To read part two of day four, click here.

Katie laughed and tossed something into Sarah Margaret’s hands.

You would have thought she had just tossed a huge box of chocolate at her. We were all laughing, saying thank you, begging Sarah Margaret to hurry up and divide the treasure. Sarah Margaret took her time, opening the box, counting out the precious things inside, determining how many each person got. We all groaned when Jen said to make sure she and Katie got theirs too.

Finally, the treasure was passed around, and everyone held in their hands two and a half Swedish Fish. You know, those little red gummy fish? The ones that tasted ridiculously sweet after four (yes, only four) days with nothing sweet at all?

I popped the fish in my mouth and started chewing, only to remember that I had my retainers in. I chewed for a sec, trying to get the gummy off my retainers. But I guess I did not chew carefully enough, because my bottom retainer came off my teeth and I heard a crack coming from inside my mouth. I winced – that would not be good. I swallowed the fish and took my retainer out. The very back on one of the sides was cracked, but it was still holding it’s shape! There was nothing I could do about it, so I stuck it back in.

And really, I did not go nuts over the fish like most of the others. I really enjoyed them, but we don’t get much candy at home. So I was used to not having sweets. Apparently everyone else missed sugar a lot… Actually, I think a few of my crewmates did not like Swedish Fish. I don’t remember who it was, but I think that is why we each got a half.

Once we were done with the fish, we stood around for a minute. I did not know what was happening. I knew we should get on the road, but I did not want to make Sarah Margaret (and Jordan? I think that’s who was on LOD that day…) feel bad because I was doing their job.

That’s when I saw Jen talking to Sarah Margaret, and I knew we would be leaving soon.

“Ok crew, lets get our packs on! C’mon guys, we’ve got to get down this mountain! We have to meet our van at 1 o clock – they will be at the bottom of the mountain to take us to where we will get our canoes.”

I stood up reluctantly, pulling my pack on. I did not want to go, but I knew that we had to get started. I did not want to be late, and I knew that the hike would take a while with my ankle.

Someone insisted that I be put in front, so since I was in the back of the group I had to walk up to the front. I always felt awkward doing that. I don’t know why, but that’s what happened every time. I would be in the back, someone would say “Get Brett in the front – she is the slowest, she needs to be in the front” and I would have to walk up from the back, feeling awkward about it the entire way. And then I would get up in the front and I would feel so much pressure, feeling like I had to go faster so the crew would not be disappointed in me. And then I would get burned out, and that was NO fun.

I started hiking, knowing that they would all catch up to me. I was told to “yellow light it”, which just meant slow down. I was fine with slowing down – it meant more energy for later. I guess the crew was all up fairly quickly, because in about 20 seconds I head “Green light!” yelled from somewhere way behind me. I assumed that was the back of the line talking, so I started walking faster.

Since Jen had said while we were on that water run that we would be walking that way in the morning, I already knew which way to go. I turned right out of the campsite and we got to the intersection fairly quickly. I could hear Jordan and Maggie extolling the virtues of the trail we would be taking behind me and smiled grimly to myself. I knew that no matter what anyone else said, this next section would be no fun for me. It had not been very fun the night before, and with a pack it would be even worse. Plus, my ankle had started to hurt again. I was really scared that I was going to twist it going down those rocks again. The one bonus was that we were not going to have to climb back up them!

We were making pretty good speed on the easy parts. I was doing that on purpose – I wanted to get as far as I could as quickly as I could, before we hit the rocks. I did not want to take our time on the easy stuff and have it take forever on the rocks.

So we were going pretty fast. And then we hit the rocks.

Click here to read the next part of Day Four.

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

To read part one of day four, click here.

I looked around at my crewmates, waiting for someone to say something about my suggestion. They looked like they were thinking about it, so I did not say anything. Then someone said they thought it was a good suggestion, and it was put in the crew agreement. 🙂

After everyone had said what they thought should be in the crew agreement, we packed up our stuff and left. We had to get back by that narrow trail we had come by, so that was nerve wracking. At least this time my bad foot was on the inside, towards the mountain.

We had to get back and pack while the people on bear hang got the food down. I was cook, so I did not have much time. But I did not have that much to do – I had done most of it while the girls were waking up. So I went, put my journal away, gathered my pens back, grabbed my eating materials, (bowl, spoon, water, and mat) and headed back to the kitchen.

I was feeling pretty good that morning! While it was weird not hearing my crew and not being able to talk or sing, it had been beautiful where we had sat. I had gotten a relatively good nights sleep, so that was nice. I had not gotten enough sleep, (we never got enough sleep) but compared to the nights I had been having, it had been a fair amount.

