Our Way Back To The Island Tyler example essay topic

This is the actual story of a trip I took with Johnson Family into Canada. The total head count was 19, including myself. The trip took 8 days to complete. We left on Saturday, June 24 at 12: 00 am and got back on Sunday July 1, around 3: 00 pm. This is the list of names of everyone who went along. (All their last names are Johnson) Harry- Grandpa Johnson has taken the most trips to Canada.

Says the word "Print-neer" a lot. Craig- The only one of Harry's kids with a family, has three daughters. Renee- Craig's wife. Red hair. Always had the video camera running. Erin- The oldest of the three daughters at 15.

Looks exactly like Emily Johnson. Allison- Middle child at 13. Loves to read books and is in gymnastics. Amber- Youngest daughter, 11.

Likes gymnastics and volleyball. Troy- Younger than Craig, a gym teacher at New London Elementary School. Todd- Younger than Troy. Married to Erica.

Math teacher at Willmar School. Erica- Todd's wife, second trip to Canada. Jonathan- Erica's brother who was 15. Larry- Harry's Nephew.

4 kids, all boys and all names starting with "J" Paulette- Larry's wife. First trip to Canada. Jordan- Going to be a sophomore. Jared- Going into 7th grade, taller than Jordan. Justin- Has glasses and blonde hair.

He is in 6th grade. Jonah- Youngest at 6.1st grade. Jeff- Tyler's dad. Renee's Brother.

Been on many camping and fishing trips Tyler- A good friend who invited me along with his family, 17. The great Canadian adventure started at 12 noon on Saturday to pack the bus and truck. The bus is an old school bus with a big rack on top to hold canoes, and screens over all the windows. Inside there are 8 bunks in the back for sleeping. The middle is where the food is kept. The front has two tables on each side for playing cards.

As soon as I got there I started meeting people. I had only met Craig, Renee, and Amber before at Cameron Johnson's graduation party. There were 3 well fed dogs running around. The first person Tyler pointed out was Harry, his grandpa. He was getting the gas together for the boats and there were about 5 others standing around him. One was Troy and the other was Larry.

It was easy to see that Craig and Troy were brothers, they were rigging the bus to carry 5 canoes. Others were busy helping to get ready. I helped put the motor rack in Tyler's truck. After the bus and truck had all of the canoes on, Jeff, Tyler, and I went back to Tyler's house to take showers and eat. The plan was to meet Craig at Cash Wise at 8: 30 to buy the food. Craig's Eagle got a flat tire on the way to Willmar.

Tyler, Jeff, and I got there at 9: 30 but the shopping was already done. As we were leaving Willmar, on our way back to Harry's, we were able to see fireworks from the "Works over Water" display on Foot Lake. When we got to Harry's, there were several cars in the yard. Tyler and I went to the house were I met Erin and Allison for the first time. Erin was eating a pizza and at first glance I thought she was Emily Johnson. I could not get over how much Erin, Allison and Amber looked like Emily.

Little kids were running everywhere. In the living room, were about 25 people I had never met or seen before, who seemed to be having a good time together. I am not exactly sure why there were all there, perhaps to see us off. After a while, Tyler and I went out to load the truck with gas. Right before we left Renee took a picture of everyone in front of the bus. Jeff drove the truck and Craig drove the Bus.

Most people were already sitting in seats so I took an open bunk on the bottom. Finally at midnight, we were on the road to Canada. I slept very well on the bunk, until we got to Fargo where it was about 45 degrees. Since it was so cold, it was hard to sleep. I was sleeping until we got to the Canadian border and could hear Craig talking to the border guard. We made it through without a hitch.

I continued to sleep until we got to the Simson gas station to fill up the bus. Jeff was yodeling when he got out of the truck. After we all went in to go to the bathroom I sat in the coach seat next to Tyler were we slept until the sun came up. Troy came up from the back and we talked to him a while about ice fishing and wrestling.

Todd, Erica, Larry, and Paulette were sitting on the other table. Todd was sharpening his knife to a perfect hone. Tyler tried to fix the squeak in my dad's millionaire reel, but unfortunately he only made it worse. The next stop was at a gas station where everyone bought a fishing license. I liked the Canadian money even though it was worth so much less. Tyler drove the truck for a while and I rode with him, but slept the whole time.

