To read part seven of day nine, click here.

Bruce and I ended up moving the water filtering station. Up the creek was a culvert that water was pouring from – it wasn’t much, but it was easier to get water from there than to get it from the creek.

While we were in the middle of setting up the station again, Kayce came and told us that dinner was almost ready. I thanked him and we hurried to get the water going so it was still filtering while we were eating.

As soon as it was set up we hurried up the road, eager for dinner. I ran over to my pack and pulled out my things, setting my mat down in my normal spot (on the cook’s left).

The smells were heavenly. I could smell vegetables cooking in soy sauce, the scent filling the clearing. Everyone was sitting, the anticipation building. None of us had eaten vegetables in nine days, and we couldn’t wait to get some!

We started passing bowls and my stomach started growling. Thankfully I was on the left the cooks, so I didn’t have to pass around too many full bowls. Having to pass a bowl full of food would have just made it worse.

I watched my bowl come around the circle, trying to figure out what vegetables I had before I saw my bowl. I saw a big piece of broccoli (yes!), a big chunk of carrot (yummy!) and some squash and zucchini (yuck!) in my bowl.

When I got my bowl I stirred it around, looking to see what else I got. There was a chunk of garlic and some meat, the vegetables, and some rice. It looked amazing. 😀

The moment everyone had their food, everyone took a big bite. There was a lot of happy people in the circle at that moment – we were eating vegetables! As I was eating I thought about that night Bruce and I had eaten stinging nettle and how that had started a craving for vegetables. I was finally getting them!

As soon as dinner was over we started cleaning up, getting ready to get back on the road. We still had two miles to go, and now it was dark.

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part six of day nine, click here.

While we were taking a break, I went to the bathroom too. When I got back, this is what my crewmates looked like:

The rest of my crew with charcoal on their faces

I laughed at them and put my pack back on. The hiking had gotten a lot easier, and eventually the trail turned to a gravel road. It was very different, walking on gravel.

We were running out of water rather quickly, so we decided to stop at the next creek and filter water. After some talking, we also decided that we would eat dinner there. It was getting late, (it was probably 6 or 7) and everyone was hungry. It was getting dark too, and we wanted to cook and clean in the daylight.

The next creek wasn’t far – twenty minutes later, we could see it. It didn’t look like much, and I wondered if it would be enough to filter water. Everyone started pulling out their water bottles and dumping them, and I realized that we had to filter water there. Even if it took over an hour because there wasn’t much water in the creek. Because we were almost completely out of water.

I didn’t have anything to do, so I decided to wash my arms and legs. I went downstream of the water filtering and started scrubbing my legs. I couldn’t take my boots off, because it wasn’t allowed, but I could still wash my legs.

Bruce was doing the water filtering, so we were talking about how the girls hadn’t complained as much since the talk in the car the night before.

“I’m surprised that they stopped so quickly. I just hope they don’t start up again.”

I started rubbing my knees, kneeling down in the water and watching the dirt float away, down the stream.

“Bruce, I feel SO nasty. I’m so gross!”

“We all feel nasty, Brett. That’s what happens when you go camping.”

“Ok, but look at it this way. My family makes soap for a living. I have to be clean, or it looks bad. I haven’t been this dirty in years.”

The look he gave me was absolutely hysterical. It was a couple of different looks actually. There was a thoughtful look, an incredulous look, and then a different kind of thoughtful look.

“I guess you have a point there. I never thought of that.”

He grinned at me before bending down to switch out the water bottle he was filling. I washed off my arms and headed back up to the clearing where dinner was being made. There were a bunch of water bottles sitting on the ground there – Bruce’s partner hadn’t brought them down. I grabbed them and brought them down to him, so he could fill them up.

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part five of day nine, click here.

Sooner or later they decided that they were going to send a team of “scouts” down one of the trails. There was supposed to be a creek – if there wasn’t, they would know that they were on the wrong trail.

A bunch of the boys decided to go. Bruce went with them so they would have a watch – Jen said that if they weren’t back in fifteen minutes, we would have to come after them, and she wouldn’t be happy.

While they were gone, we decided to see who could do the best headstands. Jen, Tullia and I were all upside down when the guys got back.

Bruce laughing at me while I was doing my headstand

When he was done laughing at us, Bruce told us “That’s not the right trail. There’s no creek.”