I got up to the kitchen and set my mat down where Luke and Rebecca had put theirs the night before. Luke was my partner again today, and I was glad for that. For one, it looked like he knew what he was doing when he was cook yesterday. And he was fun to work with, and he could make me laugh. 🙂 Laughing is always a good thing.

I went over to where Luke was with the fuel and the stoves. We had to fill them up and then bring them to where we were actually cooking. When we had brought them over, Luke asked if he could sit on my mat. I told him that was fine, and asked him what to do next. He showed me how to light the stoves, which I thought was really cool. You dipped the pot grips in the fuel, and then lit the pot grips on fire. Once the pot grips were on fire, you dipped them in each stove so the fuel in each stove caught fire. Everyone thought that was really cool. 😀

We were having oatmeal for breakfast! Oatmeal with brown sugar, a little bit of leftover honey from lunch the day before, and raisins if you wanted them.

Only a couple of people wanted the raisins. I remember how Bruce’s eyes lit up when he heard there were raisins. Apparently he loved raisins! I say loved, because after all the raisins we gave him (from the trail mix) he is going to be sick of them for a long time. Ok, maybe not. I know he did start saying no to them after about day 9… LOL

As soon as the Oatmeal was ready, we started passing the bowls. Luke would give them a scoop of the thicker oatmeal from his pot, and I would give them a scoop of the thinner oatmeal from my pot. The brown sugar and honey were already in there, and I sent the raisins around the circle once we were done passing the oatmeal. Bruce took probably a third of the raisins, but no one cared. The rest of us did not really like raisins, and we did not want to have to carry them so we were happy for him to eat as many as he wanted. 😀

Once my bowl was cleaned out, (the water did not taste too bad that morning…) I went to pack up my stuff. I asked Bruce and Luke if they were carrying my stuff again, or if I was. Bruce said I could carry the tarp, since he did not know where he would put it, but Luke said he would keep the repair kit. I was glad for that – the repair kit was pretty heavy, and any weight that other people could take would just help me go faster.

I was called over to Jen’s platform. It was time to check on my ankle, since the first aid kit was out! I prayed that it would look better, but it was definitely not feeling better…

I headed over to the platform where Jen and Tullia were waiting (Tullia was being the doctor’s assistant). They looked at my ankle, decided it was even more swollen, and wrapped it up again. We took a look at the hot spots (possible blisters) that had been treated on day two, decided that they were still pretty red, and treated them again. Jen left for a minute, and that was when Kayce came over with a huge blister the size of a penny on the back of his heel. He asked me if I knew how to treat blisters and I told him that I had seen Jen treat mine…

I took those horrible shears that they have in the first aid kit and tried to cut the moleskin, but ended up just butchering it. That was when Jen came back and I willingly gave up those awful shears and the butchered moleskin. 😀

I put my boots back on and went to finish packing. Jen called out that if we were ready to go in a certain amount of time, (don’t remember how much it was…) we would get a treat. We were all standing in a circle, packs at our sides, with two minutes to spare.

Katie came over with her hands behind her back. The anticipation was building rapidly, and I could see some people nervously chewing on their lips, staring at Katie with a questioning look in their eyes.

Click here to read the next part of Day Four.

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

To read part twelve of day three, click here.

I woke up that morning and shook Maggie awake. Jen had told us the night before that we were going to get up, wake everyone up without talking, and take a walk. We had to bring our journals and pens.

Once I was sure Maggie was awake, I pulled my hiking boots on and looked at the ground carefully to make sure there were no snakes before jumping off the platform. *shudders just thinking about it*

All around me the girls were waking each other up, shaking, poking, anything to get the other girls awake. I pulled out my fleece, since it was cold, got my journal and a pen and closed up my brain. Maggie came over and “asked” me if I had a pen.

It took me a minute to understand what she was saying with her hands, (it looked like she was doing a cool flourish of some sorts), but then I figured it out. I pulled my two extra pens out of my pack, gave one to Maggie and did a little wave/dance/jump up and down thing to get peoples attention, and “asked” if anyone needed a pen. Someone took it and I closed my brain up again.

We all went up to the main clearing where the guys, Jen, Katie, and Tullia were standing. We did this awkward “wave good morning to everyone” thing, mouthing good morning and asking how people slept. It was really awkward, and I was glad when we started walking. I was really glad I had worn my boots instead of my sports sandals – it was more support for my ankle, and I needed the support! It was really starting to hurt again. I wished I had my trekking pole. But it was back in camp, and I could not go back and get it.

