Major Knitter: Powder Horn

Sunday morning we woke up to our final day of Powder Horn adventure training. We started our day with breakfast and an All Faith Service

Our Powder Horn Course Director led us in prayer.

We followed the All Faith Service with a touching flag retirement ceremony.

Then we went into a four-part adventure rotation. My group started with the kayak session.

We started with a lesson on ground that included proper PFD fit (which is really hard to type and not write PDF) and the best kayak paddling techniques. Once we had the basics down, we got into the kayaks and put our new skills into practice.

Kayaking is one of my favorite water activities.

After kayaking, my group went back to finish up some low COPE challenges and play games. We were now a well-oiled machine and we knew we had to bring our instructor through the obstacle in order to successfully succeed. She was a great sport.

Our third activity of the morning was an intro do snorkeling and SCUBA.

It was the first time I'd ever tried SCUBA before. It was a weird sensation, but I definitely know that I will want to try it again - - maybe I can get a crew interested in going to Florida's Sea Base?

Our final activity of the morning was canoeing. I really haven't been in a canoe since I was a girl at summer camp from 8-16. I learned how much I don't know about canoeing this weekend.

I was very fortunate to be partnered with Robin, a seasoned outdoorsman with loads of canoeing experience. We played hard and paddled harder. We even played a funny game of tag in the canoes with one tennis ball. You had to toss it into another canoe. Whichever canoe had the tennis ball inside was "it" and had to chase across the entire lake to tag someone else. It was fun to make a game out of the canoeing.

Since we were the last group canoeing for the day, I also learned about putting canoes away. There's a whole science on how to portage a canoe. In fact if you look - you can see the yoke that sits on your shoulders when you carry it.

I thought it was a fitting end to the weekend's activities to capture this picture just after our canoeing of the glass-like surface of Deer Lake reflecting the sky with a mirror-like image. Could it get any better than this?

After a lovely graduation ceremony and clean-up we packed the car and headed home - but not before thanking our Course Director and Asst Course Director for an unforgettable event. We just have one question - Can we come back next year?