9/3/2015 Trent Grossman

Ecoee

At first I did not know what it was or what I was getting myself into. Now I am fully submerged into the Ecoee lifestyle. If I had to list four words to describe Ecoee the list would be challenge, Liberation, Love, and Progression. Challenge to push through shoulder pain day in and day out. Challenge to strep out of your comfort zone and stay out of it. Challenge to wake up early and go to bed late.  Liberation from the incessant meaningless text messages. Liberation from a kind of teaching that is not applicable to your setting. Liberation from the meaningless mind clouding tasks that contribute to me losing myself. Love for the reflection off a still lake that will put a calm in my heart. Love for the complex individuals that courageously trek onward next to me. Progression as a leader for others and myself, progression away from acting very quickly. This is my list. Our leaders list is learning , leadership, experience, application I hope by the end of crazy semester embody both lists.

Trent W Grossman 

9/2/2015 Steve Nutt

                Today I woke up in my tent at 5:00am to a loud creaking coming from an abandoned water tower just outside our campsite. Judging by the scat nearby and the claw marks on the trees; it must’ve been a black bear investigating the food bags our group had hung the night before. It’s the things like hoisting food 12 feet in the air, and having to yell every time you go out to pee that makes me realize how far out here I really am which is both extremely exciting and sometimes overwhelming. Today was a long day of paddling. We made it to Fairy Point on Missinaibi Lake and then and extra 5 miles to our campsite. We were greeted with a beautiful view of the lake and the good news that we would be staying an extra day at this beautiful campsite in order for us to complete our outdoor education introduction lessons. My favorite part of the day was seeing the pictographs at Fairy Point. My wish, which I nagged Steve Acuff about for the whole week, was finally granted. Reading about the pictographs online is interesting enough, but to see them in person was mezmoring. The huge granite cliff faces were dotted with assorted drawings of different figures, symbols, and animals which some were up to 1500 years old. As I paddled by and gazed at the pictographs, I pictured the Shaman’s standing in their canoes and painting these symbols after experiencing a spiritual epiphany, the story of forgotten people. I looked around and reminded myself that they shared the same lake that I paddled on today. As I took in the moment, I also thought of how these pictographs are some of the last remnants of the Essinovoi tribe which were some of the first people to live on these lands. To some the pictographs are simply stick figures on rocks, but to them, it was a canvas of their history, culture, and heritage. As Bobby’s gopro camera glitched for the first time ever trying record the pictographs, I got the feeling the Shaman’s spirits were whispering “We still live here”.

-Steve Nutt

                                                                                         

9/1/2015 Raquel

September 1st 2015 Backcountry Canada, Missinabi Lake

"Wake up in the morning and it's hard to live...." One of my favorite Sublime lyrics that come to mind when I woke up this morning. Thinking about my love for reggae music that specifically gets through rough situations, but then I think about how this is not a tough situation, it is an adventure/expedition of my personal choice, as well as for the rest of the tribe. Things could be a lot worse plus we all have food, shelter, water, and the best company. This is not a bad circumstance, the mornings have the tendency to put me into overload of things I must have accomplished by said time. With that being said I am not a morning person and am that person that will roll over when told to wake up. This bad morning attitude usually leads me to a not so great start with a granola bar on the side for breakfast which is not so great to start off the day of paddling. I am realizing that my decisions impact the rest of the tribe and considering that message I have to start making wiser ones...such as listening to tips and comments for paddling. Today instead of those insights going through one ear and going out the other. I was given the chance to act and apply the jay-stroke and sweeping which are paddling techniques for a more efficient canoeing experience. Today I really am missing family and friends and wondering what they are up to, as well as how they are doing. Coping with that is hard when you are out here and all you can really do is write about it and hope for the best. Staying positive is the one thing that we can encourage to keep going day by day. Reflection upon myself is very significant and I find myself emphasizing those aspects on a daily basis. I could not see it any other way to be honest because I am here to see both sides of the spectrum not just one sides instances. I am learning from my mistakes, not only to take chances but to pre-meditate and acknowledge  that I am still a human being with flesh and bones trying my very best to move forward on this expedition. I am very excited for whatever is to come, whether it be a difficult task or easy one, exhausting one or not so much... BRING IT ON! 

8/31/2015 Josh

20150831

05:00AM Beep. Beep! BEEP! Someone’s watch alarm is ringing in a far away tent. While I was awoken suddenly, I felt strangely calm waiting for the alarm to stop.

06:00 AM Buzz. Buzz! BUZZZZZZZ!!!!! My own watch vibrating me awake to the start of yet another day. Hiking across the camp to where my tent group was staying. Any good day much start with a warm pot of cinnamon oatmeal with some clumping brown sugar. Scarfing it down as plans shift from a 08:00 AM departure time to 07:45 AM. Arrival to the instructor’s island a quarter mile across the bay. Packing camp and loading the gear into the canoes had just become the start of any other day of classes. Traveling from one bay to the next refining the technical skills of paddling a canoe. The sunshine only broke through the dense layers of fog around noon, breaking yesterdays trend of off and on rain. Arriving at our home for the night in Fifty Seven Bay. The outcrop of a stone is a welcome sight as our sore shoulders and cramping buttocks from paddling for four plus hours. We had an hour and a half to set up our new home and eat some lunch. Some members of the tribe concluded that this was much to long for such a simple task and began to fish, swim, or just bask in this sunlight.

            Now time for class. Today was one of those days that remind me that I am not only on an adventure. I am not only experiencing things that I have previously only dreamed about, I am not just on an expedition, but I am in a traveling classroom. This sunny afternoon consisted of two lessons taught by students. One of the lessons by myself and the other, by Steve Acuff. I brought around a new way of looking at some of the environment issues here in the country of Canada. Steve informed us of the wide variety of ecosystems that we will be seeing along our wonderful semester.

