Northern Tier
On August 17, 2024 our crew (6 scouts and 2 adults) returned home from our 10-days trip to Northern Tier High Adventure (ET080724-C) at Charles L. Sommers Canoe Base, Ely MN. This is a trip that positively influences the way I perceive my day-to-day situations forever. Our interpreter (aka Wilderness Guide) at Northern Tier was Abby Cichocki, who also supported the crew and I to great lengths throughout the trip. Together we achieved 125 miles including over 3 strenuous portage miles in Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
Preparation and Planning for the Trip
As a crew leader, I prepared group equipment and provided information to the other crew members so we would be ready before the trip. As a helpful session to the rest of the crew, I coordinated an in-person information session, organized by Mr. Joe McMullin, Deputy Lead, Northern Tier, National Capital Area Council (NCAC) High Adventure Committee, on how to plan and prepare for Northern Tier High Adventure. At the information session, I learned how to prepare for the trip ahead of time and how to pack equipment for the trip from previous crews who have been to Northern Tier.
NCAC High Adventure Committee Northern Tier Instructors sharing great insights, tips, and advice.
After the information session, I drafted the equipment the crew needed to purchase before the trip and created a list of group gear. Next, I sought additional advice and tips from crews who went to Northern Tier and purchased the group equipment from various well known backpacking stores. For example, I asked crew members to buy/bring mosquito nets, dry bags, waterproof sunscreen, headlamps, mess kits, etc. from well-established stores. After they ordered their personal equipment and the equipment arrived, I gathered the crew together for a meeting to discuss further itinerary planning and transportation.
Finally, a week before our backcountry canoeing trip, I invited the crew to my house and packed personal gear. To assist with the gear packing, I handed out printed out gear checklists provided on the Northern Tier website to ensure that each crew member had the necessary equipment for the trip. After each member checked off each box in the checklist, I led the crew in packing group equipment into dry bags which were placed in duffel bags on the flight to Duluth, MN.
Throughout my preparation for the trip, I utilized meaningful advice from our adult Crew Advisors who oversaw logistical planning. Further, I sought tips from former crew leaders who had participated in the high adventure. Seeking advice from the advisors and past crew leaders made planning the trip significantly smoother.
Daily Activities in the Wilderness
Our daily routine consisted of cooking, paddling, setting up tents, packing up gear, putting up bear bags and cleaning up the campsite. In the morning, a crew member would wake the whole crew up just as the sun was coming out, at around 4:30am. Then, I had to be the first to pack up my tent with my tentmate because we were both crew leaders responsible for making sure the rest of the crew was efficient in the morning. We quickly replaced our dry sleeping clothes for damp, smelly clothes in the freezing cold air and hurried out of the tent. After all our gear, sleeping bags and toiletries were packed, the other crew leader and I packed our equipment into a 60 pound whale bag and started helping other crew members to disassemble their tents.
The morning routine at Northern Tier gave me a wake up call to the luxuries at home. While I was stuck in a comfortable morning cycle at home, I often took all the pleasures of an indoor space, sleeping in, and a soft bed for granted. Immersing myself into a wilderness survival environment, forced me to open my eyes to the struggles I was sheltered from.
When all the crew equipment was packed into whale bags, as the crew leader, I assigned some crew members to gather equipment for a fire, some crew members to help take down the bear bags, some members to pack the tarp, and some members to help cook breakfast. I had to ensure that all crew members were always doing something to help out the crew, especially in the mornings when everyone was groggy. After every crew member knew the tasks they were to complete, I went out and supported members that needed additional help. Many times I was helping set up the fire because dry sticks were extremely difficult to find in a wet wilderness environment.
Conversely, if I was at home in the morning, I would never have the energy to do any tasks, much less lead a crew, but since I was immersed in a wilderness survival environment, I was forced to do so for survival.
