September 17, 2003

Scouts find Canada quite an adventure

Members of Troop 31 complete week-long trip to Northern Tier

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Transcending grueling portages, reveling in breathtaking scenery and paddling the day away, 12 members of Boy Scout Troop 31 completed a high adventure camp this summer in Atikokan, Ontario.
      The week-long trip to the Northern Tier Boy Scout Camp challenged the participants - which included six adult leaders - physically, mentally and emotionally. They portaged over rugged trails between lakes and practiced Leave No Trace camping. They lugged 70-90 pound packs each, carrying all their equipment, food and water, and paddled through rain every day. Along the way they frolicked in waterfalls, watched loons and herons and had a wonderful time together.
      "The most challenging was all the paddling," said Jonathan Kane, a junior at Traverse City St. Francis High School who has been in scouting for six years. "But that was not the hardest part because it rained a bunch up there and that was probably the hardest thing."
      The group divided into three crews, including two adults and four Boy Scouts, each led by an interpreter provided by the camp. Each crew followed a different route, paddling approximately 65 miles during seven days and six nights through the pristine wilderness of the Quetico Provincial Park.
      "It was gorgeous, I've never been to that part of Canada before," said Caleb Richardson, a senior at St. Francis High School and a Boy Scout for six years. "Portaging was a lot of fun."
      Kane and Richardson both completed a Triple Crown by going to Northern Tier. This high adventure camp is the third camp in a challenging trio that includes Philmont in New Mexico and the SeaBase High Adventure camp in Key Largo, Florida. Both Scouts would eagerly attend any of the three camps again, although Kane noted that he found Northern Tier the hardest one.
      "You have the canoes, instead of just walking, so it is using more upper body strength," he said.
      Participants earned a 50-miler patch as well as a patch for completing the camp.
      The troop has set a goal of going to SeaBase next year and to Philmont the year after, ambitious plans that scout leader Dave Sliwinski said his troop is ready for.
      Sliwinski said that at Northern Tier, participants honed their wilderness, teamwork and leadership skills - adults took a back seat as much as possible. Each crew had a Boy Scout crew leader who guided camp set up every evening and break down every morning.
      "Basically, as adult leaders we are in the background," said Sliwinski, whose son, Sean, is a Scout and attended the trip. "The reasoning in having one leader per crew is that it is a privilege an older boy gets."
      The trip was an accomplishment for the boys, Sliwinski said, as they pushed themselves beyond what they thought they could do. The high adventure camp experience condenses and typifies the scouting credo: be prepared. Prepare in advance for the trip and be prepared on the trip to bring training, teamwork and common sense to bear in situations that arise.
      "Initially it starts out as a fun thing, as you get a couple of days into it, now it becomes a mental thing," he said. "Because they are not only thinking about what they've got in front of them but facing a challenge of how hard it all is. They have to dig inside themselves so they feel they are contributing to the group."
      Dave Swan also noted how the boys in his crew, including his son Dan, lived up to the experience. The pair were on their first high adventure trip and Swan noted that some of the portages were brutal for the boys.
      "I saw that after about two days they really realized what would be necessary to get through the trip," said Swan, an Eagle Scout involved in scouting with his two sons for the past five years. "They were just amazing, their endurance and what they could put up with; they never got discouraged or down."