A few weeks ago I got the chance to experience another kind of outdoor adventure- a 3-day canoe trip over Thanksgiving weekend in Algonquin Park. I’ve done a few canoe trips although the most recent one was around 7 years ago and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I went with the Western Outdoors Club and this was my first trip with them. It was a fantastic trip, great weather, great people. Several things surprised me about this trip:
1. The number of people- Around 45 students. More than I expected, especially since this was over Thanksgiving weekend (meaning giving up the chance to go home, Thanksgiving dinner, etc).
2. Variety of Skill Levels – We had people who had done canoe trips before as well as people who had never even been in a canoe! I was very surprised the first night when one of the people in our group said she had never slept in a sleeping bag before or set up a tent!
3. Teamwork- Because there were so many of us, almost everything became teamwork. Portages were good examples- with three people per canoe portaging was not too bad- two people carried their packs plus canoe and the remaining person carried everything else (paddles, loose stuff). Also, in my food group we divided up the shopping between everyone so everyone brought a couple of items and together we ended up with enough meals for everyone (I brought hot chocolate powder and muffins).
Mallory Brennan is a studying music and computers at Western University. She enjoys Aikido, swimming and singing in many choirs. During the school year, Mallory is far too busy for her own good but enjoys life nonetheless. You can read about her love of singing here.
I didn’t join my college’s outing club until my senior year but then I LOVED it. I wish I had opportunities to go on trips like this now, but it’s hard to find clubs to do things with that aren’t full of retired people.
This is my first year joining and I am so glad I did!