We split into two groups: a food team and a gear team. I was on the food team. We started by deciding what type of meals to prepare. We are lucky, since we only have two minor food concerns in our group: Hannah prefers to not eat meat and Manuel can not have milk. Chris helped us design our meals for this trip - we opted for sandwiches for both lunches, chicken and beef tacos for dinner with rice and fruit cobbler, and breakfast tacos for breakfast. Of course, we had to specify exactly what was needed for these meals, as well as the necessary quantities for 15 people, when making the grocery list. Before going to the store we checked the pantry and refrigerator to determine what foods the outdoor center already had. Next we took the Suburban to Whitaker Fields to pick up the box trailer. While there, we learned how to hitch the trailer. After dropping the box trailer at the outdoor center, we went to the HEB on Red River. Once there, we split into 3 pairs to shop for all the items on our list. Hannah and I shopped mainly for dry-goods. We all met up at the end, checked through the list one last time to ensure we had gotten everything, and made our way with three somewhat full carts to the checkout area. Our bill came up to just under $400 without tax (which we don't have to pay since UT is tax-exempt). Once we returned to the outdoor center, we sorted the food by meal, repackaged a few items, packed the non-refrigerated goods into dry boxes by meal, and refrigerated the items that needed to be kept cold. Finally, we went to get water gear - wetsuit, helmet (which we each labelled with our name), dry bag, water jacket, and life jacket - from a little storage area under the stairs in front of Gregory Gym. We also picked up sleeping bags, sleeping bag stuff sacks, and sleeping bag pads from the outdoor center. By this point, the gear team was also finished, so we shortly met to debrief the session before heading our separate ways for the night.
We met at the outdoor center at 7am the next morning. We packed the refrigerated items into a cooler, put our person gear in some combination of a small dry-bag that would stay with us and a larger dry-bag that we would share (I shared with Manuel), and loaded up in the 2 Suburbans. We drove to the Lions Club tube rental parking lot at Texas State, where we unloaded the 7 canoes (plus the kayak for Chris) and got 'river ready'. Being 'river ready' means having on your wetsuit, life jacket, river shoes, and helmet. We learned a bit about canoeing stokes, on-river communication, and how to float if you fall out of the boat. We paired up and paddled upstream to the mouth of the San Marcos River. Chris told us these San Marcos Springs are home to a few threatened species, including the Texas Blind Salamander and Texas Wild Rice. We then switched partners (and I moved to the back of the canoe) before paddling downstream to the San Marcos paddle park.
Paddle and safety talk (photo by Jakub).
San Marcos paddle park (photo by Manuel).
At the San Marcos paddle park, we pulled our canoes up onto the bank and prepared to gain experience swimming rapids. We swam various combinations of the three rapids in this area, working on keeping our feet up going through the rapids and then eddying out. Eddying out involved attempting to swim and roll out of the current and into a particular eddy. We probably tried this 10-20 times from various starting points and into various eddies. Throughout, Emily or Jakub stood at the end of the rapids with a throw bag in case any of us were unable to escape the rapids, but we never needed them. I struggled more than most people to escape the rapids quickly, but always was able to eventually get into the eddy. It's really awkward trying to swim with a life jacket and helmet on!
Approaching a rapid (photo by Jakub).
Approaching another rapid (photo by Manuel).
Huddling together to try and warm up (photo by Jakub).
After doing our last swim from the top of the first rapid, it was lunch time. 4 people were picked for lunch duty, and the rest of us were able to take off as much wet clothing as possible (getting down to bathing suits so that our clothing could dry and warm up). Lunch was set up relatively quickly, and we had cold-cut sandwiches with chips, apples and oranges, and cookies. After lunch a group presented on different decision-making strategies. We then worked on throwing throw bags on land in pairs before taking our pairs out to three points in the rapids and practicing real throws to Chris, Emily, and Jakub as they repeatedly swam through the rapids. Sean and I each threw 2-3 times from two different points - one point at the middle rapid was really difficult to time, but he managed to get that throw once. The other rapid was easier to throw from, and I 'saved' Emily once and Sean 'saved' people twice. After we finished, we paddled back upstream to the Suburbans.
After loading the canoes onto the trailer (which takes people climbing on the trailer, as well as people spotting/supporting), we drove to San Marcos River Retreat. We were the only people in the large tent area, which had bathrooms and a pavilion with a fire pit. 4 new people were chosen for dinner duty, and the rest of us worked to set-up tents and start a camp fire. Once we were done setting up, we sat around the fire talking and relaxing while the dinner crew worked on cooking the chicken and beef tacos, Spanish rice, and fruit cobbler. Dinner took a long time to cook, but was really good once it was finished (besides the small mix-up in which cumin was sprinkled in our cobbler instead of cinnamon!). After dinner we had two group presentations - my group's presentation on leadership ethics and a presentation on leadership styles. My group discussed different models that can be used to when making an ethical decision, and then presented four different scenarios that could happen as guides and encouraged the group to discuss (1) what decisions could be made and (2) how to actually carry out these decisions. One scenario was that you overhear a participant refusing to use the portable chemical toilet and another participant telling her to just go behind a rock. The group decided that a meeting should be held with the entire group in which the group is reminded about the importance of using the chemical toilet. The other group's presentation required 9 of us to make a human pyramid. We had a lot of fun, but it was really hard to hold the weight!