We kept walking. We were on this narrow trail that curved around the mountain now, and it was making me a little nervous. Then the trail widened, and we were at a dead end. But what a dead end! There were these rocks that we could sit on, overlooking a valley. But the only way you could tell it was a valley was because of how far down the tree tops were. Because you could only see an occasional tree top because of the mist. The mist that was literally rolling over the mountains in front of us.

We sat down and Jen told us that we were going to write about where we wanted our crew to be in the end. What we wanted our team relationship to look like.

I thought about it for a minute. So far on my course I had just been thinking about what I could do to get through what was happening at that very moment. So it took quite a lot of thought to get what I wanted us to look like in the end.

“I want us to be a strong crew, a less foul crew. I don’t want to hear any more war stories, and I want to hear more about everyone personally. I want us to be a strong team, able to rely on each other. I want to form bonds that will last a lifetime, no matter what anyone else says. I pray that at the end of this course, we will all know each other well, and we all get along together. ” *This is actually what I wrote in my journal*

I finished writing and looked around. Everyone else was still writing, so I started just writing down my thoughts.

“We are sitting on a cliff literally watching the mist come rolling over the hills. We reached the summit yesterday, and words can’t describe how amazing that was. We are starting to get along better, and some of us now have nicknames. At least, Bobby and I do. For him, it is just a different way of pronouncing his name. Me? I get Dora! Because I am small, wear a purple shirt, and have a backpack as big as me!!”

I looked around and everyone had finished writing. I put my pen down as Jen pulled out the crew journal. She asked everyone to come up with something to put in our crew agreement. Everyone had to think of a different thing, and we all had to agree on it before we would put it in. Jen asked who had good handwriting, and no one spoke for a minute. Then Tullia said she could do it, since no one else would. Everyone looked at each other and grinned – none of us wanted to see our handwriting in the crew journal. And Tullia did do a nice job…

You know, it was nice to hear someone from the crew talk after not hearing anyone other then Jen all morning. I found myself looking forward to hearing everyone’s voices again. I did not mind not being able to talk myself – I wanted to sing. I grinned at the thought, knowing that Jen and Katie would count that as talking.

I thought all of this while I was waiting for someone else to go first. I did not want to be the first one, but I already had mine – something about trust. I did not know how I was going to phrase it, but I knew it had to be about trust.

I was the third person to say theirs. I don’t remember exactly how I phrased it, but it was something like “We need to trust each other”.

There was nothing. No one had anything to say about it like they had for the other suggestions. I started to wonder if it was not going to be put in the crew journal…

Click here to read the next part of Day Four.

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

To read part eleven of day three, click here.

I clutched at my ears. Rebecca had been standing right next to me, and she had hurt my ears really badly when she screamed. I almost fell against the platform and managed to catch myself before I got hurt. I wondered what was wrong with Rebecca, and ran to catch up to her. I did not know what had happened, but I wanted to make sure she was ok.

Rebecca had stopped before the trail leading to the kitchen, and was sitting on a rock. I don’t know if she was crying – I don’t think she was, but it was hard to tell in the dark, and I did not want to shine my light in her face. Bobby was squatting down next to her asking her what was wrong.

She started stuttering, her breath coming so fast she could barely get the words out.

“I st-st-stepped on a s-s-snake!”

I instinctively looked at the ground around where we were standing. No snakes! Bobby was trying to calm Rebecca down, but I don’t think he was succeeding very well. I realized that if Bobby could not cheer her up, I could not. Bobby was one of the best at cheering people up. 🙂 So I headed on up to the kitchen, so I could tell everyone what had happened and warn the other girls.

When I told everyone that Becca had stepped on a snake, most of the other girls went back by the platforms to talk to her. I stayed in the kitchen and “offered moral support” to the people who were cleaning.

After a little bit the girls and Bobby came back up the trail. They all sat down and we commenced Twilight Meeting.

First Katie told us a story. She had asked me earlier if it would be ok for her to tell this story. Because this was not a normal bedtime story. This was the type of story that we called “war stories”. Basically, stories of things that were really uncomfortable for me – drinking, smoking, partying, etc.

So she told her story. And I think it made the rest of the crew feel uncomfortable.  Then she asked the crew a couple of questions, and asked if they had any questions. Someone asked if that was a true story, and she told them that it was not.

I think they felt betrayed. They felt that she had been lying, and they felt that she was trying to manipulate them. I know, because they were talking about it in the tarp later.

Once they were done asking questions, she said that she had told them that story for a reason. She asked if any of them had liked hearing that story. When everyone said no, she nodded her head thoughtfully. Then she said “Lets try to keep the rest of the war stories to a minimum, ok? Because they are not fun to hear, and I would rather not hear them.” (It was something like that – I don’t remember exactly what it was.)