The completion of the morning routine depended on the weather and how much sleep we got the night before, but after everyone had eaten, we departed to the water to canoe. A team of navigators had planned out our route the night before, so we had planned ahead on which path to take. Paddling for hours on end in the sun was a humbling experience for me that I will forever learn from. If we don’t paddle hard, then we wouldn’t be able to make it back to camp in time which created a pressure on the crew.
Once we arrived at a campsite for the night, I had to assign tasks to the crew to prepare dinner, hang up bearbags, set up tents, get water from the lake and unpack gear. Again, after a long day of paddling it was difficult for myself and the other crew members to move our arms and legs, but we all realized that some tasks needed to be done. Eventually after dinner had been prepared and eaten, the crew got some free time for themselves. However, most crew members ended up going to sleep after a long day.
Personally, the morning and night time routine awakened me to an environment absent of crucial technologies and individuals that make our lives significantly easier. I had to prepare my own food, pack my own gear, paddle hard during the day, set an example for other members, but most importantly lead and motivate a group of members in survival. The tasks that needed to be completed had to be done and I was responsible for making sure that someone was making sure they were done.
Challenges and Observations
The first few days of the trip the weather was not ideal for canoeing because it was constantly drizzling and the gusts of wind threw the current off drastically. Due to these reasons, the crew was unable to paddle far and we had to stop at a campsite early in the day because paddling in the strong current was inefficient. Further, our interpreter strongly advised us to stay away from the water in case we capsized.
As a crew leader, I had to decide how to proceed and how far we would keep paddling until we stopped. Especially in that setting in which the waves were pushing all the boats back even further, I had to think on my feet and make quick decisions.
Once we arrived at a suitable campsite to settle for the day, I had to make tough decisions and motivate the other crew members to set up the campsite including bear bags, tents and tarps even in the rain. Although at first I did not want to go through the trouble to get all of the camping gear set up, I had to set a good example to motivate the other members so I pushed to complete all the tasks as soon as possible. Further, because of the rain, setting up a fire was extremely difficult so I had to instruct various members to find dry wood in the midst of a rain storm, which proved to be extremely hard.
Leadership
As a crew leader, I had to step up while other crew members were demotivated because if I didn’t carry out my responsibilities, then the crew might not be able to cook food in time or freeze due to hypothermia. This challenged me because it unfolded a vital duty for me to keep other crew members moving. Eventually we did survive the first few days and morale started going up again.
Titus Er showed leadership through his role as co-leader of the crew. One time when Titus’s leadership shined was on day 2 of the trip, where we paddled through prairie portage into the Quetico side of Basswood lake. Basswood is notoriously hard to paddle in wind as it is large and flat, allowing the wind to pick up speed, creating large waves. The weather conditions proved challenging as whitecaps crested over the canoes and wind gusts blew at 24 mph. Titus decided to rearrange the canoes seating, putting his strongest paddlers in stern, in order to take advantage of his crew’s strengths, but that wasn’t enough. When conditions worsened, Titus showed humility when he asked for advice from his guide and advisors. He used an expeditionary mindset and realized that it is better to play it safe than risk injury or damage to gear, so we stayed at the campsite for the night. Lastly, Titus was able to motivate his cold and soggy crew to start a fire and set up camp, which raised spirits. Titus showed great resilience, communication, and collaboration through the trip, which allowed the crew to make up for lost time and paddle over 125 miles in just 10 days.
Abby Cichocki, Interpreter
I was also placed with the responsibility to assign crew members to three different boating crews each day. I had to ensure that the boating crews were balanced by weight, individual strength, personality and morale. This challenged me to stray away from picking crew members I wanted to be with and prioritize the overall crew above myself. Further, it forced me to think of each individual crew member’s strengths and weaknesses and to find other crew members to balance out those strengths and weaknesses. Although the first few days, I sought advice from my Advisors and Interpreter, eventually I was able to assign efficient boating crews that maximized our canoeing mileage each day.