Human pyramid! (photo by Jakub)
I ended up being alone in my 5-person tent, as the others in my tent decided to sleep under the stars and everyone else had already settled into other tents. It was kind of nice to have the tent to myself, but I kept expecting to have company every time I woke up (due to either mosquitoes or cold).
Since I was on the breakfast crew with Ellie, Sebastian, and Sean, I had to wake up at 6am. I quickly packed up my personal gear, sleeping bag, and pad and started helping with breakfast. We prepared breakfast in the dark using our headlamps. Sean cooked the eggs, Sebastian cooked the shells, and Ellie and I helped with the other aspects. I also gathered more wood since the people sleeping outside had managed to keep the camp fire going throughout night. Breakfast was breakfast tacos, cut apples, and coffee/tea/hot chocolate. After breakfast we used four buckets to wash the dishes - one for clean water, one with a facet to clean, 1 with soap, and 1 with water and light bleach. We then dried and packed up all the kitchen supplies. Then it was a quick rush for the kitchen crew to get personal gear packed up and to get dressed for the day.
We met over by the river in the camp ground. We were split into three groups to have a rope-tying relay. I struggled a bit on tying a bowline tightly around something. Our team ended up getting second, I think. Then we all spent some time working on knots on our own. Once we all had our knots down, we learned how to put together a z-drag, which can be used to rescue a canoe from being wrapped, or stuck, on a rock or tree in the river. We broke up by age for a two team race to pull a canoe using a mechanical advantage of three (I'm second oldest! Our group has people ranging in age from 19 to 45.). My team had all of the guys that already work as guides, so we won the race substantially quicker than the other team. Hence, we were instructed to attempt to rig a z-drag with mechanical advantage of five, which just required two more pulleys to be put into the system.
Next we got river-ready and went down to the river to work on wadding through rapids. We walked in groups of 2 and 3 through some light rapids before walking in a group of 6 through a tough rapid with some areas in which your feet could get stuck if you were not careful. We then worked on walking alone with a paddle through some light rapids.
Me right before we began the 6 person walk through the rapids (photo by Jakub).
Then it was lunch time. 4 people worked on preparing lunch while the rest of us unloaded the canoes from the trailer and loaded them with paddles, throw-bags, and buckets. For lunch we had chips and salsa, pita bread, salami, lettuce, tomatoes, chips, apples, and oranges. We also listened to the final group presentation on outdoor teaching styles.
After lunch and the final presentation, we finally hit the river. Since Manuel hurt his calf in an exercise that morning, he rode with Emily and Jakub. This left me without a partner, so Chris canoed with me instead of in his one-person kayak. This was a great experience for me - I have less canoeing experience than almost anyone else in guide school, and hadn't had a good experience the previous day with partners. One girl got frustrated and told me to just always paddle on one side in the front (and got angry if I tried to do anything else), while another girl was supportive as I attempted to steer in the back but was unable to really give me advice on skills. Hence, getting to paddle with Chris was a great experience since I was clear upfront about my lack of experience and he taught me how to do pull and push stokes and generally made me feel a lot more comfortable. He communicated what I needed to do, and I generally think I executed it well. We were the lead boat through all the rapids, and did well. He also worked with me on how to hold a throw bag (underhanded) and how to tie a good bowline knot to secure a canoe to a tree. Chris said that he'll match us up appropriately for the Big Bend trip now that he knows our skills - so hopefully I'll get a partner that is okay with giving me directions - since I do not think I'll be at a level where I can successfully decide what to do. However, I'm sure I'll improve a lot over the 5 day canoe trip!
As we were canoeing, we came across a submerged canoe in the middle of the river (that Chris and Jakub had wrapped earlier in the day). This gave us the experience of unwrapping a real canoe in the rapids using a z-pull. Hannah was put in charge of directing the effort, and she did a great job.
Setting up the z-pull (photo by Jakub).
We stopped before 2-3 rapids (including Broken leg and Old Mill) to scout the rapids and decide reasonable paths through the rapids. Chris said you should look at where you want to be at the end of the rapid and work backwards to determine how to best approach a rapid. Since we were the lead boat, we went through each rapid first so that the group could watch. We got through each rapid without any big issues, and then eddied out, tied off the boat, and got throw bags ready to assist others if they flipped. On Broken Bone, the first two boats after ours did indeed flip, but everyone was fine and no one needed a throw bag. On Old Mill, multiple boats got stuck, but no one flipped or needed help.
After going through Old Mill (which required a bunch of back strokes), we reached a deeper, open part in the river where we worked on T-rescues. In pairs, first one boat would flip, align their flipped boat perpendicular to the other pairs' boat, the people in the other boat would lift the boat across their boat, turn it over, and then pull it next to their boat so they could act as an offsetting weight as the other pair attempted to get back in their boat one at a time.
Groups practicing T-rescues (photo by Jakub).
After finishing the T-rescues, we went to the bridge where we got out, and waited for Sean and Brendan to go in Chris' car to get the Suburbans. Then we loaded up the canoes and gear into the trailer, changed out of our wet outer-gear, and started on our way back to Austin. As we were nearing Austin, our Suburban ran out of gas near Ben White. We pulled over, called the other Suburban, and waited for them to bring us a can of gas (and snacks). This delayed us, but we eventually got back to campus, changed into dry clothing, washed and stored the canoes, hung up all the wet gear and tents, put up unused food, and said our good byes around 8:30pm.
Paddling through some light rapids with Chris (photo by Jakub).
Taking Manuel through the Old Mill rapid (photo by Jakub).
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