I just finished a 4-day paddling camping trip with Fireside at Sechelt Inlet. It was an amazing experience that taught me many skills and allowed me to meet new people.
Before camp:
I had been worried about this trip for the past week because I didn’t know if I would be able to make friends and have fun. I just came back from a camping trip with my family with only 3 days to pack. On the night before camp, I was packing my backpack when a piece of it ripped out so I had to stay up until 12:30am to sew it back and re-pack everything.
Day 1:
I woke up early that day to get to the ferry station at 9am. I met everyone there and most of them seemed friendly so I felt a little relieved. On the ferry, I was fairly quiet and didn’t socialize much. When we got to Pedals and Paddles (P&P), we introduced ourselves and ate a small meal. We loaded all our stuff onto the shore, which was a lot. There was a lot of carrying heavy boxes and canoes. I thought the entire camp was going to be focused on learning canoeing, but since most of the canoes were used to transport stuff, I got to use a kayak to go to Nine Mile. I kayaked with Marlin and we had a lot of fun, it was pretty tiring at first and it was also raining so it was very uncomfortable. Whenever I lifted the paddle to the other side, the water would drip onto my legs and at the end my clothes were all soaked. We had to paddle for 2-3 hours which was a crazy long time and it was not fun at all. We had to then set up everything when we got to Nine Mile. When we were picking tent groups, I was chosen to be with Anton, which was a super quiet guy. At first I thought he was a little weird but as I got to know him, he turned out to be the chillest guy there.
We had butter chicken and rice for dinner and smores afterwards. During the cooking, I met Logan. My first impression of him was a funny guy who was also cool. The first time I talked to him, I knew we would fit together well. Both of us liked to joke around and do dumb things and we had a lot of fun together.
There was one kid (D) that was super chaotic. He would never listen to teachers, climb trees above the kitchen, and in general be a pain. After dinner, some kids went to climb like a really big cliff rock pretty far away. D started to climb when he slipped because of the wet rocks, he tumbled down probably 10 feet and managed to stop on the water. The kids on top didn’t realize D was climbing underneath so they were throwing boulders down the cliff at the same time. Luckily, D didn’t get hit by any rocks and didn’t injure himself that bad.
Day 2:
We woke up at around 8:30 on day 2. Since I was doing the Duke of Ed program, I was required to help more and cook a meal a day. After breakfast, the older group headed to another smaller beach. I kayaked again but with Logan this time. Kayaking with your friend is the best feeling because you can talk together and have fun while relaxing on a massive lake and taking in beautiful views. We stayed there for lunch and a bit of the afternoon. This day was probably the most chill day of the camp. Some people chose to go exploring the place and found out it was an ancient burial site. The other group which I was in stayed in the forest to chill. We made bracelets and listened to music for like an hour or more. The entire time was just us sitting in circles doing whatever and listening to music. It was pretty relaxing and also a time where we bonded a lot more by sharing our personal lives and music tastes. I was getting closer to Logan now and I started to have a lot of fun at camp.
We cooked hot dogs for dinner this day. Basically the entire older group was bonding really well and we were practically controlling the kitchen. Yoshi was the big boss, managing everything but we were having fun, helping cook every meal. The staff like Yoshi and Noah were insanely cool. Noah has a very strong Irish accent which Logan and I were flaming for a while. We loved to imitate and use it and it added to the experience and memories of the camp. The older group also helped manage all the stuff we had and organize all the equipment. I learned a lot about what to bring and how to organize your camp and even though it was a lot of work, my group had very cool people which boosted the mood.
Day 3:
On day 3 we planned to do some canoeing workshops and rescues. However, these plans were ruined because of a special guest that decided to show up. I was waking up and getting ready to go get breakfast when I heard a massive bang. It sounded like a gunshot and I was sure it was a bear banger. It is when you shoot a harmless explosive at the bear to scare it away, but the staff said the bear didn’t even flinch. Sadly, when you meet a bear, one of two sides has to be the one to back up and the bear didn’t which meant we had to. Everybody packed up their stuff as quick as possible and set to transfer to another campsite. We chose to move across the inlet, which had a beach that was pretty similar to ours. When we got there, I received the news that we wouldn’t be setting up tents that night because we had to wake up super early the next morning. We set out everything we had but kept it organized for quick packing up the next day. The older group also cooked lunch. Cooking might’ve been one of the most tiring activities but my peers seriously made the experience better. Everyone socialized and opened up while cooking, and vibing to the music made it even more fun. The older group had to organize all the bins and boxes of stuff, which was a little tedious too but I felt proud of what we did after we finished. Since the younger, chaotic, louder group was gone for some exploring, the older group had some chill time at the beach, making more bracelets and doing whatever. Logan and I skipped rocks or smashed oysters most of the time. I was super glad that because of the bear, everyone got to chill the entire day instead of doing activities but I was sort of looking forward to canoeing as well since I hadn’t done it a single time. Logan and I did get to free kayak for a short time and the water was super nice and calm so it was very peaceful.
Dinner that day was the same as the other meals, we cooked pasta and I helped a ton. Cooking was immense fun and it seemed like everything was going perfect. The weather had cleared up on this day so it was sunny and dry everywhere.
Logan and I chose a very nice sleeping spot in the woods, we put all of our gear above the tide line and only brought essentials with us to sleep. When we were both about to shut our eyes, we heard an air horn. Air horns are used to scare away bears and indicate for others that there is one as well. We looked at each other, thinking it was just a test or accident. It was not. It was blown 5 more times which was when we decided to make our way to the beach, which was where most people were. Turns out, one of the staff saw a giant animal next to him when he was sleeping so he blew the horn. It may or may not have been a bear but it was for safety. We all went back to sleep when all the staff decided to crash our sleep spot. There was a lot of space left so they all set up around us and everyone had a good sleep.
Day 4:
We woke up very early today to pack everything into the boats. There was mainly no problems. Everyone worked together very well and we got on the water fairly quickly. Because the final 2 days were sunny, the views were immaculate so I had to appreciate it as much as I could before I left. I was in a kayak once again with Logan and it was going to be 2-3 hours back to P&P. The trip was a ton of fun because the water was completely calm with absolutely no waves and wind. It was super peaceful and I got to talk and joke around with other friends and staff as well. Noah had become pretty annoyed with us because of the accent but both sides were having fun and it helped us bond a lot more. We saw a lot of jellyfish in the water and there were some massive ones too. We stopped on the water to have a small breakfast with some biscuits. We then made our way to P&P. When we got there, I helped carry a crap ton of stuff up. Since there was so many people, we couldn’t use the main beach nor the main parking lot so there was no way to bring the boats up except carrying them and all our stuff had to be carried twice as far to our parking spots. After a while of carrying stuff, we had around 30 minutes to chill in the parking lot. Everyone cooked some noodles, we listened to music, sat in the truck bed, played soccer for a while and it was basically our final bonding moment.
Our bus came and we had to say goodbye to staff like Yoshi and Noah. I slept on the bus the entire way (45 mins) to the ferry. When we got on the ferry, everyone instantly lined up for food because it took a long time. The burger was very good and when we got back, I farewelled all my friends and was stoked to finally be home.
Reflection:
I had an insane amount of fun on this trip and it turned out extremely better than I expected. On the first few days, all I was thinking about was being home and dry. After a couple days of bonding and better weather, I learned to appreciate the nature and experiences and kind of even wanted to stay back. This trip allowed me to have a break from my current life, experience new things, and meet new people.