I don't know if you guys can see them but here's some pics of our garbage bag shelter and fire.
http://www.facebook.com/...630190844&ref=mf The hardest part of the trip was the swim - 250m across a lake, but I had my German Shepherd with me and he's scared of the water. I got him a good (Ruffwear) lifejacket but the swim was difficult. I decided to jump in while holding onto his lifejacket so he'd be in the water and not have any choice about swimming, but that submerged him and as soon as I saw that I was like 'OH SHIT'. He did pretty well, alternating between swimming normally in the right direction, trying to swim ON TOP of the water in relatively the right direction, trying to climb on top of me (this was dangerous), to swimming sideways (I would turn with him, since I had him on leash, but then I'd get tangled in the leashes that attached my bag to me - a shorter line would've been better), to swimming backwards, to sort of resting in the right direction and letting me pull him.
Him trying to climb on me was the dangerous part - he's a very small German Shepherd, out of standard (he's also thin, you can see multiple ribs - I like to see a couple of ribs so he could gain a lb or so) - but even still having a freaking out dog trying to climb on top of you in the water - it honestly was like those simulations you see of a drowning person shoving their rescuer under the water, except it wasn't a simulation. I'd try to calm him down but I'd get shoved under/down and it was exhausting. After a few times I'd id him coming to climb on me and shove him away and forwards, and that worked better. Once we got about halfway he started to calm down too. My bf wasn't sure if I should bring him because he's afraid of water but he's not going to learn to swim and be comfortable if he never goes in. He learnt to cross streams and rivers (when I first got him I had to carry him over, he would pull out of harnesses to not cross) by doing, and now he does it without a thought.
We had a group of nine so the organizer dropped off 3 groups of 2 and then myself, him, and my partner that I built my shelter with bushwhacked behind them to be closer to where we planned to cross the lake the next day and made our campsite there.
We picked everyone up the next day and looked at their shelters (we were the only ones who went entirely not prefabricated) and then came back to ours. The organizer had walked down the shore a bit and saw some boats stashed on the other side, so he and I swam across and took one of them (the other wasn't seaworthy) - we boated everyone across in 2 trips and left the boat where we found it and then started the bushwhack home.
It was fun! But I will be very happy not to see juniper bushes for quite some time. Luc was pretty good going through them but because of height he really got the full brunt of them, and a couple of times had a bit of trouble. He loved it though - he loves hiking - so that was good. I would've brought my other dog, Neb - he can swim - but he has an ear infection so no swimming for him.