Katie nodded. “So you know which way to go?”

Luke pointed down the trail to the left. “Yep, we go that way.”

Everyone pulled their packs on – no one was ready to leave, but we knew that we needed to.

“Hey, guys! I just thought of something. We’ll pretend that we’re in Lord Of The Rings. I’ll be Legolas.” Luke picked up two rocks as he spoke, tapping them together to mimic a horse. “Bruce can be Gandalf, since he has the Gandalf stick, and you guys can pick who you want to be.”

“I’m Gandalf? Fine. Everyone stay away from my staff.”

“I’ll be Aragorn.”

“If you’re Aragorn, does that make me Gimli?”

“Nah, you can be Sam or Frodo. Or we could make Brett be one of the Hobbits…”

I was not being a Hobbit. If anything, I was going to be one of the girls.

“You’re crazy, the whole lot of you. But if I’m in this, I’m not being one of the Hobbits. I’ll be Eowyn. Jordan can be Arwen, if you want the hair to look kinda the same, and Tullia can be Galadriel.”

I don’t remember who ended up being who in the end. I just remember cracking up as I watched the boys going down the trail, pretending they were riding horses.

“Wow. They’re actually crazy enough to do that with, I don’t know, sixty to seventy pound packs on their back??”

We all laughed even more when Rebecca said that, too tired to care that it wasn’t that funny. We started hiking down the trail after the guys, knowing that they would slow down eventually.

The trail evened out, actually going a bit downhill. I was impressed with the time we were making, and I wasn’t having to stop all the time! The first stop of that leg wasn’t even me – someone had to go to the bathroom. I can’t tell you how happy I was then – someone else had called a break! LOL

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part four of day nine, click here.

We kept hiking, because there was nothing else to do. We all knew that we were going to have to have a night hike, but I could only go so fast. I was definitely the weak link in the chain – the whole crew was only as strong as I was.

The hours blended together. I lost track of how many breaks I had to take, how many times I had to stop so I would be able to keep going. In a way, I wish I could remember it. But then again, I don’t really want to remember how much I slowed everyone down. I haven’t really written about that yet, but it was definitely a big part of my trip.

My whole life I’ve always been one of the strongest in my family. I’ve never been the one that everyone was waiting on. After Colter was born, I was never the baby. I’ve never been the weak link in the chain.

It was really hard for me. And that’s an understatement. I can’t even explain how hard it was for me. But there were plenty of times that I haven’t written about. There were times where I couldn’t breathe because I had been hiking for so long, trying to get to our campsite faster. There were times when I couldn’t physically carry the weight and I had to ask for help. There were times when I couldn’t keep going, and I had to sit down as soon as I could.

So yeah, I was the weak link. And it stunk. I hated it. But there was nothing I could do about it. The crazy thing is, I thought I was complaining a lot. Things like “I can’t keep going” and “I can’t carry this weight” and “I need to take a break”.

But when the trip was over, I got an email from one of my crewmates. And he/she said something that really made me think.

“You are literally the most positive person I’ve ever met, and ever since that trip I’ve been striving to have an attitude like yours and so far its paying off    : )”

I don’t know why he/she thought that. But I do know that he/she wasn’t the only one to say that. And it really has me confused. Because I complain a lot. I know I do. Ask my family or the friends who know me really well if you don’t believe me. So I don’t know how they can think that. I’m glad they do though!

We reached a clearing with two trails leading away from it, both going in the same direction. We had no idea which way to go. At this point in the course, Jen and Katie were backing off, letting us do as much as we could. So they didn’t answer when we asked them which way to go.

Everyone except me got together to figure out which way we were supposed to go. I was going to take advantage of the break that I hadn’t asked for.

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part three of day nine, click here.

A couple of hours and another creek later, we were ready to stop for lunch. We were having salami, cheese, and crackers, and everyone was hungry!

An hour later, they were still cutting the salami. Lets just say that the knives on Outward Bound weren’t the sharpest. And when you had to cut something like Salami or even the cheese, it took quite a while.

We got so hungry while they were cutting things, we broke out Snack. There were never enough crackers, so we were going to have to do it anyway!

They finally got the salami and cheese cut, so we started eating. Everyone was spread out all over the trail, backpacks everywhere. There was a clattering noise coming from the trail above us, but we ignored it and continued eating. That was a mistake.

