To read part four of day three, click here.

The next ladder had two pieces to it. There first section was at about a 75 degree angle, and the other was probably a 45 degree angle. You can kind of see it in the bottom of this picture that Jen took.

I was starting to freak out again. I decided that I really, really, really hated ladders, and that I was never going to climb one (with something other then myself), ever again. I was the second to last crew member up this ladder – Maggie (the blond girl in the photo) was the spotter, so she was the last.

I started climbing up the first section. It was not much harder then the first ladder we had climbed. Then I got to the second section and stopped for a second to see how I was going to get into the position that the second part required. I was going to have to mostly crawl, but my knees could not go on the rungs. So it was this weird pose with only your feet and hands actually touching the ladder.

I’m not really sure how I managed to get up over the second half of that ladder. Maggie and Bruce were really supportive of me, telling me that I was going to make it, that I was doing just fine, and that they were not going to let me fall. Bruce told me I just had to get up to him and he would help me get off the ladder. That helped a lot, knowing that there was someone waiting to pull me off. 🙂

I think that this was when I finally started trusting my crew. I had been struggling with trusting my crew. It’s not their fault, it was all in my head. But climbing over those ladders, I realized how much I needed to trust them. Because if I was going to be spending two weeks in the woods with them, I needed to know that they had my back. And I also needed to be there for the rest of my crew, ready to help them when I could.

I got to the top, where I had to step over the top rung again. Bruce pretty much pulled me over that rung and kept me from falling flat on my face again. 😀 I thanked him and headed up the trail a bit to where everyone else was standing.

As soon as Maggie and Jen were up the ladder, we started again. I think there were one or two more ladders then, but I can’t remember exactly.

Then we came to these big rocks standing right where we needed to go, with no ladders. Katie asked who had the “bear hang” rope, and whoever it was pulled it our. Then Katie took the rope, took her pack off, and climbed up the rock to fasten the rope for us.

Katie climbing up to fasten the rope.

*Now that I think about it, this might have been before the ladders. I’m not really sure…*

We started climbing it, using the rope to pull our bodies up. The guys practically ran up those rocks – the girls took it a little slower. I actually went faster then I thought I would, because it was pretty easy. But while I was climbing it, my trekking pole broke! This was a big deal for me, because without the trekking pole I was going to go even slower. It is amazing how much those things help. Especially when your ankle is hurting, because you can put a lot of the weight that you would normally put on that foot, on the trekking poles.

Katie decided that it was not going to get fixed, and told me to put it in my backpack. I went over to Luke, who was standing right there. I held the poles out and said “Luke, can you…” He cut me off and said that Dora broke the pole, Dora had to carry the pole. I asked him if he would just stick it in my pack for me, and he did it.

Oh yeah – Dora was my nickname. 🙂

Apparently Luke bestowed that name upon me because I was short, I wore a purple shirt, I had khaki pants, and I had a huge backpack.

See?

I don’t remember when that started, but I do remember that we would start hiking every morning, and almost everyday someone would start singing the Dora the Explorer theme song. And there were constant references to Dora. And when Luke asked me if I knew Spanish, I knew exactly why he was asking. 😀

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.*