01.26.06
Technical Update
I’ve done a major security update of this site. It looks the same on the outside, but when you log in to post, things are arranged a little differently. If you find something is broken, let me know. If you have questions, feel free.
glenn olafson said,
January 27, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Hey Cory
Good weston kid …eh
Got an email from classmates and it brought me to your site….Love it! I am not an 81 grad nor a grad of Daniel Mac but went there for 3years until Mr moore the vice principal tossed me for absentism….I remember it very well and it came down to playing frissbee and smokin pot and we got really good at both….really good! Hope you all have a wonderful wonderful reunion and lets all remember ..the four plan marchin band!
Corey said,
January 28, 2006 at 8:52 am
Hi Glenn,
I hope you come to the reunion. We haven’t yet invited any vice principals. I remember your locker catching fire. Was that you? Or maybe that was at Cecil.
glenn olafson said,
January 28, 2006 at 10:53 am
Heh Cory
Yeah Yeah that was my locker at the top of the stairwell….holy blasts from the past batman! No clue how that happened .Spent a good hour in Mr Moores office telling him exactly that. My locker at Cecil was the one with the lightbulb and plastered with SI swimsuit issuesStolen from Mr Pickering.
Thinking backto those Daniel days and Mr Moore I remember that we had keys to the entire school and spent our lunch hours in the huge array of underground crawl spaces of the school. We’d be right under his desk and could hear him talking on the phone and debated which wires to snip.
What a brat I was!
Corey said,
January 28, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Glenn,
I don’t know if you were ever told about this, but the time you went missing on the canoe trip in junior high, we were camped at the same farm the few days until you were found. I was lucky enough to sleep in an old shed that was about to fall down where the adults also hung out. When we got the word you were found, Mr. Milberg cocked his head and looked at
Bruce Barnesmore likely Bernie Zajak (I think), and said “It’s too bad we don’t have something we could celebrate with.” After a long stare between them,BruceBernie nervously smiled, and said, “maybe I have something”. He pulled a mickey out of his duffle bag and Milberg and the others emptied it. I thought it was interesting how Milberg knew he had the bottle, and let him keep it. Until he wanted it. You gave all of us a bit of adventure that week, but I guess you had the hardest time. The first night anyway.glenn olafson said,
January 29, 2006 at 8:28 am
Heh Corey
Interesting that you mentioned that canoe trip as it was just last wek I was telling the guys at work about it. We were talking about riding in helicopters and someone asked me if I ever rode in one and went on to explain being airlifted out of the bush at night in one. Was Mr Graham that narly ole armed forces vet in that shed with you? He gave me this angry debriefing after my recovery interogating me as to why I left the canoe.In hindsight it was the wrong decision but at the time in my own defense I was in the lead canoe and Adam Ricters father put me in a canoe that was falling way back with Angelo and Ian Muska. Those guys couldnt paddle to save themselves let alone in that brutal headwind and when it was getting dark and obvious that we were on are own that night ,Ian totally started coming unglued and I was outta there.I’d like to debrief him today as to the fact that they (the teachers) totally over estimated distances to be covered with inexperienced paddlers…kids!
I remain today an avid canoeist in Clayquout Sound and even circumnavigated halfway around Vancouver Island in a canoe on the open ocean two summers ago. I am considering paddling a canoe up the inside passage to Alaska in the future. I just dont tell my mom until I get back now…ha ha ha ha
Corey said,
January 29, 2006 at 1:36 pm
yep, Mr. Graham was there, but he might not have been in the shed at that moment. I recall he was away a lot, in some way involved in the search. And he was also the one that blew the distance estimates. Before the trip I watched him map it all out. He got a whole series very large maps that he taped together for the whole route. These maps showed a lot of detail. He used a circular odometer thingy, that I’m sure has a proper name that I don’t know, to trace the distances. What he didn’t expect was the amount of river criss crossing that happened, effectively doubling the distance paddled. They really should have had a ‘professional’ come and plan that trip. I recall they got a lot of flack over it. I’m sure Graham was dumping on you because he’d already had the riot act read to him. After I got home, I found out a lot of the parents were freaking out at the school board over the ‘fiasco’. Graham was a good army style cook though. I was quite amazed watching him crack 4 eggs at the same time, two in each hand, while he cooked up our meals.
I was in a canoe with Daryl Baker. He kind of freaked out on me too, but for a different reason. We ended up passing the lead canoe (the one with an adult we were not supposed to pass) and ended up miles ahead of everyone by the time evening settling in. We let the current carry us for a while and then outright stopped and waited for people to catch up. We waited so long, that Daryl was convinced we made a wrong turn. I explained that, well, a wrong turn would mean padding up stream, down a much smaller river or stream. Freaked out might be too strong a word, but there was no convincing Daryl we were in the right place until the pack showed up.
ah, good times …
glenn olafson said,
January 29, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Thank You Corey!!!