“Hikers UP!” A voice shouted out the words, scaring us all to death. I looked to my right and saw something I never want to see again. There were four men on mountain bikes, coming towards us as fast as they could. At least, that’s what it seemed like.

Everyone in the middle of the trail scrambled out of the way as fast as they could, taking their packs with them. They weren’t fast enough – Ben was still pulling his pack out of the way when the man in front stopped, inches away from running over Ben’s foot.

“Awfully sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy your lunch!”

When the coast was clear, the men started off again, bouncing over the trail. I tried not to laugh, and so did some of the others, but in the end we were all helplessly laughing.

“I thought they were going to run us over!”

“I thought that they were police coming to arrest us.”

“I could see them running over my pack like it’s one of those big rocks in the trail back there! They’re going to have fun getting over those rocks!”

“Forget the rocks, what about the creek we crossed twenty minutes ago? There’s no trail split in between here and there. They’re going to cross that creek on those bikes?”

Two hours after we sat down, we started off again. It was probably two or three in the afternoon, and we hadn’t even gone half of the way to our campsite.

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part two of day nine, click here.

“I wish I could tell you that you were going to be fine, that you didn’t have to worry. But if I did tell you that, you wouldn’t believe me.”

He paused for a moment, thinking about what to say next.

“We’ll all be there to help you. Bruce, Luke, Sarah Margaret and Maggie are going to be helping everyone across, and they’ll keep you safe. I know the water is strong, but you’re stronger. And if you need to leave your pack on this side of the river, someone will carry it across for you.”

“I can leave my pack here?”

“Yeah, Jen said she or Katie would carry it across if you needed to leave here.”

I looked at the river, trying to decide whether I was going to carry my pack or leave it.

Carrying my pack would make it more difficult. It would make it easier to slip, and if I went down, my whole pack was going to be soaked. All of my things. But it was also a pride issue – I didn’t want someone else to have to carry my pack.

It was almost my turn. I went to stand by Luke, who was standing at the edge of the water.

“You can leave your pack here if you want to, Dora. You don’t have to carry it.”

I had made my decision, I just prayed that I wouldn’t regret it.

“Thanks, Luke, but I’m going to carry it.”

The look he gave me did not help. I almost decided to put my pack down but stepped into the water before I could. It was freezing! I had taken my hiking boots off and put on my sport sandals to cross the river, and the holes in the sports sandals let the water touch my feet.

“Hey, Dora. You’ve got to unfasten the waist and chest straps – if you fall and go under, you need to be able to get out of your pack.”

As I unclipped the straps, the weight on my shoulders dragged me down. For the third time I thought about leaving my pack on the shore, and for the third time my pride won.

I took my first step, ready to clutch at Luke if I slipped. I slid my foot along the bottom of the river, almost losing my balance when the rock I was on dropped off.

Luke walked me to the little island that was about a third of the way across the river. He handed me off to Bruce, who helped me get to the other end of the island, where Sarah Margaret was waiting. She showed me the best spot to cross the remaining two thirds of the river, and sent me off.

I was terrified. I forced myself to keep walking, sliding one foot in front of the other. The water was trying to pull me downstream, forcing me to walk upstream so I would get out of the water where Maggie was.

“C’mon Brett, you’re almost to the edge!”

Maggie held out her hand to pull me up the bank. I reached for her hand and missed, but she grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

I stumbled a couple of feet away from the edge, dropping my pack and sitting next to it. I had done it! I hadn’t slipped and fallen into the river, I hadn’t gotten my pack soaked… Okay, the bottom of my pack was soaked. But that’s only because I’m so short, and the water reached over my waist.

I opened my pack and dug out my hiking boots – it took me a while, since I had put them in my Happy Sack (the trash bag that kept our stuff dry in the water). I found them and tied them on, hanging my soaking wet sandals on the outside of my pack.

When everyone was across and had their boots on again, we moved out.

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part one of day nine, click here.

I tried to move further away from the opening, but Tullia was blocking my way. When I pushed at her, she just rolled closer to me. I gave up and rolled onto my side, trying to fall asleep.

The next thing I knew, it was six in the morning and the sun was shining. A few seconds later I heard Bruce’s watch alarm from across the clearing and I shook Tullia to wake her up.

