Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Well, seeing as I just took part in a major event, it is only proper that I tell all of you about it. It is going to be hard to put the last 5 weeks into words, so much stuff happened, and to get a full grasp of it all you would have to experience it for yourselves. 
To begin, we set out from Summit College on April 2nd for Arkansas. It was a 2 day drive with nearly 40 students crammed into 3 15 passenger vans. We spent our first 2-3 nights at Steel Creek on the Buffalo National River, the bluffs were amazing. When we finally set out the water was low and the first 3 days of paddling were spent pushing our boats over what should have been small rapids. Between each day of paddling we would have a day off to hangout and check out the hikes and sites, and we made a couple stops on the days we were paddling to check out some waterfalls and other sites. At one site we had our Easter dinner, deep friend turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, quite the meal considering we were camping. After the third day of paddling the interns and staff left us students and we had to make our way 50 miles to Gilbert, where we would meet up with them again.
During those 4 days we didn't encounter any serious disagreements, but afterwards when we debriefed about the time some issues were brought up, but in the end it all worked out. When we met up with the others in Gilbert we went for supper at this amazing little cafe and had the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen, 1/2 lb of beef per patty, and most of the guys had the double bacon cheese burger, that is 1 lb of meet, it was rather filling, and the next morning most of us went back for breakfast and the servings for that were huge as well, and everything was so cheap. We also got to go to a small church the Sunday we were in Gilbert. We did some special numbers for them, and they had a huge potluck for us after. For a church of only 40 or so people they sure made a lot of food. It was an amazing experience, and the pastor did an amazing sermon on Psalm 23. After Gilbert we continued paddling and at our next stop, South Maumee, we had a day of fasting.
The day after our fast we built the 8th Summit Love Barge, a tradition that has been off and on for a number of years. We strapped all the canoes together, 14 of them, and floated our makeshift raft for our final day of canoeing, to Buffalo Point, where we spent the next 8 days. After a couple days at Buffalo Point we started into our kayaking and climbing classes. We were divided into 4 groups based on our comfort in kayaking, I was in the last group, the one that felt least comfortable. On our first day of paddling the water was fairly low, the features weren't that big and the rapids weren't too tough for us to handle, and all through the day after every rapid we would chant what became our group's motto "DEWAYNE'S." We were told at the beginning of the day that if we got discouraged about our kayaking skills to think of Dewayne's, which is the restaurant that every group got to go to on their first day of kayaking. Once again, another restaurant that serves insane amounts of food for really cheap. I had so much catfish that I felt sick, 6 pieces plus potato salad, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and hush puppies, which even the waitress didn't exactly what they were. The night before our second day of kayaking we had a huge rain storm which raised the water 2 feet over what level they close the river at, they close it at 5 feet so we ran it at 7. That day was spent simply trying to make it through alive. It took us far longer than it should have to run it because, for the first half, people were tipping at every rapid. Kaj and Jordan showed up half way through to help us. When Kaj had seen the water level at the put in he had wondered why we even attempted to kayak that day, and our lead instructor was sure that someone was going
to die or get seriously hurt that day. But, on the last half of the rapids, our confidence had built up enough that we made it through without too many more tips, and we ended up running a low class 4 rapid. It was one of my favorite days of the trip, which is ironic because I was in the group that didn't care to kayaking, and it became the most hardcore group, hence the reason we started being called Hardcore Four. There was a lot of encouragement going around, and it really pulled our group together. We did our climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, which has over 300 set climbing routes, and numerous bouldering problems.
I didn't climb as hard as a climb as I wanted to, but it was still tons of fun. Once that was all done we packed up and headed back to Canada, but we encountered a slight problem the day before we were supposed to leave. A number of us had stored our passports in a tupperware container that was locked away, and the morning before we were to leave it was in our trailer, that night it wasn't. But, we needed to leave, so we headed off for Canada, got to the boarder and we still had no passports. God did His thing though, and all our vans made it through without any hassle, the van I was in got asked how much everyone spent on average while in the States, then he sent us through. Praise the Lord. As it is, we still haven't found our passports, so hopefully they will be found before we leave for home. So much other stuff happened on our trip, but it would take so long to write it all, but this gives you at least some idea what I have been up to for the last 5 weeks.
