Inter-base rivalry

Some rangers decided to take a canoe and packs up the Tooth of Time at Philmont.

Balancing the canoe like (particularly with the packs in it) makes me cringe, but having climbed the Tooth of Time myself, I've got to say that managing to get a canoe up there is impressive.

Source: Philmont Scout Ranch Facebook - October 2014

A Beautiful Night

It was a beautiful night... A purple sunset, a rising full moon, and ice cream from the OA.

Going on trail tomorrow on a Horse River Loop.

End of Staff Training & Departure of Interpreters

So this blog is a little late, as we actually finished training about a week ago. It’s just been so busy that I haven’t gotten around to it. After we got back from our swamper trip, we jumped straight back into training. We covered a couple of important topics, such as customer service, but then we got to a variety of interesting seminars put on by the Alumni Association. I personally attended “Advanced Fire Starting,” “Advanced Baking,” and “Stolen Tricks that work.” All were very interesting and should prove helpful on trail. Other seminars offered included fishing, advanced paddle strokes, a nature walk, local wildlife, local geology, and the stargazing.

            That evening, the Alumni Association threw for us the “3^rd Annual Paddle Ball,” which was surprisingly fun for someone who doesn’t usually dance. There are some pretty impressive dancers on staff here.

            Most of the staff got a day off after training. I went down to Virginia with Bobby and couple of other people to see X-men: First Class. I thought it was pretty good, although it did move a little fast.

            Almost sadly, now that training is over, interpreters are heading out on water. I may not see friends that I’ve made during training for the rest of the summer, especially if our schedules don’t match up. Even if we manage to see each other on water, the most we’ll likely be able to do is the Interpreter Hug. In the meantime, it was fun being able to spend time with friends before heading out on trail, whether it was just hanging out with them in the lounge or helping to plan trips.

An Interpreter Life

So what do interpreters do when they are not on water? Contrary to popular belief, we unfortunately don't get trip after trip after trip. So what do we do? Well, firstly there are Daily Duties. Daily Duties are just a way to help out around base when we don't have a crew. These include cleaning the Sandy Bridges Program Center, bathrooms, and the cabins, but also can helping maintenance fix things, commissary pack food for people, outfitting outfit people and history staff entertain and teach participants. Some of the Dailies can be fun, or at least interesting, but others, such as the cleaning, are just annoying (at least to me). Fortunately, once the season gets really up and going, interpreters won't be stuck on them for two long.

An interpreter's schedule might look like this:

Day I: get a crew
     -find out information about your crew, pack food packs, gear packs, plan your route with your crew, and do a shakedown with your crew
Day II: get on water as soon as possible after breakfast
Day III-Day ?: the trek
     -treks can last anywhere from 5-10 days
Day ?: get off water
      -get off water after 2:00 PM, shower, clean up, go to rendezvous (voyageur campfire)
Day ?+1: see your crew off
Day ?+2: Work day!
       -When you don't have a crew, you do you do Daily Duties!
Day ?+?: Day off
       -One or two days between crews, you get a day off

The cycle repeats, although occasionally a wrench gets thrown in: a crew shows up a day early, a voyageur brigade (no interpreter) comes, or there was a planning fluke and they need to send you right back on water. Or you might just have one day off and and then you get another crew.

Sadly, things don't always work this way at the beginning of the seasons. With all the new staff getting out of training, there are more interpreters on base than can be quickly sent out on water, even with large days (our first day of the season was 16 crews). There wasn't enough cabins free for us, so we had to move to a tent town. I counted 25 tents and 2 hammocks in the area around me, but I know there were more.

Tent city

Fortunately, this shouldn't happen too often during the season, although it's no big deal if it does. I'm just a little bit antsy sleeping in a tent but not yet being out on the water yet. 

But tomorrow I get a crew!

Training Continues...

