Packing Day + Family Potluck!

Today was very eventful. Starting off at 9 am at the Weldon Residence (Thank you so much for hosting!!!), we began packing. The girls started by putting together the meal packs. These packs are by far the heaviest and the hardest to pack, but the girls did great (only a little bit of trouble from the lunch pack). We were served a delicious lunch of tacos before packing up our personal packs. There will be 2 personals with 3 girls in each pack. We then loaded up Beaux’s car to head to Basecamp.

After a laborious morning of packing, we celebrated with my favorite part of prep, the family potluck! This was a great way to meet all of the families and an awesome opportunity for the girls to show their families whats been happening inside of Basecamp (and we get to each a bunch of good food :)) Aubrey gave all of the parents a wonderful breakdown of their route and then all of the families got to tryout our freshly packed packs and flip up a canoe. It was a full day, but a good one!

Whitewater + Gear Shakedown (6/14)

Today we headed out on the Sauk River for our first fast water paddling experience! We had some quick classroom time at Basecamp learning about river features and how to tell if a rapids set is shootable or not. After Jack graciously loaded the trailer for us, we headed to our starting point at Nights of Columbus Park. The girls did an amazing job and we had a lot of fun shooting the little rapids and paddling on the swift water. After heading back to basecamp and struggling to back up the trailer, the girls had a quick dinner break before starting our gear shakedown. This is what we do a couple days before packing day so that we know all of the girls will have everything they need and the correct things. Thank you to the Weldon’s for hosting us!

Compasses, J-leans, and T-rescues!

We had everyone here today!! We started out with learning how to set a barring on a compass. We set up a scavenger hunt for the girls and they found some s’more stuff at the end for when we learn how to do fire! Next, we took out our tents to check them again and put our plastics in! Everyone crushed it and we set them up in no time. We got some canoes out and then paddled out to a bay and practiced our draws and crossdraws. Then, we showed them how to J-lean, which is trying to get as much water in your boat as possible and then bracing the canoe back up to have it not fully tip over. In conjunction with that, when a boat does flip over, we do what is called a T-rescue to get it back up right, so we had our girls work on that! Everyone did so good and we finished our meeting with a pizza party!! Thank you Jessica Grabinski!!

Route planning

Today day we changed some of our route specifically day 6-12 because the stream we were going to use was not going to be there. We did some fun riddles where we were stumped on Kinslee’s riddle about dead cows. Then learned how to connect a gas can to the oven, light matches and put together an oven. We also learned what UTMs (UTIs) are and how to measure them. I feel sad that I was put in charge of writing this I almost died because I can NOT SPELL AND HATE WRIGHTING in all this is not for me and I will avoid this in any and all situations. We then found out Megan loves to jumper cable people so stay safe out there.

Crew Olympics and More

6/8 - Today we had crew olympics! All of the girls absolutely crushed it and we are so proud of them! It was a very rainy day but they persevered through throw ropes, kettle packing, tarps, and portaging!

6/10 - Today we did some miscellaneous things that we had not done yet. We packed the rest of our fruit and nuts, finished putting packs together, and then went for a paddle! We learned some new strokes, the draw and crossdraw! We also had some impromptu T-rescues, where one boat is flipped over in the water and the other boat is rescuing them! We finished out the day with some ice cream and freezies!

Crew Olympics Preperations

Hello! Today we ran through all of the events for crew olympics on monday! We mega-crewed with Gracelyn’s crew for the first bit of todays meeting. We started out with portaging, where everyone either took a kettle pack or a canoe! We went to the tennis courts and back and all of the girls absolutely crushed it :) After that, we practiced setting up some tarps and coiling P-cord. We then said goodbye to Gracelyn’s crew and moved onto packing the kettle. This was their first time doing this and they were amazing! Aubrey packed a great kettle while Cecelia helped hand her the items. Finally, we learned what a throw rope was, how to use them, and how to put them away! Overall a super productive meeting and the girls are going to crush it tomorrow!

Routes and Food Packing!

6/4 - Today we set out all of our maps and did our first draft of our route planning. We are super excited to be doing the Berens River and see some epic waterfalls. After our route planning we had a dehydrator party at Lily’s. Everyone was there at 12am with some extra special guests like Aubrey’s boyfriend and Kinslee’s friend Paige. They also brought their baby blankets to the meeting today. We are hype to be minions tomorrow at food packing day!

6/5 - Today we had food packing day! The girls came all dressed up as minions and the guides as Gru and Dr. Nefario. Kinslee crushed it as our menu manager, delegating the jobs to the girls as they went and grabbed+bagged our food for the next month. All the girls went and got canes for lunch :) It was a long day, but everyone did amazing and we wrapped up the day at a good time.

Jerky day and Sewing!