I asked Sarah Margaret to wake Maggie up – she and I needed to get the bear hang down so we could eat breakfast. I packed up my sleeping stuff and headed down to the kitchen area.

Fifteen minutes later, Maggie still wasn’t there. I asked Bruce to help me with the bear hang – we needed to get the food down so the cooks could get started. He came over to the tree and started undoing knots that I hadn’t even known were there. I was really glad he came to help. 😀

We got the food down and the cooks came and helped us sort through the bags to find breakfast. We were having bagels with cream cheese and apple butter, and I was excited! That’s what we had eaten the first morning, and it was one of my favorite breakfasts.

Everyone ate quickly, knowing that we were going to have a long day that day. We had a long way to trek, and a couple of creeks to cross, so we had to get moving.

We cleaned up and packed all of our stuff up, everyone ready to go. The LOD’s (Leaders of the Day) told us which way to go and we started walking.

It wasn’t long before we reached our first creek – it was less than ten minutes after we started walking. We could hear it long before that though, and it was all I could do to not start panicking.

When I saw it though, I couldn’t stop myself. That body of water in front of me wasn’t a small creek like I had been told – it was almost a river. The rain had almost doubled its size, Katie said, and we were going to have to cross it anyway.

While they figured out who was going to do what to get all of us across, I sat down on the ground, closed my eyes, and tried to breathe slowly. It didn’t work.

Bobby came and sat down by me.

“Are you ok, Dora? You don’t look that great.”

“No, I’m not ok. We have to cross this?”

“You’ll be fine. We were on bigger rivers than this a day or two ago, and you were great at it!”

“But I wasn’t having to wade through them with my pack on my back. And I had a life vest. This… this is scary.”

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part nineteen of day eight, click here.

The ninth day of my course started at two in the morning.

I woke up to lots of little wet things hitting my face. I was facing the outside of the tarp, and something was coming in from the outside. I sat up and realized that my whole side was soaked. It was raining pouring, the rain hitting the ground next to my face and catapulting things into my face. Bits of leaves and twigs, clumps of mud…

My sleeping bag had shielded most of my body, but unfortunately the zipper side was facing out of the tarp. I never zipped my sleeping bag up all the way – my claustrophobia wouldn’t let me. So the rain and chunks of things were hitting me where the sleeping bag didn’t guard me.

I felt around for my headlamp, turning it on the lowest setting. I found my rain gear inside my pack, and I spread my coat on top of me. All of that took about fifteen minutes, and I settled back down to try to fall asleep. I moved my sleeping stuff as far away from the opening as I could, right next to Tullia.

Fifteen minutes later, I was just beginning to calm down. All I could hear was the rain in the forest around me. I had been watching the boys tarp for any signs of movement – I wanted to know if they were getting wet too. There hadn’t been any movement, so I figured that if they were getting wet, they weren’t waking up!

There were sounds coming from the person on the other side of Tullia. I didn’t know who it was at first, but then I heard her voice.

“Oh my gosh, I’m soaked! I’m sleeping in a swimming pool here, a *BLEEEEEEEEP* swimming pool!! I’m all wet. Oh this is not good. This is so not good. Why me? Why did I come out here, in the cold, in the rain. Why??? Why am I sleeping in a *BLEEEEEEP* swimming pool? I should be at home, in my warm bed, with no water around me… “

There was more, but I got tired of writing it out. 😀

Katie came over to make sure the knots on the tarp were ok. I think she said something to _____, but I don’t remember. My brain doesn’t function well at 2:30 in the morning.

When Katie was done with all the other knots she came to my end of the tarp.

“Are you all right, Brett?”

“I’m fine. I’m soaked, but I’m fine.”

“That was a good idea, covering yourself with your rain jacket. Are you going to be able to fall back asleep? Tullia is letting _____ sleep with her in her sleeping bag, so she should be able to fall back asleep.”

“I should be fine. Thanks, Katie.”

She nodded and went back to her tarp. I looked out at the boys tarp – still no movement. I would have a great story to tell them in the morning!

Click here to read the next part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part eighteen of day eight, click here.

After dinner the cleanup crew got to work. While they were cleaning everything Luke and I prepped the bear hang.

Luke taught me one or two of the knots, but I couldn’t figure the rest out. I think we ended up having Bruce come and help us with the bear hang, because I couldn’t do the knots, and Bruce was the best at them.

