Amor Lake Survivor Camp

June 4/5 2004

The club held the 2004 Annual Ice Breaker Campout at the north end of Amor Lake, a sparkling body of water in the Sayward Forest, north of Campbell River. This year, probably because of the less than perfect weather forecast, not as many people as usual attended the outing, but those who did were treated to a closing day of activities they will not soon forget.

Saturday, around nine a.m., a canoe express manned by John and Bev Wolsey delivered a piece of plywood which we used to fix the decaying floor of the outhouse – if you have ever taken your life in your hand to use that outhouse [no pun intended] you know how much it needed it.

Later that morning, Steve and Wendie Flawith, the organizers of the weekend, gathered us all on the beach and read us the rules of Survivor Amor Lake 2004, a relay event. After giving the two teams carefully prepared instructions, clues, and maps, they pointed south and sent us on our way.

We donned our team bandannas and eagerly assaulted the lake in search of surprise items or pieces of pink and yellow flagging tape hidden at various checkpoints around the lake. The race started well, with Team Rabbit Explorer (Bev and John) and Team Kevy's Voyageurs (Blanche and Michel) paddling neck in neck to Checkpoint #1. After checkpoint #2 though, things got tougher and the teams stayed together, eyeing each other for directions.

To give you an idea of the kind of fun we had, here are some excerpts taken from the rules and the instructions: Your challenge today is to paddle to a number of Checkpoints . . . don't care if you get lost . . . no complaints allowed . . . no beating other Survivors with paddles . . . beware of deep water, rain, biiig rocks, and whipping cream . . . follow shoreline until you come to a steer-looking stump . . . take a bearing of 256 degrees SW and paddle 'till landfall . . . safely tie all ribbons onto any team member . . . follow and thread the gauntlet . . . from Big Rock Islands, follow your arrows . . . continue to Checkpoint Charlie and Prepare for Immunity challenge.

By the time we reached Checkpoint #4, the two teams had merged into one and a new name was agreed upon: Kevy's Rabbits.

When we finally got near checkpoint Charlie, the last one on the course, we saw Steve and Wendie waiting for us on the beach with the fixings for a gourmet meal of wieners, buns, marshmallow, popcorn, chips, and of course liquid refreshments.

But before we could partake, we yet had to go through one last hurdle, the final challenge, which was to get out of our boats while balancing a full glass of water on our head!

What a fun day we had in spite of a few clouds and a drop or two of rain.

The members of Team Kevy's Rabbits would like to thank Steve and Wendie Flawith for organizing the weekend, for researching and putting together the tremendous amount of data required for the survivor course, and for giving us a day of fun and laughter on the lake.