July 14th, Day Eight - Phrase II: The Adventure Trek
It was time for me to be the crew leader of the day. I had the honor of being
the first one to get up and wake everyone up. Though, it was not so bad. I must
truly say I miss not having to pack up the campsite. It felt odd packing up the
tents and the crew gear, as we have not done it in days. We ate a quick breakfast
and headed out to the worksite.
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Finishing up some sledging.
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When we arrived, we finished our projects and got to the second part of our service:
cleaning the tools. We took all the tools and hiked to the water's edge. Using a small piece of tin foil and WD-40
we cleaned
the rust off the metal parts of the tools including the pickmatics, cuttermatics,
sledgehammers, and shovels. We made sure the tools were in better condition then
they were in before packing them all up.
We ate our last lunch at our worksite that day, as we were to begin our
next phrase: The Adventure Trek. Our crew planned a hefty itinerary for our trek.
We were to travel south, then head east and loop north around into Canada only to
return to the Northern Tier Base. We planned for over 100 miles, which
at the time, seemed like a really cool idea. Until it hit us: It's time to
actually do it.
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The OAV708A 2003 work crew (minus Vern Miller, who is taking
the photo).
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After the work week, we felt tired, but we were all content to go through with
our mission. We started off and headed to our journey.
By this time, my portaging skills improved. I lifted the canoe on my shoulders
with no problem. The packs felt lighter on my back. The first week added a great
deal of strength to my body, which I didn't realize until I needed it.
We traveled for many hours until we found a camp site on Lake Insula. We pitched
camp and cooked dinner. We made a warm fire and cooked up some popcorn while we
learned more on Leave No Trace. After reflections, we quickly climbed into our sleeping
bags and went to sleep.
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