing again.

[T-Fox†]

((I spoke to Pickle before posting in this topic, and have permission.))

Peter hopped out of the van entusiastically, glancing around at the incredible view. "I'm so glad I was old enough to go this year." He said to himself, looking around at the natural beauty of the area. This was Peter's first high adventure, he had just barely turned 14 before the cut off date. He spent a few minutes gawking at the scenery before turning to the van and pulling out his pack, securing it around his waste and his chest, before glancing over himself to make sure he had everything. "Pocketknife... Check... Flashlight... Canteen... Yup, that's everything." He smiled, and moved over to join the other scouts.

Peter moved with the other scouts to the campsite, where he spotted three large cabins. He looked positively extatic. "Wow, we actually get to sleep in cabins!" He grinned, picking up his pace to get to the front of the group, getting placed in the first one with a few other boys by their "Interperter" Bryan. He immedately flopped down his large pack, which made the cot creak. He took a moment to take a few things out, like his sleeping bag, pillow, and Flashlight, before joining the group congregating around one of the tables. They were apparently planning the route for the next day, which seemed to take them first to a PoW WWII Camp. "Now THAT sounds like fun. I wonder what that's gonna be like." He thought to himself, listening to the others.

Once the route had been planned, he flopped back on his cot, trying to stretch and relax his aching muscles. "Oohh... I'm going to sleep great tonight." He mused. He laid there for an hour or so, before trekking to the mess hall to hopefully get some decent food.

Upon returning, peter was given a 'Grey Whale', a large water resistant pack. Instead of transfering his things from one pack to another, he instead took out his wet clothes for the next day, and attempted to slide his own pack inside of the Grey Whale. It was a small pack afterall, and it would keep his pack dry, along with the clothes. Peter stayed up for another few hours, talking to other scouts, playing cards, and pretty much just goofing off. When the amount of awake boys began to dwindle, he slid into his own sleeping bag, getting a good night's sleep.

The next morning, Peter was one of the first up and ready to go. This meant he had quite a bit of time before they actually got on the busses to leave. He plopped down in a nearby camp chair, deciding to relax until the busses arrived. Once the busses got there, he got on the first one to pull up, putting his things down near the front, and sitting down, looking out of the window at the scenery.

Upon reaching the beach, Peter helped bringing down the canoes... or so he tried. Due to his small stature, he got in the way more than he helped. After a few attempts, he stopped, and plopped down on a rock near the shore, waiting for the canoes to get placed in the water. He got assigned to a boat with Mikey and one of the adult leaders, he got placed in the middle of the canoe. "Awesome! I can do nothing and watch the view!" he thought to himself. They went for a while before he watched another canoe a little behind his swamp, and the three people in it swim it to the shore. "We'd better head in there too." The adult leader in his canoe said. They re-directed onto the small island that the three had swam to.

After lunch, they started canoeing again, and that same canoe, holding Jake and Bryan swamped again. Peter started laughing, until his canoe was chosen to do a T-Rescue. It was a pain, but they evenually got the other three back into their boat. "Be more careful next time!" Peter playfully said to Jake, smiling the whole while. They eventually decided to tie up a sail. Peter decided to lay back, stretching out as the serene countryside passed them by. "This is the life..." Peter said.

Upon reaching the first portage, Peter pulled out his Tent and Sleeping bag, and helped set up camp at the campsite that the crew had found. "That was fun today." Peter said to mikey upon setting up the tent. "I can't wait to see what's gonna happen tomorrow." A short time after dinner, Peter decided to turn in for the night, curling up in his sleeping bag, anxious for tomorrow.

[Pickle Jello†]

"Good morning, scouts!" was the first thing Jake heard that morning. The next thing he heard was the pitter-patter on top of his tent. It was raining. Jake slowly got up. He then looked for his shoes on the floor of the tent and put them on. He unzipped his tent and walked outside. He walked under the tarp. He remembered that breakfast should be next. He went back in his tent and got his bowl and spoon. He then sat on a log under the tarp. "What's for breakfast?" Jake asked. "Eggs," Bryan replied. Jake was relieved that breakfast would be good on this rainy morning. He knew that he wouldn't go canoeing until the rain let down a bit, even after breakfast. Some mosquitoes got on him. He slapped towards them. One died, the rest just flew away. He realized that he was getting better at hitting mosquitoes. He just really wanted to get caneoing again.

[T-Fox†]

Peter heard their scoutmaster trying to roust everyone. This was the one part of camping he hated, getting up so early. He rolled over, and closed his eyes again, sighing as he heard the rain on his tent "Great... that's going to be fun, canoeing in the rain." He mutter to himself. After a few minutes he was out of his sleeping bag, and dressed, with a Poncho, munching on eggs. He glanced out to the river, and the canoes once he was done, stretching himself out. "So, Bryan? When are we heading back out?"

"Once the rain lets up some." came the response. Made sense to Peter. He could only imagine that the rain would make things trickier anyways. He proceeded to wash his plates, packing them up, and started breaking down the tent, humming to himself. Mentally, he was running over his checklist, making sure he had everything important out of his pack before stuffing everything in the Grey Whale.

[Pickle Jello†]

After a few hours, the rain finally stopped. It was still grey in the sky however. It was finally time to go. The crew put their grey whales in the canoe. Bryan, Jim, and Jake went first. After about five minutes of canoeing, they got to the portage, where they had to get out of the canoe and carry everything to the next waterway. Jake was assigned to carry the grey whale. Jake squatted in front of the grey whale and picked up his pack. It suddenly felt heavy at his shoulders. He got up and bent forward as he walked, swatting mosquitoes at the same time. Fortnuately, this portage wasn't very long, so they got back into the water in just a few minutes. When they got far from the land, Bryan told him to rest. He put his paddle in the canoe and used this time to swat the remaining mosquitoes. When they went again, everyone was nearby. Bryan started singing "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" by the Arrogant Worms, which would practically become the theme song of this trip.

[T-Fox†]

Once the troop had gotten to the portage, Peter got up our of his canoe and stretched out. He hopped onto an end of his own canoe in an attempt to help carry it, although he was barely able to lift the corner, due to his height. He itched all over, he had been raveged by the local mosquito population last night, and it looked like they were coming back at him today. He carried the canoe across the small portage, plopping it back in the water with a splash. He was the first in, and got the middle, just like the trip to the first site's camp. Peter nodded off after a little while, just missing the first singing of "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate" for the trip.