Trans Canada Expedition - Day 4

July 17^th, 2013 – Day 4

This day, in a sense, started extremely early for most of us, as there was a thunderstorm at approximately one in the morning which lasted till around two, which resulted in Billy delaying our wake up time by an hour from 6 to 7. With the thunderstorm going at night, Billy’s tent turned into a swimming pool. So we should’ve brought our wetsuits. Our new rule: Sunblock by day, Wetsuits at night.  By 7 AM, we were beginning to pack up our sleeping gear and belongings. Afterwards we started to pack up camp; disassembling the tents and getting our luggage’s packed up onto the sprinters. Surprisingly, we were able to finish by 9, our original planned time, so the original plan followed on. The navigators and cooks sat together for a quick meeting, turns out, 1020 km is not a doable distance, and that we have to push our schedule back by 200 km.  Problems and chaos, followed by confusion ensured until we reached the first pit stop. Efficiency and solutions progressively improved, as we thought of an instant Plan B, Rainbow Falls. We arrived at 5, allowed the soaked equipment to dry, and moved on to an early dinner. Everyone was relatively tired so rest resulted at an early hour. Looking up to the darkening sky, we were told that Aurora Borealis ( Northern Lights) would appear at around 1 am. Well, I guess we’ll be waking up early again!

Michael Fung

Please do not feel awkward about the unbalanced length of my blogs overall. All 6 leaderships were told by Billy to remember that in particular occasions, especially when you have limited time to briefly transmit a message to a boss, we need to obey the laws of writing precisely and concisely. What Billy told us is “to use small but meaningful, little but powerful words” to communicate. In other words, it is about universality. I do not expect my message to be understood by millions or even billions of people, but every writer or composer, regardless if they are a poet, a playwright, a painter or a novelist, has one common key of success – universality. If the message of your work or creation could be understood, and if the readers are able to come up with a consensus or common agreement, then you are probably at the pinnacle of success. I am not sure if I wrote precisely and concisely at the same time last night (because the mosquitos were just unstoppable or dominating – when I saw Jason Wang’s arm this morning, my face was just gnarled… perhaps more than 30 mosquito bites in total on both of his arms. Fortunately, even though I stayed with him together to deal with the AAR and the blog without having any bugnets on [probably because either the HQ teams had missed ours or there were other people who got the nets without informing the HQ team to purchase the nets beforehand], I got less than 4 bites in total… perhaps I am resistant against Canadian Mosquitos?)

Anyway, the midnight was not an easy night. The weather prediction did come true. Thunderstorm at around 0100, followed by rains pouring over the tents, then the backpacks, and finally the sleeping bags. The storms and the soaking tents just got most of us awake during midnight. Billy’s tent got all but 1-inch of rainwater drained. That was the reason why he told everyone to wake up of 0700 instead of 0600 so that everybody have more time to get the tents dried, while Billy could get rid of the water from his tent. Since the windows of our tent were not entirely closed well, our backpacks were damp. I got busted when I realized that I could be able to hear the storms roaring at 0045, and I just went to get the laundries back, but I did not check if the windows were closed as well. In the morning, when we were supposed to clean up the tents and have them packed up, I got pissed off by myself again because I stood like a novice in front of many people when we come to tents. At once, I kept on grumbling about the lack of knowledge upon tents. Yet, if I keep on doing so, I will just make my tent delayed and thus jeopardized the whole team’s schedule. Hence, I just asked Ryan to help out – Ryan has experienced numerous trainings about setting up the Algonquin tents before with Monticle, hence he could just nail it all the way. I do not know how will you think if I still deserve a black shirt or not because I know almost nothing about the tents, but I will tell you how I feel – at first I feel reluctant to ask for help, but as soon as I realize that self-esteem is the enemy that defer your decisions and progresses, I just recalled what Billy always stresses on – the enemy is yourself. Truly speaking, I have a reasonable argument to discuss about whether my act of finding Ryan for help is appropriate. Ryan sometimes approaches me to talk about the shirt colors and his wills. After a brief chit-chat, I recognized that what he requires is opportunities to utilize and demonstrate his skills, which are also his qualifications of being a leader. Well, seeking help and guidance from Ryan seems to be an act of 一舉兩得 – I can learn the skills and get the job done, while he could find the way to demonstrate his skills. Yet, if I could be able to leave HK and get myself prepared with the drills of equipment, then it would be a lot better. Well, who knows anyway? So, just let it be and suck up the bad feelings.

