Summer

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

hiking,

trees,

more trees (actually not that many trees considering, I just like trees),

friends around the campfire,

horses of course,

face painting,

etc,

flowers,

and enthusiasm!

 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.

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.

Columbines are Colorado's state flower- fun fact.

Look at these shady characters.  I can't believe I trusted them enough to climb a mountain with them.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.  

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?

Love this piece of equipment.  

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.

"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!

Post number 100?!

Wow, I can't believe I stopped writing posts at post #99.  I guess it is more incentive to start again, though the true incentive has been a combination of my family going a little blog crazy, and the SUPER cold weather means I can't really hang out outside.

So I'll throw in a couple posts to catch us all up to the current day, but let's just say, this is what it looks like where I am today.

"Why do people walk around with grass sticking out of their mouths?"

"Why do people walk around with grass sticking out of their mouths?"

There are many theories on this subject. Well, maybe not academically or by many people, but there are many theories in my mind at least.  Before I expound upon my theories, let me say that I am not a farmer, however, I do often walk around with grass in my mouth.  No, not like a cow, re-chewing it to help me digest such a tough fiber, more like a cow that just took a bite and looks up to see someone passing by that has that one piece of long grass with the flowering head still attached, dangling out of its mouth.  You know, like a farmer who is leaning on his fence, looking at the cow, in a relaxed and easy way that says, 'yep I can spend my time just chewing grass too'.  I personally often walk around with that piece of grass sticking out of my mouth at a jaunty angle when I am on a leisurely hike or walk.  And usually when I am by myself, just because a piece of grass in your mouth could inhibit conversation.  Which might be one reason cowboys and farmers like it. For me personally it has started to become a Pavlovian thing.  I put grass in my mouth when I hike, simply because I always put grass in my mouth when I hike.  Probably the same for a lot of people. Not sure exactly how it started, but once it has I can't hike by grass without sticking a piece in my mouth. 

My first theory is oral appreciation. Not necessarily in a Freudian way, but in a sensory awareness way. That's the enjoyment for me at least, picking a tall piece of grass, tasting it subtle flavor.  Do you know that different kinds of grass taste differently?  Feeling the ridges or lack thereof.  Slowly biting down on it as it's been there a while, feeling the fibers of the grass come apart in your mouth.  Seeing how long you can hold on to it without biting, then chewing it once there has been a split in the seam of the stalk.  Using your lips and tongue to make the grass bounce up and down or side to side, especially satisfying when the seed head is thick and clumped.      

My second theory is the "well that's what all the kids are doing these days" theory.  Why ever did bell bottoms hit such a high popularity?  I bet if you asked a wearer of bell bottoms why they wore them, they might say, "it's in style" or they might say "I just like the way they feel".  But when you are NOT a flower child wearing bell bottoms is really sort of weird.  There isn't sort of inherent goodness about wearing bell bottomed pants that makes everyone wear them.  So when a little cowboy or girl, or a little farmer, sees all the big cowboys and girls and farmers that they admire so much hanging out with a piece of grass sticking out of their mouth they think "that's what I want to look like".  Personally for me it was probably my father, or an uncle.  Or maybe old western movies.  I can't pinpoint it.  Though I can say that as children my siblings, cousins and I would walk around with grass sticking out of our mouths, playing with it more, making two strands of grass into giant insect mandibles or trying to "catch" frogs with the dangling, dancing seed head.  

I have already alluded to my third theory when I said maybe taciturn cowpeople like an excuse to contemplate the piece of grass in their mouth when they don't want to make idle conversation.  Or maybe it is sort of a mind focusing thing, when there is a problem to think over, instead of just standing there, put a piece of grass in your mouth as you think it over.  Academics do that with pens or pencils some times, and grass is one of the least noxious things that you can put in your mouth when you are hanging out outside on a farm or ranch.  

I leave my last theory last because for one it isn't my theory.  I'm not sure how much I believe in this theory, but it IS something that I think about often when I'm chewing on grass.  The theory that one of my naturalist friends presented to me is the theory that grass has a certain amount of mind control over humans and other animals to get you to spread their seeds.  Think about it, how do dandelion seeds disperse? Wind.  Burrs stick on clothes or fur to be dropped off elsewhere.  Mangroves grow right in the water where they can drop their seeds to be carried away by a water flow. While grass utilizes a couple methods of seed dispersal, they are not so flighty as dandelion fluff nor protected by a delicious outer coating or can go through a digestive system completely unharmed like an apple for example.  No, grasses need to be dispersed by animals that aren't going to completely digest them.  Sure that can be a cache by a rodent, or a few seeds that drop out of a birds mouth, but maybe, just maybe that is also by subtly convincing humans to pick up a few seeds, play with them in their hand, or stick a stalk in their mouth and walk away, discarding the seeds to a new location for growth.  Grass doesn't hide its seed, it puts them right up there on the top, waving them around for anyone and everyone to see and pick and scatter.  

Why is it that farmers, ranchers, cowpeople, and the occasional hiker walk around with grass in their mouth?  Your guess is probably as good as mine.  Except maybe that I have thought about it a little bit more.  I think it's time to go for another contemplative walk, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.   

Jumping to the present day...outdoor education

This post is not the next in the order for the blog, this was my life this spring.  I worked in an outdoor education center, and as you can see, I had a wonderful time.  So meet some of my friends, see some of the sights I saw every day, and experience the "sense of wonder".

Audrey having fun.

And practicing her yoga.

Sometimes we dress up in costume.  Ok, most of the time.  David is really good at it. 

Staff overnight at Penitente Canyon.

Delicious food for camp cooking!

Brenden is a happy dude.

Did I mention that we like to dress up?

and hula hoop.  

Tessa loves feathers.

Michelle loves Blokus.

Dancing on a roof!

Playing guitar on the roof.

Thomas is a pensive mountain man.

Thomas, Greg and I hiked up our neighboring mountain, Big Blue

Pikes Peak looks different every day.

There may not have been snow every day, but it snowed a lot every week.

Audrey has a very whimsical and fun spirit

She may look like a wildlife ranger, but she's actually the nurse, Catherine.

Three women in a tub.