Coping with my Food Allergies
Months before I left for Ely, my mom had warned me about food cross-contamination and her concerns. In truth, I was forced to hear all of her concerns on a weekly and sometimes even a daily basis. Due to this, I was kept in the loop that she had tried to contact someone at Northern Tier, although I didn’t know many details. Once the school year was starting to end, my mom progressively grew even more worried, to a point in which Northern Tier food was a conversation starter for our family. I remembered hearing that despite her spending a significant amount of time researching, she had difficulty reaching anyone at Northern Tier to talk about my allergies at first.
However, one afternoon after I came back from school, I overheard my parents talking and my mother, who had in recent weeks never once brought up Northern Tier in a positive light (after the stress of my allergies) seemed quite chirpy and optimistic about my trip. I found out she had spoken to someone at Northern Tier, and that individual had given her significant reassurance, faith, and trust for my trip. Being raised in a Christian family, I was told to pray with her every day for safety on the trip.
Every day, I got updates on who my mom was talking to at camp, now recalling, it must have been at least 6 or 7 calls that she had. Personally, at the time, I was really worried about my final exams and much less about a trip a few months later so I don’t recall many details. At the least, I was satisfied she had found optimism about my trip and was worrying less.
Fast forward to the first day of Northern Tier, I had received a heads up that my food would be prepared in some way that was safe for me. I assumed that it had been done well, considering the panicked personality my mom normally has when it comes to my allergies. The first time we set our canoes out on the water, it was already raining. Although morale at the time wasn’t particularly bad, the rain definitely made it worse. Eventually when we reached a campsite, I was really disorganized. Since the crew didn’t know how to move and operate the whale bags, food bags, or equipment bags well, Abby passed out the D1 (Dinner Day One) meal pack to the crew and she also passed my D1 pack to me. I remember thinking that the knot on the pack was really secure, but more importantly the food was packaged really well. The food was also almost identical to the rest of my crew, which made me feel included in the meals.
Days later, I started handling my food bag by myself. My food bag would stay with the boating crew I was a part of and I would take out each individual meal, organize the food bag, and place my food bag in the tarp by myself, etc. Even on “on boat” meals I would take the food out of my pack and sometimes I would look ahead to see what meals I had for the upcoming days. I had an entire backpack dedicated to just my food, which eliminated all contamination possible.
It was around the middle towards the end of the trip in which I had a grip on the day-to-day schedule that I really really started to appreciate and recognize the time spent packing my pack and the importance it had to me for the trip. Each individual meal was tied with a strong knot, which ensured it was completely waterproof, the condiments in each meal were planned out perfectly (i.e., Wonderbutter and jam on crackers). Further, each meal was identical to the meal the crew was eating, so I never felt left out (although I just had to eat boat oats one day early because they were so good). I also recognized all of the dry-packed dinners because my mom had bought them for me to try at home.
At first I didn’t think much of all the food preparation, but while on the trip and especially I came back from my trip back at home, I realized in order for my mom to know so much information and to feel trusted, someone had to relay all the information including food lists, meals, brands and individual ingredients of everything I ate on that trip. It was after I realized how much effort was put into making this trip possible for me, that I knew I needed to thank this individual when I got back to base camp. One afternoon I asked Abby who had prepared my food pack and she told me that “Max did all of it.” That meant that Max had also packed all the food in a separate room to avoid contamination and had put so much time before my trip. In that moment I felt so much gratitude for this individual, because someone whom I never had met did so much preparation for me, someone they didn’t know.
Northern Tier taught me so much about the world, especially my food allergies. Throughout the trip because of your packing, I developed a deeper understanding of my own allergies, the way I need to communicate with others out in the world, and the responsibility I need to take for myself. The trip really had long term positive impacts on my perspectives. However, I wouldn’t have been able to go, or go safely without the time Northern Tier staff, Max put in for me. I am forever grateful to Max for giving me the opportunity to take a trip that had so much meaning to me.
