La Vida continued!

I sat by this girl who turned out to also be a Gordon freshman (most of us were), and we conversated a while, but it was really hard for me to keep the convo going. She was pretty closed up... so after a while i kinda gave up and realized she was gonna sleep anyway. I sat there pretty much in silence for most of the ride, and fell asleep myself. We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread Co. and continued the long but beautiful (very scenic) trip. I was thinking the whole ride "what am i getting into? is this really what i want to do?" but i told myself it would be fun and i would be fine, and we arrived at Base Camp in upstate NY, right in the Adirondacks. And if you know where that is, we were around Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. There were a few people already at base camp because they got dropped off by their parents there, and so we all got out of the buses, put our stuff in a pile, used the out houses if we needed to (that was the first sign that things were gonna be pretty rustic for 12 days. Port-a-Pottys.) and got in a group circle. We played this interesting "ride the fatty llama" game and a few other crazy games and then were separated into our different "Patrols." There were 3 mountain patrols, and 2 canoeing patrols. I had signed up for kayaking but they couldn't get permits for us so we became a canoe patrol. Which was fine even though i was bummed at first... i'd never tried to canoe really. I was placed in a group of 8 others, plus our 2 leaders, Tricia (a will-be junior @ gordon) & Lydia (a will-be sophomore). All of us were incoming freshmen in the group except Alison, who's transferring so she'll be a sophie. We had 3 guys: Daniel, Matt and Christian; and 6 girls: Alison (who i'll call Aly), Denise, Kaitlin, Jessica, Amanda, + me.
All the groups broke off and played different get to know you games. Our first game was a way to get to know each other's names, which helped me a lot since i am so awful at remembering names! Then we had dinner--spaghetti, salad, oreos... and had i known that this would be our last BIG meal, i would have eaten a lot more! I tried to get to know everyone in the group, but everyone seemed pretty closed off and reclusive. I tried to stay positive though, and we shared what we were each excited for or nervous about. We all got out our stuff, had it inspected, realized we had probably brought too much so we went through it and left a lot behind. Then we got our gear like sleeping bags, ground tarp, solo tarp (just a 1person tarp you hang from 4 trees), a sleeping mat, and rain jackets. No pillows, so we kinda balled up clothing and used that which worked fine. This was my 2nd sign that things were going to be a little rougher or just very different than from what i had imagined. Our leaders were extremely particular about the way we packed our packs (we were given "canoe packs" and "day packs") and the stuff we brought. Any watches people had were taken away and our leaders were very clear about leaving soap, shampoo and deo behind. So much for my plan of sneaking it in! Well actually i still brought my clean stuff but did leave my razor. As the days went by though, I realized if i were to put on deo or use soap everyone would notice and i didn't want to be the Only one who smelled good. That wouldn't have really been right. We slept in a tent at Base Camp that first night. The 1st day we had a breakfast of cereal and powdered milk (no one had ever used powdered milk and i am so used to powdered milk it was fine for me!) and I AM BEING TOO DETAILED. Get to the interesting stuff, vange!!!
