Frontenac hiking trip

Outdoor ed Frontenac Trip Reflection

PAD20

Over the past three days we went to Frontenac for a hiking trip. I feel that we were well prepared and we knew what we wanted to do and accomplish on this trip. Although we were well prepared we also encountered a few problems along the way. Some of the good things that happened were that we had a bunch of good food, and most of it was healthy and filling. For example, on the first day we had chicken wraps for supper. Another positive thing that occurred was that the weather was kind to us during our hikes. It was never too hot or cold when i was hiking or running around so I was never really uncomfortable. The only time the weather really made me uncomfortable was during the first night. It was really cold so I woke up a few times, but other than that the weather made it really easy to hike. While hiking still presented a challenge even with the good weather, I felt that it wasn’t too hard of a task, and I also feel that if I were to make hiking a regular activity in the future it could definitely be something that I could look forward to participating in.

It was when we were camping that I feel that I encountered some more problems. In my group there was a lack of self control and teamwork. Some people in my group felt that they didn’t have a lot of responsibilities, and didn’t want to help other people with their tasks. There was also a general feeling that if you did one job you didn’t need to help other people with their work and that once you completed one task there was nothing else to do. This feeling resulted in only two or three people doing a majority of the work and the rest of the group just slouching around not looking for anything else that they could do to help with the experience. To be honest, there was also a lot of profanities being used, and even after we received warnings, the swearing continued. Because of this, on the second night of camping I got a little frustrated and I had to leave my group for awhile. While there was a lack of self control, we still managed to enjoy ourselves for some time and I believe that we learned a lot about camping in general.

I was also able to really enjoy the nature when we stopped hiking and started camping (When we were hiking I had to keep watching the ground so that I wouldn’t roll my ankle). I woke up early every day so that I could walk around camp and explore a bit. My efforts were rewarded as well because I got to see a bunch of different animals! I got to see wolves on the first day, and on the second morning I saw a bunch of different animals. I saw a beaver that was chewing on some wood while it was on its hind legs, I saw some loons, a chipmunk, and one really big bird that I’m still not sure what it is. The bird had a really long neck, a yellow/orange beak, long thin legs, and a body that was a little grey on the bottom half and then the top half of its body was really white. Overall I was really happy that I got to see so many cool animals and that I was able to enjoy nature before everyone woke up.

I was also able to get a quick look at how people got around frontenac park by water transportation. When I was at my cooking fire a man and a woman came up near our camp site and a quick exchange with Mr.Brouwer about what campsites were open to use. If I recall correctly, the two campsites that the couple were considering staying at were actually being used by us.(We were taking up two campsites because we had a lot of people in our class) To be honest, I felt pretty bad, and I hope we didn’t ruin their experience.

When it came to actually selecting our campsites I felt that my group made good choices. The campsites that we stayed at were really spacious(especially the second campsite!) and there was always a spot at each campsite where the water was really clean. The second campsite was definitely a golden nugget though. The campsite was huge and there were places where there was a ton of good wood. Moreover, it was at the second campsite where I saw most of the animals that I mentioned. My group was also really good at getting work done when we all worked together as well. When we were all working, tents were set up quickly, and when we wanted to eat and we all worked together, fires were started without a hitch and we had a good system going so that we never ran out of wood to keep the fire going.

In conclusion, I feel that we didn’t do a good or a bad job. While there was an obvious lack of self control among our group, we still managed to get our work done and we didn’t have any real issues with the actual camping and hiking part of the trip. If I were to go a second time, I would pack some more food(and a wider variety of foods), bring a bigger water bottle, and I would try to control myself and my group better so that we could actually enjoy the trip. Although I still enjoyed myself this time, if I were to make those changes next time I did this, it would really improve my experience.