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Jen spoke up. She said she had a go around question, a question that we all took turns answering until everyone had answered.

“What are your trigger words? And I don’t mean words that get you all excited, and stuff like that, I mean words that upset you. Words that make you mad. Anyone can start the circle, and you can pass it to the left or right.”

We all waited as everyone thought over theirs. It did not take me long to think of mine – curse words, and using the name of the Lord in vain. Just as I was about to start talking, Bruce spoke up.

I don’t remember what he said. I remember a few of the trigger words:

Retard/ed
Stupid
Weird
I can’t
Any cursing
And there were a couple of really weird strange ones that I can’t remember.

Once everyone had said their trigger words Jen asked us to make an effort not to say everyone’s words. We covered a few more things before heading back to the platforms. I don’t remember if we actually had one of the guys check our platform for snakes… I know I thought about it!

There was a lot of looking around before you did anything, making sure the ground was clear of any wriggling things. There were a bunch of girls who got on the platform and did not get off again. I know that when I was trying to get something out of my backpack I did NOT put my feet on the ground.

I warned whoever was sleeping next to me about my claustrophobic panic attacks (if I get stuck in the blankets, or in this case a sleeping bag, I freak out) and rolled over and shut my eyes. The girls were all talking about what Katie had said.

It was really funny, listening to the conversation. Every three or four words, you would hear “Sorry, ____” because they had said someones trigger word.  We did hear “Sorry, Brett” more then we heard anything else. 😀

I finally gave up trying to sleep and rolled back over so I would be facing the girls. We kept talking, just random stuff. We could hear the guys talking all the way across the entire campsite. It was the farthest we had been apart, and they were louder than they had been any other night. Rebecca decided that it was time for them to be quiet.

“Bobby!”
“What do you want, Becky…”
“We want y’all to hush! We’re trying to sleep here!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really!”

Then Jen cut in.

“People might be trying to sleep, so can we keep it down?”

I tried to hold it in, I swear. But I could not help myself and soon half of us were cracking up. We could still hear the guys, and by this point I am sure they could hear us too. Oh well.

We were able to stop giggling for a bit, and then the talking and the “Sorry!!” started again. After saying that it was ok a lot of times, I told them that I knew they were going to curse. That for them it was a part of their vocabulary, they did not see it as wrong and it did not annoy them. That I knew it was going to happen. I just asked them to try to cut it back a bit. They said they would try, and started talking again. Somewhere around that point in time is when I fell asleep. I had been reviewing my day, and it had not been a bad one!

Yeah, having a bad ankle was not fun. But getting ready for Newlyweds was! And maybe picking up the trash was not my favorite thing in the world to do… (I found some nasty stuff!) But lunch was yummy! Ok, the ladders were not fun. Period. But reaching the summit was probably one of the proudest moments of my life! I had come together with a bunch of complete strangers, lived with them for three days, and together we had climbed up a mountain and part of the way down! How awesome is that? Yes, the water run turned out to be the worst water run of the trip, and I did not really enjoy it. But I was able to talk with Ben and Kayce, something that I had not really had the opportunity to do before. And they were these really nice guys that I could talk to now! The snake? Um… Can’t really come up with a good thing to counteract that. 😀 And what happened during twilight meeting changed the way I looked at some of my crewmates.

So yeah, Day Three was a good day. It was a really productive day too! I slept well that night, which was good. I was going to need all my energy for the hard day we would have the next day! It’s a good thing God did not give us the ability to see into the future, because if I had seen what was going to happen the next afternoon, I would probably not have slept a wink, trying to figure out a way to prevent what happened.

Click here to read the first part of Day Four.

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

To read part ten of day three, click here.

We filtered the water as quickly as we could. The sun was going to set soon, and we still had a mile back to camp. And we were going to have to do it in the dark, if we did not get going quickly enough.

I was kicking myself for not bringing my head lamp. I shouldn’t have been – there was still plenty of light when we had left, and I had no way of knowing that we were going to have to walk a mile just to get to the water!

Once the water was done filtering we gathered the stuff quickly and started our mile hike. Because of my ankle I was only carrying the water filtration bag and Jen’s sweater. Everyone else was carrying the water bottles and the baby seals. I told everyone that there was a bonus to this – we knew what the first mile of hiking in the morning was going to look like! They just stared at me blankly and kept going. 😀

We made it back into camp just as it was starting to get hard to see. I went straight to my pack and got out my headlamp. Then I grabbed my bowl, spoon, black mat and water bottle and headed up to the kitchen. Dinner was ready, and after those two extra miles, I was hungry!

