Appleby College - Argus Yearbook (Oakville, Ontario Canada)

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Boys ' Impressions As I was walking to the boathouse to go to bed tonight, I looked out into the blackness of the woods, across the lake, and I wondered what it would be like the next night out there all alone. Tonight I tried to appreciate my bed as best as I could. This morning our group is on duty and we had to do dishes. We started at 8:30 and finished at 10:15. I am so sick of dishes I count them in my sleep. I realized something today: when you get hungry on a canoe trip, any food tastes good. For lunch today I had three pieces of brown bread with a small chunk of hard butter, a half-inch slice of cheese, a quarter-inch layer of peanut butter, and a quarter-inch layer of jam. It was fabulous. It ' s snowing! The 21st day of September and it ' s snowing. What a country! I saw weather today like none other I have seen in my life. The wind must have been forty miles per hour and gusting. The waves were all of five feet out on the lake. We awoke to the sound of wind whistling through cracks, and shouts and running footsteps on the rock. The Albacore had broken loose from its moorings and was being beaten against the rocks. I love the cold sunny weather. I feel like a trapper. I figure that when I am alone I get a twinge of homesickness, so I ' m trying to keep busy. Clean-up day. Everything within sight had to be cleaned. You name it, I cleaned it at least once. All three groups left and planned to meet at Slide Rock Lake. Two groups showed up. The third, Dave Stuart ' s group, never showed up. When we got back to camp they hadn ' t returned yet. It is now 11 P.M. and there is still no sign of them. Mr. Noble is planning on sending out a plane tomorrow to search. After we came back from the hike we ate stew for dinner and had a sauna. I wrote a letter and am now in bed. Good night, Journal. And good luck to Dave Stuart ' s group. Kokoko Lake was beautiful. There were no cottages or people there ... I have never been in a large place like that which was totally untouched by man. It was beautiful. Well, the final day of a fabulous month .... I ' ve never had a hap- pier month in my entire life .... I still don ' t want to go back down to Oakville .... I think I might deke out from School and go back up there.

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A Typical Day at Northward Bound The usual awakening was to a brisk October morning which oc- curredduring the later days of the first session involving 10 A1. What I am describing here is a hypothetical day which excludes groups arriving from or departing on excursion. The general format consisted of three groups, in- cluding one leader and seven boys. These groups, known as patrols, shared the responsibility of running the show on Rab- bitnose. then straight to breakfast which by this time should be ready. Af- ter an enjoyable breakfast comes clean-up procedures, which beyond serving the useful pur- pose of cleaning also promotes patrol cooperation, and a chance to demonstrate leadership qualities. After a while the fellows begin to realize that nobody is finished until the entire task is completed. While we clean up John Wright supervises the clean-up of the boathouse and Dave Stuart is getting his equipment ready for his canoe trip to Kokoko Lake. The weather is dry, and clear skies prevail, so Knobby decides to have John ' s patrol stain the new siding of the main lodge as well as chop wood. For the rest of the morning my group works on various projects with Mr. O ' Leary who is the master up for the week. This leaves me free for the morning and time for an at- tempt to catch up on some of my school work. When 1:00 P.M. rolls around we get lunch on the tables, co n- sisting soup and sandwich followed naturally by another clean-up. Then John ' s and my patrol switch activities, my patrol staining and John ' s working on projects. At about four o ' clock everybody is looking forward to a hot sauna to gain relief after the day ' s work. On Rabbitnose this is the only means to get clean and it is very successful. One not only feels clean but also very relaxed. The next hour or so is spent in whatever way one wants to, fishing, paddling or reading, banging away at the piano, or just lounging. Meanwhile Knobby and a couple of boys are racing around trying to get dinner ready. After the gluttons (this is no un- derstatement) are finished with their meal which ever contented everybody ' s stomach, the boys are told to get on with some work. They can either write in their daily journal or work on their projects, or just read a book. Usually there is some hot- chocolate and biscuits to round off another day in the North . Then remains the most difficult job of all: getting the boys to bed for some serious sleeping. This is the instructor ' s nightmare, mainly because we too want to get some sleep. So, good night. P.P. Bloemen Today I am duty instructor with the help of my patrol. On waking up at seven o ' clock, I go over to the boathouse to wake up two of my boys and assign them to help our illustrious coach-director Knobby with breakfast and to read the data on the weather- station. I then continue on to start the fire and attempt to start the electricity generator (The Beast). At 7:30 A.M. I wake up my fellow instructors, Coach and Kink and wake up the remaining boys. Next is the short jog of about three quarters of a mile, twice around the island, 94

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Tripping at Northward Bound Two of the most important and exciting activities that a young camper looks forward to are the canoeing and back-packing trips. These aspects of North- ward Bound activities are usually gone into with great detail and much preparation; both the boys and the instructors get together and plan for their trips. The canoe trips are perhaps the more favoured of the two because they are usually a little longer in both distance and time. Before anything is done, the course is laid out, along with prospective campsites. The length of the trips usually ranges from three to five days. Once the campsites have been chosen and the course has been laid out in full, a designated camper is put in charge of arranging a menu for the entire group. Another camper is sent to organize the tents and liners, and to make sure that everything from utensils to sleeping bags is packed and secured. This, of course, is all done the night before the depar- ture and checked by the in- structor in charge. The next day the patrol leaves early in the morning and sets out on its expedition. Depending on the weather, the patrol usually travels about 15 miles each day. Every so often, the patrol stops and has a breather and then moves on toward its destination. Lunch is usually had sometime around 12:30 or whenever a suitable site presents itself. After an hour for lunch, the patrol quickly moves on to its evening campsite. Because of the early darkness up North, the instructor has to make certain that a camp- site is reached no later than 4:00. Upon reaching a campsite, there is always a routine which the boys follow with regards to pit- ching tents, cooking dinner, etc. Two boys are put in charge of cooking throughout the trip; this not only gives them an op- portunity to cook whatever they wish, but it also gives them prac- tical experience in the culinary arts. After the dinner and clearing up has been completed, the campers sit around the fire and talk of the day ' s experiences and of the course which is to be followed the next day. Most of the days are made up of hard paddling and tough portages; as a result, every one goes to sleep early in the evening and wakes up early. As a general rule, back-packing trips are much shorter than canoe trips. However, the same routine for the setting-up of campsites and hourly breaks ap- plies here as well. The only dif- ference is the walking instead of canoeing as a means of trans- portation. The patrol is let off in a boat in a bay near a portage in the early morning and picked up the following evening at the same spot. There is usually a short trek through the bush until a logging road is reached. The patrol follows the logging roads throughout the entire trip, com- ing upon logging camps and small inland lakes and streams. By using both their compasses and these logging roads, the campers reach their campsite, which is usually situated by an inland lake. Both types of trips mentioned might perhaps seem boring to those who have not experienced them. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe the feelings that the boys experience when on these trips. Every trip is different, and with each one comes a whole host of unusual and at times comical ex- periences. The dull routine (as described) of a day of canoeing or back-packing is greatly sur- passed by the occasional moments of realizing what freedom is all about, not to men- tion the wonderful feeling of self- sufficiency. Peter Taylor I Of,