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 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 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 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 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 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 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 three of day four, click here.

Oh, the rocks. I am going to remember those rocks for the rest of my life. The rocks from day four. A day that I will never forget, because of both the rocks and the thing that happened later that afternoon. (You have to wait to hear about that… :D)

It took us almost an hour to get to Shanty Springs. Luke was not that far behind me, and he kept asking me if we had passed the bad part, or if this was the bad part. It was never the bad part. He finally gave up guessing, just in time for the bad part to come. 😀

We took a break at Shanty Springs to decide which way we were going. I thought it was obvious, but I was too out of breath to talk and tell them that. 🙂 They spent awhile arguing about which way, when they should not have been arguing because really all they were arguing about was the reason that the same trail was the right trail. Not that I minded – I was just welcome for the break.

You know, I should have taken more breaks in those first couple of days. I realize now that I was just making it harder on myself. But I did not feel comfortable calling a red light for myself, especially if I was up in the front. Now, I was fine with calling a red light for someone else, but I hated calling one for myself. I don’t know why. In the end, it got to where I needed the breaks so badly that I called them anyway. I just wish I had been bold enough to call them in the beginning. It would have made it much easier on myself.

Once the rest of the crew had decided on the correct reason for the correct trail, it was time to move out again. The good feeling of that morning had pretty much disappeared, replaced by a weariness that I could not shake off. I don’t know what it was about hiking, but it made me want to just curl up in a ball and sleep for a week.

After about 20 minutes, the rocks got smaller, and smaller, and finally there was only the occasional rock in the trail. Then the trail started getting flatter, and flatter, until we were going almost completely flat!

A few minutes later, we got to see the face of Grandfather Mountain!

Can you see the face?

We stood around taking pictures for a while before we started hiking again. That was when the girls up front started singing. You should have heard us trying to figure out who knew what songs! The problem was, no one actually knew an entire song. So we would start singing and we would just hope that someone knew an entire verse, because if not we would just start mumbling. 😀

Well, I think the guys got tired of hearing Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and other popular songs… They retaliated with “The Wheels On The Bus”.

Their plan backfired when we just started singing with them. LOL!

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 four of day four, click here.

Yes, a group of teenagers were walking down the mountain singing Wheels on the Bus. And when we were done with that we moved on to the clean up song, the Mr. Sun song, and the I Love You song from Barney, the clue song from Blue’s Clues, and other songs from kids shows we watched when we were little. Then we started talking about who had loved what show, who thought that movie was stupid, etc.

If we saw hikers coming we would stop singing, but half the time we could not see them until they were directly in front of us. Those of us in the front would stop singing, sheepish grins on our face while the back kept singing. Then we would stop walking to let the hikers pass, and they would stop singing to ask why we were taking a break. I wish I had seen their faces when they saw the people coming up the trail. 😀

When we ran out of kids songs, we moved onto Christmas songs. Marching down the trail singing Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer…. This is the stuff that I want to remember forever. Ok, I want to remember all of it forever. But it’s the silly stuff like this that makes me happy. 🙂

We were moving so quickly! And I did not even realize it, because my ankle had stopped hurting so badly. We had moved back to country and pop music, and while I enjoyed singing along when I knew the words, I was glad for the breaks in between where I could catch my breath. I guess I was walking to the beat of the music though, because looking back I realize that I was moving faster when we were singing the pop songs. 😀

We had entered a series of switchbacks, with some “steps” where the trail curved. It was probably around 12:30, and we were all starting to get hungry. We were keeping an eye out for a place to eat lunch, but we had to get to the bottom of the switchbacks before there was even a chance of a good place.

I was just at the steps where the trail turned again when I heard someone in the back shout “Red Light!” I was glad to stop and immediately sat down. Everyone behind me sat down too – we were all tired. We still had two and a half miles to go, and we were already tired. Did I mention that we should have been almost at the bottom of the mountain by then?

