Thought 32: Loon Lake Learning Advance 🌲
Welcome to what is probably my most important blog post yet. This post is to summarize and analyze our first PLP field study; the Loon Lake Learning Advance.
Loon Lake is an outdoor learning facility in British Columbia, near Maple Ridge, or about 1 hour away from North Vancouver. We went to Loon Lake with PLP 8 with us on February 14 and we returned on the 17th. The point of the trip was to give us an introduction to field studies, work on Destination Imagination, and to give us a temporary break from school.Â
Day 1Â
We left the school at around 1:00 PM on the school buses. The bus ride consisted of loud yelling, people moving around for some reason, and general chaos. We arrived at Loon Lake around 2:00. After a short briefing and introduction, we had our first activity. We were to go across the lake in a rope barge, walk around the forest, and take photos of various objects and actions. After the photo walk, we returned to the buses to get our bags and head to the cabins to set up our things. I was in the Arbutus cabin with a bunch of PLP 9 boys who definitely did not cause any ruckus, especially at night. Luckily, my roommate was Mateo who I knew was competent enough to not run around the cabin screaming. After setting up our things, we had about half an hour of free time, where we explored what I call “the underground.” Basically, Arbutus cabin was across from another cabin called Yew, and the two were connected via an underground floor that contained 2 meeting areas and a lounge. The lounge was great, it had very comfortable couches and a TV that would only play 1 very damaged CD of Ice Age. Eventually, we had our first meal, dinner. For our first meal, we had lasagna with garlic bread and caesar salad. The meal was really good, along with all the other food provided to us. After dinner, we had some Evening Fun, where we had an hour to participate in various recreational activities. I spent my time playing monopoly in the underground. We had come up with a rule that whenever someone said a swear word during monopoly, they would have to do push ups. There was an incident where I landed on the income tax space, and I had to do probably 10 push ups. I do not regret my actions. After evening fun, the next thing we did was Advisory. Advisory was sort of like a group briefing/therapy. There were 4 advisory groups, spread out around the camp. My advisory group was in the Pan Abode building and was led by Mr Hughes. We would have advisory in the mornings and in the evenings. At advisory we wrote “camp compliments,” where we would send notes of appreciation to students who had helped us out on the first day. I sent one to Ben Yerxa, thanking him for cleaning the table at dinner. After advisory we went back to our cabins to get ready for bed. Despite what I said earlier about my cabin mates being crazy rabble-rousers who couldn’t stay quiet for 5 seconds, I had a lot of fun goofing off with them during our free time. Unfortunately, tragedy would soon befall us.
Day 2
After our first breakfast consisting of french toast, pancakes and sausages, we heard some terrible news; Max Louie had gotten sick and was leaving. We managed to say goodbye as we came back from breakfast. Our next activity was DI Sweatbox, where we had about an hour to work on our DI projects. I wont get too much into detail because I will have a DI blog post coming soon, but our team did not make much progress while we were at Loon Lake. We had come up with most of our script, but we had hit a creative road block and we couldn’t come up with any ideas for our solution. Luckily, we would make lots of progress once we got back. After lunch (hamburgers), we had an outdoor activity. We went back across the lake on the rope barge for a shelter building activity. We were given about 30 minutes to get into small groups and build a shelter made from sticks. Me, Sylas and Declan managed to put together a somewhat decent shelter. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture. We went back to the camp and had dinner (chicken fajitas) and went onto evening fun. I spent this time chilling in the Pan Abode, and chilling in the underground. But then, the lowest moment of the trip struck. While we were in our cabins, getting ready for advisory, Mr Hughes and Ms Best came in and said that Advisory was cancelled and we had to meet up in the lobby of our cabin. When we met up, we found out that Max’s sickness had spread to people in our cabin and that we had to isolate. Landon, Erik, Cole and Xander were feeling bad and had to stay in their rooms until the next morning, when they left the trip.   Â
Day 3
Day 3 was probably the most eventful day, or at least the day I remember the best. We had breakfast, consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast, and met up in the Pan Abode for morning advisory. Since advisory was cancelled the night before, we received our camp compliments from the first day. I got one from a very kind anonymous person that appreciated my ability to make them laugh, which really made me feel good. While we were walking back from advisory, we said goodbye to Landon, Erik, Cole and Xander as they left. Next, we had some free time in our cabins. I spent this short morning fun in our cabins lounge, loudly singing “We Are Young” with Declan, Mateo and Colton. Afterwards, we met up in the underground to work on the 7 habits. The 7 Habits are a list of rules to working effectively, and was made into a popular book called, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I wont go into to much detail as I will probably eventually make a 7 Habits blog post. The 2 activities after lunch were outdoors and very fun. First, was battle archery. Basically, we went to a field which had several bows, arrows with foam tips, and those giant ball things you can climb inside and run around in. The rules of the game were fairly simple. We split into 2 teams, grade 8s Vs grade 9s. Then we would shoot at each other with the arrows. Each team also had a board with some targets. If you shot one of the targets, one of your eliminated team mates would come back. If you shot all of them, your team won. Due to our physical and intellectual superiority, the grade 9s barely won. Afterwards, we tried forest laser tag. This was probably the most anticipated activity of the whole trip. It was like regular laser tag, but outdoors and 100 times more intense. It was really fun except the guns didn’t really work that well, end it could really tell if you shot someone. Me, Dylan and Declan joined together to create an unstoppable 3 man army, and by that, I mean we took things way too seriously and played Fortunate Son on our phones. Afterwards, we had DI Sweatbox 2. This sweatbox was even less effective as the previous one as we couldn’t find ways to expand our script and work on our solutions. I believe we had dinner next, which was roast beef and mashed potatoes. Next, we had evening fun. This time, we only had 2 options for evening fun: we could go to the underground and watch a movie, or we could go to the Pan Abode and watch the Olympics. I, as well as most people, opted to watch the Olympics. Earlier, I had a terrifying experience where I was using the cabin’s bathroom and Ben Yerxa figured out how to pick the locks. After evening fun, some of us hadn’t had enough so we hung out in the courtyard between Arbutus and Yew cabin, which involved a flip-flop fight. Afterwards, we went to bed.
Day 4
The last day had come. After advisory in the morning, we packed up our bags and loaded the bus, and had our last activity: Capture the Flag. Grade 8s Vs Grade 9s. The 3 man army of Dylan, Declan and I reunited to once again, take things too seriously and defeat the little babies that call themselves “PLP 8.” I don’t remember who won but I’m 99% sure it was us. Afterwards, we had lunch, got on the bus, and headed back to the school. This time, the bus had 1 major sound, and that was the sound of me and Colton singing various songs by popular music artist Kanye West. I’m sure we couldn’t be heard, and we weren’t annoying anyone.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, I had a good time at Loon Lake, and I am looking forward to future field studies, where my friends don’t get sick and leave early. I learned a lot during this trip. I think I became a more independent and reliant person. After I returned, I created a book of my learning, which you can access below.