After riding with Tyler, I got back on the bus and went straight to a bunk. I tried to sleep, but did not have much luck because of the bumpy road. While lying there I could hear Todd reading questions from a quiz book. We played that a few times on the trip up.

For lunch, we ate sandwiches at some park on Devils Lake. After eating we all went down to the shore and skipped rocks. Troy and Todd where good at that. Their rocks skipped the farthest. After the many hours of driving we finally arrived at our destination, some river in Manitoba. The last mile of the road was very twisty, windy, muddy, and bumpy.

The bus followed the truck in and barley scraped through because of the over grown brush. The final downhill hairpin turn was a nail bitter since the bus had very poor brakes. The first step off the bus was a shocker. It was about 50 degrees, a little cold for shorts and a T-shirt. I quickly changed into jeans. The bus was parked, and we immediately started taking the canoes off.

It didn't take long to load the 7 canoes and motors at the access. Tyler and I were the first to leave shore in our canoe. Everyone's canoe was loaded to the brim. We raced Troy, Erin, and Allison on the way to the portage.

They won with the faster canoe, a Coleman. It was Jeff and Renee in the other Coleman. Larry, Paulette, and Jonah were in the Pelican. Todd, Erica, and Jonathan were in the Sea Cow. Craig and Amber rode in the Silver Bullet.

Harry, Jordan and Jared cruised in the big green heavy canoe. Tyler and I were the second canoe, behind Troy and Todd, to reach the portage. By the time Larry's canoe had reached the portage, Paulette was soaked from head to toe from the splashing water. She was so wet that she just stepped right in the water when she got out of the canoe, shoes and all. I was told that this was the hardest part of the adventure but I didn't think it was so bad. By the time Tyler, Troy, Todd, and I got the first boat in the mule, Allison had already made one tip to the other side with a bag.

It was fun making the canoe runs on the half-mile portage. Being part of the team with Tyler, holding back the canoes on the big hill around the rocks and roots was cool. The only bad part was the millions of mosquito's hovering around us. On about my forth trip back I noticed Craig still had shorts on. I could see about a hundred mosquito bites on his legs. By the time he finally put mosquito repellent on it was too late.

On the other side of the portage Harry met some guys he knew from Paynesville. They were just leaving the island we were going to. When we got on our way again, it was only 2 river miles to the Island were we were going to camp at. The island was right next to the second highest waterfall in Manitoba Kawasitchewan falls. At night when you went to bed you could hear the water going over the falls. When we arrived on the island everyone piled their gear on the rocks.

After everyone had got to the island, I took a little peak at the camp, and saw a heavily used camp fire ring, a ripped blue tarps making a wind break, and an old sleeping bag hanging over a log. It was nearly dark when everyone was seating up his or her tents. Up where all the tents sat, there was a big 55-gallon grill. It was amazing that someone would lug that huge grill all the way to that Island. That night we all eat beef stew and bread.

It was very good. The first night was the coldest by far. Troy had a little handheld weather station. It said the temp and the weather for the next 12 hours. I almost froze to the picnic table then we were sitting there.

We sat there talking about Troy's weather station until 11: 30 when it finally got dark. Troy's predictor was wrong every night. If it said it was going to rain, the sun shinned. If it said it was going to be sunny, it usually rained. Tyler said this would happen but I had to see it to believe it.

Every single cloud that went over our heads dropped rain. I was in the purple tent with Tyler, Jeff, and Harry. I slept on the right between Harry and the wall. It was tight fit with 4 guys and gear. Harry forgot to bring a pad for sleeping on so he used that old brown sleeping bag that was hanging over that log. Jeff was always the first one up to go make breakfast.

Jeff was our cook for the week. Harry was close behind, and Tyler and I stayed in the tent until about 9: 00. The first day everyone stayed around the island and fished. It was a little windy. There was one little bay that had a beaver dam in it and logs around it. Tyler and I pulled up to it and made a few casts on the outside.

