so long sweet summer
well, i have done an absolutely ABYSMAL job at keeping up with this blog the past, oh, 3.5 months! so sorry! this summer has been incredibly busy, hectic, crazy, tiring and amazing! and as of 9 this morning, my last group of campers is gone and i am now free!! i also felt that i should change the appearance of the blog, too. the picture at the top is one i took about a week and a half ago during a night/sunrise hike of handies peak. it was GORGEOUS.
i feel as if i should somehow try to condense this summer into a perfectly amusing and engaging yet not years long post so that anyone who still remembers that this blog exists will have a good picture of my life. i got to work with some awesome people this summer. for some reason, the transition from OE to wilderness was really difficult for me. the day after OE ended was the only day i had to move all my stuff and deep clean the cabin i had been living in before wilderness training started the next day. it was crazy! and meeting so many new people and getting thrown into working with them so suddenly was just a bit of a shock. at first i had a really hard time with them, but over the summer i came to realize that all my issues were caused by my own bad attitude and really had nothing to do with them at all. today, we have already said goodbye to 2 of our guides - khalena and christine. so sad! i would like to kinda describe each guide to everyone just so you know who i have been working with. khalena came in as a really quiet, shy girl at first...but she definitely has a great sense of humor and will make comments that come out of nowhere that knock you off your feet but make you laugh! she also has an unparallelled work ethic and has such a great attitude and a servant's heart. christine is an amazing flutist and just trusts God so easily. she constantly steps out in faith when He calls her to, even when she knows nothing. heidi is another person who i have never heard complain. she is always smiling and is a hard worker. she also has an uncanny knack for getting people to open up to her more than anyone else. risa has been my friend since march. she came to work OE again (i had not met her before but had heard a lot about her) and we just instantly clicked. we have done a lot of fun and crazy things together, and she is always willing to ask the hard questions that no one else wants to ask. she is leaving for oregon to go to law school in 2 days and i am really sad she is leaving but super excited for her! then there is joy, whose name fits her quite well. she is a lot of fun to be around and she calls me out when i need to be held accountable for something. she is staying around this fall to work in the coffee shop here at camp, so i will still get to see her and i am really excited about that! ryan is another guide whom i met in march. we didn't hit it off well at first, but i have found this summer that getting along with him is actually quite effortless. he is really funny and awkward and has a super fun girlfriend who came to visit earlier this summer and i wish she had stayed. adam is a very thoughtful and considerate person, and really enjoys theological discussions. he has made me take care of myself this summer when i wouldn't have done it on my own. nick has also had my back this whole summer, looking out for me and checking up on me. he is hilarious and has this energy and excitement about life and people that is very rare and refreshing. steve is funny and is a great leader. he is very trustworthy and knows his stuff! chris is also absolutely hilarious and is always making me laugh. but along with his funny side, he is very considerate of people and cares about them. so those are the guides i got to work with, and they are so great!
this summer has been really challenging but so rewarding at the same time. the first backpacking trip that i led this summer was on a route called the "ninja route" because of its technicality. it was hard but a lot of fun! we had to use ropes to climb some 4th and 5th class rocks (keep in mind we have on full packs), we had to rope together on a cliff, use ice axes to climb snow fields, dig holes in the snow for tents on a ledge, etc. it was a great trip but it was crazy! we encountered 2 blizzards that week (middle of JUNE, mine you!) and it was cold! but the kids were great and it was a great week to start off with. i got to do a lot of basecamps this summer, which means we didn't hit the trail those weeks. monday is low ropes, tuesday is rock climbing day, wednesday is peak hike day (3:30 wake up! woo!!!), and thursday is white water rafting. so that is what a basecamp looks like. i did get sick right before the 4th of july and spend almost a full week in the infirmiry in quarantine, so that was not my favorite time of the summer, but not horrible.
this past week was the last week of wilderness, and it was a wonderful week to end on. i was supposed to be guiding a backpack trip with ryan, but when the group got here, we found that the one boy camper who was going to come had dropped out last minute and so the only campers were 2 girls! so, i ended up working with heidi instead, and we had an all-girls backpack trip. it was so fun! the first night on trail the moon was almost full and the sky was clear and beautiful. the coyotes most definitely agreed because they were howling all around our campsite (we camped in a meadow above treeline in the mountains by a lake...gorgeous!). the next day we woke up and started hiking around 8. we hiked half peak (13,841 ft.) which is actually pretty technical and there is a knife ridge (thin ridge with sheer cliff drop-offs on either side of you) that you have to cross to get to the peak. our girls did great, however, and we peaked just before 11 am! we had lunch and took a nap and then took a lot of fun pictures at the top, as well. we made it back down and got into our tent just in time for a massive hail, wind, lightning, thunder storm to hit and stay for several hours! it was kinda scary but kinda fun, too! the girls were wonderful - great attitudes, lots of fun, troopers, and just everything great!!!
i am really excited because this evening my cousin and his wife and kids are coming to camp - jeremy is going to be the speaker at adventure this week and so i am really excited to get to see them! there is just a lot of great stuff going on right now and i am so excited about it all!
