Hey there! My name is Andrew Trask. I am 25 years old, and live in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. I'm currently a student taking Advanced Water Systems, and hope to work in the water treatment industry. I previously graduated with diplomas for the Environmental Technician and Environment Technology programs at Fleming College. Like a lot of kids out of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. After an impromptu solo trip to Peru for a little bit of soul searching, I realized that I wanted to be happy, and what makes me happy is nature and the environment. It was then that I realized I wanted a career in the environmental field. 
I developed my love for the outdoors at a young age. When I was about nine years old, I started going to a summer camp every July called Camp Kilcoo in Minden, Ontario. We did all sorts of things there like archery, canoeing, kayaking, bushcraft, woodcraft, and various other sports. It was here where I learned how to canoe, set up a tent, navigate, and camp. My favourite part of the month though was backcountry camping. At nine years old, our cabin headed out for a three day canoe trip. Every summer following, the trips got longer and further away. My last summer when I was 12 years old was when we went on the longest canoe trip I've been on to this day. We were loaded with gear and canoes, and were bussed up to Temagami, ON where we embarked on a two-week trip. That was my last trip with the camp, but I learned invaluable skills about how to camp and survive in the wilderness that I'll have with me for the rest of my life. Although I enjoyed my time at camp, and going backcountry camping, I never really thought I would have any more experiences like that. 
Fast forward to when I was 16 years old. I think it was when my friend got his driver's license that my group of friends wanted to start camping. When school finished for the summer, we went on maybe two or three camping trips to a few local provincial parks. But something just didn't feel right.. There was something about driving up to our campsites and being surrounded by people everywhere you looked that made me remember the times I would go canoe tripping at camp. I pitched the idea to my friends about doing a backcountry trip in Algonquin Provincial Park. As somebody who had done this type of camping before, I knew enough about the logistics in order to plan a trip. Mind you, as this was the first trip I planned myself, not everything went according to plan! I purchased gear that we would need including a food barrel, waterproof duffle bags, gear packs, etc. When everything was figured out, and we had everything we needed, we set out on our first canoe trip together, not knowing what the next four days would hold for us. We started on Cedar Lake, in the middle of the Northern limits of the park, and would travel down to Catfish Lake, before returning along the same route we came from (roughly 25km there and back) . I want to save some of this for a future post about our first trip, but it was easy to say that it was the best experience of our lives. There was something about being out in the middle of nowhere with your best friends, surrounded by forest and the sounds of nature in every direction. After that trip, my friends were hooked, and every summer following, we would try to get back out to Algonquin at least four times, always exploring new areas of Algonquin. These next three photos are from that first trip. 
That summer back in 2012 was the beginning of our adventures in the vast wilderness of Algonquin Provincial Park. I passed on my love for camping in the backcountry to my friends, who were always itching for the next trip. We would always explore new areas, and try to go as deep into Algonquin as we could. I'll be posting about many of my past trips (and future ones too) in the hopes that I'll spark an interest in others to explore their adventurous side. I'll also be posting about little tips and skills that I've learned throughout the years. Canoe tripping can be dangerous if ill-advised, but if you plan properly, it can be one of the greatest experiences you've ever had! I look forward to connecting with the Steemit community!! 
Hey @thehappycamper Welcome to steemit!
Thanks!! @cyberblock
Welcome to Steemit @thehappycamper! Amazing pictures and I can't wait to hear more about your camping adventures!
Thanks @simply.syd :)
Awesome post @thehappycamper !!! Love the photos and love how adventurous you are! Welcome to Steemit! Glad you made your way here! Upvoted, following and resteemed! 😉
Thank you very much @otterbeme !!
Thanks for checking out my sunset picture and leaving a nice comment :-) I just checked out your posts and am following you now. Welcome to steemit and just so you know if you go 100% steem then when you get your rewards you will miss out if steem dollars are going for more than steem. If you go to busy.org you can use your steemit account to view the whole platform in a different setup. It shows you the going rates of each currency and gives you a more accurate account of your wallet. I actually like this setup better but I used busy.org to keep track of the currency rates. Oh and comment @originalworks in your comments and you will get an upvote from them for original material! Best of luck, looks like you are staring out better than I did ;-).