We played team building games and trust games (i'm not sure if they were games, but whatever). We drove to this spot by the lake and had a picnic lunch. Our first la Vida lunch. Here's where the weird "what am i doing here" feelings REALLY began! Our leaders pulled out crackers from the lunch sack. And peanut butter, jelly, 1 can of tuna, 1 bottle of honey, 1 orange, 1 apple, freako butter (which was what we craved and lived on: peanut butter mixed with m&ms and powdered milk) a block of cheese, & a small roll of pepperoni. We all helped cut each thing up. I was thinking for sure each of us would get our own fruit, but no. The orange and the apple had to be shared by all 11 of us. We cut the cheese and we each were able to get 2 slices. 1 small slice of pepperoni each. And 6 crackers. That was lunch. At first we were all in shock. Crackers? We have to live on crackers? But after we started eating we surprisingly got a little full! Like 6 crackers can be enough to get by with when you pile the crackers with peanut or freako butter! Everyone began doing weird combinations. Like Amanda's favorite combo was pepperoni with honey on a cracker. And she loved tuna and jelly! She called it a jellyfish sandwich. I was kinda grossed out... but it was entertaining i guess! Then there's "the barge" which Amanda and dan tried right away. It's EVERYTHING on one cracker. We all learned the hard way what LNT means. LNT stands for Leave no trace, and our leaders really drilled that into our heads. If we dropped the smallest crumb on the ground, we had to pick it up and eat it. If we dropped a slice of orange and it got covered with dirt, yep, we had to eat that. So we were extra careful eating our crackers because we knew we had to eat anything that dropped. I had some dirt covered noodles one night because they fell out of the pot. Not too tasty! That part of the trip was one of the most annoying. "LNT!" It got old. The next odd thing about eating meals was that we only had 11 bowls to eat from, and 11 bright orange spoons. After every meal we had to lick out our bowls and get all food particles (i know it sounds gross... and it was!) out of them. Every morning and before every dinner when we boiled water for breakfast or supper we would sterilyze the bowls by dipping them in the pot of boiling water. We did the same with the spoons. If you didn't lick out the bowls well, someone else might get your bowl and though it might be sterile, it could have little pieces of food and no one wants that so we all licked our bowls as well as we could! We had to learn a lot on Day 1 and 2. We spend the second night at base camp in a tent too, but on day 3 we left camp and set off for the woods. I still didn't think our group was ever going to open up and i didn't really think i would become friends with any of them.
I think it was the leaders that just didn't let us all connect. It was awkward! They wouldn't open up so we were having trouble opening up i think. Everyone seemed pretty reclusive, but by the 3rd day we were getting much better! The second night in the tent us girls could barely stop talking... i think learning so much info at once and getting used to all the new routines was a little much to begin with so that's why it was so tough to start getting comfortable with everyone in our group. At each campsite we went to we had a special routine. 1st: Find a very tall tree with a thick branch coming out of it at least 50ft in the air or a y-shaped tree so that we could hang a rope over the tree and hang out "Bear bags." Bear bags are canvas bags that we put our food in far away from camp so we wouldn't attract any animals to where we were sleeping. No, we never saw any bears, but we had to be careful. Then we found 4 trees that formed a sort of square on flat ground. Sometimes this was difficult, but we had to keep looking because this was where we would set up our group tarp, which we kept all our packs and gear under. After the group tarp and bear bag was set up, we started cooking because normally we would get to a new campsite around dinner time. Keep in mind we never knew what time it really was because our leaders wouldn't tell us the time of day. Ever. It was part of the camp's theme: "Be here now" <---don't worry what time it is, what you smell like, what you're going to do tomorrow. if we ever asked what's gonna happen next or tomorrow or whatever we would get the answer "you'll see." Sometimes that was frustrating but I guess it made us all really live in the moment and not worry! Every day was a little bit harder. We either canoed longer or hiked more... Our very first day after the team building activities and after our lunch picnic, we took a short hike to the top of a mountain and we found ourselves at a beautiful view of the mountains and a rock climbing spot! We got harnessed up and started climbing. There were 3 climbs: the Corner, the Monkey, and the Chimney. Each was more difficult than the last. Then there was also a rappel on Owl's Head! I was the only one in our group to try (and make it up) all 3! So i felt pretty accomplished. And tired. Yes, i surprised the people in my group. Their first impression of my was that i was a spoiled rich girl with painted nails, a tank top, jeans, a fancy indian purse, and so i shocked many i think when i scrambled to the top of a rock! Pictures to come! I became known as the one to try anything and the first one to volunteer to do the dirty or annoying jobs.