5 minutes stretched to 10 and I was ready to go again. I yelled back to see if anyone was not ready. Someone yelled back that they were NOT ready, do NOT leave. I shrugged and asked who had “snack”. Jordan said that she had the banana split, and everyone cheered. Bowls appeared in a matter of minutes, and soon we were splitting it up as evenly as we could. Someone in the back came forward with Ben’s bowl, and I asked why Ben was not over here. I was told that he had hurt his ankle, so Jen and Katie were checking on it. I sighed – another ankle. I hoped that I would not have to give up the ace bandage – my ankle was going to hurt without the support of the bandage.

Our snack over, we waited some more. We talked and sang, said hello to the hikers that passed and waited even more.

After we had been sitting there for a half an hour, I went up to see what was happening with Ben. He was lying on the ground, clearly in pain, with Katie sitting down by his feet. When I asked where Jen was, she said she had gone further up the mountain to try and get some signal so she could call for help.

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 five of day four, click here.

When Katie said that, I realized that it was pretty bad. They were Outward Bound instructors – they would never call unless it was an emergency.

I went back down to where my pack was and sat on it. I didn’t know what this would mean for our crew, but I knew it was not good! The other girls were all talking about how sad it was that Ben was the one who got hurt – that it should have been them. “Poor Ben – he actually wants to be here! I should have been the one to get hurt. I wouldn’t be sad if I was sent home, but he actually wants to be here!”

We sat for another half an hour. Jen came to me and asked if I minded giving Ben the ace bandage. I said he could have it – what was I supposed to say? “No thank you, I’ll keep it for myself when my crew mate obviously needs it more than I do.”

I took off my boot and sock and unwrapped the ace bandage. I handed it to Jen who hurried back to Ben. I put my boot back on, tightening it as much as I could. I would need all the support my boot could offer, since I did not have the extra support from the bandage. It was almost comical how much I was able to tighten my laces, because the bandage had been so thick. 🙂

I sat there, trying not to worry about my ankle. I felt bad worrying about my ankle when I knew that Ben’s hurt so much more, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I stood up to make sure the boot was back on comfortably and walked around a bit. I did not know what to do – we couldn’t go on without Ben, and he was not going to be moving yet! I sat down on my pack to wait some more. There was another hiker coming up the trail, so I called out “Hiker!” and tried to scoot my pack back some more. It was an old man with his dog, and all of the dogs that had come so far had been scared to death of us.

I mean, they would not go past us. They would plunge straight up the hill from further down the trail to avoid the switchback that we were all sitting in. Most of the people tried to get the dogs to come past us, but over half of them decided to go up the hill. 🙂 We all felt so sorry for the dogs and did our best, but something about us and our packs made them too scared to come past.

So I pushed my pack off the trail and stood up. The girls around me were doing the same thing – our plan was to give the dog as much of the trail as possible so that he might actually go past us.

The old man came up and he was apparently in a talkative mood.

“Are you having a good hike?”

We told him that yes, we were having a good hike.

“Well God bless y’all! Are you having a good break?”

We explained that one of our crew had gotten hurt so we were waiting here for instructions.

“Well, Lord have mercy! Is he ok? Do you need help? Does one of you have a cell phone?”

We told him that our instructor had called for help, we were just waiting to hear what we were supposed to do.

One of the girls asked what the dogs name was. “It’s Grits. C’mon Grits, c’mon girl!” The dog came right up to us and let us pet her before heading up the trail. The old man followed, with another God Bless for us. We saw him stop further up the trail to talk to Ben and Katie before turning the corner of the switchback.

The girls were all talking about how sweet that dog was, and how awesome it was that she had passed us. I pulled out my journal and wrote.

“Ben just did something to his ankle. I don’t know what is going to happen right now. “

Just as I finished writing that sentence, we were told that we were going to have to get him down the mountain. We had to split up Ben’s pack – he was not going to be able to carry it, so we were going to have to. We were told to split up Bobby’s and Luke’s too – they were going to help Ben down the mountain.

I started opening my pack, freaking out the whole time. Not only was I not going to have the ace bandage, I was going to have to take extra weight too!

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 six of day four, click here.

I ended up getting two sets of rain gear (I think I had Luke and Bobby’s…) and the repair kit. I think. I don’t really remember who had what – I just remember the chaos that was trying to get it all back. 😀

When we had finished splitting those three packs into everyone else’s, we sat around some more. There was a lot of wondering whether Ben would be able to continue with us, whether he would have to go to the hospital… No one knew anything and it was scary. None of us wanted Ben to go home – we all wanted to stick together. We had started it together, and we were going to finish it together. I know that’s what I was thinking, and I think that’s what everyone else was thinking.

