Front row: xxx, Dann Henseler, Dan Burkhart, Laura Ventresca, Brian Graefe, Kevin Hobbs, Karen Schulte, Sharry Henk, Mike McBain, Milt Spathelf
Middle row: Mark Miller, Brian Brock, Steve Novak, Dave Melnick, Gerry Dashnier, David Booher, Jim Ellison, Colleen Swanson, Bob Black, Bill Flexman, Dick Dutcher
Back row: Wayne Abrahamson, Tim Loose, Gary Wilberg, Carl Stoutamire, Bill BJ Johnson, Eva Rodenstam, Stu Gentry, Matt Farmer, David Wood, Randy Schneider, Ken Craft
"I still remember that day, since it seemed everything was going wrong and I was getting tired of it all. The last crew had been really cherry red....arrived about eight hours late, no uniforms, no discipline, stupid as can be....all the kids wanted to do was set things on fire. I dragged them through as much of the base training as I could, went on the trail for their first day with them, in the rain, and hoped they wouldn't all get killed.
My NEXT crew was much better, but I was beginning to suffer from the 48-hour day that the trainers had....sleep every other night, and basically stay awake all night on the on-base night. Again, the crew was in late, I was tired, the weather hadn't cooperated, the kids were fighting, it was our first night out, on Escanaba Lake, as I recall, close to the base (I'm getting tired of crews that all take the same route out of base!).
So I'm standing around with the three adults, kind of griping and telling them about life as a trainer at canoe base, while the kids are tripping over each other trying to clean dishes from the evening meal. I don't think I had a single nice thing to say. What a week. Sleeping on the ground, eating beef stroganoff every other night. Mosquitoes. Getting up at 4am and packing in the dark so I can wake my crew at 5am to cook breakfast for them as they stumble around trying to figure out how to pack (while I sneak bites of their eggs and sausage I'm cooking.....always cut the sausage up and mix it in the eggs in the milk carton the night before in the kitchen, to save prep time in the morning....what a system!).
We all stood there quietly, and one of the adults says the most profound statement to me I think I've ever heard:
"You know, this is the best job you'll have your entire life."
And I very suddenly realized....he was right! My two summers as a trainer at NWNCB. Who'd have thought it?"
I lived in the Annex with the other party trainers. I remember once in a while, when you were the first one into the Annex, you'd surprise a chipmunk eating somebody's m&m's that had been left lying around. Once several of us walked in and found a feasting chipmunk. We shut the door, I hid in a closet with the door open about 4" and a rubberized army surplus duffel bag at the door opening. The rest of the guys chased the unsuspecting rodent around the room until he ran into the closet door and into the duffel bag. The chipmunk shot around in the bag like a bottle rocket for a while and finally wore itself out.
When the chipmunk calmed down, we took the bag into the room where the voyager trainer's lived (I can't remember what it was called).
"What's in the bag?"
"Chipmunk."
"No way."
"Here look."
The chipmunk exploded out of the bag and made a beeline for the door. Cursing voyager trainers chased us out of their quarters.
I still have the rubber bag. We all were issued them at the begining of the summer. It leaks now.