One of the hardest parts of the trip was portaging. Actually, maybe it was the hardest part!! Portaging just is the term for carrying canoes over your head long distances. I tried picking a canoe up but it pushed me to the ground, so I gave up pretty fast. My shoulders didn't like it either, and since i have had a pinched nerve in my right shoulder for several years, I told our Sherpas that I didn't think I should do it. Instead I carried another pack. Our first "portage" was about a mile and a half. I carried my pack (which was way too heavy so I had to set it down several times and break) to our new campsite, and then went back for another pack. I tried to help some people who did carry canoes but i was useless. And felt useless. It was a bad feeling not being able to carry a canoe when a lot of other people are doing it, but i went along for emotional support;-) And it just reminded me: i can't do everything. I can try, but I'm not meant to be superwoman or anything!! As I was walking back with Aly and Kaitlin (they were trying to carry a canoe), 2 boys walked up and offered to help with whatever we were trying to do (i guess they couldn't tell that we were portaging?) ... They were like angels that had dropped from the sky! They picked the canoe up and put it on their shoulders like it was a blowup canoe. Made me angry... but the anger didn't last long -- we were all so thankful! they took it all the way to where we had to put it so we could take it out the next morning and move on to another campsite. The most we stayed in one spot was 2 nights. Normally every night we tried to canoe to another campsite. We had another portage 2 days later and this time i think it was 2 miles. This time I went back and forth about 3 times, and again TRIED to portage but couldn't, so helped out a little and carried 2 packs. I don't know if a canoe would've been any worse for my shoulders than a pack was, but whatever. I made it! Walked a lot of miles. :-( That was a tough day... then canoed a short distance across a lake to a new campsite which was really nice. Very secluded. All the spots we camped at were so rustic! Our leaders were like "it's a treat to get an outhouse or a lean-to because not all places have them..." The lean-to's only had 3 walls, so when we got to a campsite with one we had to use it...which wasn't good because of the mosquito problem. All night you could hear them swarming your face even though we wore bugnets over our heads! And they bit through the nets! I had sooo many bites on my face, it was pretty miserable. There were also loads of no-see-ums, but really, i have never seen so many mosquitoes in my life. And the sound in your ears of them buzzing does not make for a nice peaceful sleep. That's why we always wanted to set up tents! So normally we did have outhouses at the sites. These outhouses were primitive, though. Bring your own TP, and a flashlight of course... and get someone to hold the door shut! ...oh and don't look down or breathe through your nose. Pretty disgusting!! If there wasn't an outhouse, we learned at base camp before we left how to properly poo in the woods. Yes, I know, probably more than you wanted to hear, BUT it was what we went through for 12 days. The shovel's name was "Doug." (actually "Dug," but it became like a real person to some of us so i spell it doug!) Everyone knew when you had to go because you would have to ask "Where's Doug?" We joked around a lot with Dan because he was always somehow needing to use Doug. He went enough for all of us in the group;-) Doug was a silver shovel that folded up... and he was 6in long so you would have to dig a 6in. hole in the ground, do your business, and then cover with dirt and leaves and stick a branch or big stick by the hole so that no one else would go there!! It was all about Leaving no trace....using only 2 squares of TP,...minimizing. ...Yes, i'll stop there. Another difficult part of the trip was when we had to go on Solo. I did not know that we would have to fast on this trip. All i knew about "Solo" was that you would be alone for 1-2 days. Actually, we woke up one morning, didn't eat breakfast, got together in a group and started our silence time with The Lord's Prayer. Then we followed our leaders into the woods and they placed us 150 feet apart. We had room in front of us (facing the lake) and behind us (lots of woods), but we could see in the distance the person next to us. We couldn't talk to each other of course, though, because we were supposed to be alone and in silence for 2 days. 48 hours. We had our water, extra layers of clothes, ground tarp and solo tarp, sleeping bag, mat, Bible, journal, and bugspray. That was basically it. They didn't allow us matches, knives, food or flashlights. It was a time to reflect, pray, meditate, and read the Word in silence and not worrying about anything. I knew