Jen came and told us that we were going to start walking. She told us to get off the trail so Ben could pass us.

We all stood up and stepped off the trail, pulling our packs with us. We wanted to give them as much room as possible.

After a minute or two, Ben came hopping down the trail!

Ben hopping down the mountain

The rest of us were grinning at each other. He was moving! It was taking forever, but he was moving. I felt a bit better about what was happening…

Until I sat down to pull my pack on. I went to stand up… and nothing happened. I tried to stand up again. Nope, still not moving. I asked Sarah Margaret to help me up, and with her pulling my one hand, and using the trekking pole with my other hand, I was able to get up. I took a step and almost fell. Apparently two ducky suits and the repair kit make a huge difference in the weight that you carry. 😀

It’s a good thing the pace was slow, or I would not have been able to do it.

Of course, we did not get far. We made it around two switchbacks when Ben had to take a break.

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. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part seven of day four, click here.

Since I was in the back, I don’t know how they got Ben on the ground. I just know that all of a sudden we had stopped and people were taking off their packs. I dropped mine willingly – it was really heavy!

It looked like we were not going to be moving for a while. Since it was almost two by then, we took a vote on who wanted lunch. Almost everyone wanted it, so we pulled the stuff from someone’s food sack.

We were having Pizza Wraps – sauce, pepperoni and cheese on tortillas. It was supposed to be me and Luke making it, but Luke was busy with Ben. So Rebecca helped me – she took care of everything else while I took care of cutting up the cheese.

At first, I was really happy with all the cheese we were having. And then, we were having cheese, cheese and more cheese. Let’s just say, I was getting tired of all of the cheese. Especially when I had to chop it up – the knife was really, really, really dull. Don’t even get me started on when we had to cut the salami…

So while Rebecca was seasoning the tomato paste, (yes, it was paste) and eyeing the pepperoni in disgust, I was working on the cheese. The pepperoni was really worth eyeing – it was the nastiest looking pepperoni I have ever seen. I hope that I never see pepperoni that ugly again. 😀

Despite the looks of the pepperoni, lunch was really good! Rebecca did a good job seasoning the paste, we had plenty of that cheese, (I was still enjoying it at that point), and the pepperoni tasted fine.

It was the first and only time we ate directly on the trail, and it was interesting. People would come up from down the mountain, pass carefully around Ben, and then we would have to scramble to get out of their way. We would move the cheese, sauce, tortillas and pepperoni off to the side, and move them back again so that we could keep serving.

We didn’t bother with passing bowls – it was first come, first serve with this. Becca would put tomato paste on a tortilla, someone put the pepperoni on it, and I would put the cheese on it. I would pass it to the person standing in front of me, and the next person in line would come stand in front of me.

Bobby came up and asked for two. We all just thought he was being Bobby and told him no. 😀 (He was always asking for “extra big helpings”)

Then he reminded us that Ben was lying down, further down the trail. I quickly handed him the second one I was holding in my hand and looked at the other girls as he headed towards Ben. We all had the same expression on our faces – “Oops!”.

Once the lunch rush was over and whoever was on clean up had taken over, I went down to check on Ben. Just as I got there, Bobby was asking who had Ben’s water bottles. Someone pulled one out of their pack, and Bobby proceeded to try to get the water down Ben’s throat, without getting it all over Ben.

I’ll let you try to figure out how that went. 😀

I think it was around then that he asked who had his sunglasses. We all looked at each other with looks of dismay – we had no idea who had the sunglasses. Tullia decided that she would just let him borrow hers!

Ben lying down after lunch

So yeah, Ben was wearing the pink heart shaped sunglasses. We started joking that now he could look at the world through the eyes of love, but he was in too much pain to care.

Jen started looking around for two sticks we could use as a stretcher. I didn’t know what we were going to do if we had to put him on a stretcher – that would be two more backpacks to split up, because Bruce and Kayce would have to help carry him. And even if we could take the weight, our backpacks could not hold that much!