            And so training continues… The last couple of days I’ve been getting certified in Wilderness First Aid. It was a lot of information to process in a short amount of time, but the instructors put on several scenarios to help us practice. It was a humbling experience, as it showed how little I really knew about wilderness first aid. I just hope that I never have to use it out on the trail this summer. Yesterday we had a talk from the Forest Service and then took a short canoe trip to practice some skills. We didn’t go far, maybe four miles in a round trip to the end of Moose Lake and back. We used Alumicraft canoes, which weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be. Our brigade leaders had us start by portaging them down to the public landing instead of taking them to our boat landing. Still, not nearly as bad at all. I still need to work on setting them down however. My new boots are also working pretty well. There was a pinch on the top of my left foot (like my ski boots), but since I got them wet it feels like they might have stretched a bit to accommodate my weirdly sized feet.

            Now that they’ve handed out all our complete uniform, it’s a little bit weird to be wearing the same thing as almost everyone else you see, but that should change once crews start arriving. The pants that they gave us are really nice. Very durable but comfortable too.

            Today we plan our swamper trip, learn about food and gear packs, and get ready to leave tomorrow. I’m looking forward to swamper. We have some general plans, but nothing is finalized yet. I think we should be able to handle a good trip though. I think we have a pretty good brigade. It should be a good six days.

            Free time around base has been pretty chill. Every night there are board games, TV, or movies going on in the lounge. Right next door there is a great room with pool, ping pong, and a piano, which is pretty cool. There’s a foosball table too, but it has some issues. Maybe I’ll working on repairing it this summer in my free time.

            Last night I went on down to Blackstone Lake (Fischer Map 10, between Flash and Moose Lake) with a couple of people. We set up a nice fire, despite it being ridiculously windy. One guy brought his fishing rod and caught a Northern Pike, which he showed us how to filet. We cooked it over the fire, and it actually turned out to be OK. It was a cool evening.

            All in all, I’m getting really excited about getting on water again, and even more excited to get crews. Not much longer!

A Day in Virginia

        Today was a base-wide day off, and several of the staff decided to take advantage of the time and run drive down to Virginia, do some errands, and watch some movies. The guys I drove down with ended up watching Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Hangover II, and Kung Fu Panda II. After Pirates, Leah, Booby and I decided we didn’t really want to sit through the other movies, grabbed Jared’s car and explored downtown Virginia. We stopped by a park on a small lake and a Goodwill store. The store was an interesting experience: I ended up getting a hat and some other things – and was jokingly asked by a 60-ish year old lady if I wanted to go out that night. Before going back to base, Bobby, a couple of other guys and I stopped by Pizza Hut for some dinner. All in all, a pretty good day.

Welcome to the Northern Experience!

             Welcome to The Northern Experience! My name is Andrew Patterson. I have previously made four trips into the Quetico Provincial Park and Boundary Waters Canoe Area (B.W.C.A). This year, I am an interpreter at the Charles Summers Canoe Base in Ely, Minnesota. As an interpreter, I guide groups of Boy Scouts into the B.W.C.A. and Quetico.

             I arrived on base about two weeks ago, when Bryan, my brother, needed to be up here. My job however, doesn’t officially begin until Sunday the 29^th, so I’ve been helping around base in various functions.  I’ve helped maintenance move mattresses and fix lockers. Then I got involved in helping in the Bay Post (outfitting center). There is a lot of new gear this year – packs, tents, radios, cooking gear – the works. But now the Bay Post is all set to send out crews and training is set to start Sunday night. Most of the interpreters and a fair bit of base staff are arriving Sunday (between 80 and 95). It’s going to get absolutely crazy on base with all the new faces.

            The base has changed a lot in the last couple of years. In the last week, I’ve been helping move stuff into the new Sandy Bridges Program Center, which is the new home of the dining hall and trading post. We have our first meal there on Sunday morning. The new center has the displaced the old parking lot and historical area, so both of those have had to move. The historical area was easily relocated, but a new parking lot is being built. In the short term, it’s actually really annoying, as there are big dirt trucks running through base ALL day. However, I’ve heard that there will be a nice trail directly from the parking lot directly to the Off Road Cabins, which will be really nice (previously campers have had to drag their gear up a fairly big hill to get the cabins. Anyways, the construction should be really nice when it’s done – which should be soon.

            Anyways, thanking for reading! As the summer progresses, I’ll get some nice posts up on my trips into the parks!