it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity probably, because who ever takes 2 days in the wilderness, only themself and God? It was a rare experience which helped me grow a LOT. I got to read so much of the Word and found so much that I never knew was there. I read about 4 books of the Bible and journaled a LOT, and prayed and just sat and thought. Well actually the first thing i did was looked for 4 trees in a squarish formation to hang my tarp. I found them, but after I hung my tarp I realized my ground wasn't so level, so in the night I fell rolled off my mat a few times and slid a bit downhill...but it was the best spot i could find! It started raining soon after we got to our solo spots. We were checked on twice in the day, to get another bottle of water and in case we were dying of starvation. I thought I would because I have never fasted and because I generally have low blood sugar and in the past have gotten awful headaches if i don't eat... but none of that happened! I didn't even feel very weak! I was amazed and it made me realize it's true: All we need is Him-- and we could feast on the Word! Awesome. It rained all day and all through the night. I did not do such a good job of making one side of my tarp lower so it would drain off the water. I really did try, but it just wasn't working, so all through the night I had to wake up and push the top of the tarp up to let the water drain off away from my sleeping bag. The bottom of my s.bag got QUITE wet and wasn't too comfortable to sleep with, but i wasn't freezing cold. I slept with wool socks, a fleece sweatshirt, 2 layers of pants, and i think 2 or 3 other shirts underneath my fleece. In the morning, I was woken up by one of our sherpas, Lydia, and she and Tricia switched off checking 3 times in all that day on me. I stayed fine and drank loads of water... i spent the whole day sitting by the lake on a little bank that had a perfect little seat for me on the dirt. It was actually kinda comfortable! And i just sat there listening to the lapping of the water on the land and listening to the birds and the occasional canoers who paddled by. One group of people in a canoe were passing when i heard them say "Hey, I think I see a bear over there!" they were looking in my direction but they were far off so i wasn't sure if they actually were talking about me. "Is that what that is?? I can't really see too good..." then they continued canoeing away...I burst out laughing. I had my bug net over my head and was in all black so maybe, just maybe they really did think i was a bear!!! That was definitely one of the funniest times of the trip. of course there were more! So I survived the solo... we were picked up the next morning and ended the time of silence with the Lord's Prayer again. Then we got together and shared experiences --Dan had a spider crawl out of his pants one time while he was alone and it scared him to death... no one else had the experience of being called a bear though ...! and ate BREAKFAST!! We had like a lentil & veggie soup/stew and some candy and some no-bake cheesecake! it was great even though it may sound disgusting. Then we got together and shared ACEs (Appreciations, Challenges/Exhortations) of each other. We each sat in "the hot seat" and people told what they appreciated about us and what they challenged us to be or do in the coming year. That was so cool hearing what people thought of me and what i needed to fix or change etc. I think that was one of the best things our group did. I mean besides getting so comfortable with each other that we had a blast!! By day 3 or 4 we were really getting to know each other well and really having fun and joking around. When we got a little reckless in the canoe or dropped a little too much food though, our sherpas didn't always join in the laughter. Which was kinda a shame. We still felt like they were being nazi-ish... We had many funny moments. I don't know which guy came up with it, but one of them started awarding "Bear grill" points (Bear Grill is apparently a crazy steve irwin type outdoor guy on discovery channel... ?) to people who did "wow" things like eat a noodle they dropped that was COVERED in black dirt... which happened to dan a LOT. Poor dan! At every meal he dropped SOMETHING, or had to lick out a really hard to lick out pot! Yes we even had to lick out the pots because even though we had a scrub sponge, we couldn't use it unless we REALLY had to. to clean the pots we normally scrubbed them out ourselves and then they'd get sterilyzed at the next meal when we boiled water...but if we needed to use soap and a scrubber then we had to dig a hole and use a teeny bit of soap and water, scrub and then dump it in the hole. I wasn't sure why they even bothered to pack the scrubber if we couldn't use it all the time. LNT was such a big pain! I kinda became the "Camp Mom" --or