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @thehappycamper to be original material and upvoted it!
To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!
Okay great to know, thanks for the advice :) Yeah I wasn't quite sure how the whole 100% and 50/50 thing worked. But i quickly read a few forum comments online and the posters made it seem like 100% would get me for votes? But I'm kind of underwhelmed by the amount of upvoters in comparison to the amount of people that viewed it aha. Takes time I guess! @janellelanae
Totally, don't get too discouraged but you are off to a great start :-) Haha coming from a fellow #minnow that is. Check out @booster and @upvotewhale if you are interested in making bids for your posts to get upvoted more. Mostly it seems to be about building a following and continuing to post though.
Cool, thanks :) @janellelanae ! Do I just tag them in a comment on my own posts?
Oh shoot well you really really just started. Look into it when you have 2 steem or 2 steem dollars at least. What you do is send them between .01-1 steem dollar and then it amplifies into a percentage based upvote depending on how much you "bid" Its basically paying for upvotes so you probably shouldn't even worry about that till you start getting returns. I think it was week 3 that I started seeing returns that I could even start bidding for upvotes. The very interesting thing I find here is how you can view other people's wallets. You can kind of get a feel for who is really successful and how they distribute their currencies. I wasn't sure before if I should have more steem or steem power or steem dollars. But I can see it really depends on the market and the more steem power you have the higher your voting power will be. Some people can make one vote and earn you $15 in one shot. Its kind of amazing.
Hope I wasn't confusing.
Jeeze haha. Yeah, I have a lot of studying to haha!! @janellelanae
Yea it can start to make a nature person like me feel kinda dizzy for sure! Take it in strides and try to have fun or you'll get burnt out. I totally did! I got pissed for a while thinking what the heck why did I waste so much time and no one even saw it! But its gets easier. And now I just try not to get too wrapped up. Best of luck! :)
Right now Steem Dollars are worth about $6.12 versus Steem being worth about $5.95 according to busy.org. a few weeks ago there was a much bigger gap but they are pretty close in price right now so you are in luck :-).
Welcome to Steemit! I encourage you to take the time to search for other posts that interest you and upvote them. Also, start following authors that post good content and upvote them as well. Make some friends and you will be well on your way to earning some nice curation rewards and growing your following!
You are really going to like it here. This is a unique place where there is no competition. Instead, we all work to build success by helping each other out. The best way to grow is to build Steem Power and vote to reward other authors.
This is a great place to network with other people from all over the world. If you continually post great content you will grow a following in no time and start making some nice author rewards.
Best Of Luck!
Spencer Coffman
My Latest Article: Inbox Dollars Cash Rewards
Thank you! :)
You're welcome!
Warm greetings and love, welcome to the platform :)
We have made some Discord groups or sub-communities which may help you grow faster, click here for further details :)
Thanks :) @asadullah
Welcome Andrew! Enjoy posting your heart out..
Thank you @know-deep !
My husband also love canoeing! He went on a cool trip a few years back. They went from Missinipe, through Stanley Mission to Nistowiak Falls. (Saskatchewan). Keep going on those adventures!
Had to google those places haha but they look like a good time :) I'll have to check out places like that all across the country one day!! @jonliz
you should defs do a cross canada trip! :)
One day, when I can afford it haha!! @jonliz
Hey Andrew! Welcome to Steem!
The Fresh Five is a new Steemian curation effort, geared toward rewarding new Steemians who deliver interesting, fun, thought provoking, or just plain silly introduction posts.
We invite you to come to our Engagement Post and join the comment thread where we hope to encourage engagement and interaction with your fellow Steemians.
Looking forward to seeing you dig in to Steem and join the community!
Welcome to steemit Andrew!
That was a great introduction and I understand your love for the outdoors and nature 😉
Amazing pictures and environment.
Hope you will like it here as much as I do and good luck on your journey. Cheers!
Thank you @saffisara :) Much love!
Anytime Andrew 😊 have a wonderful weekend. Cheers!
@originalworks
Welcome to steemit :D
Thank you :)
Welcome to Steemit Andrew !
Thank you very much! @ashwinrajt