Cadets go on training expedition
Four youth head to the Yukon for training including biking, canoeing and hiking
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 6, 2015
MARSH LAKE, YUKON
Three weeks in the Yukon looked good on four cadets from the Fort Simpson area who just returned from Basic Expedition.
Cadet Master-Cpl. Teagan Zoe-Hardisty, left, abseils (scales) down the side of a structure. Zoe-Hardisty joined a group of 30 cadets and staff members from across the country for Basic Expedition. - photo courtesy of Steve Nicoll
|
Master-Cpls Teagan Zoe-Hardisty, Angel Betthale, Trenton Diamond-C and Ariah Thomas all headed to Marsh Lake in July to join 30 cadets and staff members from across the country. Basic Expedition is the prerequisite to the Expedition Instructor course, after which cadets are qualified to teach younger members.
The four came back victorious, if slightly slimmer for spending three weeks out in the bush.
During the course, cadets went on a three-day expedition and a five-day expedition where they canoed, hiked and biked. The latter expedition required distances of 20 kilometres by canoe, 14 kilometres of hiking and 20 kilometres of cycling.
The three-day expedition was a warm-up and allocated one day to each activity.
"The warm-up one is to shake out all the bugs, and then they go on to the big one," said Capt. Steve Nicoll.
For Thomas and Zoe-Hardisty, biking was the highlight of the trip, in part because it was the one activity where they were not required to carry their kit with them.
Thomas said the group spent the first day of the three-day expedition training on canoes. That trip took them out to Mary Lake, a few kilometres away from the main camp.
"Most of us weren't really experienced with canoeing. This year, we only had two people in each canoe so we had to get used to that," she said.
Cadets learned how to manoeuvre their paddles to turn the canoes around, and also learned how to right a flipped canoe while remaining in the water.
That exercise required a second canoe to come up on the flipped canoe and form a T-shape. The flipped canoe is then pulled up onto the upright canoe and turned over, before being pushed back into the water.
"We had to flip the canoe while we were in it," Thomas said.
The five-day expedition was broken into two days of canoeing, a full day of hiking and two days of biking.
"We only really had a day and a half of canoeing because the wind picked up and the waves got really big, so we had to start zig-zagging," Thomas said.
"At one point, some of the cadets got too close to shore and they flipped."
Zoe-Hardisty said the worst part of the trip was the day-long hike.
"Hiking on the side of the road wasn't hard, but it was just annoying," he said.
"I got a huge blister and we were walking with traffic, too, so we had to stay in a straight line."
Zoe-Hardisty will be heading back next year to take his Expedition Instructor course.
As for Thomas, she plans to branch off into marksmanship and take both the Expedition Instructor and Air Rifle Marksmanship Instructor (ARMIC) courses next summer. After that, she can move on to Small Bore 1 and 2 courses in Ontario.
"There are a whole bunch of streams cadets can take. Most of our guys are wild animals of the bush and all want to go to Expedition, which leads to mountains and great trips," Nicoll said.
Aside from Expedition and Marksmanship, streams include fitness and music training.
