Pinball Canoeing with Water Snakes

So it was 6:50 in the morning. Pastor Alan walked into the Yurt with a bull-horn blaring... "Goooooood Morning Staff!!! Time to get up - be at Breakfast in 10 MINUTES!!!" We were barely conscious of what just happened. My friend muttered... "So ya want to play the ARMY game, huh?!"

We were sent on a 12 mile canoe trip that Monday - we started at 8:00 and canoed for about 8 hours. I was with my good friend Rachel - she was in front and I slowly learned how to steer. Unfortunately - it took me about 2 hours to get the hang of it. My friends Alex and Naomi were in the canoe behind us laughing at me. After 2 hours of pinballing off the reeds, trees, and shore, I finally asked, "Alex, how the heck do you steer this darn thing???" He calmly responded, "Oh, just drag your paddle on the side you want to turn..."

Duh.

So after 3 hours we reached the fallen tree stage of the journey. Rachel and I were doing a lot better, but suddenly we got caught up in the rapid part of the current and ran up against a tree. As I tried to push off, I looked up at my hand on the branch as a ginormous water snake raised it's head to eat my hand. Rachel turned around and screamed louder than anything I've ever heard before. I tried to calm her down and push off from the tree at the same time. Thank God the current caught us right back again and we were on our way.

After about 8 hours, we reached the shore of Greenville, MI. The cell phone placed for us to call camp was dead - ON PURPOSE. So Alex, Myself, Rachel Melson, and Wess had to walk through Greenville begging for a phone to call camp with.

Alex and I were shirtless.
Rachel and Wess looked like a homeless couple.
We were a great looking group of hobos...

Yes, we made it back to camp.

Next morning - 6:40 AM - repeat performance.

Except this time - we had to do it all AGAINST THE CURRENT. You see, we hadn't followed our orders to the letter on Monday... we thought we needed to break the rules for physical safety. The Directors thought otherwise. So we had to canoe from the spot in Greenville back to Lincoln Lake. Through the trees, upstream, against the current, and with only 1 peanut butter sandwich...

Felt like freaking boot camp... not gonna lie.

Sparing the tiresome details of the rain, the dead end, the hunger, the cramps, the jumps in the water to pull the canoes, the multiple breaks, crossing the dam...ect... God did the impossible.

Not only did we make it back to Lincoln Lake - WE MADE IT IN TIME FOR DINNER!!!

Yeah, staff training was rough at the time...

But it was worth it.