Thursday, November 17, 2016

Calvin Youth Group Camping - Achray P.P. - Sept 2016 - Part 1

On Friday, Sept. 23, many of our youth, and some adults, traveled once again to Achray P.P. in Algonquin Park for a weekend of Youth Group Camping.  


The weather was awesome (I'm on a roll I guess) but it was COLD, COLD, COLD.  : ) 
We start our photo diary at the camp fire. 
And with Rosy showing off her feet for some reason.  


Oh, everyone wants to show off their feet now.  


Nice face Nicolette. 
Daniel, you don't look impressed with life at the moment. 
Maybe you didn't dress warm enough?  

Oh, he's waking up.  

That's better. 
And I see his sister, Caralynn, is happy.  Whew.  


Hmmmm, Nicolette is picture hogging... again.  

Peter (displaying his back in this photo) came along again this year.  
I wouldn't come to Achray without him.
Sandy graciously came along as well.  They will both be helping with the canoeing tomorrow.    



Jeannine came along too (I think she likes being a youth leader) and took some awesome pictures of the stars on the first night.  

Nice silhouette shot.  

Interesting.  

Everyone hit the hay at about 11 pm. 
I actually gave up my tent trailer so that a bunch of girls could sleep in it, something I have NEVER done before : ) . 
THAT meant I ended up sharing a tent with Sandy and Peter (something else I've never done before : ) ) . 
And they stuck me in the middle of them.  
I'm glad I brought along my Peru blanket to place underneath my sleeping bag.  That ground was REALLY cold and that blanket sure helped insulate from the cold ground. 

Did I mention it was COLD? Even with a toque and thermal underwear (I know, TMI) I was COLD.  Didn't sleep well. 





And before we knew it, it was morning. 
Riley and Daniel getting the fire going to keep warm.  


My trailer was the gathering place since all the cooking stuff was there. 


We occupied a total of 6 sites.  
Peter's trailer got the waterfront view.  

Morning fog on the lake.  It was very pretty. 

I love Achray. 
A nice, quiet place.  

Peter drinking, well, it was supposed to be caffeinated coffee, but somehow I forgot to bring that along. 
NOT a good scene. I had some upset folks on my hands.  : ) 
Seems Caffeine IS a drug of sorts. : )  

That's Janika in case you were wondering.  

I had Peter bring along his world famous oatmeal once again. It's always a hit, even though he doesn't think so.  


The group slowly grows as people wake up and seek warmth outside of their cozy sleeping bag.  

Breakfast was prepared soon after everyone was awake.  

The menu for YG Camping doesn't change much.  : ) 
This morning we once again had eggs in bread.  Forget the name, but you can look at previous blog entries to find it.  


Peter preparing his famous oatmeal.  

Another shot of the fog on the lake.  


A nice picture

yet another.  

One of these people looks REALLY cold.  : )
Could that be Shauna?  

Annette and some YP arrived in the morning. 
Here's her sleeping quarters. 
She saw Kevin's hammock one year and now has two of her own.  


Hey, Samantha.  
Glad you could make it.  

Yep, it's cold.  Using my toque from "The Coldest Night of the Year" walk.  

Nice smile Peter. Kind of.  : )

The sun finally peeked over the trees and offered warmth.  



And the fog started to dissipate.  







And people tried to stay warm as they ate breakfast. 

Hi, Katrina. 
You look cold too.  


Making breakfast is always fun.   
I enjoy cooking for the group when we go camping, but don't let that get around.  : ) 



And with breakfast comes dishes. 
This group got the short straw.  But they are having fun. 



That sun was sooooo warm.  
Amazing the difference between the sun and shade.  


Ben and Nicolette chillin...or was that warmin....
hmmm...



Breakfast line.  

Rosy showing us that good hygiene is important.  

The plan for the day was to have some people canoe to the water falls, (High Falls) and the rest hike, leaving about 1 hour later).  We got things rolling at about 10:00 am.  