            As previously mentioned, the weather had changed for the hotter, brighter, and much drier. Though some, like myself, may enjoy this change to an extremely large extent, though the mosquitos enjoy it more. They have enjoyed sucking us dry of the red sweetness that they desire. As I sit here next to the water all I hear is buzz… Buzz… BUZZZZZ… just like the beginning of my day, the end finishes with a buzz.

Joshua M. Samuels   

 

8/30/2015 kyle

8/30/15

                I woke up this morning at 5:30am got up and had everything ready to go by 7:45am. Everyone else were on time with the canoes loaded at 8am. We left at 8:05am got going it was cloudy with a bit of fog lingering above our heads. We got around the first turn and then noticed Jeff had not caught back up with us. So, we waited until we saw him before continuing on with the paddle. Later, to find out he could not find his kayak pad to sit on. Somehow it magically got legs and crawled back up by the dam in the middle of the Little Stony Portage.

                Once, we finally got on our way out into Dog Lake the wind began to pick up. We were already committed to following the left shore. Instead of the right which would have gave us some protection from the wind. As we continued on the waves got bigger and out in the middle of the late there were white caps breaking. As we approached a cove ahead we decided to pull in out of the wind and get a game plan for continuing on. We debated for at least one hour before finally coming to a conclusion that we would go for it. At this point in time I still was not very sure about it. The reasons I did not feel good was the wind speed was sustained at 5.5mph gusty to 12mph. Also the inexperience of myself and other group members. With the wind it was shifting so that it was going to be hitting our broad side. We paddled down along the peninsula which was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Until, we got the point where we had to cross about a half mile or so of open water. The waves were still at a pretty good height but not completely making white caps. We started across to Rabbit Island, my canoe was weighted unevenly and we had trouble steering. I was in the bow and Josh in the stern. At a few points the waves were hitting the gunnels in the bow of the boat. At that point I began to get a little more worried but we both powered through it and we made it. I was very happy to touch land after that long stressful day on the water. Which only was five hours. After we got done with setting up camp, lesson, and debrief. I ate some very good macaroni and a lot of cheese. Which was very delicious. With that I am glad we all made it today safe and sound and we have another big day ahead of us tomorrow.  

8/29/2015 Steve Nutt

            Today I woke up to the sound of rain hammering the tent and the boom of lightning shaking the rocks underneath our campsite, a typical start to a day on this expedition. It sometimes feels like the rain will never stop with sunshine only to tease me into optimism and then bring my hope down with the rain. It’s been a long week as a Leader of the Week (LOW). I’ve faced many internal struggles, battling to keep my confidence and positivity as I lose my belongings, fumble with bear bag knots in the pouring rain, and lead all of my peers down a river I have never been in my life. As I sit in my evaluations thinking of all the things I did wrong, I’ve realized I have not given myself credit for the things I have done right. We made it up onto the third map of the river, knocked out a bunch of WEA lessons, and faced high water without a single (complete) canoe flip. I’m speaking up and standing out more and more each day of this expedition and I am doing it with the most hardworking, focused, and positive group of people I could ever ask for. As I sat down for a dinner of freshly caught small mouth bass, I could see rays of sunshine peak through the clouds, which lit up the forests around the Little Stony Rapids. Sitting on the highest rock overlooking this wilderness, I think about all the people who have helped me get here and who are hoping who have helped me get here and who are hoping the best for me back home. I have such an amazing opportunity presented to me and an amazing support system that makes this journey more than worthwhile know matter what happens. I hope they see how much I will have grown and what it was all worth, but I know that most of all, I will see this for myself. So to my homie Alex, my homie Pinky, Nick, Timo, Fowler, Lees, Zach, Mowgli, Will, Callum, my parents, my brother David, and all of the brothers of the Iota Omicron chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, this trip is for you.
-Steve Nutt

8/28/2015 Steve Acuff

            There’s nothing better to me than a cup of coffee to start your day, except when you’re enjoying it on a beach you just spent the last night on sleeping under the stars. It’s the little things we take for granted that I thought about over a steaming hot cup of Joe while sitting on a log, on a narrow sand beach, on the eastern edge of Manitowik Lake. As refreshing as the cool breeze from the lake was and how soothing the warm coffee felt, my bliss wasn’t meant to last. The peace and calm of the morning erupted into frenzied chaos as our fearless leader started barking out the fact that we had less than twenty minutes to have all our gear loaded into our canoes. Today we had our first experience of portaging (two experiences actually). Portaging is taking our gear and boats from the water and hiking it over land at points we aren’t able to paddle through or past. Our first portage site was about a mile away. As we paddled in formation to the portage it welcomed us with a beautiful set of falls. We all coasted into the landing of the portage trail taking time to admire the scenery and delay the inevitable hike across dry land. The trip across was only a ½ mile but three spate trips needed to be taken (one for heaviest bag, one for the rest of the gear, one for the canoe), so three miles total. The trail was overgrown with many logs down over it but it was apparent it had been used for many crossings. As we hiked back and forth I eerily thought of those who traveled before us. The Cree Indians used the same routes for thousands of years and passed them down to European fur traders hundreds of years ago. To be traveling these same waters and portage trails left an interesting feeling of attachment and pride within me like I was a part of a long, proud history of travelers on these waters. Eventually all our gear was back in the canoes and we were off again, this time another mile and a short walk to our campsite. Our minds and bodies welcomed the campsite and all the luxuries it afforded like grass, not sand to camp on, a nice area to swim and fish, and most importantly rapids to wash the funk from our clothes. AS I lay and write at 2230 I am reminded to appreciate the little things in life and just how lucky I am to be paddling this beautiful route; at least until it decides to rain a few days in a row.

Steve Acuff