I told Tyler to go in closer; there could be a big one in there. He didn't because there were too many logs in the way. That evening Craig brought back the biggest fish at 10 pounds. He caught it in that bay with the beaver dam in it. I told Tyler and he was mad that we left that spot. I had never caught a Pike over 5 lbs. before this trip.

I think it was Tyler's mission to make me catch a big fish. I was ready for a monster. But I could only use my spinning real because Tyler sc rued up my bait caster. My spinning real wouldn't be able to handle anything over 10 pounds, so I only used spinner baits and top water and caught small fish. It was fun using my top water bait. You could watch all the fish jump at you lure but they missed it every time.

Jeff gave it his best shot to fix my real but it was beyond repair. That night Harry cleaned about 10 fish for supper. We eat fish every night. Even though I hate eating fish I didn't say anything. Until about the 3rd night when we tried to get Alison to eat some fish by telling her I didn't like eating fish either. I eat the fish anyway because I didn't want to starve and only eat vegetables like Allison did.

Every time we eat, the kids always eat first, that included Tyler and I. After supper Tyler and I went fishing by the falls. There were supposed to be a lot of walleyes their. We never caught anything all the time we fished there. Tyler was mad that we couldn't fish on the shore that they caught the biggest ones at the last time. It was too windy over there for the canoes. Some how Todd and Troy know that there was a squirrel on that island.

During the campfire Troy tried to rig a trap with a box that he saw in some survival book of Todd's. He got something together but he couldn't get it to stay up. There was also a ferret around that ate a few of the fish guts. The next day was pretty much the same, we drove around and only caught small fish. The other canoes were fishing for walleyes. Troy and Todd called the walleye's "Carp".

Troy caught a nice 5 lb. walleye. That night Troy tried to catch the squirrel again, but had no luck. Earlier that day the squirrel had gotten into Todd's stash of sunflower seeds in his canoe and left seeds everywhere. That night's trap was just a box balancing on the edge of the table, baited with Todd's sunflower seeds. The Box was supposed to flip over on the squirrel but that also didn't work. There was a rock point sticking out in front of the island.

They " re where a few rocks around it that my spoon got caught on a couple times. The kids fished off it when they weren't in the canoe. A small live well was on the right that Troy made of rocks. When Harry was cleaning fish that night, he sent Tyler down to get a northern out of the live well. Tyler says the fish jumped out when he bent over to get it.

Craig thinks Tyler tossed it in. Another insolent on that rock that night was when there wasn't enough fish for supper because Tyler lost that one. Putting it on myself I decided to go down and catch the last fish. I cased for about 10 minutes; Tyler was also there casting.

Amber came down there to give us a motivational speech on catching a fish. I caught about a 3-pound northern. It bit as I was pulling the spoon out of the water. I didn't want it to run so I quickly pulled the fish onto the rock out of the water. Tyler was standing there so he tried to grab the fish. The pike fell off the hook and Tyler didn't have a hold of it.

It got in the water and swam away. Craig thinks Tyler kicked that one in on purpose too. It was funny listening to Craig blame Tyler. Still not having a fish to fry, I went in of new shore.

I found some in front of the bathroom. I got down to the shore and tried to make a cast, but the trees were in my way. I jumped out on a rock a couple feet from shore and made one long cast and caught another 3-pound pike. I grabbed it and ran immediately to Harry for cleaning. Ironically, that night there where too many fish to eat. In our tent that night Tyler, Harry, and I had a good conversation about our boots.

That next day we decided that we would go down river. There was supposed to be a lot of big fish down there. I was ready for a big one. It was about a mile and a half to the falls that we had to portage around. All the canoes regrouped at the rapids to decide if we could shoot " em or not.

There was a little side steam that went around the rapids that the guys had taken in years past when the water was higher. Before they decided to go through the rapids or not. Tyler and I took off down the side stream. THIS, was the worst experience of the trip. The water was only 6 inches deep so we couldn't ride in the canoe. We walked in front pulling the full canoe around rocks, over many logs, and through the grass.

Tyler was so wet from walking in the grass he just walked right in the water. I had my Gore-Tex boots on and stayed dry. We had pulled the canoe about 100 yd. until finally we got to a pile of logs we couldn't cross. We only had 15 yd. to go. By this time everyone had gone through the rapids and was waiting for us at the portage. Leaving us in the woods with our canoe.