I think that water run did a lot for me and my relationship with the crew. I started to feel like I belonged with the crew. It was also when we finally got Kayce to break out of his shell. Bobby and Luke both told me when we got back that they had never heard that much out of his mouth. He was a really quiet guy, and they had been trying to get him to “wake up” since they had met him. I think they were bummed that Ben and I were the ones who finally got him to start talking… 😀

Looking back, day three was a big day for me. I learned to trust some of my crewmates on the ladders, and I started to feel like I belonged with the crew on that water run.

On my way to the kitchen I passed Luke and informed him that he was extremely glad that he was not on Water duty that day. When he asked why, I told him that he would find out in the morning. He looked at me with a questioning look in his eyes, but I kept walking towards the kitchen. I was hungry!

Unfortunately, I don’t remember what was for dinner that night. I remember it was good! Since I was done early I went back to our platform with Rebecca. She wanted to get her headlamp, but did not want to go alone. So I walked back there with her and shone my light in the “brain” (the very top) of her back pack.

What happened next happened so quickly, it did not even register for a minute. Rebecca screamed, pushed me out of the way, and ran off as fast as she could.

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.*

To read part nine of day three, click here.

We were hiking down the trail that we had come by. It was not far to the intersection where we had taken a break to decide which way to go – probably not even a 1/4 mile.

We were all laughing, having fun. We were hiking without our packs on, and it was an amazing feeling! We were free!

It probably helped that we were hiking up a trail we had just been on – we knew exactly what we had been feeling when we hiked that with our packs, so doing it without them…

We got to the intersection and took the path that we had not been on before. As we turned I took a look at the sign – our campsite was .2 miles from the intersection. There was a place called Shanty Springs where we were heading – that was a 1 mile from the intersection. And back the way we had came earlier that afternoon was the summit.

I was glad that we were not going to have to go all the way to Shanty Springs – Jen had said the creek was not too far off the intersection. Pack or not, I did not want to walk over a mile just to get water. Not to mention the mile back carrying the water!

The trail started out mostly level, grassy, and over all very enjoyable to walk on. After that it started getting a little rocky, but not too bad. I was just careful about where I put my foot. I did not want to twist it again, without a pack on! At least if I had my pack on I had an excuse, right? 😀

I was in the middle of the group, laughing and talking with Ben and Kayce. It was the first time I had heard Kayce say more then five words in a sentence, and it made me happy. He was starting to come out of his shell, and we were all having fun! We were talking about books we had read, movies we had seen. For a while we were talking about Lord Of The Rings, and then the talk turned to Narnia. Ben and I had both read the books, but Kayce hadn’t. Ben and I told him that he really should read them, and listed all seven books in order for him.

While we were talking about the movies, Jen stopped walking and turned to face us. She told us to come look at this, pointing to the rocks beneath her feet. We came up and looked where she was pointing.

There was an arrow drawn on the rock, pointing back up to where our campsite was. And underneath the arrow were the words, “To Narnia”.

Ben, Kayce and I just kind of looked at each other. I think Kayce summed it up nicely when he said “Wow”.

We kept walking. And walked some more. And then we were at the creek! Or at least, what should have been the creek, and was now just a ditch. Jen said that there should be more water further down, so we kept walking. It was not like we could just give up – we needed the water!

Soon the rocks started to get bigger, until they were bigger then me. We were climbing over rocks that were bigger then me, bigger then Ben and Kayce… They were some pretty big rocks. I was really worried about my ankle. It was hurting already, and we still had to get back up to our campsite! Plus, the big rocks were at angles that would make it really easy to twist my ankle if I slipped even the tiniest bit.

Thankfully God kept me safe getting through there, and we were back on the smaller rocks. Yes, it would still be pretty easy to twist my ankle, but I had more control over it. At least, that is what I thought. (I just realized that sentence makes it sound like I twisted my ankle again. I didn’t. :))

We kept walking. More spots where there should have been water, completely dry or just damp. More walking. A little pool of water, but since it was not running we decided not to use it. Even more walking. A mostly steady trickle running off some rocks.

Jen told us that we might have to use that, but she was going to run ahead and see if there was anything else. We waited for a few minutes, and she was back with good news. The spring was right up ahead!

We started walking again. It turns out that “right ahead” for Jen was not “right ahead” for us. 😀 But after a switchback or two, (where the trail takes a big turn so you are headed back the way you came, but further down hill) we could hear the trickle of water! Let me tell you this – it was a beautiful sound.

We headed for the spring, a tube sticking out of the side of the hill. I stared in disbelief at the sign standing next to the tube.

Guess what it said?

“Shanty Springs”

Yes, we had walked over a mile to get water. And we still had a mile to get back to camp, going up those massive rocks, carrying 4 baby seals full of water.