There are lots of things that I still am in the dark about when it comes to that fateful canoe trip.I remember flying at night to the Carberry hospital for dehydration and mass lacerations from bush wacking in a tee shirt and shorts(and hundreds of mosquito bites)a debriefing with the park warden driving to Wpg with my Dad and then off to the lake for the summer. I thought I heard that the whole trip was lost at some point? Did someone come find you that first night? In a motor boat? When did they find Angelo and Ian? I dont rember anything after that really. I remember sitting in Grahams room getting grilled and Mr Milberg not being his jovial self towards me.
Roger on the criss crossing ultra winding Assinabione and remember seeing Jay Smith go around the bend …..the last I saw of that canoe party. Wow what a flood of memories. Im sure the”fiasco”created buy Grahams poor planning was magnified a 1000x thanks to me wandering off into the bush. Corey…… Im sitting here 28years later wondering why I did that. I remember the extremely emotional maelstrom between the three of us ,screaming, balling, fear beating the canoe with the paddles you name it. Right out of a movie! I saw some telephone poles in the distance and decided to see where they lead. To a telephone I hoped but when I got up close they were so old they had no wires on them. Then I followed a road for hours and hours giving up on that and returned to the river.Thats when I was really lost. Found out later from the warden that had I kept going down that road a couple more miles I would have walked right into civilization. Thank you so much for your memories Corey.
Corey said,
January 29, 2006 at 9:36 pm
I’ll describe more of the events I remember. We didn’t move while you were lost. After you were found, the trip was sort of on again off again, although they tried to keep us in the dark.
After the pack caught up with Daryl and I, it got dark fast. We all stopped at the side of the river, short of where we were supposed to be. We found a section of beach that was large enough, formed a large square with stacked canoes, and built a fire in the middle. And we waited. No one knew exactly where we were. Eventually, middle of the night, no idea on the time, someone in a four by four emerged over a cliff in the distance and someone yelled “we gotcha!” ( sounded like that girls dad who was with us, was that Tammy Zajak? or another girl? I forget ). It wasn’t possible to get a truck close to where we were, so we waited until someone finally got to us on foot through the bush. We then all hiked about a mile (I guess) through the bush, and up some rather steep stuff. No trail or anything. The kids could handle it fine, but I remember about 4 of us hauling Mr. Milberg up. You had to pull yourself up by grabbing sapplings and such, and would slip a lot even with that. Milberg was trying to pull himself up, but needed people under each arm and under his butt to get him up and through. I clearly remember him grabbing my hand at one point and feeling his muscles vibrate with fatigue. Eventually the walk got easier and we made it to the farm land we stayed at until you were found. I can’t remember what I slept under the rest of the night. Someone else brought the canoes to us, and most of us slept under them from then on. I only did one night of that until I wormed my way into that shed.
Angelo and Ian never caught up with us that night. They paddled until it was too dark to see and found a sandy beach to stop at. They dug a hole in the sand to sleep in and fit their canoe over top of them. So the canoe could lie flat in otherwords, and shelter them. When it got light, they got back in their canoe, and started paddling. We were gone from the river by then, but I guess someone stayed behind to look/wait for them. They were reunited with us that morning. All Ian and Angelo told me about you was that you said “I know this road” and got out of the canoe. They didn’t mention any of their freaking out part! It seemed surreal what they described, like you had gone completely insane just left the canoe for no reason. Hearing how you describe it now, it makes perfect sense.
At the farm where we were stuck at for those days, we were told the army was looking looking for you and not much else. Then we got word over a radio you were found, and the toasting happened. I remember seeing you the next day maybe. Can’t remember where that was. Most likely where we’d been stuck. You mentioned trying to sleep around a tree the first night, and then I thought you said you had found a cabin for better shelter. Funly enough, you didn’t continue with us on the trip!
We then were put in a truck and taken to the place on the river we should have been, more or less. We were supposed to go back in the water, but were then told told we couldn’t without any reasons. We ended up being stuck at this riverside campground for another couple of days. Nice place, it had facilities, not like what we’d been used to. They brought in some army tents, so we got to sleep in relative comfort. Food was short that first day, and we were given a rather small portion of kraft dinner for supper. People were bitching, but got yelled into silence by that girls dad. Basically told us all to shut up and be grateful we had anything at all. A very sombre mood fell over the camp, and it was clear the adults were stressing out. We didn’t know why at the point. That night, as we were settling into our sleeping bags (rather early I might add), we got a surprise. I guess that girls dad was feeling upset at how he treated us at supper, so he drove to Junior’s in Winnipeg and bought burgers and fries for everyone. And I mean everyone. He must have spent some decent coin. We were hungry, and it was appreciated. I nice late night meal to make up for the lack of food at supper.
