Confession: I had such a frustrating time getting WordPress not to mess up my last post that it kind of scared me off for a while! Moral of the story: Never try to blog after 10 p.m. ‘k?
Just in case people start thinking that all I ever do is run, this post is proof that that’s not entirely true! For example, this past weekend (wow, a whole week ago!), I went with 21-ish adults and members of the amazing Eleven:59 youth group on a backpacking trip! Yes, that’s 16 grueling miles over two days (not counting the little bit of hiking we did to get to our campsite on Friday night when we arrived).
We were up and at ’em early on Saturday morning–probably earlier than most of us would have been on a typical weekend. Spirits high and feet covered in duct tape (to prevent blisters, of course), we set off to hike 8-9 miles (somewhere in that range, anyway. I kinda forgot to count) that day, singing off-key songs and making jokes and just goofing off.
Pastor Matt: *singing some ridiculous song*
Someone #1 (I don’t remember who it was): “Matt! You’re scaring off the wildlife!”
Someone #2 (again, I forget who): “He IS the wildlife!”
(Starting the day off right!)
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So here’s how the day went: We hiked up and up and then hiked up. And then we hiked down and down and down. And then we just hiked. There were sporadic songs, jokes, pranks, crazy pictures:
(Renee, Kelsie, and me: Tired? Or just being ourselves?)
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(Tough backpackers.)
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(We’re here to save the day!)
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(Kelsie, Sierra, and yours truly goofing off)
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Well, let me tell you: Lunch was well deserved. We stopped at a not-quite-entirely-clear part of the trail and pigged out. Mmmm, tasty.
Some people were hurting a little bit at this point, so we split into two groups (a faster group and a more relaxed group) so we could snag a place to sleep at the next campsite. Plan: SUCCESS! There was no one at the campsite when we got there, so we had the spectacular view all to ourselves:
(The view was kind of a letdown. Just kidding, guys!)
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The fast group sawed wood and collected smaller branches for the fire, and soon enough, the other group joined us! Yay! We’d all made pretty good time, so we had a lot of time to kill. Of course, we used it wisely:
(…eating…)
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(…sleeping…)
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(…playing Farkle with handmade dice that mysteriously went missing…)
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(…carving things and using flowers wisely (yeah, Brian!)…)
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(…and making people wish that they hadn’t tried to take a nap.)
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After a tasty spaghetti dinner, we chowed down on s’mores and just hung out:
(Sugary goodness!)
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It was approaching dusk at this point…
…which apparently is when the hippies show up in full force:
(This pic cracks me up!)
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It was such a beautiful night, so most of us just slept under the stars. Tents? Who needs ’em? Seriously. I got up before everyone else the next morning, which wasgreat because I caught yet another incredible view:
(Amazing!)
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And then everybody else got up (alertly, of course…HA). We ate breakfast, did devotions, and headed out to knock out the remainder of the trail. Bring it! We made a quick stop to refill our water bottles and take a quick dip in the cold water:
(C’mon! It’s not THAT cold!)
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After that, we split into three groups: the steady-paced group that got a head start, the fast group that aimed to book it ridiculously quickly from 835-ish feet up to 2,100-ish feet (as a leader, I took the rear on this group), and the medium-pace-with-breaks group. Can I just say that it got really REALLY warm and sunny out? For some reason, I thought that mopping my sweaty face with my sweat-soaked shirt would be effective. Wrong!
At the top, we stopped for lunch…and some incredible photos:
(Tired but ready to keep going, judging by our exuberance)
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After lunch, Pastor Matt let me lead, which was a HUGE risk because I tend to speed right along without giving any thought to saving energy. This time wasn’t too bad, though!
(See? No huge gaps in the line!)
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We trekked along for a while, and after a bit, I could just sense we were getting close (See my “What I Learned (or was reminded of)” list at the end of this post for more details). Before I knew it, we were back at the van!
(Way to go, Sierra and Kelsie!)
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(Nice work, Axel!)
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Of course, that’s not the end of the story. It was VERY hot in the van, especially in the very back, where there were no vents (thanks again, guys, for switching!). Once we got over the heat, though, some people’s exhaustion caught up with them. Either that, or I was a REALLY boring seatmate:
(Ben and Renee, my sleepy seatmates)
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Tired, smelly, sweaty, and pretty much disgusting in every sense of the word, we made it back to the church on Sunday evening. And it was a good time.
What I Learned (or was reminded of): The Official List
1. God is awesome! Seriously. If you don’t believe me, go back and look at all the pictures in this post again.
2. Our bodies can handle more than our minds tell us. Yeah, yeah, I learned this while training for the Pittsburgh Half, but it’s nice to know it applies to hiking/backpacking, too.
3. I don’t like the thought of drinking “purified” water from a stream. I had a bottle of stream water handy just in case I was dead from thirst, but I never needed to use it.
4. Valley Girls don’t handle the wilderness well. (There’s a video for this, but WordPress wants to charge me $60 to post videos on here! Ridic!)
5. Too much bug spray makes me sneeze a lot.
6. I prefer sneezing to getting eaten alive by every insect known to man.
7. Even toads enjoy checking out a nice view:
8. Peeing in the woods is a very freeing experience! (I should add a “TMI” category to this blog)
9. I can tell when the trail is nearing its end: It’s when multiple people start asking (with increasing frequency) when we’re going to be done. 😛
10. I make a good pillow.
11. We could have hiked even farther, judging from the level of energy in the videos I took on the way back. (I love you, guys, but I am NOT paying $60 to post them.)
Until next time,
Krista
Operation Life 