This is Beaux! Today we started bright and early and went to get 7 Brew in the morning and Chick-fil-A. After that, we went to Greg’s house to make beef jerky. I have to say that I cannot picture eating that much meat in a month! After making the jerky, we headed off to Hobby Lobby to get fabric for our sewing day! Then we went to Chipotle and got some food. After that, we headed over to Ruby’s house and met her mom and a group of very nice old ladies who were all very helpful. We made ditty bags and paddle covers. I have to say today was very busy but so fun! Everything is feeling more and more real every day.

7-Brew or Swim

We had a skills meeting this afternoon, here is Miss Ruby with the rundown:

Today we portaged past the tennis courts, more than the last day. And then we went back and paddled, and went in circles and did more gunwale walking. We came back and practiced more knots and also did a knot relay. Now we are starting to build packs. We also have a new crew member, Trail Barbie. Cece and Megan both got tripped by ropes. We really miss Lily and Aubrey today they are missing in action we hope to see them soon. We are planning on getting 7-brew before jerky day tomorrow!

Maps, Knots, Portaging, Paddling and Tents!

(5/26) Today the girls all got to basecamp right on time with beautiful carpooling skills. We got right into it with a quick portage before we began with the main part of our meeting. The girls crushed it!!! We then went inside to look at our routes and decide our river and resupply lake. We are finishing our journey into Lake Winnipeg on the good ole Berens River! We decided on the general direction of the first half of our route and we are ready to crush some big portages, these are longer, more challenging, named portages that crews do every year. Lil Sas won’t know what hit it 💪 After the route, we worked on a couple knots that we will use daily on trail. At the end of our meeting we drove a caravan to Miss Lily’s house to set up our dehydrator which we will use to dehydrate a lot of the food that we will be eating for the month we are out there.

(5/28) Hey! This is Cecelia doiNg today's blog! Today, we begAn the day with reviewing knots with Megan. To finish knots out, we learned how to set up a ridge line. Then, we porTaged to just beyond the tennis courts and came back, which we absolutely crushed. We then brought the canoes down to the river and met the Far North girls and saw How to do a T-Rescue. After that, we practiced our worst strokes while trying not to hit pontoons and a fAmily of geese. Happy to report that we hit Neither! We also learned how to gunwale walk, so we can switch positions in the boat without getting out. When we got back and put the canoes away, we learned how to set up our tents and eventually assembled a tent in under 5 minutes! 

2nd meeting and paddling lessons!

We had our second meeting this week and also had some 1 on 1 paddling lessons! On Wednesday, we finished up our menu as a crew and learned about all of the parts of a canoe. We also revealed the pre-trip jobs that everyone has.. Our Menu manager is Kinslee, dehydrator manager is Lily, maps manager is Aubrey, special events manager is Beaux, skills manager is Cecelia, and equipment manager is Ruby! After that, we went outside and learned the steps to flipping a canoe up to portage. Everyone did so good and got it down! We practiced portaging a little bit more when we had paddling lessons. We had 3 separate days and did some 1 on 1 lessons with each of the girls. They all learned the 3 main strokes that we use in a canoe! Power strokes, C-strokes, and J-strokes. Everyone crushed it at paddling and we are so excited to continue learning more skills next week!

First Meeting!!!

Today we had our very first meeting at Basecamp!! After some changing of plans, we ended up sanding paddles in the Basecamp yard before getting the tour of Basecamp. We showed the girls all of the important things in Basecamp, specifically the crew record board and crew olympics paddle :) After our little tour, we went to the meeting room to get into the meat and potatoes of our meeting, the goals and expectations. After a little game of put-the-maps-together, we sat down to talk about our goals for the trip. We really want to see some moose and catch some whitewater. We also went over our expectations for each other this summer, my favorite being not to go to the tent angry. We picked paddle learning days and laid out the jobs for the summer, which we will choose by tomorrow. Stay tuned for the big job reveal!!!

Hello!!

I’m Megan Schrooten, one of the guides this summer! I’m currently a freshman at Montana State studying music education! Outside of school I love doing anything outdoors - climbing, biking, skiing, running, hiking, canoeing of course :) I also love a good movie or game night with friends! I did my first year trip in 2024 and then my far north last summer, on the Missinaibi river. This is my first year guiding and I’m so excited to get to know everyone!

Hello!!

I’m Ava Grabinski, one of this crew’s guides for this summer. I am an elementary education major currently finishing up my 3rd year of college at St. Ben’s, studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain! Outside of school, I like to sing, climb, spend time with my roommates, and of course, get out on the water as much as I can :). I am a second-year guide, with my first year guiding being last year. I am so excited to guide with Megan, get to know this group of girls, and begin prepping for this summer!

Welcome!

Welcome to our crew’s blog!

You can receive updates on our crew’s progress through photos and the blog on our page. Check back soon to get an inside look at the different skills, knowledge, and steps we are taking as we prepare for our expedition of a lifetime this summer.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns!