To read part three of day three, click here.

We spent about a half an hour picking up the litter around the shelter. We were surprised – we had been told that there was a ton of trash, and there was barely any! Jen looked out over the cliff, saw a bunch of trash on a ledge off to the side, and took Luke down there to get that. There still was not that much, so we kept looking.

Then Katie saw some trash under a little rock overhang. There was an insane amount of trash in there! She and Jen spent twenty minutes getting all of the trash out from under there. They even had to get long sticks, because their arms could not reach to the back of the cavern. They used the sticks to pull the trash from the back, and then they would toss it over their shoulder to us.

(You can see a picture of them pulling the trash out here.)

After they had gotten all of the trash out, it was time to move on. We still had a lot of ground to cover! Jen asked who was going to carry the two trash bags, and we all just looked at each other. I don’t remember who ended up carrying them, because they were switching back and forth and no one had them for too long.

We started hiking. Past the shelter, past the rock ledge that had been hiding all of that trash, past the kitchen where we had eaten, and back out onto the trail. I was in the lead, since I was being the slowest. My ankle was still really bothering me, and it was affecting my pace.

We had been warned that morning that there were going to be ladders. We had been warned at lunch that they were coming up. But I was not ready to turn a corner in the trail and see a huge ladder going up over a rock slab.

Jen and Katie told us what we were going to be doing, and as soon as they were able to the guys were at that ladder. I let them pass me – I did not need to be the first up there! I was really starting to freak out about it. I was so small, and I had a huge pack on my back, and I was sure that my pack was going to pull me down off the ladder once I had gotten a little bit up there and I was going to get hurt.

When it was my turn, I climbed up the little ledge leading to the ladder, crouched the way they said would work best, and started climbing. I found that if I kept my back at a certain angle, it did not pull me away from the ladder as much. It was still pulling me down though, and it was tough making it over those last couple of rungs. It did not help that the rungs were so thick – they were about as thick as two or three 2×4’s stacked together. I could not get my hands around them, which made it easier for my hands to slip. I was able to keep my grip though, and got up to the top two or three rungs. There I was going to have to get off the ladder, and I started freaking out again.

The second to last rung was level with the ground, and I was going to have to step over the top rung. I started shuffling my feet, trying to get my body in the best position possible to make it over that rung. Bruce (who was waiting at the top) told me that I could do it, that he was not going to let me fall. I managed to get the first foot over the top rung and not fall over backwards. So far, so good. I tried to get the other foot over, almost made it, almost fell onto my face, and grabbed at Bruce so I wouldn’t.

He pulled me back up to my feet and I walked over to where all of the other guys were standing. They congratulated me on getting up, and then continued talking about how awesome that had been, and how excited they were to do another ladder…

I ignored them. I decided that I was NOT going to think about having to do any more ladders, and I was going to pray that God would make the rest of the ladders easier then this one. Since I had handled this one, I was going to be fine on the rest of them if they were easier!

The next one was one of the hardest.

Click here to read the next part of Day Three.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here.*