Thank you to Cherry Valley Troop/Crew 181 for hosting our crew !

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See Julia's Blog about our trip ! (below)

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Julia's Blog about our Okpik trip ! 

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - This morning, five degrees outside with the wind chill of negative eleven, the Columbus , Indiana Venture Crew 555 met at Enterprise .  The Venturing Crew is made up of about 17 people.   Unfortunately only 7 members of the Venturing Crew attended this trip to the Northern Tier High Adventure Base at Ely , Minnesota .  The 7 people were 4 youth and 3 adults.  The 4 youth were President Jake of the Venturing Crew, Vice President Michael, Secretary, Paige,  and new coming freshman, Julia and “voluntold” to be the trip scribe.   The three adults are Paula, Paul and Mark .

On Wednesday, we all met at Enterprise rental and left for Ely about 1 in the afternoon, after taking the back seat out of the van.   We then drove many hours to the Cherry Valley Church in Rockford , Illinois .   We got to the church about  8 p.m. on Wednesday night.  After a while of playing cards we all pretty much got bored and went to sleep.

On Thursday morning, we left around 5:15 a.m. and ate breakfast.  We drove for many more hours and finally reached Okpik for our Winter camp journey.   When we reached Okpik, we met our interpreter, Jenn.   Jenn would be with us through everything during Okpik.

We unloaded our stuff into the overnight – one night cabins at First Night Village.    Jenn  went through our stuff to make sure we were all fully prepared for our two night stay in the snow.   After everyone was taken care of with their supplies, and equipment we all pretty much hit the sack after training.

On Friday morning, Jenn showed up at our cabin and we woke up.  We then loaded everything that we would need for our two night stay in the snow, onto our sleds that were given to each of us.    We pulled the sleds to our campsite and we were all excited for the day planned.  

We set up camp then went straight to the fun parts.   We first sled down the hill that was close to the male quinzees. (hmmm, is that a male bird? No, silly it’s a snow cave!)

After a few hours of sledding, we went cross country skiing around the frozen lake and ON the frozen lake!  After cross country skiing for a couple more hours, we finally went dog sledding!  Neither of us youth girls wanted to mush, so we rode with Jake, an OKPIK musher.   Everyone else rode and mushed.   They went halfway riding in the sled and halfway being the musher.   After a couple hours more of fun dog sledding, it was unfortunately over. 

About this time we had to light the stove, with a match and fuel paste (part of the crew gear provided, that the crew members pulled on their sleds).  After it finally lit, we put the bags into the pot of water.  We used bags for cooking the food so we wouldn’t have dirty dishes and it actually cooked!    We had chicken and rice!  And for a cooked meal in the woods filled with snow it was actually delicious.   I ate two bowls!    Everyone had to have more than one!  

Because in Ely , Minnesota the sun sets at 4:15 p.m. , it was pitch black after dinner!  But because no one was dead tired, Jenn decides to take us out on the FROZEN lake, also known as Flash Lake , to play kickball, and go Star Tripping.   Star Tripping is actually very fun!  It when you stare up at the stars while spinning, and when you get dizzy, you stop and look at the person that has the bright light.   They shine the light into your eyes and you fall EVERYTIME!   It’s very weird.  But it’s totally true.  

After kickball we had to get our water..  We got our water from Flash Lake .   We had to screw a big hole with an auger into the lake and stick a large silo in the hole to fill up the silo with water.   After getting water, we took it back to boil.   After it boiled, we filled up our water bottles so we could put our water bottles in our sleeping bags so it could help keep us warm. 

On Saturday morning, we were allowed to sleep in because we didn’t have an agenda for the day.  We all woke up around 8:30 a.m. and ate our breakfast of  Oatmeal, Hot chocolate or cider, POP-TARTS, BACON! and applesauce.

After breakfast, we decided we still wanted a little more sledding!   So we went back to the sledding hill.   After some crash-and-burns, and a game of kickball, and having lunch with the gray jays, we decided to take a little hike.   A few walked, but others had skis or snowshoes.   We went up hills, down hills, around hills, pretty much everywhere!  It was a blast!   After our big hike we went back to our campsite played cards and rested.   We fixed another terrific supper and waited till seven. 

At seven, we went out on Flash Lake and played kickball with another boy Scout troop from Texas !  We ended up losing… BIGTIME!  But we ended up asking that boy scout troop back to our camp to play BIG BOOTY!!    About that time, Blake and Jake, (OKPIK dog mushers) showed up.   They all still came back to our campsite and we all played Big Booty for about an hour.   After everyone left, we went to boil our water bottles to sleep and be warm.   We were all in bed around nine that night.

We had to wake up early on Sunday morning because we had to pack and leave camp.  So we all got up around six or six-thirty, grabbed our pop-tarts, applesauce and bacon, and we started packing.  

Everyone was all packed up at around eight, so we headed out.   It took us about a half hour to get back to (base) camp.   Today was the day we all got to shower and chill in the sauna!   We all took about two hours to get ready.   We had to return everything that we borrowed first, but after that we all pretty much ran to the showers and sauna.

After the amazing time in the showers and wonderful sauna, we looked like our normal awesome selves again.  After all of that we had to go to the award ceremony / lunch.   (Each person in Our Venture Crew got a patch  for participation, and we earned the Bizhiw patch, which the patch your eligible for only if you stay two nights in the snow.

After thanking everyone, taking pictures, having a last stop at the trading post, and making one last pee break, we left OKPIK.

We made it back to the church on Sunday night and everyone pretty much immediately fell asleep.   We left on Monday morning and didn’t get home until early that afternoon.

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