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. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part eight of day four, click here.

Just as we had finished putting lunch away, our help arrived. Our “CD” (course director) Josh had come, with another instructor named Shelby.

Jen, Katie, Josh and Shelby went down the trail to talk. The crew all sat around, quietly talking. Some of the others were trying to decide what they were talking about, and the rest of us were with Ben trying to make him feel better. It wasn’t really working, but it gave us something to do.

The instructors came back, and we all gathered near Ben. They asked who had Ben, Luke and Bobby’s rain gear. It looked like it was going to rain, and they needed all of the students to have their ducky suits.

Jordan and I raised our hands. Jen said that was great – Shelby and Katie were going to take Sarah Margaret, Maggie, Tullia, Rebecca and Kayce down to the bottom of the mountain. She said that Jordan, Bruce and I would stay with them. Bruce to switch out with Luke and Bobby, and me and Jordan because we had the rain gear.

The crewmates who were supposed to go down the mountain headed off. It was only the second time we had really been separated, (the other time was the water run) and I felt lost without all of my crew. I did not know how long it was going to take to get back together, and I did not know how long we would be together after we got to the bottom. We all thought Ben was going to have to go to the hospital.

I watched the rest of our crew out of sight while Luke and Bobby were helping Ben up. Just as their heads disappeared around a switchback, Ben started moving forward. Luke and Bobby would take a step forward and Ben would hop forward a step, so he was back in between them. Repeat that, over and over and over and over….

I had Ben’s water bottle in my hand, and I knew I was going to drink out of it if I was not careful. So I pulled mine out of my pack and put Ben’s in the water bottle pocket. I clipped mine onto my chest strap… and realized that I only had about a 1/2 of a bottle left.

You can see Ben’s chest strap in this picture – the guy with the white shirt.

My other water bottle was empty. I hoped that we would get down to the bottom soon – I was going to get really thirsty.

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. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part nine of day four, click here.

I thought for a minute, realized that I was probably not the only one who was running out of water, and pulled Ben’s bottle out of my pack. He had a half a bottle left. That was NOT going to be enough. He was using a lot of energy, and he was drinking a lot.

I sped up so I could walk next to Jordan. In a low voice, I asked her how much water she had. She did not like water, so she did not drink a lot of it. Most of the time, that was a bad thing, but it would have been a good thing here. She pulled out her bottle – she had a 3/4 of a bottle left.

Ok, we had one and three quarters of a bottle, with Bruce, Luke and Bobby’s water bottles left to inventory. I walked a bit faster to walk next to Bruce, and asked him how much water he had.

He pulled his bottles out. He had a total of 3/4 of a bottle.

I went to ask Luke… and realized that his water bottles were probably at least a  half mile down the trail at that point, along with Bobby’s.

Two and a half bottles of water.

That was it. For eight people, with a lot of distance left. We did not know how far it was, but we knew we still had quite a bit to go. When we could see into the valley below, the bottom was really far away….

We kept walking – there was nothing else we could do. At first, they were taking breaks every once in a while. They would switch around when they got tired – first Luke was helping Ben, then Bruce took over for him. The Jordan took over for Bruce. Then Jen took over for Bobby, and it just kept going.

After probably a half an hour of walking, we took a longer break. I pulled out Ben’s water bottle and handed it to him – he drank a lot of it and handed it back. I looked at the water level – down to a third. I must have looked worried, because Luke asked me what was wrong.

I pulled him away from Ben and told him that we only had two and a half bottles of water left. He told me that Jen and Josh had their own water, so we only had six people who needed the water. So we each got less then a half a bottle…. But that was more than I thought we would get!

Josh said it was time to get going again. He gave Ben a couple of tips on how to make it easier for his helpers, and we were off.

We took a couple more small breaks, and a half an hour later we took another long break. Ben drank more of his water, so he was down to a quarter of a bottle. I took one sip of my water – I needed a sip just to wet my mouth. I didn’t want to drink too much, when everyone else needed the water more then I did. They were all carrying more weight than I was, and helping Ben was a hard job.

