Bryce Maier - 3/15/09
I attended a Girl Scout Ten Thousand Island canoeing course over December 2007-January 2008.
Day 1: I woke up at 4 am to catch my flight to Dallas. Then I caught the connection to Miami. An Outward Bound staff person met me at the gate and took me to were the other girls were meeting. Once all the girls arrived, we loaded the vans. On the never-ending flat, straight road, we entertained ourselves by counting the alligators we saw. We lost count around 40. Once we made it to base camp, we split up into our 2 groups, met out leaders, and canoeing over to Sunset Island where base camp was located. We did duffle shuffle, played a ice breaker game, ate dinner, and went to bed in our tents.
Day 2: We woke up to bright sunshine. We ate breakfast, had an orienteering lesson, and loaded up our duffles and ourselves into the buses. We drove a few miles and unloaded our equipment. We had a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We learned how to load the canoes so that they weight was evenly distributed. We had an audience of random people watching us as we loaded the canoes. We were given partners based on our past canoe experience and headed out. We canoed for a while, had a snack and learned about core points. Around sundown, we learned the importance of having all bare skin covered when the mosquitoes and gnats came out. We paddled into a cove and made a floating platform for the night with the boards that were in the bottom of our boats. It was a puzzle getting the boards out. We finally set up the platform, ate dinner, set up a line of mosquito nets and went to bed. You could hear fish jumping all night.
Day 3: We awoke on the floating platform and had breakfast. One of our leaders didn't get any because she was busy rescueing her duffle bag. We made a flag with our hands and wrote down what we wanted to gain from this experience and what we wanted to leave behind. We paddled to Jewel key and ate lunch. We had a navigating lesson and went swimming. We learned what to do if we fall out and how to huddle in the water to keep warm. The water was very cold. We paddled through the night until we made it to the island. We saw lots of people celebrating New Year's on neighboring islands as we paddled. Once we landed we started making dinner. After dinner, we only had to wait half an hour till New Year's. We counted down and crawled into our hammocks. That night, I dreamed I was still paddling and could feel myself rocking back and forth.
Day 4. After our morning exercises, we had breakfast and had a demonstation on what to do if your canoe flips over. Another girl and I were the lucky ones who got to brave the cold water to show the others what to do. We paddled out, but didn't get very far because a strom was coming in. We stopped to have a snack and put on our raingear. After hard paddling through the winds and waves we made it to Panther Key. We had a late lunch and had a dessert of pudding. Yum!We started setting up tents while our leaders went off on there own. They came back and told us we were going to have solo that night. I was really scared but put on my brave face. They placed us along the beach a good ways away from the other girls. We had to set up a camp with the tarp they had given us. I had to set up quickly because I was one of the last ones to be given my strech of beach. It was getting dark and a storm was brewing. Our leaders came by and checked to make sure our shelter would survive the night.
Day 5: I woke up at my solo site and watched the sunrise. It was and amazing experience. I sat and thought about the adventure so far. I went back to sleep. Our leaders came around and told us it was time to had back to camp. We had to be quiet until everyone was back. We had breakfast and went on a hike around the island since it was too windy to paddle. We learned about the ecology of the everglades, native animals and plants, and the mangroves. It was a really educational experience learning about the islands. We went back to camp and had lunch. We played ulitmate frisbee, blondes verses brunettes. Blondes won. One of our leaders had to keep getting into the water to fetch the frisbee. It was my turn to cook dinner that night. It was really cold so we made a fire and played charades to act out the four pillars of Outward Bound-Craftsmanship, Physical Fitness, Self-Relience, and Compassion. Then we huddled up in our sleeping bags and went to bed.
Day 6: We woke up in our warm tents and hard a hard time getting outside into the cold. The storms had brought a cold front with it. We played a game to determine what kind of leader we were. I am a spontaneous motivator. We then had "the experience." We were divided into groups of four and taken into the woods. The "experience" turned out to be M&Ms. We were given fourty seconds with the candy. We shoved our mouths full. Once all the groups had had a turn, we met up and learned the meaning behind the "experience." It had to do with earth's resources and how if we are greedy with it- like the M&Ms- it will be gone before we know it. We had lunch and started packing up the tents. As we were doing that, someone yelled for us to come to the beach. We ran over and say that a shark was swimming right next to the shore. It was only about two feet long, but it was really cool. We developed a float plan since it was going to be out Final Challenge. We loaded up and headed out. As we were loading our canoes, a pelican landed on my canoe and watched us for several minutes. We canoed deep into the night. We kept getting lost and we wanted to give up. We were tired, hungry, and cold. But somehow, we found the strength to keep going. We finally made it to our home for the night- and old Indian shell mound. We set up our tents as dinner was cooking. We ate around one at night and immediatly hit the sack. That is one night I will never forget.
Day 7: We woke up on the shell mounds and learned to history of it. We had a quick lunch and hit the water. We got lost again, but we finally figured it out. The final strech of paddling, was very difficult, we sand songs and told stories to help us get by. We were several hours late getting back to base camp. We cleaned all of our equipment, including the canoes, and settling down for a meal with the other group of girls we hadn't seen since day one. When we finished up our cleaning, we traded SWAPs (they are girl scouts pins that represent who you are and where you are from) and emails. We then headed to one of the sail boats on the dock and sat in it. We then got our Outward Bound pins and told why we deserve them. WE then presented each other with our certificates. Then we hit the tents for the last night our our trip.
Day 8: We woke up, had breakfast, and headed to the airport. It was hard saying goodbyes to these girls that you know share a special bond with. Amidst tears and hugs, we boarded our separate planes and flew home.
My course is something I will never forget. I grew both physically and mentally. I pushed myself farther than I thought I could go. I learned about myself. Things I never knew before my expedition. I learned how to be a leader and a follower. My trip was no day at the beach (well literally it was but not figuratively). It is something I am proud of and will look back on with fond memories. I would recomend Outward Bound to anyone. It will change your life. Thank you so much Outward Bound for giving me this experience.