After Bruce left, I asked Luke what had happened in the car.

“Bobby and I got tired of the complaints. They were getting really annoying. So we decided to talk to the girls about it. They didn’t take it that well.”

“Do you think it will help? Because I have to admit, I’m tired of the complaining too.”

“I hope it will help – I don’t know if it will though. I don’t know them well enough. There’s just so much complaining, and it’s really getting on my nerves. Even if they cut the amount in half it will be a relief.”

Um… I had been doing some complaining too. Mostly it was about how I couldn’t do the things that I needed to do because I was too small. But still…

I guess he saw the look on my face.

“It’s not you, Dora. You’re not doing it.”

He left to grab some of the food bags and after a moment I followed him. We finished the bear hang in silence, but it was a good silence. Not like the silence in the car.

I had a lot to think about. I was glad to hear that Luke thought I wasn’t one of the complainers, but I still resolved to complain less.

When we were done with the bear hang, we went to bed. I crawled into my sleeping bag, feeling like I was going to fall asleep in about twenty seconds.

Working with Jamie and Hanni had been lots of fun. And I was really glad that I had been able to send Colter a note, and send out those postcards. The huge stack of letters for me had made me really happy, and even the mood in the van couldn’t change that. The night hike had not been fun – there were a lot of times where I felt like I couldn’t keep going. And the cornbread mac had been… interesting. But overall, it had been a pretty good day!

I fell asleep then, not knowing what the morning would bring. If I had known, there were a lot of things I would have done to help prevent it. Unfortunately, none of us knew.

Click here to read the first part of Day Nine.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part seventeen of day eight, click here.

I went over to the kitchen, excited for dinner. We were having Mac and Cheese again, and it had been so yummy that first night!

Sarah Margaret was tasting it as I walked up. She frowned and ate another noodle.

“Is something wrong with it, Sarah Margaret?”

“Um… I’m not really sure. You wanna try it?”

I took the noodle off the spoon and popped it into my mouth. Something was definitely wrong. That was not Mac and Cheese. It was sweet, gritty, and very nasty. I couldn’t tell Sarah Margaret that though – it was what we were going to be having for dinner, and I didn’t want to upset her.

“Maybe we should have Katie taste it? That’s probably from another dinner, because that does NOT taste like cheese.”

“That’s a good idea. Hey Katie, can you come here?”

Katie came over from where she was sitting and took the noodle. She started laughing when she swallowed.

“You put the cornbread mix in the mac and cheese?” She couldn’t stop laughing. “Well, we’re going to have an interesting dinner tonight, that’s for sure!”

Sarah Margaret was laughing as she went back to get her dinner things. I realized that I’d forgotten my dinner things too. I ran to catch up to her, being careful not to get stuck on all the thorns that surrounded the path.

“So Sarah Margaret… What happened in the car this afternoon? I wasn’t there, and when I got in there everything was weird.”

“Luke and Bobby were talking to the girls about complaining. That’s all.”

I wanted to know more, but I figured I’d ask Luke when we were taking care of the bear hang that night. He would tell me.

We went back to the kitchen and ate dinner. Most of the crew ate it smothered in Texas Pete, but we all ate it. Our only other option was to go hungry.

I don’t think any of us will ever forget that meal. It’s really hard to forget a meal like Cornbread Mac. I know that any time I eat Mac and Cheese, I think about our Cornbread Mac and laugh, remembering how nasty it tasted.

I wouldn’t like to eat it again, but it makes good story! 😀

Click here to read the last part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part sixteen of day eight, click here.

About twenty minutes after we got in the van, we were pulling into a parking lot.

“Everyone out! Please take any trash that may be in here – this will be the last time we see this van until you are ready to go to the airport.”

We all groaned at the thought of not seeing the van again. We were going to have to spend five days without air conditioning and the radio? Yeah, when Dad signed me up I had expected to not have any air conditioning and music. But it had been really nice….

“Get your packs on, and get ready to move out! We’ve got a little hike ahead of us, and unless you want to be hiking in the dark, we’ve got to get moving.”

I said goodbye to the van and put my pack on, excited to get to our campsite. I was ready to go to sleep!

Even though it was still light out when we started, it grew dark quickly. We hadn’t even gone a quarter of a mile, and it was almost pitch black.