To begin, we set out from Summit College on April 2nd for Arkansas. It was a 2 day drive with nearly 40 students crammed into 3 15 passenger vans. We spent our first 2-3 nights at Steel Creek on the Buffalo National River, the bluffs were amazing. When we finally set out the water was low and the first 3 days of paddling were spent pushing our boats over what should have been small rapids. Between each day of paddling we would have a day off to hangout and check out the hikes and sites, and we made a couple stops on the days we were paddling to check out some waterfalls and other sites. At one site we had our Easter dinner, deep friend turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, quite the meal considering we were camping. After the third day of paddling the interns and staff left us students and we had to make our way 50 miles to Gilbert, where we would meet up with them again.
During those 4 days we didn't encounter any serious disagreements, but afterwards when we debriefed about the time some issues were brought up, but in the end it all worked out. When we met up with the others in Gilbert we went for supper at this amazing little cafe and had the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen, 1/2 lb of beef per patty, and most of the guys had the double bacon cheese burger, that is 1 lb of meet, it was rather filling, and the next morning most of us went back for breakfast and the servings for that were huge as well, and everything was so cheap. We also got to go to a small church the Sunday we were in Gilbert. We did some special numbers for them, and they had a huge potluck for us after. For a church of only 40 or so people they sure made a lot of food. It was an amazing experience, and the pastor did an amazing sermon on Psalm 23. After Gilbert we continued paddling and at our next stop, South Maumee, we had a day of fasting.
The day after our fast we built the 8th Summit Love Barge, a tradition that has been off and on for a number of years. We strapped all the canoes together, 14 of them, and floated our makeshift raft for our final day of canoeing, to Buffalo Point, where we spent the next 8 days. After a couple days at Buffalo Point we started into our kayaking and climbing classes. We were divided into 4 groups based on our comfort in kayaking, I was in the last group, the one that felt least comfortable. On our first day of paddling the water was fairly low, the features weren't that big and the rapids weren't too tough for us to handle, and all through the day after every rapid we would chant what became our group's motto "DEWAYNE'S." We were told at the beginning of the day that if we got discouraged about our kayaking skills to think of Dewayne's, which is the restaurant that every group got to go to on their first day of kayaking. Once again, another restaurant that serves insane amounts of food for really cheap. I had so much catfish that I felt sick, 6 pieces plus potato salad, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and hush puppies, which even the waitress didn't exactly what they were. The night before our second day of kayaking we had a huge rain storm which raised the water 2 feet over what level they close the river at, they close it at 5 feet so we ran it at 7. That day was spent simply trying to make it through alive. It took us far longer than it should have to run it because, for the first half, people were tipping at every rapid. Kaj and Jordan showed up half way through to help us. When Kaj had seen the water level at the put in he had wondered why we even attempted to kayak that day, and our lead instructor was sure that someone was going
to die or get seriously hurt that day. But, on the last half of the rapids, our confidence had built up enough that we made it through without too many more tips, and we ended up running a low class 4 rapid. It was one of my favorite days of the trip, which is ironic because I was in the group that didn't care to kayaking, and it became the most hardcore group, hence the reason we started being called Hardcore Four. There was a lot of encouragement going around, and it really pulled our group together. We did our climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, which has over 300 set climbing routes, and numerous bouldering problems.
I didn't climb as hard as a climb as I wanted to, but it was still tons of fun. Once that was all done we packed up and headed back to Canada, but we encountered a slight problem the day before we were supposed to leave. A number of us had stored our passports in a tupperware container that was locked away, and the morning before we were to leave it was in our trailer, that night it wasn't. But, we needed to leave, so we headed off for Canada, got to the boarder and we still had no passports. God did His thing though, and all our vans made it through without any hassle, the van I was in got asked how much everyone spent on average while in the States, then he sent us through. Praise the Lord. As it is, we still haven't found our passports, so hopefully they will be found before we leave for home. So much other stuff happened on our trip, but it would take so long to write it all, but this gives you at least some idea what I have been up to for the last 5 weeks.
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