A REALLY quick look back over the year. I put up a post or two last spring. Outdoor education is awesome. I worked at the same camp, Sanborn Western Camps, this past summer. If you haven't ever experienced a summer camp, well, it is quite the experience. I'll show you what I mean by using a few of my favorite photos. None with kids though, I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are there, but it just seems a little creepy. With Facebook it somehow isn't creepy putting up photos of adults.
When I tell people about the camp that I worked at, I say that it is a typical summer camp, maybe with a lot more hiking and mountain climbing. It has
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| hiking, |
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| trees, |
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| more trees (actually not that many trees considering, I just like trees), |
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| friends around the campfire, |
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| horses of course, |
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| face painting, |
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| etc, |
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| flowers, |
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| and enthusiasm! |
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Well, you get the picture. So the next couple of photos are from what we call "long trips", three to five day backpacking (or horsepacking trips, but I don't lead those) trips where generally the girls get to climb a 14,000 ft mountain. The first long trip I led this summer was up Pike's Peak. I have led this trip many times, and this time, I sort of got to redeem myself. Not that the other trips weren't fun for the girls, but this was probably the most fun for me. I had a group of girls that were in my cabin three years ago, so I know them all pretty well. It was great to see them maturing, and reminiscing about "back when we were young". If I recall correctly, it got pretty chilly on the mountain, but everyone persevered and showed courage and kindness (Growstrong vocabulary! helping the girls have a language to describe how they grew at camp). One of my favorite afternoons was after we had come back down from the summit and everyone was resting. Some girls went exploring, others giggled in tents, and some helped make dinner. Blissful.
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| Lots of hiking in a line. I believe we played some telephone to get us through this stretch. |
So what do camp counselors who spend all month taking kids on hikes and camping trips do when they get two days off? Well, they find their other friends and find another mountain and hike it! It really makes you appreciate long legs and personal responsibility when you hang out with adults. This weekend we hiked Grays and Torreys.
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| Columbines are Colorado's state flower- fun fact. |
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| Look at these shady characters. I can't believe I trusted them enough to climb a mountain with them. |
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| Indian paint brush. These flowers are so rare that they are protected and it is against the law to pick them. They were incredibly abundant along this trail though. |
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| Trilium I believe. This is out of order and wasn't on the same mountain, but it is in the pretty flower section right? |
The second long trip I took was one of the longest trips the camp offers, five days on the Colorado Trail. Five days wasn't enough for me, that is for sure. I'm not sure it was even enough for the girls. Again I got to go with a group of girls that I knew from before, some of the same girls went on the first Pikes Peak trip that I led. Apparently I got a reputation for being an incredibly fast hiker and demanding leader. With two years under their belts these girls have picked up their pace so much that they were hiking faster than me! I kept telling them that I wish they could go back and see how slowly they hiked up Pikes Peak. Again we had a cold trip, even hike through some snow one day! As in, snow coming down from the sky, not left over snow from last winter. That day everyone got soaked, but luckily everyone was prepared, or inventive enough to find dry clothes to sleep in that night. The next day the sun came out, we hike to our next site, read "The Princess Bride" out loud, and ate the most delicious soup known to man (or at least girls on a backpacking trip). Maybe everyone else was thrilled to get back to camp, and eat pizza along the way, but I was given a permanent itch to do more backpack. I hope I can use this summer to scratch that itch.
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| We made prayer flags with our hopes, wishes and prayers for ourselves, friends, family and world. The girls really enjoyed the activity, I think I want to make another flag for every significant trip I take. |
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| Camp classic, m&m pancakes, note the parkay(fake butter in a squeeze bottle) in the background. I especially liked making that breakfast because we counselors sat around talking about hiking, bearded men, and bluegrass music. Yep, we are definitely Colorado camper material. |
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| I don't know. We had an 80's theme, I might have been the only one that stuck with it. Don't I inspire confidence in leading a group of kids through the woods? |
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| Love this piece of equipment. |
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| This was our final descent to the trailhead. |
After all the campers went home, we got a few more days, maybe a day, off, so we decided to be hippies and got play in some water. We had to drive surprisingly far for that actually. We spent several hours on that rock, reading, sleeping, chatting, playing music.
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| "Thanks Kristy, all you ever do is hike hike hike, about time you let me get some rest." - Kristy's feet. |
So yes, all the campers left. But then they came back! Five, 10, 30 years later! It was reunion weekend at Camp Sanborn, and yes, we were still responsible for leading these campers up mountains. It was refreshing having all the "campers" say "you know, I have a lot more room in my pack, I can take the rest of the lunch".
So that was my summer at camp in a nutshell. One adventure (and certainly a few misadventures) after another!
