Day 54: Day off in Dease Lake

After the late night celebrations the night before, there weren’t too many people up and about even at ten AM. I rolled over and got up at about this time to a mostly quite school and, feeling hungry, gathered up the keys to go into town to get some food. But as I walked outside people jumped to life and quickly my little trip into town became a tour bus of people who wanted to go as well. Classic mobilization issues crept up, but it wasn’t too long before we were in town picking up supplies and then back at the school.

When we got back, mostly everyone was up and making use of the great computer facilities which I shortly joined in as well. A few hours later, people were definitely taking it easy with some taking naps and others calling friends or cleaning their bikes, which after going through so much dirt were caked in dirt and mud. For my part, I didn’t clean my bike at all since I knew that there was another long stretch of dirt ahead anyway so I went down for a nice nap. But shortly thereafter, Sam came in and asked if I’d be up for some indoor soccer.

And I can hardly say no to soccer so, with about 7 other people, we kicked the ball around for a little bit in the gym before getting the first game going. It wasn’t professional in the least, but it was a lot of fun, even though my team lost by a few points. But no matter since we were just playing around anyway. After a short hiatus, we started another game, which ended up turning a little chaotic at the end. Maybe even a little brutal as the score was close and people were scrambling to get the last point in. In the end our team won so we ended the games at 1-1, a nice way to make everyone a winner. A small comfort for all the soreness we were feeling.

The rest of the day involved more internet use and people calling. Dinner was a scramble as people tried their best to eat the foods they had been craving for a long time before we went back into the wilderness. For my part, I ate a frozen pizza and was quite satisfied. A little bit of goofing around later, it was back to uploading pictures for the website and friendly banter in the computer room. I went to bed later than I wanted to, near midnight, but there were still plenty of people up and about even at that time. The team generally agreed that it was one of our best days off of the whole trip.