Jeff and Craig came to our rescue. We just carried the canoe to the water. After that there was only one more portage to go through before we got to the fishing spot. When we got going again I was shivering. It started to rain hard. It rained for a long time and it was cold.

A half-hour later the sun was shinning and it was hot. Most of the fish I caught were small while everyone else was catching fish 10 lbs or larger. I was getting a little discussed having not caught a fish much bigger than 4 lbs in 3 days. Jeff had boiled some eggs that morning for our shore lunch down river.

The portage going back was a lot easier. Tyler and I didn't try to take the stream again we just motored right up the rapids. It was close for Craig and Jeff. They only had a 4 horse motor going against the currant, but they made it ok.

That evening when we got back I decided to make a squirrel trap since Troy and Todd couldn't get it done. My trap was a good idea and the rodent set it off a lot of times but I never got that little critter. One afternoon I saw the squirrel go in the trap, he set it off and I ran over to step on it. The squirrel ran up the tree and stopped on a small branch about 20 ft in the air.

I grabbed a rock, through it under handed at the squirrel and smoked it off the branch. It fell to the ground with a loud thud. It didn't move for about 20 seconds, than it ran off. I didn't see the squirrel again. Tyler and I had to find some dry wood after it rained. So we started to split the logs we were sitting on.

Tyler would hold the ax and I would pound the ax in with another log. When we were doing this I could hear everyone at the picnic table talking about how we were splitting the wood and they though some one was going to get hurt. At the campfire I remember Harry telling a story about when he traded his hat for some fish that the Indians had netted. Amber, Justin, and Erin would always be burning a stick in the fire. I would only see Allison in between books when she came down to eat her potatoes, get picked on by Troy and Todd or sit down at the campfire.

It was neat when everyone sat around the fire telling that days fishing stories. At the campfire that night I looked around trying to say everyone's names. It took a little while to memorized everyone's name. Renee and Paulette were the last names I learned. The following day was just another day of fishing around the island.

It was a calm day. One bay opposite of the falls was particularly good. Both Tyler and me caught about 30 fish each back their. Larry and his kids fished in the middle of that same bay.

Justin said he caught a 20-pound northern. I Almost cried. I caught my first walleye of the trip that evening. By that night I had lost all my spoons and only had one spinner left. Of all the rain that hit us when we where up there, that nights soaking was by far the worst. Tyler and I had come back before every one else.

Only Erin and Allison were on the island when we got there. We couldn't see the rain at that time. But it wasn't long before a huge thunderhead appeared out of nowhere. Harry and Troy saw it coming and made it back in time before it started to hail. In the distance you could see the shore disappear from the hail. One canoe that didn't make it back in time was the silver bullet with a 2-horse motor.

Craig and Amber were in it. They made it half way to the island before the wind and rain swallowed them up. The 2-horse motor was not enough to go through the waves. It would have been the coolest to be in that storm out on the water. When Craig and Amber could see again they had gotten blown a mile away from the island. Harry and Jonathan were also out on the water but they go to shore before the wind got to them.

The hail heart when I was running around on the island. There was a bag of candy left in the cook tent. I didn't know who's it was but I think I ate that whole bag. That rain was the tent tester. Many tents failed, including the one I was seeping in. Our tent only had the water in the corners so nothing got too wet.

We started the fire to dry everything out. They dried a sleeping bag, a pillow, some so, a pair of shoes, and Craig's pants. The same pants he wore through the storm. The only pair he brought and they where jogging pants.

I offered him my pants to ware but he got his pants dry. He would have had his rain pants on but he gave them to Amber to wear in the canoe. The day after the storm was our last day of fishing. My last chance to catch a big one. That morning everyone went to the falls to take pictures and wash hair. I was crawling around on the rocks and found a neat ledge that hung over a little stream.

I threw my camera to Jeff to take a picture of me. As Jeff was lining up the shot, I herd Amber say behind me, "Hey! How did you get down there?" In the picture Jeff took you can see Amber standing back there saying those exact words. In the next group picture she is sitting on that same ledge were I was. After that, everyone went down river except Allison, Paulette, and Jonah.