Did I mention that it was getting dark quickly, and our headlamps were back at camp?

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.*

To read part eight of day three, click here.

I went to check out the platforms and decided that the girls wanted the middle one. Then Jen said that she and Katie got that one. Then some of the other girls said that we got the one on the right. But Luke came up to us and said that the guys had already called that one.

So we walked over to our platform. There was a big hole in it! Half of a plank was just gone! I went up to get my pack and ran into Luke. He grinned at me and asked how our platform was. I glared at him and told him he did that on purpose. He told me that of course he had, didn’t I know that all he ever did was try to annoy the girls? He grinned at me and took his pack back to his (not broken!) platform.

I brought my pack over to our platform where the girls were trying to decide the best way to avoid the hole and get six girls onto that platform. We decided that it was not happening and Tullia volunteered to sleep with the instructors again. (She had slept with them the night before too.)

I set my stuff on the edge of the platform. No one else ever wanted the edge and I did not mind it, so I always took it. There were a couple of nights I wished I was on the inside (when it rained), but most of the time I did not care. It was also nice to be on the edge because I am claustrophobic, and the sleeping bag was bad enough without being sandwiched between two other girls. I actually don’t know why that sleeping bag did not give me a panic attack – it was so tight! I didn’t even zip it up all the way. I only had it about zipped about half of the way up.

I was always prepared to freak out – every night I told the person next to me what to do if I woke them up because I was freaking out. 😀 And every night I would pray that I would not freak out. I REALLY did not want to have a panic attack because of my sleeping bag. And I did not have one!! Granted, I came really close the last night, but I never actually had a panic attack!

We set our tarp up as well as we could. And then Jen came over and we completely redid it. LOL

Putting up the tarp.

Then I went around to start collecting water bottles. The guys were still working on their tarp – we had set it up, taken it down and set it up again, and they were still working on theirs. 😀 And ours looked good! Jen had not even done that much, just showed us how to tie the knots and pound the stakes in well.

The girls won the unofficial tarp competition that night. 😀

So after I had grabbed all of the girls water bottles I dropped them by the baby seals and went over to the guys tarp to ask them for their water bottles. We had to have every thing that could hold water filled to the brim – no more water until we were down the mountain the next afternoon. I told the guys about that and told them to drink any water left in their bottles so I could get them full. They told me that I was mean and I just looked at them.

Luke pulled out his water bottles out, drank what was left in one of them, and tossed them at me from the other side of the platform. Bruce told me that his were empty, and I needed to pull them out of his pack. I asked which one was his and he told me it was the one right behind me. I went to turn around and almost tripped over his pack. 😀 I felt kinda awkward going in his pack, even if it was just the water bottle pockets, but he had his hands full of tarp strings. So I pulled his bottles out, took a couple of others that were being tossed at me and went back up to the main clearing.

Maggie and I filled up as many of the water bottles as we could from the baby seals and loaded up the five or six left over into the water filter bag.

Jen asked who wanted to come with us. I think Jordan came, and I know Ben and Kayce came. We grabbed the empty baby seals, the water filter bag and a couple extra water bottles that people pulled out as we were leaving.

We started back up the trail that we had come from. As we started hiking up the familiar trail we were commenting on how easy this was since we did not have our packs on.

Ha. What we were about to do next was going to be the one of the hardest things I had done so far.

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.*

To read part seven of day three, click here.

Our next challenge was a short ladder, nothing bad. I don’t think it was even 6 feet long, so compared to the others we had done this was a piece of cake! The only problem? We had to go down it. Not up it.

Going down a ladder with a heavy pack on your back? Not the easiest thing I have ever done. Not the hardest either, but definitely one of the harder ones.

Since I was in the back of the line, I had to wait awhile. It was taking at least 4 or 5 minutes for each person to get down the ladder, and I was at the back of a 13 person crew. I took a couple of pictures, but put the camera away after a bit because I was not getting any good pictures.

Once we were all down that ladder, we started moving again. We had only been walking for about three minutes when we had to stop again. This time it was not a ladder – it was just a big rock that you had to climb over. And on the other side was a four foot drop. You could climb down the rock, (there were a few handholds) or you could jump. I climbed it. Or at least, I tried too.

This obstacle took even longer then the ladder. We were all told to drop our packs and line up to get down the rock. Bruce and Jen went down first, and they helped everyone else down. When the first half of the group was down there, they asked us to bring the packs up and pass them down. Because I was in the back, I carried most of the packs up. I did make Luke, Kayce and Bobby come get theirs – they were too heavy for me. I could lift Luke and Bobby’s packs about an inch off the ground, but I couldn’t budge Kayce’s pack!