well, i have thoroughly succeeded in writing a miniature novel and i suppose next time i write, it will be considerably shorter since i plan NOT to wait for another 3.5 months before i update this thing again. hey, let me know if you still read this thing, btw. k thx bai!
i feel as if i should somehow try to condense this summer into a perfectly amusing and engaging yet not years long post so that anyone who still remembers that this blog exists will have a good picture of my life. i got to work with some awesome people this summer. for some reason, the transition from OE to wilderness was really difficult for me. the day after OE ended was the only day i had to move all my stuff and deep clean the cabin i had been living in before wilderness training started the next day. it was crazy! and meeting so many new people and getting thrown into working with them so suddenly was just a bit of a shock. at first i had a really hard time with them, but over the summer i came to realize that all my issues were caused by my own bad attitude and really had nothing to do with them at all. today, we have already said goodbye to 2 of our guides - khalena and christine. so sad! i would like to kinda describe each guide to everyone just so you know who i have been working with. khalena came in as a really quiet, shy girl at first...but she definitely has a great sense of humor and will make comments that come out of nowhere that knock you off your feet but make you laugh! she also has an unparallelled work ethic and has such a great attitude and a servant's heart. christine is an amazing flutist and just trusts God so easily. she constantly steps out in faith when He calls her to, even when she knows nothing. heidi is another person who i have never heard complain. she is always smiling and is a hard worker. she also has an uncanny knack for getting people to open up to her more than anyone else. risa has been my friend since march. she came to work OE again (i had not met her before but had heard a lot about her) and we just instantly clicked. we have done a lot of fun and crazy things together, and she is always willing to ask the hard questions that no one else wants to ask. she is leaving for oregon to go to law school in 2 days and i am really sad she is leaving but super excited for her! then there is joy, whose name fits her quite well. she is a lot of fun to be around and she calls me out when i need to be held accountable for something. she is staying around this fall to work in the coffee shop here at camp, so i will still get to see her and i am really excited about that! ryan is another guide whom i met in march. we didn't hit it off well at first, but i have found this summer that getting along with him is actually quite effortless. he is really funny and awkward and has a super fun girlfriend who came to visit earlier this summer and i wish she had stayed. adam is a very thoughtful and considerate person, and really enjoys theological discussions. he has made me take care of myself this summer when i wouldn't have done it on my own. nick has also had my back this whole summer, looking out for me and checking up on me. he is hilarious and has this energy and excitement about life and people that is very rare and refreshing. steve is funny and is a great leader. he is very trustworthy and knows his stuff! chris is also absolutely hilarious and is always making me laugh. but along with his funny side, he is very considerate of people and cares about them. so those are the guides i got to work with, and they are so great!
this summer has been really challenging but so rewarding at the same time. the first backpacking trip that i led this summer was on a route called the "ninja route" because of its technicality. it was hard but a lot of fun! we had to use ropes to climb some 4th and 5th class rocks (keep in mind we have on full packs), we had to rope together on a cliff, use ice axes to climb snow fields, dig holes in the snow for tents on a ledge, etc. it was a great trip but it was crazy! we encountered 2 blizzards that week (middle of JUNE, mine you!) and it was cold! but the kids were great and it was a great week to start off with. i got to do a lot of basecamps this summer, which means we didn't hit the trail those weeks. monday is low ropes, tuesday is rock climbing day, wednesday is peak hike day (3:30 wake up! woo!!!), and thursday is white water rafting. so that is what a basecamp looks like. i did get sick right before the 4th of july and spend almost a full week in the infirmiry in quarantine, so that was not my favorite time of the summer, but not horrible.
this past week was the last week of wilderness, and it was a wonderful week to end on. i was supposed to be guiding a backpack trip with ryan, but when the group got here, we found that the one boy camper who was going to come had dropped out last minute and so the only campers were 2 girls! so, i ended up working with heidi instead, and we had an all-girls backpack trip. it was so fun! the first night on trail the moon was almost full and the sky was clear and beautiful. the coyotes most definitely agreed because they were howling all around our campsite (we camped in a meadow above treeline in the mountains by a lake...gorgeous!). the next day we woke up and started hiking around 8. we hiked half peak (13,841 ft.) which is actually pretty technical and there is a knife ridge (thin ridge with sheer cliff drop-offs on either side of you) that you have to cross to get to the peak. our girls did great, however, and we peaked just before 11 am! we had lunch and took a nap and then took a lot of fun pictures at the top, as well. we made it back down and got into our tent just in time for a massive hail, wind, lightning, thunder storm to hit and stay for several hours! it was kinda scary but kinda fun, too! the girls were wonderful - great attitudes, lots of fun, troopers, and just everything great!!!
i am really excited because this evening my cousin and his wife and kids are coming to camp - jeremy is going to be the speaker at adventure this week and so i am really excited to get to see them! there is just a lot of great stuff going on right now and i am so excited about it all!
well, i have thoroughly succeeded in writing a miniature novel and i suppose next time i write, it will be considerably shorter since i plan NOT to wait for another 3.5 months before i update this thing again. hey, let me know if you still read this thing, btw. k thx bai!
Comments