Katie said that we probably had a mile to our campsite, and I was already tired. It was getting harder to pick my feet up, to just keep walking.

The next half an hour or so is a blur. I managed to survive it by following the hiking boots in front of me. I don’t even know who I was following.

Some of my crew were playing a movie guessing game – I don’t remember how it worked, I just remember that I was not good at it. 😀 Probably because over half of the movies that were brought up, I had never seen. I was the first to guess the Disney movies though!

We passed over three campsites, all of them full. The first one we passed was the one we were supposed to spend the night at. I was not a happy camper. It got worse as we passed more and more campsites, all of them with people in them.

Finally, we reached an open spot that was big enough for our three tarps. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief and we began scouting out places to set up our tarps. When the girls found a spot, we started setting our tarp up immediately. We wanted to be ready to go to bed when dinner was over!

Click here to read the next part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part fifteen of day eight, click here.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You don’t look ok…”

He didn’t say anything so I leaned back and closed my eyes for a little bit.

I opened my eyes when I heard Kayce groan. Luke was rubbing out a knot in his shoulder, and it looked like it hurt.

“Ow! Not so hard, Luke!”

“But if it doesn’t hurt, it’s not helping. Do you want me to stop helping?”

Kayce yelped as Luke dug his knuckles into his shoulder. At that point in time, I was really glad that Luke wouldn’t touch me. I didn’t want him trying to rub out my knots and hurting me! I know that it hurts when you try to rub a knot out, but it doesn’t have to hurt that much.

Katie looked back from the passenger seat.

“What are you doing to him? Are you trying to kill him?”

“I’m just trying to get this knot out of his shoulder. I guess I’ll work on it some more later.”

Luke sat back and looked at Bruce.

“Do you have any knots you want me to work on?”

Bruce looked terrified.

“Yeah, I think I have a knot or two. I don’t know if I want you to work on them though…”

It was too late. As soon as Luke heard that Bruce had a couple of knots he grabbed his shoulders, trying to find them. Bruce leaned his head against the seat in front of him, giving up.

I looked out the window for a while before looking back at Bruce. He had moved his head – instead of just leaning up against the seat in front of him, he was biting it.

“Bruce, are you ok?”

He gave me a thumbs up.

“Luke, stop, you’re hurting him.”

“I’m just trying to help him. I know it hurts – I’ve had it done to me too. But it will feel better in the end.”

“I know that, but you don’t have to do it that hard.”

He kept going. In the end I just pushed him off of Bruce and took over. Bruce stopped biting the seat then, which made me happy. I don’t know why it made me happy, but it did. (I’m weird. :D)

Click here to read the next part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part fourteen of day eight, click here.

I took the bulky manila envelope over to the table where everyone was sitting. I opened it up and dumped it out onto the table. There were lots of little pieces of paper, all folded up. There was a piece of lined paper from my mom, and a piece of printer paper from my dad.

That was when I realized that each of the “letters” from my siblings had envelopes. But not normal envelopes – the letters were wrapped in paper, and that paper was covered with tape.

After wrestling with the tape on Jade’s letter for over five minutes, I finally got it open.

When I had finally opened all of them, I showed my crew the drawings that my siblings had sent me. Hewitt had drawn Colter up high on a mountain, with me down below in the water. Indigo’s was me in a canoe on the water. And Jade’s… I don’t really know what Jade’s was.

Then I read Mom and Dad’s letters, trying not to cry in front of my crew. (It didn’t really work. :))

While I had been looking at my letters, Josh had been talking with each of my crewmates. When they were done talking with Josh, they went to sit in the car. That was when Josh came over to talk to me.

“So, Jen and Katie tell me that you’re still not feeling very secure, and you feel like you can’t do everything you need to do. Why not?”

That’s what they had been talking about. It made sense then, why they had been talking for so long.

I don’t remember what I told him. I just remember that I was fighting tears as I explained everything.

Josh told me some things that helped. (That’s something else I don’t remember…) When we were done talking, I climbed into the car.

It was painfully obvious that something had happened while I wasn’t in there. Everyone was sitting in silence, something that hadn’t happened since the beginning of the trip. The girls were glaring at the back of the guy’s heads, and the guys were staring off into space.