It proved to be a nice, pretty warm, day. 
Thankfully. 
This group is ready to paddle.  

Lucy and Alexa ready to go.  

Peter's group ready to go. 


See you in a couple of hours.  

The rest of us hung around for about an hour, soaking up the warm sunshine.  

Braiding hair.  

Oh, back to the morning. 
Peter and others getting the canoes ready to go.  







Eventually those of us who were left drove to the High Falls cheater trail to hike to the falls.  
We parked our cars in the very small lot.  

And began our hike. 

The sign we see every time we hike. 
A good warning to be cautious as we hike. 


After about an hour of hiking, and actually getting warm, we arrived once again at high falls.  


Everyone arrived eventually and some dared to go into the cold water.  The first was Ella.  


More soon followed her. 

Ben, eating lunch and testing the water.  


Ok, so this spoon needs a bit of explanation. 
If you are friends with Ben on Facebook, it needs none, but if you aren't then you need to know that this spoon is something that Ben has been using in FB posts.  He's documenting where it has been, and it's been in many different places in the world.  


Getting out of the water here, using a very convenient rope.  

Some warming up after a dip.  
Others, not going to dip.  : ) 
Me included.  

Jeannine took some good close ups of people going down the falls.  You will see her shots shortly.   

Katrina, you aren't going to blow away.  Oh maybe you are just cold.  : )  
Daniel and Riley look COLD.  

Here's Ben again, going down the falls with his spoon.  


He's a bit off the wall this year.  :) 


Nice pose, Sarah.  

Christina and Katrina warming up to the water, or would that be cooling off? 

Down Katrina goes.  

Hmmm, nice pose, Sam.  

And Nicolette. 


The group had a good time in the water.  

There's also a bit of a cliff you can jump off of. 

Here's a group doing just that.  
I took a series of shots in succession so you get the idea.  










Lunch time.  


Michelle in the water.  

Someone got hold of my camera.  
I hate that.  : ) 

There goes Rhys.  


Hey, give me back my camera, Ella!  

So I gave Ella my Camera. 
What follows are her pictures.  

Of mom of course.  

Another interesting smile from Peter.  

Ella: "Hey Caralynn..."
Caralynn: "Huh!!!"  

Lauren. 

Now that's just creepy, Jeannine.  

A selfie.  


There were LOTS of pictures of clouds. 
I mean LOTS.  Here's one to represent them all.

Now that's just gross!!  : )  


Another selfie.  


Hey, Kendra.

Peter.....again...sigh.  : ) 


Enough pictures of me, already.  

Whew, back to the rest of the group. 
Elizabeth.  

Hannah.

Ella.  

The bottom of the slide has a slight undertow.  
You do get sucked under a bit.  Ella didn't seem to mind.  


Sarah. 


Kendra.


And the group.  

Swimming to the rope.  

Me getting all your memories.  

Sandy, looks like you are floating in the Dead Sea.  : ) 


Ben, still at it with his spoon.  Sigh. 

Daniel looks like he's asleep. He'll get a rude awakening shortly.  


A good shot of the group on the rock.  



More shots from Jeanine's perspective on the other side of the falls.  Daniel, is it a good idea to go backwards?  hmm.  

Janika looks a bit scared.  

The dry folk.  

Soaking up the rays.  

Ella, the ever expressive one.  

I think Elizabeth wants to fly. 

Rhys had lots of fun.  


Ben and Ella started out together.  


Just didn't end that way. 

Katrina.  


A nice picture of Christina taken by Jeannine.  



In between slides.  







This group eventually ended up going down the slide.  












Daniel must have hit a rock.  Ouch. 


Alexa.  

And Shauna.  


Lucy decided to take her own pictures. 

Time for a dunking.  

Hi, Ella!


We make a big mess : ) 


Jeannine took this neat picture.  


After a couple of hours it was time to head back. 
We had different people canoe back and the others hiked back.  
So ends PART 1.  
Please check out PART 2 for the conclusion.  

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