Stephen Foster 1/31/11 Blog Expedition #1 - Spring 2011

Stephen Foster

1/31/11

Blog Expedition #1

An Interesting Day…….

Well……

The storms didn’t come to us completely by surprise, after all we canoed through a storm the day earlier, and that morning we found ourselves in a tent that was flipped over sideways. But, that day we had a good six to eight mile paddle ahead of us, and we could already see the swells starting to form, so we rushed to pack up our supplies and chowed down on breakfast, our plan was to get out before the swells worsened and hopefully get in to camp before dawn.  So by 12:00 PM, my canoe partner, Evan Anderson ( Raymond), and I were off and heading towards our next camp.  When we saw all of the wind and waves that morning we were both ecstatic, hopeful that we would have another storm like the day before.  For the majority of the day paddling wasn’t half bad, sure it was a little choppy, but, we got through it with ease.  About 3 hours later, we saw what we thought was our next camp, Highland Key, so we crossed our fingers and headed into the bay.  The counselors , after figuring that we were in the wrong place, decided to beach at a local beach, while they asked Evan and I to go ask a couple of fisherman, where Highland Key was.

                This was when we learned that we were at least a mile or two away from it, and that’s when the waves and wind decided to pick back up again.  Evan told me to guide the canoe into a small bay, on the beach that the rest of the team was located at.  About a minute before we made landfall, I saw someone ( I think it was Dustin), running out of the trees and brush and told something to Evan Small ( Staff), at which Evan and his staff partner, Nate, threw all of their stuff onto the beach and also ran back into the shrubs.  I later found out that this was because Dustin and Mitch’s canoe was sinking because of the swells.  When the canoe was bailed out, Nate grouped us all up and told us that, once again, our plan had changed, we were going to try to make a final push, less than a mile away to a larger beach.  So once Nate broke the group, all of us were running to get in and shove off.  Evan and I, got into our canoe, which because it was in the small bay, was protected from the harsh white-cap waves.  It turned out the only people that were able to shove off affectively was Evan and I’s canoe and Nate’s Canoe, Nate informed us to just keep fighting the waves and paddle hard towards the island.  While, we were making our way, ever so slowly, along the island, we saw another student, Tristan, trying to save his now flipped canoe, and Evan and I just kept, paddling and paddling, until we were almost around the corner and away from the beach when we heard (Somehow!!!!)  Nate yelling and Tristan blowing his whistle. This was the end of our ever so amazing trek to the other island, and we ended up stranded on the beach for that night, and we were able to make our “break for it” the next morning, to the other island/beach while the waters were calm. 

                This is an event that I won’t forget for the rest of my life, all of the struggle and all of excitement that came from this storm, the whole time, Evan Anderson and I were cheering and yelling, just having the times of our lives battling off this storm, and winning!