Ooh, Summer camp stories!
ROTC summer camp, 1998, junior year in High school behind me. I could SO not wait to get there!
I HATED the first day. The only girl left in my cabin that didn't have a canoeing partner yet was the only other girl that had no idea how to canoe... So, it was just me and her, on a river, with no idea what we were doing. It was supposed to be an experienced person paired with someone inexperienced, if possible... Or at least two inexperienced people that could adapt. Halfway though, she pulled her paddle out of the water, scared, and I had to learn how to steer from the front of the canoe! Fun.
Well, as if that wasn't enough, the current picked up and before we could react, we were thrown into a mess of branches and stuff that were laying across the river. BIG FAT HAIRY brown spider FALLS on my hand, but before I could throw it, it bit me! Our canoe "partners" (the two counselors that were bringing up the rear) and our actual canoeing buddies (two guys in a canoe that were even worse than my partner and I) tell me that the spider was prolly a brown recluse, and unless I got help, I could DIE in 3 hours. So. Luckily, the really cute counselor that we liked to call "Air Force Man (TM)" pulls out an anti-venom kit from the firs aid bag, and wraps up my hand. Well, I couldn't paddle anymore, because my hand was sore. so we kinda linked up end to end with me holding on the the canoe in front (the counselor's) and the boys held on the the back of our canoe. It kinda worked. My hand kept falling asleep, so we kept having to catch the canoe again. Finally I got sick of it and said, basically, I may as well help out if I'm gonna die.
I was feeling fine, so I started paddling again. Everything's cool now, right? No! The sky just OPENS and it starts to friggin' POUR! Thankfully, there was no thunder. That came later, after we passed the halfway point. When that happened, we "docked" our canoes on a bank, and Airforce man (TM) jumps out and promptly sinks down to his ankles in mud. But, we couldn't stay in the metal canoes while it was thundering, so we waited it out for a half hour, till the unexplained storm was over. Well, after being happily back on the water, we hit a small bit of rapids. It may be fun to point out at this point that by now, there were no teams left within MILES of us. We were the last three canoes in hearing range. Anyway, the boys' canoe snags on a rock and a big hole ends up in the bottom. We have to get the canoe back, since we have to account for it, so we do what they told us to in case of a leak. Stuff some weeds in it. Did that. It was still leaking, though not as badly, and we only had to bail the water out of it every 15 minutes or so. We figured, okay, that had to be the last of our bad luck, right? Nah. At one point, I looked down to see that my feet were wet. I don't really think I need to tell you that somewhere along the line, our canoe popped a rivet and started leaking. So, I won't.
The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful, and we spent just about 7 hours on that 12 mile course.
And it all that time... We only flipped once: 5 minutes into the trip.
And the other 4 days at camp, I will post tomorrow!