Well the class trip on the Missouri River.
What a trip!!!!
12 7th graders and 5 adults. None of these kid's parents went, which really surprised me.
We went for 4 days and three nights.
Left on Monday. The teacher supervising the trip asked me to come in early to help get things packed. Took quite a few large coolers full of different things for our meals. Took a satalite phone for any emergency and some fire wood. Not a lot of dead wood at the camp grounds this late in the year. Took several gallon jugs of drinking water too.
Got the kids loaded up and all their baggage and headed out. It was pretty gloomy day and before we got to the site where we were going to launch the canoes it started raining.
Found out I need better rain gear.
Got everybody loaded and heading out in the rain. It poured on us off and on all the way to our first camp site. It was so muddy we did not even bother to try any of the hikes planned for that part of the trip.
Got to the camp site and got this one big tent set up so we could set up the kitchen to boil some water for hot chocolate to warm everybody up. Kids kept wanting to put up their tentsbut as wet as it was it would have been a soggy mess.
It did finally stop raining and we got all the tents set up.
Took a short hike, but the area we were going to go to had a flooded creek so we couldn't get to it.
It was funny watching the kids dragging these large pieces of wood back to camp so we could have a camp fire, should call the pieces logs. Our wood was soaked.
had a pretty good night making s'mores.
We had paddled around 12-14 miles this day.
Found the next morning that I was snoring.
Of course the kids wouldn't let me forget it.
They hiked to a place called the Narrows and up to where the Eye of The Needle used to be.
We then paddled 6 miles down river to another campsite near a place called Hole in the Wall.
sat around that night telling stories.
We did have a slight head wind, but it wasn't too bad. Just a nice easy day.
Boy are the weathermen wrong. Left Hole in the Wall campsite and it was clouding up pretty good. Had a good tail wind though. Stopped off so they could hike up to the Hole.
We ate lunch there and the clouds were getting thicker and the wind colder.
We could see the rain building and the rain gear came out and those of us who didn't have rain gear or poor gear got decked out in plastic garbage bags.
Got heading off down river again in the rain. Figured it wasn't too bad.
I think we got maybe about 2 miles and we started to hear thunder. Not a good thing.
We pulled on to the shore and got the kids away from the river bank and up in a sheltered area. Hard part was explaining to them to not sit bunched together because of the lighting.
We all sat there for maybe about 30-45 minutes waiting til it was safe enough to continue.
After that storm it turned off really nice. The sun was shining we had a wind at our backs it was just wonderful.
We got all the canoes together as we were floating and just floated that way for quite a distance.
Read about some of the history of the Missouri River did some local trivia and just had a great time.
Just as we got into camp for that night another nasty storm was headed our way.
Got the canoes unloaded and we almost got all the tents set up, but we lost one tent when a support pole broke, luckily we had packed a couple of extra tents.
After it passed we got set up.
Sat around the fire that night telling ghost stories and making more s'mores.
I sunburned my legs this day.
Left the campsite this morning. It was 12 miles to where we leave the river.
It was a bit cloudy this morning, but it cleared off.
Everyone was really hoping we could go for a few days more. Had another back wind and we pretty much took our time going down.
Had a few canoe races and a moss catching contest.
It was a great day.
Just as we got to out landing point our bus showed up so it was perfect timing.
Got all of the canoes out, gear unloaded and put in the trailer. Ate lunch and came back.
Got all the stuff unloaded and washed up and put away.
It was a nice trip. I think better then last year with trying to do all of this in 3 days instead of 4.
I got a ton of pictures on my camera I will have to download. I will share some with everyone.
Just think, I "volunteered" for this trip. More parents should have come, it would have been a great chance to get out and go camping and canoeing with their kids. My DS went last year. They needed another adult to come.
Was informed I will be called upon next year too. Getting my list of stuff I will need next year, #1 Better Rain Gear.
edited for my terrible spelling.
What a trip!!!!
12 7th graders and 5 adults. None of these kid's parents went, which really surprised me.
We went for 4 days and three nights.
Left on Monday. The teacher supervising the trip asked me to come in early to help get things packed. Took quite a few large coolers full of different things for our meals. Took a satalite phone for any emergency and some fire wood. Not a lot of dead wood at the camp grounds this late in the year. Took several gallon jugs of drinking water too.
Got the kids loaded up and all their baggage and headed out. It was pretty gloomy day and before we got to the site where we were going to launch the canoes it started raining.
Found out I need better rain gear.
Got everybody loaded and heading out in the rain. It poured on us off and on all the way to our first camp site. It was so muddy we did not even bother to try any of the hikes planned for that part of the trip.
Got to the camp site and got this one big tent set up so we could set up the kitchen to boil some water for hot chocolate to warm everybody up. Kids kept wanting to put up their tentsbut as wet as it was it would have been a soggy mess.
It did finally stop raining and we got all the tents set up.
Took a short hike, but the area we were going to go to had a flooded creek so we couldn't get to it.
It was funny watching the kids dragging these large pieces of wood back to camp so we could have a camp fire, should call the pieces logs. Our wood was soaked.
had a pretty good night making s'mores.
We had paddled around 12-14 miles this day.
Found the next morning that I was snoring.
They hiked to a place called the Narrows and up to where the Eye of The Needle used to be.
We then paddled 6 miles down river to another campsite near a place called Hole in the Wall.
sat around that night telling stories.
We did have a slight head wind, but it wasn't too bad. Just a nice easy day.
Boy are the weathermen wrong. Left Hole in the Wall campsite and it was clouding up pretty good. Had a good tail wind though. Stopped off so they could hike up to the Hole.
We ate lunch there and the clouds were getting thicker and the wind colder.
We could see the rain building and the rain gear came out and those of us who didn't have rain gear or poor gear got decked out in plastic garbage bags.
Got heading off down river again in the rain. Figured it wasn't too bad.
I think we got maybe about 2 miles and we started to hear thunder. Not a good thing.
We pulled on to the shore and got the kids away from the river bank and up in a sheltered area. Hard part was explaining to them to not sit bunched together because of the lighting.
We all sat there for maybe about 30-45 minutes waiting til it was safe enough to continue.
After that storm it turned off really nice. The sun was shining we had a wind at our backs it was just wonderful.
We got all the canoes together as we were floating and just floated that way for quite a distance.
Read about some of the history of the Missouri River did some local trivia and just had a great time.
Just as we got into camp for that night another nasty storm was headed our way.
Got the canoes unloaded and we almost got all the tents set up, but we lost one tent when a support pole broke, luckily we had packed a couple of extra tents.
After it passed we got set up.
Sat around the fire that night telling ghost stories and making more s'mores.
I sunburned my legs this day.
Left the campsite this morning. It was 12 miles to where we leave the river.
It was a bit cloudy this morning, but it cleared off.
Everyone was really hoping we could go for a few days more. Had another back wind and we pretty much took our time going down.
Had a few canoe races and a moss catching contest.
It was a great day.
Just as we got to out landing point our bus showed up so it was perfect timing.
Got all of the canoes out, gear unloaded and put in the trailer. Ate lunch and came back.
Got all the stuff unloaded and washed up and put away.
It was a nice trip. I think better then last year with trying to do all of this in 3 days instead of 4.
I got a ton of pictures on my camera I will have to download. I will share some with everyone.
Just think, I "volunteered" for this trip. More parents should have come, it would have been a great chance to get out and go camping and canoeing with their kids. My DS went last year. They needed another adult to come.
Was informed I will be called upon next year too. Getting my list of stuff I will need next year, #1 Better Rain Gear.
edited for my terrible spelling.
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