23 - 26 August "Vision Youth Gold DEA Support" "Calvin & Billy"

August 23, 24, 25, and 26

Calvin Su

The first day we awoke at 3 in the morning to get to our destination at Milliken Mills for pick up. Most of the time I was in the bus sleeping until about 8 AM, by then I was already in Muskoka. The first day of paddling came next. It was my first time paddling a canoe and it was tiring at first, but as time passed I did better. Portaging wasn’t the most favourite thing to do because I had to carry our equipment all the way across including our boat. Throughout most of the trip it was pretty repetitive, as in we canoed and portaged most of the time. The scenery while canoeing is really different from when you hiked in the woods. It makes you more attentive because your canoe might flip. The group that invited us to join them, Vision Youth, was very generous to provide us with food and shelter. I wish to thank them for this. On the last day when we reached our goal it felt so relaxing to just know you are going home.
I noticed that vision youth is different than Monticle in some areas, for example we work in smaller groups of people and vision youth does not. Vision youth was very good at camping, I felt bad since I haven’t been canoe camping before because I had no idea what to do. They are a very skilled group of people specializing in what they do best. The only thing I felt that they needed to improve on was their timing. However, I know that some things do not always go as planned so timing might be affected.
The entire trip was very fun and was a great experience for me. I hope that vision youth and Monticle will continue their friendship.