As we set off again, it was Bruce and Jen helping Ben. Luke and Bobby had taken their packs and were walking by me. About two minutes after we started walking, we passed a mile marker. It said two miles.

Two miles. It was two miles to the bottom. The three of us looked at each other, grim looks on our faces – there was no way Ben was going to make it that far.

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. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*

To read part ten of day four, click here.

Jordan slowed down to walk with us, and we told her about the sign. I’m sure the look of shock on her face matched the one on mine. She said that Ben wasn’t going to make it, and no one said anything. There was nothing to say.

I started trying to compare the distance we had walked with how far it is around a track, but I can’t do it. 😀 My mind just won’t compare it anywhere near accurately, so I gave up. We stopped to take a break again, and Bruce and Bobby switched places. Ben drank some more of his water, and I found myself comparing how much he had drank to how far we still had to go. If I was doing it right, he was going to run out of water in the next half hour or so.

Jordan, Luke and I told Bruce about the distance we still had to go, making sure we were far enough away that Ben couldn’t hear us. He was so tired, in so much pain, and we all decided that we were not going to tell him how far we had to go. We also didn’t tell him about the water – we all knew that he needed it the most.

We started taking small breaks more often. Ben was getting really tired and needing more water. He was taking two or three sips at almost every break now, and we were stopping every five minutes. He didn’t sit down or lie down on all of them – he would stand holding onto a tree. And the breaks were only for about a minute, before Josh would say that it was time to go on again.

A half an hour after we had seen the sign, we stopped for a longer break. Ben sat down and Bobby flopped to the ground next to him. I tossed Ben’s water bottle to Bobby, who handed it to Ben. He finished his water, and I tossed my bottle to Bobby so he could pour some into Ben’s. He opened it and drank a bunch of it, and at that point I didn’t even care. He poured the rest of it into Ben’s water bottle and tossed my empty bottle back to me. I asked Jordan to help me get it back in my pack, since it was almost impossible to put your own water bottle away.

We started off again. We were all starting to get tired, not to mention Ben. I don’t know how we were still going…

I think it was right about there they decided that we needed to pick up the pace. You know how you do the “1, 2, 3!” thing with kids? Where you pick them up and swing them? Bobby and Luke started doing that with Ben.

From the back it looked a lot like this again

It looked really awkward, this run then jump thing they were doing, but we were going faster. The only problem was, they were swinging him really far, with not a lot of time for him to get his balance in between swings. I let them go for about five minutes before I made them stop. Ben had asked for a break, so they sat him down and I handed him his water. Then I pulled Bobby to the side and told him that he had to stop it. He didn’t want to stop, because we were going so much faster. But I told him that they were hurting Ben, and they needed to stop.

He grudgingly told me that he would stop. Then he asked me why Luke and I had been looking so worried earlier. I told him about the water situation – I guess we had forgotten to tell him about it until then.

We hiked for another 20 minutes, continuing to take small breaks. Right before we took our next long break, we passed another mile marker.

Do you know what it said? One and half miles.

It had taken us an hour to walk a half mile. I nudged Jordan and pointed to the sign. She looked at me and started laughing – a very nervous laugh. She shook her head at me, looking desperate. “No. That is not possible, we’ve walked more than… No.”

We took a break right after the sign disappeared. I told Luke and Bruce about the sign and told them that we only had about three hours to go. They just gave me a blank look, which almost made me laugh. There was nothing comical about another three hours of walking though, so I didn’t actually laugh.

I asked Bruce for his water bottles. He handed them over, and I dumped one of them into the other. I handed the empty one back to him and took a sip from the one that had water in it. I passed it around to all the guys, making sure they each had some and I told Jordan to drink some of hers. Ben finished what was left in his bottle, so I stuck that one back in my pack. We still had Jordan’s water, and about a half a bottle left of Bruce’s. Less than one and a half bottles of water, one and a half miles to go.

I looked over at Ben. He was sitting on the ground, his back against a tree. Bobby was sitting next to him, doing everything he could to help Ben. I looked around at the rest of my crewmates that were with me, and I realized that we were a team. We now had a common bond, a common goal. We had to get Ben down the mountain, and we were going to do it! We were going to do everything in our power to get him down the mountain.

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. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*