Well, I have arrived back from the three-week backpacking trip, and am now in the bowels of my liberal arts education. I have literally not had a moment of free time where I could actually sit down and write a post, and, in fact, I am cutting into precious homework hours right now. But I thought it was just as important for me to keep people updated on life. I do not have pictures to post at the moment, but I thought I would copy here parts of the journal-letter I wrote to my mom and dad while I was on the three-week trip in the Wind River mountains in Wyoming. It was such an amazing experience, and I do have gorgeous pictures, which I will post soon. But I thought you might enjoy these excerpts from my thoughts and experiences while backpacking in the wilderness. (Notice that names have been omitted, for the sake of privacy, of course!)
---
"No Name Lake,
The Back Country,
Wyoming
Dearest Mom and Dad, Tuesday, 8/7/12
As I write this, I am sitting curled up in my sleeping bag, my long-johns
and under-armour on, my rain paints & fleece also on, my wool hat on my
head, and my gloves on my feet because my 'sacred socks' that I keep in
my sleeping bag have disappeared. (If there's one thing living in the
wilderness teaches you, it's the lack of value in material things like a luxury
pair of socks.) Did I paint a good enough picture of how COLD the nights
are here? How I miss simple things like slippers & down comforters!
I decided to write you a journal-letter. This means that every day I will
write a recap of my day, so that you both can, in a sense, walk with me.
I am a couple of days behind, but I will do my best to catch up. i miss you
both achingly. The country is simply gorgeous, and I am so glad to be
here, but I am so, so homesick. Thank goodness I have so many wonder-
ful people around me, to ease the sickness. I think of you & the boys
every day, and I am praying for you all.
Also, feel free to show or read this letter to family or friends, or anyone
else you might see soon who would enjoy hearing about the trip.
Especially show this to M----- and T---- who have shared so many
adventures with me already.
Here goes then!
Day 1 8/5/12
We left WCC at 12:00 noon, a 20-odd group of girls cattling along in
WCC's donated old school bus. We drove about 3 1/2 hours to get to
the trailhead. (I made sure to take Dramamine before we left.) En route,
our SROM [*Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries*] instructor, C----, gave us
a lesson on bear safety, which I could hardly hear because the bus was so noisy.
C. is a really great guy; I like him a lot. Our team's mentors are K--- & J---,
both seniors at WCC, but both hired by SROM to be co-instructors.
We got to the trailhead, made some last preparations, and then we put
our packs on for the first "for real" time. Did I tell you already that my pack
weighed about 54 lbs? My shoulders and hips started hurting immediately.
The first time getting the pack on, I had to get one of my teammates,
V-----, to help me by lifting it, but after that I got more used to it, and
did it myself.
We stayed on the trail the whole day. Due to our late start, and to the
general of unfamiliarity to packs in our group, we didn't arrive at our
chosen camp until about 8:30 or 9:00 PM. We hiked about 4 miles, and
yes, we -- I! -- were/was exhausted.
But guess what we saw while we were hiking? A moose! It was a female,
about 200 feet away from us, and she was eating a lot of vegetation to get
fat for the winter. That was a really cool experience. I snapped a picture,
but I can't develop it and send it to you because there are no Wal-Marts
around.
We camped in some woods by a very pretty lake. Since it was so late, we
didn't actually cook anything, but we ate some goldfish and pretzels and
sunflower seed butter, or sun butter. Boy, is that stuff tasty. All in all, it
was a good, but tiring day. I was sore in the shoulders, but that is to be
expected. One of the most encouraging things to me is that every other
girl is in the same boat as I am. Even the experienced instructors say that
although your shoulders will eventually adjust to the weight, your hips
will always be sore. It's just an unavoidable reality.
Day 2 8-6-12
Today was much harder than yesterday, not just physically, but also
emotionally. I was really missing you guys today. We celebrated Mass in
the woods for the feast of the Transfiguration, and suddenly I was home-
sick. Maybe it was because I associate daily Mass so closely with you.
But Mass was wonderful (Father celebrated Mass on a stack of backpacks,
in the middle of the woods!), and I now have a Magnificat to help me pray. Hooray!
We followed the man-made
unlike yesterday, when we stayed on the
(Sorry about the two back-to-back
mispellings. [Wait, how do you spell mispellings?] I keep on writing
'trail' as 'trial'. Hmm, what does that say about me?) But today, we
eventually went off-trail, or "bush-whacking", as our WCC mentor and
Leader of the Day (LOD), K., told us. That's when it really started getting
draining. We clambered through a huge boulder field and that was probably
the first time this trip when I became seriously afraid that something bad was
going to happen. Normally I love climbing around on big rocks, but it's quite
a different story when you've got a 50 pound pack on your back. My balance is
constantly getting thrown off.
