Today was Christmas in June. Its basically a day where the alumni association (a group of people who worked at Northern Tier in the past) come and teach various skills and then give us Christmas presents. They put it this way: the past week we have been taking our core training courses, and this day allows us to branch out and take electives for different skills for the trail. So, the first one...
I have survived a week!!! Today was a very interesting day. 20 alumni arrived on base, we got 2 crews in, we continued training, and finalized the rout efor our swamper. The training is finally coming to an end. Today we learned how to use the stoves, packs, put up bear bags, and navigate through the wilderness. Also today, we found out that we are going for a dawn paddle on Monday morning. Our sw...
Today I'm posting early because we finished training early! Finally after all of the lectures and classroom training we got out onto the water today. For those of you who went on the Okpik trip this past winter, we pretty much paddled right to the campsite we were at. I got the shoulder burning experience of portaging the canoe for half a mile also. We learned the C-stroke, J-stroke, Pry stroke, a...
As promised, here are some pictures. I learned how to flip a canoe today. ...
Finally we are finishing the boring classroom training and beginning on the water training tomorrow. Today we did everything to get ready for a trip as if our brigade were a crew. We started out in the morning in the commissary packing all of the food we need for our 5 day swamper. Then we went to the bay post and got all of our crew gear like stoves, pots, tents, packs, etc. Then in the afternoon...
So now that everyone finished up their Wilderness First Aid, I started up again with training today. We learned naviagtion, route planning, radio procedures, trail sanitation, and emergency duties. So after that, the real event of the day was swim tests. Yay! So since I'm a lifeguard they recruited me to help facilitate. We took a one hour van ride to Babbit High School cause their 75 degree pool ...
Great news, today was not as boring as I thought it would be! In fact, we worked so hard yesterday on work projects that they gave us an even greater "project" this morning. We were assigned to check for leaks in the voyageur canoe. In case you don't know what that is, it is a huge 11 man canoe that the voyageurs used in the late 17th century on their fur trapping missions. (Pictures coming later,...
Well, today was another pretty boring day. I mentioned earlier that today we would start the Wilderness First Aid training. Well, since I already had that they put me in a group to do "work projects." I got lucky with the work projects today. Instead of hauling huge rocks to build portage trails, I was sent to the commissary. Our group of six bagged 50 pounds of freeze dried carrots into 1.5 oz ba...
Well, I finished my first official day of training. Along with the training we got staff polo shirts, a belt, and custom Arborwear pants. If you have never heard about Arborwear, look it up (right here). They are so thick, I think I could probably use it to splint a broken arm or something. They are the thickest pants I've ever seen, and returning staff say that like boots, they take a couple week...
Well, I just arrived in St. Paul, MN this afternoon. I was lucky enough to get to go to a Twins baseball game this afternoon with my aunt and two cousins. (one of my last chances to experience civilization before I venture out into the wilderness for 2 months) It was a great game and the Twins managed to bet the Brewers 4-1. I've just got a couple more days here in St. Paul and then I finally head...