When I was settled in my spot with my stuff on the floor next to me, I looked around at the guys. Bruce, Ben and Kayce looked pretty normal. But Luke didn’t look happy, and from what I could see of Bobby, he wasn’t happy either.

I leaned around the seat in front of me so I could see Bobby’s face.

“Bobby, are you ok?”

Click here to read the next part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part thirteen of day eight, click here.

On the table was a bag full of sour gummy things. I don’t even know what they are called. I just know that I don’t like sour candy. 😀

I told the guys who were splitting it up that I didn’t want any and went to grab my postcards from the car. I brought them over to Josh, who was still talking with Jen and Katie. He took them from me and nodded at me, without stopping his conversation. I left them alone after that, knowing that they probably wouldn’t want me hearing what they were talking about.

Katie followed me.

“Brett, if you want to write a note to your brother, Josh might be able to get it to him.”

“Really??” That would be amazing. I could tell him about the bald eagle I saw. He’d be jealous.

“Yep, if you hurry.”

I ran to the car and ripped a piece of paper out of my journal. I wrote as quickly as I could, knowing that even if my handwriting wasn’t good he’d be able to read it.

“Hey Cole,

I really miss you! I hope you’re having a great time. I saw two bald eagles a couple of days ago and thought of you, The Bird Dude. I love you, and I can’t wait to see you again! Six more days! Love you! Brett”

I folded the paper and held it in my hand. I couldn’t put it in my pocket – I couldn’t risk forgetting about it. Fortunately, Josh came around soon with the mail.

“Brett, you must have a lot of siblings or something.” He grinned as he started flipping through the mail. The pile in my arms got larger and larger. I gave up counting after he gave me the 17th piece of mail.

As he went to give the next person their mail, Jen came over to me. “Brett, please make sure you don’t flaunt all of that mail. Most of the other kids only got one or two letters, if they got any.”

I thought about it for a minute. I didn’t want to make any of the other kids feel bad, so I decided to put it all away. I’d open it bit by bit, when I had time.

At that point in time, I was still very insecure. I still felt completely out of place. I still thought that I was never going to fit in.

The trailer was locked, so I asked Jen to open it so I could hide my letters. I found my backpack and stuffed the letters down in the bottom, except for the bulky packet from my family.

Click here to read the next part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part twelve of day eight, click here.

The cooler was filled with color – green, yellow, and orange covered the bottom. There was green zucchini, and green broccoli. Yellow squash and orange carrots. There was garlic and there was a thing of Soy Sauce.

“So that’s what the rice was for!”

I fought the urge to take a big bite out of the broccoli as I handed it to Bobby. He was about to stick it in a random food sack when Rebecca stopped him.

“I’ll take that, thank you very much.” She took the vegetables and put them in her own food sack.

We finished distributing the rest of the food from the cooler, and made sure every sack had an apple. We gave everyone a solo kit, which consisted of an apple, a bagel, and a chunk of cheese. We looked around, saw that there was no more food, and split up to help the others.

When everyone was done with the jobs Christopher had assigned us, we were told to pack up our individual belongings again. Then we gathered all the group gear, splitting it up the way we had in the beginning. I grabbed a trekking pole – I hated to be selfish and always have one of them, but it was the only reason I was able to keep going sometimes.

When everything was back in our packs, Christopher came out with a clear, plastic garbage bag.

Someone squealed as we all saw what it was – it was our bag of clothes! Christopher dropped the bags as we all rushed at him, everyone wanting to get into some clean clothes.

It didn’t take me long to locate my clothes – when I put them in the bag, I wrapped everything up in my shirt. So all I had to do was grab the bright blue shirt that was rolled up and waiting for me, and I was good. It looked liked everyone else had just tossed their clothes in though – it took them at least ten minutes to sort it all out.

I wasn’t going to change my shirt, but I was going to change everything else. The only problem was, there was no good place to do it! I saw a couple of the girls disappear into a think stand of trees nearby and decided to go somewhere by them. I crawled through a little tunnel I found and changed inside this massive bush -it was a small place, but it gave me some privacy.

When everyone was done changing, we went over to a little table sitting in the grass and sat near it. Jen came over with something in her hands.

“Here you go – split it up equally.”

When the boys saw what was in her hands, they cheered. I stood up to see it, because I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting. She put it down on the table and I grinned. On the table was something I hadn’t seen in a while.

Click here to read the next part of Day Eight.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*