While we were hanging out in that campground, we discovered this girl from Virginia who was our age. She was striking in that she everything she wore was bright red. Red shirt and jacket, pants, socks, shoes, and a red baseball cap. It was quite funny as a pack of about 8 of us were following her around all vying for her attention. I remember a look of horror on her face when we described wood ticks to her. She had no such thing in Virginia. Creeped her right out. Foolish boys we were, thinking that would score points with her. After a couple of days at this campground, we finally got back in the canoes and paddled into Winnipeg. We were put in close enough to make it there by mid afternoon. We were supposed to go all the way to the Red (the forks now), but the end point was changed to somewhere between the city limits and the red. I’m not certain where. I also remember waving to people along the river. I got the impression some people were watching for us as we arrived. It seems we were on the news, and were gathering an audience. I later learned the teachers etc. fought hard to get us to be able to canoe into the city and salvage what we could of the trip. There was strong pressure to just get us all home.
As I walked home from school, some people I knew stopped me and were asking about what happened. I told them I was fine, no big deal. They had believed we were all lost and hungry and in dire straights. What happened to you seemed throw a lot of speculation up about the rest of us. Some people chose to believe the worst, and I think the media fed into that somewhat. Not surprising I guess. Except for that one skimpy meal, we were all kept quite full and were well managed. I frankly had a blast.
glenn olafson said,
January 30, 2006 at 9:08 am
Thank you Corey!!
You have definitely filled in a lot of blanks about that canoe trip for me.
I had no clue that you guys paddled into the city and even more clueless to the media stuff and angry parents.Wow what a gong show that trip turned out to be, and sorry to say but the teachers,Graham and Milberg deserved all the heat they got for poor management and backcountry skills. My point being not just the unrealistic distance to be covered but the simple fact that they let a canoe get so far behind and out of sight without stopping and letting it catch up or a least having a visual on it. As a former snowmobile giude in Whistlers backcountry I was very attentive and aware of where my clients were at all times and under no circumstances what so ever would I just leave them in the dust assuming they are alright.(” Wheres that last snowmobile Glenn……ahhhhh I dont know I havent seen it in a couple hours”) 28 yrs later I’m really realising how reckless and stupid that was! We were 15 yr old kids and anything could have been going wrong like tipping over etc.
I guess I did speak with you because I was curled up around a tree on that second night and awoke to the sound and sight of a low flying chopper with this huge spotlight and then the honking of a truck horn in the bush. I followed the horn honking in the dark through the bush and ran in front of the headlights of a chevy RCMP suburban parked in a clearing. Never thought of it till now that it must have been such a relief to those guys to have found me because thats how its supposed to end and unfortunately it always doesnt. As luck would have it that suburban got stuck right there while I sat in the back seat wrapped in this huge parka munching down chocolate bars and given the ravaged shape I was in called that chopper down to dispatch me asap to the hospital…hence my first (and only) helicopter ride.
Some of the fun I had at that time was forging through the bush for hours up this hillside to get to a forest ranger tower only to loss site of it when I got up the hill and then going all the way back down to get my bearings on it and tryed again. I finally made it but as I was climbing up the ladder it was blowing rain and and I could barely hang on my fingers were so numb so had to abort that …Man those things are high! I thought there might be a radio in it or at least be able to see where some civilization was.
My first night was enjoyed by the company of literally hundreds maybe thousands of moquitos and being dressed in only shorts and a t-shirt the experience was absolutely and utterly madning. There were so many that all you coould hear was this low droning buzz!. If I didnt lose my mind that night I was certainly doing it the next day by the constant hallucinations that I started to have. I would see canoes on the river and then just watch them dissolve. I saw Mr Milberg pull up in a ford pickup. He got out ,folded his arms across his chest and leaned on the truck. I went running toward it yelling and there was nothing there but bush. I’d awake from a nap made possible by shear exhaustion to Craig Buss sitting beside me . Id start talking to him and he would just disappear. I never ate or drank anything that whole time and it wasnt really an issue, I was probaly in some form of shock and just wondered around hoping to be found or find away out of there.
Wow …..good times!!!
Pamela81 said,
January 30, 2006 at 9:51 am
I went to a different junior high then some of you guys but that canoe trip sure sounds like it was a comedy of errors. What were those teachers thinking. Buti I do have to say Glenn that it wasn’t luck that the truck got stuck God kept it there. He always has a hand in whatever we are doing in our lives. God knew what was happening on that canoe trip before you did and he kept you safe because he has big plans for your life even today.
glenn olafson said,
January 30, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Ya know Corey ………………….