Tiffany

Thunderstorms at night, Thunder bay in day. Keeping in mind that we still have 25 more days to go, my legs are trembling with fear. Are we going to reach our destination in time? Are we going to be able to lighten everyone’s spirits, to keep them motivated and enthusiastic? A crowd of 30, is now relying on 3 seniors and 3 juniors to take them to their destination, well at least what they came for. How am I going to manage such? From the experience of the 14 days, I’ve learnt to stay firm, teach discipline. On the sprinter, I’ve had several conversations with the famous Michael Fung, turns out he had the impression that I was a reinforced disciplined girl. Hmm, positive or negative?  I’ve had the honor of being with the Monticle top student, now it’s time for me to learn. Along the way I pick up many fresh new pieces of info, and put it in my notebook. From my previous experiences of organizing a 30 person boat party, I put the “reality” checks in mind and keep going. This road is tough, but very resourceful indeed. I hope that my next days will go on smoothly, well at least, reaching the destinations on time. That’s it for now. Peace. I’m out!

Crystal

Camping out is more fun than it seems. I had a surprisingly good time sleeping while listening to thunder and rain. This morning after waking up, everyone collaborated and worked together to take down, clean and pack up the tents. We left after two hours for our next destination. Tonight we are going to stay at a campsite at Rainbow Falls and hopefully will be able to get to Winnipeg, Manitoba by tomorrow night. Can’t wait to see what we will accomplish tomorrow.

Marco

This morning, we woke up, everyone has a horrible sleep. It is because it was raining really badly and there was lightning and thunder. It got my day pack wet. We broke down the tents and started moving again. We stoped at the Marathon information center for lunch. Our lunch was cup noodles and sandwich with roasted beef. The cup noodles are half cooked, so it’s not really yummy. We also needed to drink the soup or else… You know what will happen. Now I am in the sprinter writing the blog while we are going to Rainbow Falls to camp. Most likely there is going to have much mosquitoes. So now I got nothing to write now, BYE!

Mickey

Today We got a big trouble. I can felt billy was so angry. I can’t sleep yesterday, it had a raining yesterday. I never to felt ninge so close with us. I’m scared. It hardly to sleep. I just sleep 4 hour. And we finish our jod so slowely! We leave about 9:30. And the trouble. Anything we speat many time! Hope tomorrow will be a good day!

Howard

I don’t feel well. Over the past few days, I have observed an escalation in malady from slight discomfort to my current state of sniffles coughs and exhaustion.

We had a later start today since we did not want to wake up our camp neighbors with an early departure. I already felt weak in the morning but exhaustion crept up on me through the rest of the day until I realized that I might just happen to be sick.

We have just arrived at rainbow falls where we will be staying. I hope that I will be better tomorrow.

Owen

This morning, we were supposed to wake up at 6 am but we all woke up at 3 am. It was raining! The floor became wet and our tent almost transformed into a paper. Luckily, I hadn’t hang my clothes outside. But my torments they were done.

When we found a place to have our lunch, the loading vehicle hit the trailer hardly and the trailer was half death. Ooooh…..

 On the way, we found a motel. We went to the office to check the price. But, there was nobody inside. No way! Camping again!