I grabbed my pack and headed back to the rocks. My pack was passed down, and I went down after it. I was able to get about halfway down before I was stuck – my feet could not reach the next ledge. I don’t remember how I got down after that – either I jumped, or Bruce helped me. I do remember that I went to get my pack on and could not get up again – Bruce had to pull me to my feet. LOL

We lined back up and moved out. If I remember correctly, the going was pretty easy for a while there. It was going downhill gradually, with a nice even trail. Not very many rocks or roots, which was always a nice thing. After I hurt my ankle, I was always very careful of the rocks and roots, because they made it very easy to twist my ankle, which just hurt it more.

Then the trail got a bit steeper, so I had to be more careful. And then we were walking over rocks that (kinda) formed steps, but they were also wobbly. Thankfully despite the trail I was able to keep up, even though I was tiring quickly.

Then we came to a trail junction, and apparently the LOD’s (Leader of the Day) did not know which way we were supposed to go. So I sat down and took a break. I did not participate in the argument debate about which way we needed to go – I just sat down and rested so I would be able to continue hiking.

When the rest of the crew had decided which way we needed to go, I pulled myself to my feet and started moving again. I really wanted to just take my pack off and curl up in a ball, but I had to stay with the crew.

We walked for another 15 minutes to a half and hour. And then a cheer came from the front of the line – “We made it!”

We walked into the campsite and sat down in “pack circle”. For pack circle, everyone had to sit down in a circle and we talked for a minute before splitting up to take care of “EGGS”.

Essentials – going to the bathroom, getting a drink, etc.
Group – taking out all of the group gear and piling it up.
Group – taking care of setting up tarps, getting dinner going, filtering water, etc.
Special – Um… We never had anything “special”. LOL

On this particular night, I took care of my essentials, and then started unloading the group gear from my pack. Which means, I pulled the extra strings out and threw them on the pile. 🙂

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.*

To read part six of day three, click here.

We hiked out from the rocks ready to go on. The next part of our journey would bring us to one of the peaks of Grandfather Mountain!

It was pretty hard – there were some rocks that were over half as tall as me, so trying to get up those, (even with the trekking pole I borrowed from Maggie) was really hard. The others had a hard time with it, but they were also taller then me. I think that was what made it easier on them – the fact that their waist was always taller then the rock and half of the time their knees were too. The rocks were almost always over my knees for this part.

But I managed to get myself up there, and I was not slowing the crew down too much! That was always a bonus, when that happened. It did not happen that often, so when it did it made me really happy. 😀

We kept climbing, and soon enough it leveled out a bit more. Actually, I think it just seemed like that because there were no more of those big boulders. That made such a huge difference!

Just hiking, hiking and more hiking. Then all of a sudden, we were standing on a bunch of rocks at the edge of a cliff! My crewmates who were in the front shouted that we had reached the summit and everyone cheered. We were so happy to be there! We had finally made it!

View from Grandfather Mountain.

One of Grandfather Mountain’s other peaks.

Like I said before, the pictures don’t do it any justice. I wish I had brought a better camera – Colter got the better camera, and he broke it. LOL

We all just stood around and stared for a minute. Katie told us that we had to stay one body length away. Like, if someone were to lay down with his feet at the very edge, we had to stay past his head.

Someone asked if they had to stay their body length away from the edge, or my body length.

I don’t remember who it was, I just remember that I glared at that person for the next couple of hours, whenever they looked at me. 😀

Ok, not really. By then I knew that I was going to be teased about my height, and I had decided to mostly accept it. LOL

Then the girls decided that they were going to get a girls picture at the top of the mountain.

Left to right: Maggie, Sarah Margaret, Tullia, Jordan, Rebecca, Me.

In case you couldn’t tell, we could not decide whether we were doing silly faces or not. 😀 I’m not sure whose arm that is, and that is Luke’s head behind my elbow.

The beauty was unbelievable. I wish I could find the words to describe it, but I can’t. It was just so gorgeous – and I had thought that the view from the rocks before was amazing!

Jen told us that we had to get moving if we wanted to get to our campsite before dark. We reluctantly shouldered our packs and started move out. At least, we thought we were. Then someone remembered that someone was going to the bathroom down the trail we needed to take to get down the mountain.

We waited for a minute, and then whoever it was came back. (Just another detail I don’t remember. :)) We all stood back up and got ready to move down the trail. Then out of the blue Bobby asked me to take his picture at the summit. I guess he wanted a picture with just himself, and waited for everyone else to leave? I told him we had to hurry and pulled my camera out.

