Monday, April 2, 2012 - Blog on a Log

Wild Adventurer of the Month - "First Trip Foibles"

Every month, Wilderness Supply features one of our customers who's had a wild adventure, and passes on some free gear to help them through their next undertaking. Whether on the road, trail, or water, the most difficult experiences always make the best stories...and the most enjoyable vicarious living! April's story "First Trip Foibles" comes to us from Kelvin from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

I had finally decided to join some friends on one of their frequent long weekend canoe trips. It was May long, and they were heading to Elton Lake, up in Nopoming Provincial Park. This required two portages of our gear to get to the desired camping spot. Some in our group were able to head out during the day on the Friday, where I was in the group that had to work and left Winnipeg about 7pm. We arrived at the parking lot in the park around 830pm and began to unload our gear...in snow. There was about 2 inches on the ground before we even had a paddle in the water, and it was still coming down. What an adventure we were embarking on!

We had 4 canoes with 8 people in this group. That became 3 canoes with 6 people after one pair decided this wasn't an adventure they were willing to take on. So, on we went. There was still light when we started paddling, and made it to our first portage with relative ease. The second lake we entered (I believe it was Elton Lake) was almost under moonlight alone. With the lead canoe having a flashing red LED light on it's rear, we followed in convoy. My canoe was the last in the convoy, and I swear we followed the exact same path in the water as the 2 canoes before us. But we managed to find 3 separate locations with shallow rocks that got us caught up, once to the point where we had to have the others come back and assist us in getting free. We came to the conclusion that our canoe was equipped with a 'rock magnet'.

I'll now remind you of the weather we had when we started this adventure. Snow. Well, it hadn't stopped yet. Our hands were frozen, gloves solidly in the position of gripping the paddle. Icicles were forming on eyelids. One paddler had begun to stop shivering. It was time to stop and continue our trek in the morning. Since I was the only non-experienced canoe tripper, I had a large 6 man tent (the only tent I own). It came in handy that night as we split our efforts into half of us setting up the tent and the others making a fire. We all slept in this tent like sardines to take advantage of body heat that night. We woke in the morning to a light amount of not yet melted snow on the ground. It was quite beautiful, actually.

In the safety and comfort of daylight, we continued our trip and found the early departed group with ease. We shared our experience with them, and all agreed that it was something that we will never forget. I'm happy to have pushed through the adventure in the weather we encountered, as every trip I have taken since then has seemed easy in comparison.