Matthew

Today everyone was tired from last nights awesomely lad thunderstorm. We had an extra hour of sleep at the campsite and departed at around 9:00 am. As usual the long road trip was boring and dry, most people slept while others were helping with the navigation of the convoy. We arrived at a visitor center near the town of “marathon” . we collected some brochures on the different provinces we would be passing through. They suggested some places to go and gas stations to go to which could help us along the way. At about 5:30 pm we arrived at a campsite called “rainbow falls” we sent to tents and finished cooking in about hour and a half. Now we are preparing to clean the sprinters to look presentable next day.

Alan

This morning is the morning of the 2^nd day of the trip. This morning after we took down our tents we had breakfast. When we finished breakfast. We found out that our watermelon was rotten. We threw out and packed our stuff and left the campsite. We drove for a few hours and had a pit stop. Then drove to the place where we had lunch.

Kendra

Today is the fourth day of camp. It was mostly driving and stopping again, just like yesterday so after yesterdays blog, something happened. A group of people went to the comfort zone to shower and everyone returned with more mosquito bites. During bedtime , around 1: 30 am a huge storm occurred. For many hours till morning, since it rained the wake up time was moved an hour later. At 7:00 am everyone brushed their teeth and packed their wet tents. For breakfast we had buns again with juice. Then we set out on the road again. For over an hour , we were sitting in the car either sleeping or making conversation. At last we arrived at a gas station and had a bathroom break. Then  back on the car we went. After about two hours or so, we arrived at the marathon city visitor and information center. We had lunch there, consisting cup noodles and the soup at the bottom that no one wanted. Everyone was fun to the top after drinking all the soup. Tonight’s campsite is going to be rainbow falls and tomorrow we will officially leaving Ontario and heading to Manitoba. I’m really looking forward to getting swarmed with mosquitoes and getting bites all over ne! just kidding. I’m really hoping to vist some awesome places that I have never seen to Canada and become a better leader and learn more different skills and things that’s it for today and a bit of yesterday.

Mike

So it did rain. All tents wet. Some of my stuff pretty wet. However, instead of saying what we did, I (and probably everyone else) am going to list my goals for this journey. One of my main goals is to arrive at the Arctic Circle/ Inuvik safety and comeback to HQ safely. It would also be best if we arrived at Inuvik before day 14 (today is Day 4) , so we can have fun, shop and feel less rushed for our return journey. Another goal I want to achieve is to learn how to plan for a long journey such as this one and how to control a group of people efficiently and to make sure they are all well. Hopefully, it doesn’t rain during this trip to tomorrow, or any other day and I also hope for temperature ot get colder so ther are less mosquitoes.

Jason Wang

Today was a fairly short day compared with yesterday. We woke up at around 0600 but had to go back to sleep as many people could not sleep through the storm last night. We ended up being up, prepared and ready to leave at 0906, where we left “Pancake Bay” provincial park. Besides taking so long to pack up the wet tents, not much today stood out. Right now, we are inside the sprinters, writing blogs and continuing to the next destination for the night.

Mireille

Yester night was horrible. Indeed first after shower there are so much mosquitoes! I mean my bug net but it didn’t work. Then at 1 am everybody woke up because it’s raining a lot. We have to put our shoes in the tent. At least, when I woke up this morning I “can’t” move my right face and right hand because of mosquito bite. We leave from this place at 9 am. For lunch we ate cup noodle and sand which with chicken ham. Now I hate mosquitoes and spider because I feel all my body bulged. I hope this might’ll be better…

Jason Wong

We woke up at 6:30 am and packed our sleeping bag and mattress and loaded it on the sprinters. After that we unassembled the tenets and cleaned up the camps. We left at 8:30am and drove until a pit stop and had cup noodles for lunch. We are still on the road.

Kathy

Today was the fourth day in monticle. We got up at half past six. There was a really heavy rain fallendown in early morning today. It made us hard to put down the camps and put in the bags. What a terrible beginning of today! Then we almost spent all the day on car. I took a lot of photos on the way! We stopped at Marathon to have our lunch at about twenty past two in the afternoon. I think maybe I won’t eat any cup noodles when I back home.

