PAD30 Canoe Trip Reflection

I think the canoe trip was a huge success! It was a different form the grade 10 hiking trip where there wasn't as much responsibility. On the hiking trip all you had to do was hike organise yourself and take care of the other group members. On the canoe trip you had cook for the whole group, help clean everybody’s belongings and dishes, support people when help was needed, and you had to work as a team. If people didn't work as a team this trip would not have been successful. At times we did break apart a little but for the most part we did well.

It was a really enjoyable trip. While working hard for two days on the third day we got a very nice relaxing break on the creek. This break was needed for everybody. The fun part about this trip was that although we worked hard we also had some fun. We relaxed on the creek, went down the naturel water slides, swimming, and talked to each other around the campfire etc... I learned going on this trip that it takes a lot of   responsibility organisation and preparation to cook 3 meals for a big group and it's something I had never done before. I also learned that even though you are tired it's common courtesy to help another group who seem to be struggling (we helped portage another groups stuff).

Although for the most part we did well, there are things that could have been managed better. The main thing that I think that could have made this trip a lot for successful would have been dividing the food. The first morning my group was to make breakfast. Everything went well but for the fact that some people didn't get any beacon. During the plaining for the meal and trip, we made sure to get extra beacon because we knew that it would be popular. At first we handed out the food but towards the middle of breakfast we let people serve themselves. There was one group that didn't get any beacon (although they could have moved a little faster) and Mr. Brouwer didn't get any beacon either. Although none of them left the camp site on an empty stomach this could have been handled better. On the same day we were to make lunch. We made sure not make the same mistake again.

We made grilled cheese sandwiches and had plenty for seconds and thirds and fourths. We had left over beagles from breakfast so when the sandwich bread was all gone, we made grilled cheese out of beagles. The next night we had to make dinner the group. We had pasta, salad, and garlic bread and chocolate fondue planned but we had forgotten the garlic bread at school in the freezer. This was ok because we had a lot of salad and the grade 12s ate the bread on their trip. Dinner went really well. Raven had made a meat sauce for everybody else and a vegetarian sauce for Ms. Trumpower.  I learned that you had to think of what people like to eat and don’t like and in cases like this we needed to had a vegetarian on the trip so we had to think ahead for Ms. Trumpower Although everybody enjoyed the dinner garlic bread would have made dinner a lot nicer.  Everybody was positive on this trip and supporting. This is definitely a trip I would like to go again on.