10-18-2012 welcome back rain!

Welcome back to yet another rainy adventure of Mei-Jing! Yesterday as you probably were able to guess was the 17th. For those of you who don't know what on earth solos is, here it is. It's where the school divides into smaller groups and each student gets to go out by his or herself to camp/survive (depending on how you look at it) for one or two nights, depending upon the person's preference. I am currently located on Inkpot Lake on the very far west side of campus. I personally think that my group got one of the best places to camp!Some groups were close if not on the main campus! I like being far away from campus. It's really nice and and quiet. I am in a group with Aaron, Dexter, Alex T, Olivia, Kevin, Saige, and leaders Robert and Amy. Despite the fact that I really love my group, it really doesn't matter since we won't be seeing each other for two whole days. The entire group decided to camp for 2 nights, and not come back fro dinner the second night (a choice that we had). A quick glimpse at what we looked like:

Aaron looking quite casual. His pack was abnormally heavy fro what he usually has with him (being a primitive skills expert and all) because he was toting a good 10 books. "highly unpractical" he says. 

Alex pretty normal garb.  Nothing out of the ordinary. :)

Dexter looking pretty normal except may I point out that he is NOT wearing a rain jacket. He neglected to bring one. Note: we hiked in in a steady rainfall. 

Kevin, may I point out doesn't appear to have a backpack. He didn't use a backpacking pack. Oh no instead he had a backpack a little larger than the biggest Harry Potter book plus a small stuff sack. That was it not including the fire pan, water, and tent.   

Me. Normal looking. Backpack was much lighter than exploration week!

Olivia looking similar to me. Rocking the fire pan as a water shield. 

Saige. Quite prepared and of course wet already from the rain. 

There you have it. The crew. We look nice and wet as you probably noticed, but we had all been toughened up by the week of constant wetness aka exploration week! :D Aaron and Kevin both entered the two day experience fasting. I originally hadn't planed a fast. More on that later. I was the first to be dropped off at my site. One quick picture and I was alone. I immediately set up my sent and bandanna and other site necessities.

Bandanna explanation: Basically for the leaders to make sure that you aren't dead without you having to see or speak to them.

Bandanna high in tree = student says she/he is okay and not in dire need of help
Bandanna low in tree = leader has been by and acknowledged this fact.
Bandanna back in tree at a high point = Student saw this and is still okay

I had originally intended to sleep in a debris shelter, but I soon found out that when you are in a previous logging site and there aren't a whole lot of leaves and all you can find are 300 foot long tree and twigs and pine boughs your options are limited. I worked on the shelter for a while having fun with it knowing I had my tent as a back up. Good thing I had it, because after a while, every time I got near the shelter I would have a sneezing attack. I decided that I must have been allergic to a lichen or mold or fungus growing on one of the logs, because I'm pretty sure I'm not allergic to pine.

Have I not mentioned that my site is located on a birch bark land mine? Trouble with starting a fire was totally out of the question. One mis-step and I could have lit my entire site on fire in an instant! The main challenge was to fine dry wood. Since there was no tree cover, all the wood lying on the ground was soaked. I'm talking puddles guys! I started a small fire, but then after it started to rain I decided to take a nap. I was quite glad I had brought an extra pair of pants. My panted were soaked form working amongst the wet twigs and the drizzle of the rain. I woke up hours later when it was dim. Decided I was warm, ate a granola bar and then slept till the next morning. Impressive!? I think yes! Goes to show how much I needed more sleep!