I put this picture in so you could see the trash bag, not because it was a great picture. 🙂 That was the smaller of the two bags. The majority of that trash came from the hole in the ground.

Bobby on the top of the mountain with the bag of trash in his hand.

Then Bobby and I started down the trail at a fast pace, trying to catch up to everyone else. It didn’t take long – when we caught up to them the rest of the crew was standing still, waiting to get over our next obstacle.

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.*

To read part five of day three, click here.

With my broken trekking pole put away, I was free to look around. We were standing in a little (emphasis on little) clearing, with trees and rocks surrounding us. To my right was a big pile of rocks. It seemed that Bobby wanted to climb those rocks, but he had been told that it was his job to make sure everyone stayed right there and did not go wandering off. 😀 I had to keep reminding him not to leave while we waited for everyone else. Then he said he had to go to the bathroom, so I get stuck telling everyone that we all had to stay in the tiny clearing. LOL

By the time Bobby was back, we were all up there. We had all dropped our packs, so we were all just sitting on our packs waiting for the last people to get back from going to the bathroom. Then Jen and Katie told us we could go up over those rocks. I moved to the side just in time – I would have been knocked over by all the guys charging from behind me. 😀

Ok, just kidding there.

Mostly. 😀

When I got up there I was amazed! The view was so gorgeous! I remember turning to Jen and saying that it was amazing, and seeing her just nod her head.

View from the rocks.

View from the rocks.

*Let me just say, the cameras don’t show half of the beauty. You really have to go out there and see it with your own eyes. :)*

Once everyone had gotten enough pictures of the view, we gathered for a group photo. Rebecca and Tullia are not in this one, since for some reason they did not come up there for awhile.

From left to right. Standing: Ben, Kayce, Bruce, Me, Maggie, Jordan, Sarah Margaret. Sitting: Luke, Bobby

Everyone reluctantly put their cameras away so we could climb down from there. There were a lot of people looking back as they left, hoping to catch one more glimpse of the beauty around us.

I left those rocks, blown away by the beauty I had seen. And completely unprepared for what was going to come next.

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.*

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.*

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.*

To read part two of day three, click here.

We hiked for what seemed forever. I started out near the back, with Jen. Everyone was talking, asking their “newlywed” partner questions random questions. Like, really random.

 “If you were a creature from a myth, what would you be?”

“If you could be a character in a movie, what movie and who would you be?”

“How old were you when you lost your first tooth?”

“If you could learn any language in the world, what language?”

“If a famous singer was going to write a song about you, who would it be and what kind of song would it be?”

And then there were the not so random questions.

“How many pets do you have?”

“Are you a cat or a dog person?” (I think everyone on my crew except me was a dog person. :D)

“How many siblings do you have?”

“What is your favorite TV show?”

“What is your favorite food?”

 I warned Jen that we were probably going to lose, since I was not going to be able to remember anything she told me. When I am tired, things go in one ear and right out the other. I don’t even realize that it is happening, until someone asks me a question. Then I realize that I have completely forgotten whatever they were saying about 4 minutes ago. It’s not good, but I have not figured out a way to fix it yet. 🙁

After we had hiked for a couple of hours, we made it to where we were going to be eating lunch! It was a good thing – I was really hungry that day. It was also where we were going to be doing our first service project. We dropped our packs and looked around the place for a minute. There was a little clearing, and a shelter overlooking a cliff. Next to the clearing was an area of trees with spaces in front of them, with a bit of litter. There was also some brush on the other side with even more litter. When we were done looking around, most of us went and crashed in the shelter, glad for a break.

At that point, whoever was on food that day was getting it out. They were setting up the kitchen in a little clearing away from the shelter, so I grabbed my bowl, spoon, water bottle, and black mat and headed over there. I set my stuff down and headed back to the shelter. I asked Katie about something I could use to get the splinter in my finger out, since it was started to get infected. We disinfected a safety pin and I picked out the splinter, which took a while. By the time I was done with that, lunch was ready. I disinfected the safety pin again, put some triple antibiotic ointment on my finger, and walked over to the kitchen.

Lunch that day was simple – peanut butter and honey on Pita bread. It was not that bad!  It made me laugh though, because from what I remember most of us were not having plain peanut butter and honey. Some of us were adding cinnamon, (that was me… :)) and some of us were adding things like Texas Pete (hot sauce) and garlic powder. Honestly, I think that was disgusting. Everyone who tried it liked it though!

When we were done with lunch we cleaned up, and went back to the shelter. Jen and Katie asked who had the trash bags, and Luke pulled them out of his pack. Our first service for our trip was going to be cleaning up this campsite, picking up all the litter.

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.*