After this ordeal, we then had to face ascending a steep, forbidding, and
heavily forested mountain. Our team was just exhausted, but K. gently
encouraged us on, reminding us that our intended campsite was just over
the mountain. Looking back now, I remember praying to God and Pier
Giorgio Frassati, asking for the grace to persevere. I remember receiving
a gentle urging to offer my sufferings to Christ. I remember receiving this
in the context of thinking about the Transfiguration. After all, this feast
reminded me in ever so special a way today how Christ revealed Himself
in His glory to the apostles, and they were told to "listen to Him".
We were so relieved to reach the campsite that perhaps we were in dan-
ger of glorifying it, but it really was a beautiful place. The tent area was on
a hill surrounded by rocks and trees, and then to reach the kitchen area
you had to walk down the eastern side of the hill. The kitchen area looked
out upon monstrous rock formations, like the cliffs on the coast of Ireland.
There was a lake on the opposite side of the kitchen. Because the kitchen
was in something of a valley, the sky was enormous. You could see all the
stars at night, and during the day, the white clouds look like they want to
smother you. I never realized that the clouds would be so big and close at
higher elevation, but it makes sense.
That night we had pasta with fried onions and green peppers. It was no-
where near as good as your pasta & vegetables, Mom, but it was still
pretty dang good. Of course, everything tastes good after a long day of
hiking out in the back country! In case you're wondering, we hiked about
4 miles today.
Wall Lake,
The Back Country,
WY
Update: Wed. 8/8/12
I'm still behind in my daily entries, but I will try and write all of Day 3 to-
night. (Today, the 8th, is Day 4, so don't get confused.) Oh, and just so
you know, our elevation at No Name Lake yesterday was 10,590 feet.
Isn't that amazing?
Okay, here goes:
Day 3 8/7/12
Today was, in some ways, harder than yesterday. We hiked about 4 1/2,
maybe 5 miles -- or we were supposed to. We were still off-trail, so we had
to figure out a way around this particular mountain. Today was also the first day
that two of us girls became Leaders of the Day, or LODs. The LOD basically
takes the place of the SROM instructors in areas of organizing, planning a route,
guiding the group through the route, etc., always deferring to the SROM instructors
when stuck or confused.
So we decided to try and go around the mountain on one particular side.
But I don't know if our LOD misread the map (which is understandable
on her first day!) or if the map did not show clearly enough what the
terrain was like on that particular side (which can easily happen), but one
way or another, we got stuck and had to turn around. So we lost probably
about an hour in time, as well as an hour of expended energy. We didn't
get to camp until about 9 PM. The worst of it, though, was that the last
hour and a half or two hours were all uphill, and we were all very tired.
It was incredibly discouraging, because we'd top a hill or mountain think-
ing that our campsite was just on the other side, only to discover that we
had yet another hill to climb. But our LOD was so sweet and encouraging,
pushing us on and trying to keep our spirits up. And we got there even-
tually, unhurt and ready for food and rest.
Despite the setback, it was actually a really wonderful sidetrack. We saw
some breathtaking panoramas of the mountains and clouds and far-away
lakes. And guess what we saw today? Another moose! We were high up
on a mountain, picking our way. Far below we could see trees descending
slowly down to a still blue lake. There in the middle of the lake stood the
moose, making ripples as it drank from the water. We thought we could
see little horns on it as we looked at it through binoculars, but it was hard
to tell.
We had to cross through another boulder field today, although it wasn't
nearly as extensive as the one yesterday. It was still a little nerve-wracking.
Although the tension lifted when I crouched down to move from one
boulder to the other, lost my balance because I was so top-heavy, and
rolled gently onto my back, the pack cradling me from harm. It was rather
amusing, because at that moment I felt like a turtle trying to stand up
on its hindlegs. I've never felt so turtlish in my life!
P.S. I found my sacred socks! Yay!"
And that's all I have right now! I will post the rest of the trip later. I have to get to my homework now, which means reading a huge chunk of The Iliad for Humanities class, reading some Aristotle and starting a paper for Logic class, reading The Bible for Theology class, studying for our Latin exam on Tuesday, learning Euclid propositions for geometry, and studying the conformation of the horse for equestrian class! Wish me luck!
Pax,
Clare