Grace

Yesterday night there was a thunder rain. The thunder was loud that we all woke up at about 1 am. Kathy and I went but to roll down the cover so that our shoes won’t get very wet. We planned to wake uo at about 6, but we all didn’t get good sleep so Billy decided to delay the plan a little. The rain made the tent really wet. We clean to before we took it down. Still it was pretty wet and grass covered on the bottom part. And we couldn’t put the cover down on the ground. So the rolling work was really difficult. The bugs mosquitoes were very annoying it was a lot better after we used the spray, but bees were still flying around. Today we are going to camp in Rainbow falls tomorrow we will leave Ontario. I just hope there won’t be many mosquitoes there.

Jennifer

Today, many things happened for what could also be considered an uneventful day.

We were a lot more organized today due to our planning yesterday it definitely reduced a lot of stress for me and made everything run more smoothly.

A member of my Bravo team has taken ill but only just a cough I hope is well soon.

We had some damages today, and it was very quiet on Bravo vehicle for a few hours. Even Quince was miraculously quiet for those few waking hours.

I believe that Bravo team has so much potential. I can see it in each of my team-mates; I only hope I can bring out that side of them that I can see. I spent most of today’s ride coaxing Justin to talk to me and I learned more about his tolerance of chili peppers.

Every member of my Bravo team is important to me, from Quince, Kendra, Michael Lo, Grace, Matt Edwin Cheung, Howard, Justin and Edwin Chan. I have faith in and I trust them all.

I didn’t sleep at all last night in our tent because of the thunderstorm that rolled in from Lake Superior. The thunder came from both sides, and it was like the thunder was communicating across the sky. It reminded me of Billy and how he told us his last name meant “thunder” I’m grateful for this very important person and our team as well. Billy’s guidance has taught us much.

Justin Tang

Today started not from the warm greeting of the sun, but the sinister roar of thunderstorm. My sleep was brutally interrupted by the raging storm. The tent was at the merry of the rain. The wind was tearing the tent apart and the rain was drowning us inside.

Fortunately, the weather later that day was good, and we continued our journey. Today’s trip was relatively less tedious than the previous day.

Roman

I think today everyone showed great improvement! I managed to only sleep 30 minutes. (I’m the navigator so that means 0 minutes of sleep). Today all went well except we did not reserve our camp ground and had we did not reserve our camp ground and had to test our luck. We stayed at rainbow falls tonight. Tomorrow we plan to get to Winnipeg.

Ryan Hoang

Today I woke up at 6:30 to pack up our things and have the campsite. Once we got our stuff ready I got a tarp to put our things as a storm occurred last night. Strangely I slept through it until Jason woke me up to help close all the flaps so we won’t wake up wet. Also I toweled myself off so I would not catch a cold.

Back to the morning many people were upset that there stuff was wet as they did not wake up during the storm. After the luggage was all placed on the tarp I got the group to clean up the tents and start packing it up. Even though we were supposed to have finished at 8 we were behind because of the storm.

Once everything was packed we had our breakfast of buns and juice. Feeling pukish from the storm I only had juice but the cook made sure I held onto the bun anyway.

During our road trip we had lunch at Marathon Visiting Centre and after an incident we had to write our blogs early to save time.

As a reflection on my feelings of today I wish I had more stuff to lead. As I have been placed in the role of a member but still came early to train to become a leadership. It has disappointed me every day that I was only told to do the most basic of tasks. It makes me think that I had tried so hard to rise to my level with my 3 years of experience just to be put back in as a member. I trust Billy to have put me in this position but it really disappoints me that I am only here it really feels like i worked so hard to get no responsibility and recognition.

Quince

Goals

Have a orange shirt (leadership)
Buy stuff
free time
kill as much mosquitos as we can
don’t get eaten alive by mosquitos

Have to try to get a black shirt if I can (Achive)

Expectations

Travel more
learn how to be a leadership
have more food to eat
live in motels at least 1 night.
Play games like frisbee