June 22, 2024
What a bittersweet farewell to our time in British Colombia!!!
The last few days of our BCO trip have been nothing short of adventure, reward, celebration, and reflection. After two long days in the sun in Tofino, we packed up camp at Bella Pacifica early and drove 3 hours to take the Horseshoe Bay Ferry back to the mainland. This travel day allowed everyone to write fun memories and reflections down in their journals, play some group games in the car like Guess That Movie and various riddles, and of course have sing-alongs to our favorite tunes from Ryan’s musical aux. We treated the gang to sandwiches from a local stop in the ferry port as we waited to board, and once on the ferry, we enjoyed the views of the water and continued hanging out and resting. We just had a short 30 minute drive left to our final campsite at Klahanie Campground! This was one of our most remote, rustic campsites, and we set up our tents with insane views of a roaring waterfall right in front of us! Don led the group in a fun chanting game called Ronald McDonald to get everyone’s wiggles out, and we played lots of frisbee and joked around before having a fan favorite for dinner: Make Your Own Pizzas. After dinner, the kids had lots of fun playing spike ball, watching Sarah and Crawford upset James and Ryan, witnessing the ultimate rap battle between Ryder and Bridger, taking some glorious much-needed showers, and getting a surprise visit from a curious furry guest- a harmless raccoon who just wanted to make a pizza too! We had moon-up that night after sunset in a circle led by LODs Sarah and Mac and got some sleep to prep for a big next day.
The next morning we woke to make chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate the start of our grand finale activity, an overnight white water rafting trip on the Squamish River!!! LODs Stephen and Jane got the gang excited as we hopped in the car and met our guides at Canadian White Water Rafting just 20 minutes away. Here we had some lunch, geared up in our last round of wetsuits, ditched the van, and embarked on our overnight rafting journey. In two big rafts steered by our friendly guides Connor and John, the group had a blast paddling down some class 3 and 4 rapids, getting splashed by the chilly water, and soaking up the most incredible scenic views of ice-capped mountains, beautiful waterfalls, and greenery all down the river. We stopped for warm hot chocolate and cliff bars on one rocky beach in the middle of the journey. Crawford and Harper braved sitting front row for some of the biggest rapids, and everyone had amazing attitudes throughout the 2 hour raft ride! Around 5 PM, we reached our campsite for the night, a remote little island where our guides had set up a covered kitchen area with some delicious appetizers of hummus, cheese and crackers, guacamole, salsa, and fruit for the hungry voyagers. While the guides prepped dinner, the kids changed into dry clothes, set up their tents, and explored the small island. We ate a delicious meal of steak, salmon, mashed potatoes, and caesar salad, and polished off the meal with homemade berry crumble for dessert. The group showed off their dishwashing and clean-up skills and were very grateful to our awesome guides for such a great meal and setup. We had an early moon-up led by Stephen and Jane, and we enjoyed the last of our long day walking around the cool sand beach, skipping rocks, and the kids fell asleep under the stars in their first-ever night of cowboy camping- no tents necessary 🙂
The next day, we woke early to have warm breakfast wraps courtesy of our raft guides, and packed up everything into the boats for the last stretch of our rafting trip. This was a much calmer float down the river, and we had such a relaxing time admiring the Squamish scenery and chatting it up in our rafts. We docked the raft where the bus was parked to take us back, and the kids helped get everything out of the boats and loaded up before taking a lunch break back at the rafting spot. We laughed at some action pictures taken of the group, relaxed for a bit, and then changed clothes for our last hoorah- competing the challenging Chief Hike for supreme views of Squamish! LODs Crawford and Ryder set the pace for this group hike, which was no easy feat, about 1.5 miles of steep climbing to get to the first and second peaks. The team had awesome attitudes the whole way up, and man were the views worth it! We celebrated our climb looking out over all of Squamish, the beautiful bay, town, trees, mountains, and river that we had just rafted as a team. We got some group pics, and after our hike down, got some well-deserved gas station treats post-hike. Tired but rewarded from our final day of fun in Canada, everyone returned to the campsite at Klahanie to make some tasty fettuccine alfredo and ate it family-style at a couple of picnic tables. Special shout-out to Emerson and Harper, who tackled cleaning a DAUNTINGLY dirty pasta pot and made the impossible possible with their persistence, leaving it good as new We laughed about our favorite memories, played some group games, and had a sweet moon-up led by Ryder and Crawford, where we all shared what we were excited and nervous for with the upcoming year.
We woke up the next morning early to pack up camp and embark on our travel day back to the U.S.! We surprised the group with donuts from Tim Horton’s, a classic Canadian breakfast chain similar to Dunkin’ Donuts, and drove 3 hours to Seattle. We made some pit stops to clean the van, which Mac, Jack, and James had almost a little too much fun power washing, ate lunch and stretched our legs at Volunteer Park in Seattle, and purchased some funny outfits from local Goodwill for our Banquet dinner, which Bridger, Stephen, Harper, and CC in particular got creative with. We ate that evening at Azteca Mexican Grill, and the group had a blast celebrating the end of an amazing trip over yummy Tex-Mex in their hilarious costumes. After dinner, we checked into the Double Tree airport hotel, where everyone packed up, cleaned up, got ready to sleep in some comfy hotel beds instead of tents (!!!), and rejoined for our final moon-up. This was a bittersweet moment for the crew, and we spent some time going over funny memories, our favorite days of the trip, and sharing how thankful we all were for this beautiful group of people and everything we were able to accomplish, learn, and experience together. After some big group hugs, laughs, and even a pillow fight, the kids rested up for a very early airport morning.
On our final day, we got everyone to the airport safely nice and early by 3:00 AM to prepare for their flight departures. Airport days are always hectic, but this BCO group had amazing attitudes and made the day run as smoothly as possible. We said our goodbyes in intervals, and though these moments were sad, the bittersweet tears from students and leaders alike made us realize how lucky we are to have something that makes goodbye so hard 🙂
From your Moonmom, moondad, and moon uncle– we miss you all SO much already!!!! BCO 1A will always have a special place in our hearts. You were our first-ever Moondance session, and we feel so grateful for this special group of kids. Yes, we surfed, we hiked, we camped, we climbed, but most importantly, we became a family, and it was each one of you brilliant young people who made this trip magical. Thank you for sharing your personality, your goofiness, your kindness, your helpfulness, your hard work, and your hearts with us for 2 weeks. We can’t wait to stay in touch and see all the amazing things you do!!!
Stay fired up and motivated, BCO 1A. Ryannadon OUT!!!
Love,
Your leaders
Annabel, Don, and Ryan <3