Before we got to the rapids to go down river, Tyler and I stopped on a weed patch in the middle of the lake. On Tyler's fist cast he caught a 12-pound northern. Why couldn't that be me? We fished there until everyone caught up with us. The portage around the falls was a little harder with more boats, but we made it. Down river there was one great bay with a lot of big fish.

Jonathan caught one 11 pounds. So did Tyler, and Jeff, and Erica. Where was my fish? We all went down to a shallow bay with wild rice. Back there I caught about 25 fish all less than 4 pounds. Troy, Erin, and Jared or Jordan got caught in some type of water tornado.

That spun their canoe in a full circle. I never saw it, and Tyler and I were right there. Jordan or Jared caught a 20-pound pike. After we all got done there, everyone went and ate lunch on a little rocky point. After lunch, we returned to that great bay on last time. I was still using the beetle spins and not catching big fish.

I watched Jeff real in a 12 pounder. Tyler finally got feed up with me using my spinning real, so we went and got Jeff's bait caster for me to use. Tyler lent me a Lin Thomson. It only took 5 days, 12 hours, and the last cast to catch my biggest fish ever in Canada. Right after it bit Jeff was yelling at us to "motor-up". Tyler yelled back that I had a big one on.

Jeff drove over and Renee videotaped the fight. Jeff landed it and weighed it. It was 15 lbs. There was a small camp in that one bay.

Harry, Jonathan, Tyler, and I went up there. We went in the big canvas tent they had set up. Harry laid on one of the cots in the tent and said that this was the way to camp. On our way back to the island Tyler and I invented "speed mode" on the canoe. It consisted of me hanging as far over the front of the canoe as possible.

This would level out the boat making us go much faster. On many of the long trips to and from the island in the canoe, I would always be signing some songs in the canoe. It helped past the time. When we returned to the island their was about 8 or 10 canoes in our parking spots. We parked on the other side of the island.

Tyler and I went up to Allison and Paulette to get the story. About 16 guys from Canada flew in on a plain and moved right in with us. The girls didn't have the guts to tell them to leave. No one seamed very grateful that they where staying with us. Tyler and I would have told them to leave but by the time we got there they had already set up their tents. It was kind of funny; the Canadian guys were on one side of the cook tent, and the Johnson's were in their little huddle around the picnic table on the other side of the tent.

Craig and Harry did communicate with the other fisherman for a while. That night for supper we didn't run out of food but we did go dry on the water. Jeff boiled some lake water for washing dishes. Tyler and I just drank water strait out of the lake. We didn't care.

The last morning we started a fire and ate what was left of the food. I eat about 4 hot dogs before we backed up and left those darn Canadians. Tyler and I past Craig and Amber on the way to the portage. Craig was having trouble with his motor. When we got to the portage, and was waiting fore everyone to get there, I could see that Craig and Amber had stopped half way here.

I told Tyler that we should run out and get them, but Tyler had a little problem on shore so we couldn't get out to tow them back. Luckily Troy saw them and pulled 'em in. The portage back was supposed to be easier. We had no water, little gas, and no food. How it was harder I do not know. I made twice as many trips on the second portage.

I ran the trail down so we could get out of their A.S.A.P. I think the mosquito's where thicker this time. Also the trip back to the bus seemed to never end. I saw parts of the shore I don't remember seeing on the way in. Packing the bus went really fast. Everyone formed a chain from the canoes to the bus and passed gear. After the stuff was pilled at the end of the bus I started throwing bags to Justin and he put them in their place.

I was sitting the front when the bus started off. We weren't on the bus very long before we stopped. The night before we left everyone decided to stop and see Pisem falls, a waterfall that is part of the river we were on. At the falls there was a campground and 2 viewing bridges. One bridge was in front of the falls.

The other bridge was bran new. There was a big hill you had to walk down to get to it. When we were out there, Troy tried to shake the bridge. It didn't move. Tyler carved "America Rules" on the handrail with his knife. From that bridge you could see the place where we took off from.

The next haul on the bus was a dozy. It didn't take long to fill the bunks. I was stuck in the bus seat sitting with Paulette, Jared, and Jordan. I looked out the window for along time while winding Tyler's radio generator.