Thanks to your memories and this website I have just spent the last few days in a daze. There is such a coincidence with me talking about it with the gang at work 10 days ago and then corresponding with you this weekend. I was sorta surprised that the boys at work were so eager and wided eyed at my story of being lost in the bush on that canoe trip and how quickly I became the center of attention even though we were talking about helicopters. They could not get enough of it and the questions were endless. I never really ever talked about it ….no need to.. not a big deal until now and you on this site. Now putting myself on that riverbank with Angelo and Ian, the last canoe in the party I saw ,those telephone poles, clinging halfway up that tower, those RCMP officers
and ducking under the chopper blades for my evac. totally tripped out on memory lane and have been on the brink of tears many times….its all good ,just so long ago and how vivid some of those memories are now and as an adult now sensing the worry and stress what other people were feeling. I have no ill feelings towards anyone or anything connected with that canoe trip what so ever. While I am on the record here critizing the parents and teachers on that trip I was never bitter about it and remain so now.( Call it constructive from a now experienced outdoorsman.)
THANK YOU COREY , I dont think you you have any idea what this really meant to me ………….I never did for 28 years!!!
Corey said,
January 31, 2006 at 8:56 am
I’m glad is was Cathartic. Maybe 28 years was needed to really get your head around it. Just as much as I’ve filled in some blanks, I imagine there’s a lot I don’t know too. Being kids, they really didn’t want to tell us everything. But also, being kids, we were savvy to more than they realised. I’m glad I’ve helped provide some missing details. Hopefully I’ll find some other Cecil/Daniel grads and they’ll come to the reunion. I haven’t yet found any from Little Cecil.
glenn olafson said,
January 31, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Thanks Pamela !
One could assume that a kid exposed to such a tramatic exprience would retreat from adventurous intrepid experiences but I guess my maker did have a plan. I went headlong on to doing some ( and more in the future ) risky and dicey odyessys, My favorite being a solo trek across Death Valley in 97. A remarkable and spiritual experience I’ll never forget…. man vs earth. Quite a pilgrimage. When I got back to my car I drove to Vegas and ended up drinking beer and playin black jack all night watching showgirls…….Huh
ah good times!
Pamela81 said,
January 31, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Glenn,
Why would you want to trek across Death Valley? The one time i was in Death Valley it was 120 degrees and that same day I was in Vegas and it was 104 degrees. Of course all this was on a day in July. I hope you went and did this when it was a lot cooler. You sound like a very interesting person and very adventureous.
John P said,
February 2, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Hey Glen, I think we use to call you Oly. That is a great story. I wish I could get you to come out to one of our Boy Scout meetings to tell it: “What not to do when lost in the bush”. Like most kids, the scouts think things like this can’t happen. On second thought, some of the kids might think it would be cool to be choppered out of the bush.
I seem to recall another incident in the States when you were on your way to Steamboat with Bob Marshall. I don’t rememer any of the details though because I did not go to Steamboat that year. I just know the bus left and you weren’t on it.
glenn olafson said,
February 3, 2006 at 12:34 am
Hi John
Yeah Oly was definitely me nickname back in the day. I gotta say that I am honoured by a Scouter emailing me, as I went through cubs and then scouts to become a sixer workin on a full sash (well maybe not entirely full)
Ironically enough though when I come to think about it ….I was chosen out of two in the Sthrahcona district in Winnipeg of the Boy Scouts of Canada to join a national canoe trip in the NWT. Serious…….My mom Would’nt sign the release papers saying ” thats to Dangerous”. That was the year before the teachers and parents took me canoeing…ha ha
That Steamboat trip was such a diaster for me. I missed the bus because I was at a party for my going to Steamboat farewell
Slept in
Took a greyhound down there on my own.
Met up and skied with Mr Marshall (the auto shop king)
Got kicked off the bus for disorderly connuct in South Dakota
It was actually a really fun time ……….I’m sure Mr Marshall doesn’t think so
Dan Boulet said,
February 7, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Hey Glenn, I remember that trip. I was on the other bus watching you get cuffed by the troopers. Unbelievable is all I can say. It made for some juicy conversation later. Hope you’re doin’ good and we’ll see ya at the reunion.
Dan
glenn olafson said,
February 7, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Hey Dan
Thanks for the reminder. What a little shit I was!! Yeah cuffed by troppers , Jailed , released in the morning and it took two days to get outta South Dakota , and I got in more trouble!! (tell ya at the reunion)
All’s Well and all good today….I’d really love to see those mugshots in S D today though…ha ha ha ha
On a side note… all apologies to my roomate Glen Sykes who was experiencing a really bad bout of the flu when I finally rolled into Steamboat and meet up with my other roomate Rob Person….nobody should have to go through that let alone being totally ill ..ha ha ha