that's what matt nicknamed me-- because i enjoyed cooking and tried to do it (or at least be involved) every time! Maybe it's just that i didn't trust everyone else to make us a good meal... no i'm kidding. There was nothing really to the cooking. We just boiled water and sometimes added the dried stuff to it or sometimes just put the dried stuff in our bowls and poured water over it. It was hard getting clean water. We'd fill up the pots and this one day i got really clean water, and was so proud of it because we were having oatmeal and we all dipped into the pot to get some boiling water. Well Dan put the dipper on the ground and picked it up to put it in the pot and got a whole bunch of dirt in the water! We were all like "daaaaaaan!" it was too funny. As i said, he did stuff like that a lot! And they guys were all competing for how many bear grill points they each could get.. I ended the week with about 4 i think! Which was a lot for a girl. ;-) I ate a lot of dirt. But it had to be done. LNT, remember? I learned how to be a pretty neat eater, but sometimes it was just hard! Another LNT thing we had to learn to do was toothbrushing. sounds easy, right? Well since we were at such rustic campsites there were never any sinks (except at base camp). We took our nalgenes, our toothbrushes and paste to the woods and spread out from each other. brushed, and then when we were ready to spit we had to "Broadcast" it. Yeah, I thought it was weird too. it was really odd! Broadcasting is like spraying or spouting your spit in all directions so that it doesnt all fall into one big glob. It kinda gets broadcasted around in little spots on the leaves and bushes. Yes. Like that was safer and better for the plants because it was easier for rain to wash away little drips than big huge puddles of toothpaste spit. RIGHT!I really enjoyed canoeing even though it hurt my shoulder... I put some packs behind me so i could lean back which was much more comfortable! We had 2 person canoes, 5 of them, so one canoe had 3 people and the person in the middle got to "ride duffer" --just sit there! We had 2 small campstoves and 2 nice water pumps which filtered any water so that it became drinkable. We had to pump water nonstop to keep everyone's 2 nalgenes full! But it wasnt a hard thing to do... it just was a slow process. One day we went on a hike that was probably 4-5 miles, very steep! But the view was definitely worth the effort. I will be sure to post pictures of that view because it was breathtaking!! We were SO high up, too!! You could see rivers, lakes, green trees, other mountains, all around for miles. I'm not the biggest fan of long hikes (yes, that was long to me!) but this was worth it, and at the top we read a few scripture passages and had lunch. After solo, on the last day in the woods, we packed up everything and canoed a little ways across the river where a Gordon van was waiting to take us back to base camp. Once there we unpacked our gear, played a few games in a room because it was raining, and then had dinner. Our sherpas had been telling us it would be interesting to see what we would eat for dinner because they always take the leftover food that the groups didn't finish and make something creative with it. We were all not looking forward to that at all... and then we smelled burgers and grilling and got all excited, but Lydia dashed our hopes and said those were just for the leaders. All the groups met back together for prayer and then one of the main La Vida people told us to go line up for hamburgers & hot dogs!! We were so stoked. After about 12 days without any good meat, a hamburger becomes VERY exciting!! There was also potato salad, fruit salad, green salad, chips... i was thinking to myself that the only way it could be better was if they had ice cream for dessert. And whaddaya know but they did bring out ice cream!! It came with whoops and hollers in big buckets.. the leaders brought it in shouting and shoved a handful (they did have gloves on!) into our cups. Cookies and Cream. It was amazing. ;-) Then we all felt slightly sick because we ate WAY too much after coming off a 2 day fast. Not so good! So that was pretty much the highlights of my trip. In lots of detail! I have spent way too long on this blog so i think i'm going to end it here and try to get pictures up soon. Was it worth it? Yes! Would I do it again? Um, I don't know if I would choose to. I'd definitely be interested in running the rocks and ropes courses for a summer but I dont think I could sherpa (do what Lydia & Tricia did). 12 days is just a long time to camp! But I learned a LOT- especially about how important devos are and trusting God in every situation. It was a great trip because I made 3 really good girl friends who are going to be classmates! And meeting so many people who are going to Gordon made me much more excited to go there.