I feel asleep in the chair but got a very stiff neck. Finally I got up to look for a spot on the bunks. I found one between Troy and Todd in the very middle of the bus. I didn't quit fit. My legs hung over the bunk. As tired as I was I never fell asleep back their.

After Todd and Troy left I laid across the back and looked at the truck fallow us. I was back their until we got to a gas station. Than I grabbed a spot up front with Tyler. We played a lot of cards up there. We played Golf, and I beat Allison in Speed. That night at about 10: 00 Tyler wanted to play Buck.

I didn't now how so Jonathan had to teach me. I had to learn what a trick was, and a trump. The hardest part was figuring out the jacks and what to bid. He coached me for about 20 hands. After that I was on my own. It was Tyler and Allison against me and Jared or Jordan.

My partner didn't help me at all. Allison was sitting next to me and was ALWAYS looking at my cards. Jared or Jordan just sat there and laughed at me. Tyler tried to give me 5's and 2's to play.

They laughed at me because they thought I didn't know what was going on. But I knew exactly. After that we all quit the game and Allison started reading questions from some quiz book. Everyone in the front played it until we stopped in a church parking lot so the drivers could sleep.

Tyler, Allison, and I continued to play. Troy was in the driver seat and would whisper answers if he know them. When we were sitting their Justin suddenly yelled "Todd!" in his sleep. A little while later either Jared or Jordan, while sleeping, said some thing about Amber, and her not being very funny, and that he was going to through her in the lake.

It was hilarious. Paulette was sitting next to us. She heard that and said that all of her kids talk in their sleep. Troy spotted an owl sitting on the roof. It was about 3: 00 am when we finally stopped with the quiz questions. I guess Troy couldn't sleep because he went outside and walked around for a while.

Tyler, Allison, Amber, Paulette, and me were stuck on the school bus seats. Allison looked like she fell asleep right away. I sat across from Paulette and I don't think she slept. I didn't sleep a wink.

It was probably a mistake eating all of those gobstoppers at 12 o'clock. I sat there with my eyes open and stared at a distant light. Amber was sitting on the foot of Renee's bunk. I could hear her eating her candy bracelet. It was loud when she was eating it.

Every time I moved on that seat it sounded like I was going to wake everyone up. Jeff and Craig slept in the truck. I can bet that it was not a good night for them. Jeff started the truck at 6: 00 am and we proceeded down the road. As soon as someone came up from the back I went back and slept for a long time. I woke up at whatever time and Tyler was lying across from me with his eyes open.

I did that to for a while. Than I went up on the top bunk and played Golf with Amber and Jonah. Jonah lost interest right away and went up front. I tried to show Amber a couple card tricks.

She wasn't impressed. After that, Amber explained to me how everyone's last name was Johnson. It was confusing because before Renee got married her last name was already Johnson. Also I didn't know that Todd and Erica were married. Than Justin came by and us three played Indian Poker for a while.

When we were done with that, I went to the back, and the window was open. It was cold. I tried to shut it but Todd opened it again. Allison was reading another book. We stopped and ate in that same park on Devils Lake. Jeff, Craig, and Tyler meet a group of 25 guys that were going on a canoeing trip with only their knifes and rods for thirty days across Canada.

When I got back on the bus I played Buck with Renee, Amber, and Justin. It was Renee and I against Amber and Justin. For only learning the game 7 hours ago I did pretty good. Renee and I beat Amber and Justin by a lot of points. We crossed the boarder in North Dakota, and stopped at the Cabela's store in Fargo. It was pretty much the same as the one in Owattana.

The only incident that the bus had was on the side of the 4 lain. The fuel pump went out. Jeff climbed under the hood, put in an old pump, and we took right off again. A few hours and rest stops later we were back at Harry's place. The last few miles back to Harry's was quite I ride with almost no brakes left on the bus.

We missed one tern because we couldn't stop in time. We unloaded the bus gathered my stuff and my parents were their to bring me home. The Great Canadian Adventure with the Johnson's was the most fun trip I took all summer. Tyler and I talk about it often. There is so much more I could tell you about our trip but I only picked out some of the highlights.