The End

After North Carolina life got crazy, groups came in non-stop so we facilitated a lot. Since I am a slight procrastinator I left my year end powerpoint project until this time as well as I wasn’t sure what I was doing with my life.

For our last week together we went on a five day canoe trip around the area. Our plan was to do a loop so that we ended in the same spot. Where we canoed was very remote so we only saw a couple of cottages. On our first day we had five portages, the second day at one of our portages there was poison ivy everywhere so instead of walking around the rocky brook we decided to take the heavy packs out of our boat and lift/drag our canoe up the creek. It worked pretty well but the ground wasn’t very stable so knowing my balance the boat was dragging me more than I was dragging it.

At the end of our second day we were all going crazy because of the bugs. At some points the bugs were so bad that you could sweep your hand across your arm and kill twenty. If this isn’t enough of a picture Bruce and Michael our leaders who have done these trips for over twenty years said that they were the worst they have ever seen them. So needless to say some people wanted out, I was ok to keep going on or stop. Esther being the amazing leader that she is found out who did and didn’t want to stay and we realized that only one person really would like to continue on. So they got the maps out and figured out how we could get out and we made it home by supper the next day. So for our last scheduled day together we went to Michael’s parent’s cottage and had a relaxing day swimming, gunnel bobbing the canoe, and playing cards.

Then on Friday and Saturday we had time to clean up from the trip, pack up all our belongings, and clean the homestead. This may sound easy but packing all your belongings, spring cleaning a house in two days while we were all getting our grad powerpoint’s together, and wanting to hang out....talk about crazy.

So Sunday came and our grad was at three. It was nice and simple, Michael, Bruce, and Steve all said a little something. Each of us did a five minute powerpoint about a couple of things that we have learned this year and a funny moment. Then we all got two certificates and a plaque with a picture of us and a small certificate in it. After came the sad time to say goodbye to all my friends...and yes I bawled like a baby!

These past ten months have been some of the hardest, but also the most rewarding times. I have gained lifelong friends although getting there was never the easiest of things. To my LDP friends and Medeba friends, thank you for an amazing year. You have helped me grow, put up with my craziness and listened to me using countless non-existent words, so thank you.

Winter Wonderland

So the next part of our North Carolina trip was a four day hike of the Appalachian Trail. Like on our Florida trip we had to split into two groups because you are only allowed to book six spots at the camp sites. My group was the all girls group with Melinda, Laura, and Heidi. We started at Fontana Dam and ended at Clingmans Dome. Our first day was approximately a ten mile hike, unfortunately it rained until lunch and then was fogy for the rest of the day. The terrain was up and down throughout the four days and we barely saw a flat piece of land at all. The uphill hurt my muscles, but the downhill hurt my joints and feet more. As a group we preferred going uphill to downhill....it’s kind of funny to think that we were rejoicing when we would start to go uphill....who does that!?!

The coolest part of hiking the AT is that everyone gets trail names, you either come up with your own or one gets bestowed on you. On our first day we met a man named Warren (who we called Santa because he had a white beard) and he found out when we started hiking that morning and then proceeded to tell us that we weren’t too fast. After talking to him we decided to call ourselves the Canadian Kayaking Ninja Turtles. Canadian...is self explanatory (unless you’re Laura who is Australian), Kayaking because we were much better at kayaking than hiking, Ninja because well that’s just cool, and Turtles because that’s how fast we hiked. But people could never remember our name so they just called us the TMNT.

On our first morning we woke up to frost on the trees and snow on the ground. Wow, ya we weren’t prepared for that. So we tried to keep warm while walking through a winter wonderland. Throughout the day it was like we were walking through the different seasons. On one side of the ridge there would be snow and then on the other the sun was shining and there would be flowers.

By the end of the week we had a reputation that preceded us. On our last night we met a guy named Nick who was doing a week hike just for fun. We asked him if he had heard anything about us and his response was that meals with us were very interesting. This was very true! First of all we had brought a pot that held about 4-5 litres, and since when you are hiking you bring as little as possible we were made fun of every night. It was also due to the fact that people don’t really hike the trail in groups like us so they are used to pots the size of your fist. Also we had some issues with our food not rehydrating to an edible fashion as well as some very starchy spaghetti. But I think the thing that made cooking the most memorable is that we would always end up laughing at ourselves. Everyone at the campsite would hear our running commentary how terrible our food was going to be and then we would offer our leftovers to them....weirdly enough most people declined our generous offer.

But by far the best part of the hike was the fact that you meet people for a night or sometimes two and you feel like family the minute you meet.