picture taking time

at the top

The view was marvelous at the top.

getting to the top

It wasn't too tough a hike, but there were spots that would've been easier to clamber over if we'd first turned into mountain goats.

unexpected finds

Some interesting sights during our walk included a turtle, tree roots that grew around rocks, strange ferns and fungi, and a bee's nest that looked very very threatening. We also encountered a strange looking orange and brown frog that, much to my great thankfulness and relief, no one caught on camera--there's no reason to have to look at it more than we have to, in my humble opinion.

hike of the day

After morning worship over acapella singing from memory, reading of several passages from Psalms and the New Testament, and a makeshift communion table, we set off on a hike ala CICF. That means we got lost at the first possible opportunity, and had to backtrack to get on the right trail--that's the best way to see all the beautiful scenery!

In the last picture, Sze Wei and Kelling are standing on earthquake land, that's why they're kinda leaning to one side.

feed the girls to the bears!

Our fearless leader demonstrates a new way to drink apple juice.

Our fearless leader was threatened with a coup when he suggested that the girls should take the tents closest to the trees and the back of the mountain, the direction FROM WHICH BEARS COULD EMERGE, in which case the girls would become bear food very quickly.

But after we pointed that out, our fearless leader explained that he suggested that arrangement because he thought we wanted more privacy. He said he realized we wanted security more than we needed privacy. So the girls got the tents closest to the edge of the water. As Kim said, we had no clue what to do if a bear decided to join our camping party, but the least we could do was either try to swim away or attempt to push off in our tippy canoes.

waking up

When Samson and Kelling decided to begin the process of getting out of their tent, they each took a good 10 minutes of rustling to actually finish the process. Here's one of our butterflies emerging from his cocoon.

Samson and Sven gave us numerous injunctions to pack light, and to pack only what is "necessary" and then take out some. The end result: Onimisi brought two lawn chairs, but he didn't bring his sweatshirt. Kelling also left behind his jacket but he remembered to bring his bedsheet. I don't think I'll ever understand how guys think. They're too complicated.

morning activities

Because of the rain on our trip to the campsite, some of our sleeping bags got wet--making it a pretty cold night of sleep. Getting up early to stand by the fire felt much much better. A few of the "early birds" decided to play what Kim calls "Indian Poker" where you place your bet without seeing your own card first. Since we had to build a fire to boil water for tea and breakfast (oatmeal, yum) and then had to wait awhile for the big pot of water to boil, it was a giggle-filled way to pass the time.

oh ye who are weary and heavy-laden . . .

Canoe paddling is back-breaking work!! And most of us only had a couple of hours sleep at most (Kim got 1.5 hours, I got 2 hrs) the night before. We weren't lost, but we weren't exactly where we wanted to be either!!

At least we're still smiling in these pictures.

(Oops, Kim, you're not wearing your life-jacket, you're using it as a pillow!!! Beware Dilkushi's wrath!)

storm clouds

It started raining after the fifth hour of paddling, and some of the waves were getting a little bigger. Tank tops were not a good idea even if they were comfortable when we started paddling.

second break

We must have visited 5 campsites before we found a free one. We're hanging out in the middle of the lake about 6 hours after we left shore.

first break

still fresh and energetic after an hour's row! we had to get off and carry the canoes over the dam.

going upriver

Here's Dito trying to figure out which way the wind's blowing by sticking his tongue out. We had to paddle against the wind going both upstream AND downstream.

The paddling iceberg

Here's Kim's, Mike's, and Jennifer's canoe that soon became known by many names, including: The Paddling Iceberg (that sinks all canoes in its path); The Cross-eyed Elephant (you never know when it's going to lumber your way and crash into you); and the Singing Boat (as Kelling points out, they are a choir that sings in three different keys no less).

They probably rowed twice as far as the rest of us, given all the zigzags they made. Just make sure you don't paddle anywhere near them if you want to remain upright.

setting off!

Here we are, full of energy as we push off from shore! By the time we got close to our campsite, we looked quite, quite different.

getting organized before jumping into the canoe

It took us awhile to figure out sizing for the life-jackets, but worry not, Dilkushi, all of us wore life-jackets the whole time we were in the canoes. And a good thing too, because those canoes were tippy little things, especially when we had so much loaded in to them. (See the empty canoes behind Onimisi.)

canoe trip Labor Day weekend, Sept 05

Here we are, having breakfast before getting to the edge of Lows Lake where our canoes are waiting for us. Onimisi (the hooded figure) is still recovering from his very un-African timeliness in Ithaca--he and Dito were the only ones who were at Crossroads at the appointed time (4:45am). Kim and Sze Wei were there around 5am, but as always in true CICF-style, we couldn't actually get on the road until 6am.

trial run

okay, still figuring out how this works.