It's definitely a bittersweet feeling. I'm so excited to be home for a few days before going back to school and I can't wait to see friends and family (and my cats and dogs) again, but I'll miss waking up in the mountains, spending Monday nights outside on the volleyball sand courts, exploring Rocky Mountain National Park anytime I wanted to.
But. I was talking to Bill, one of the Marketing Directors here about it and he said, "You know what though? The mountains aren't going anywhere anytime soon."
And that's the truth. I'll be back one day. Maybe next summer. Maybe in a few years. Maybe to do Longs Peak. Maybe to see Breckenridge. Who knows? Anyways, here's my last week!
Monday
Monday we took our last trip over to Snow Mountain Ranch with Bill for a Marketing Retreat. (On the way we saw these awesome bighorn rams on top of Trail Ridge) We met up with Martha and were shortly joined by Laura and Andrew. We started by playing little icebreaker games and puzzles which ended up being really funny (pictionary, riddles, a yarn game, lol)
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| Andrew hangin out by our brainstorming wall |
Afterward they showed us plans for a new YMCA Rockies apps they are thinking of developing. They discussed pros/cons, what info it should include, layout and design, user capabilities, etc. The design was great, but they were worried about it being too early to develop an app that people may not be ready to use here.
It rained the whole way back and so we slept most of the way. I got back and ate with Erica, Jennifer and Cora, and then I called my mom because I hadn't called home in several weeks (it feels like I'm in another country sometimes!) I hung out with friends later and we played cards and just hung out, which was a nice chill way to end the day.
Tuesday
Tuesday started out slow, answering emails and responding to donation requests. In the afternoon I had a meeting for the upcoming International Dinner and had to write and submit a press release for it by 4pm (easy peasy). Then Martha had a few blog projects for me, one about a Women's Fitness Camp at Camp Chief Ouray and the other about Locals Day for the new summer tubing hill.
After work Erica and Vanessa came by my office and picked me up for dinner with Jenna, then we went out to Coffee on the Rocks, this cute coffee shop in town by a little pond. After our getting our coffee, we drove past town onto this horribly sketchy road called Pole Hill Road (you seriously need a jeep to navigate this road) and walked up to a clearing where we lined up our coffee cups and SHOT THEM!!!
No, seriously, Chandler brought his gun and ammo out. (I promise this is actually legal I asked him, and where we were in the woods where you were allowed to shoot) We each shot a magazine (so like 8 bullets maybe) with Chandler instructing us beforehand. I LOVED IT. I'd never shot a gun before (do not tell anyone from Texas) and I absolutely loved the experience. [I mean, I love lazertag a lot, that must be why, ;)] I hit all the cups off the log and then kept shooting through them until I ran out. I seriously would love to learn more and go to a shooting range sometime.
We went to Safeway afterwards and then hung out playing cards again. One more thing crossed off the bucket list!
Wednesday
Wednesday was great. I had so many donation requests to fill out today! But, it's my last round of them so after this I'm done. (It's not hard work, just tedious sometimes) AND today was pizza and wings day. (Okay I know it's weird that I write about lunch sometimes but 1. It's cafeteria food, so you get excited when you really like it. 2. We haven't had pizza & wings since like my second week here and it's one of the best days ever)
After work we had plans to go kayaking, but unfortunately the Estes Lake marina closed at 5pm. Instead, we did the GIANT SLIDE in town and had a blast!! The guys selling tickets there was super nice too, after we bought 2 slides he gave us a pass for another free slide. We went into town afterwards because I really wanted to go to the Outdoor shop and get some long sleeve shirts for the me and the siblings. We had Hayley's icecream again and then went back to Hague for more card games.
When I was thinking about how I wanted to spend my last week, hundreds of things came to mind. There are so many great places to go and lots of hikes I haven't done yet, but honestly I just wanted to be with people, just spending time with the friends who made this summer so memorable. So today was perfect.
Thursday
My friend Abby had been wanting to do a hike to Bluebird Lake for like 2 months, and since it fell through last week we decided to make it happen today. The hike is in the Wild Basin area of the park, so we left around 8AM it took about 20 minutes to drive there. We had a short delay because they were fixing the road, and then we finally reached the trailhead and started hiking at 9:10AM.
It ended up being one of the longest days of my life.
Bluebird Lake is supposedly 6.4 miles from the trailhead, so we figured we could do it in 4 hours or so and be back in the afternoon. Everything started out great. We knocked out the first 1.5 hours and made it past Copeland Falls in no time. We then had to find a campsite path to Ouzel Falls. (The normal route to Bluebird requires you to go to the falls and cross a bridge over to the other side, but since the bridge was destroyed in the flooding last year, we needed a different trail to take us to the other side without crossing the crazy wild falls. More on this later.)
We found a path leading up to a campsite, and that's when the first wave of rain came. (I hate hiking in the rain. Sunny days all the way.) And then we found out it was the wrong campsite trail (because it lead to nowhere) We waited for the thunder to stop and shortly after the rain stopped too, so we doubled back and found the right campsite trail that would take us around. Because it had just rained and we were hiking uphill through rocks and dirt, it was like a muddy deathtrap. But we did it. We made it out to Ouzel Falls.
And then we got stuck again. The map was totally wrong about Bluebird Lake, and there were absolutely no signs anywhere near the falls for how to get to Bluebird. Luckily I had talked to a friend who did it and remembered she said to find an uphill poorly marked trail that led us STRAIGHT UP these huge rocks. That was great for awhile because we followed the rock piles (hikers will mark trails with rocks stacked on each other to let other hikers know that is the trail) and then we stopped seeing rock piles. To the left of us was an open meadow next to the Ouzel creek, so we decided to head down that way and hope the trail continued that way.
You know how the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years? I imagine it feeling something like how yesterday felt to me, except instead of the desert we were in this knee high tall grass with dead trees fallen everywhere. There was no trail. Everything was covered by grass, so every step you took was a horrible game of Russian roulette. Will there be a sharp stick where I take my next step? Will a snake pop out and swallow my whole foot? Who knows? We were falling all over the place. Abby tripped and cut her leg open. We made slow progress through the forsaken land.
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| After the rain, it was actually kind of beautiful. (Understatement) |
After awhile, we decided to recheck ourselves. None of this was making sense. There was a trail on a map, and none of my friends who did this hike had said anything about an off trail part, so something was wrong.
We decided to check the hill next to the field to maybe see something from higher up, and lo and behold, there was a trail. I've never been so angry/happy/relieved/upset in my life. After walking a ways we finally came to a sign that said Bluebird Lake: 2 miles. We really considered turning around again at that point, because that meant several more hours added on to our trip and it was already the afternoon. We didn't want an all day hike. But that's what we got. We had come so far already so we decided to go for it.
And thus begins the longest 2 miles of my life. It started out flat. And then it was just all uphill. We were so tired at this point. With all our doubling back and slow progress, we'd been hiking farther, longer, and harder than we imagined we would have to. We finally reached the Upper Ouzel Creek sign, which meant we'd gone 1.5 miles and only had .5 left. And we kept going. And going. And going. Through this beautiful wildflower region and up and over these huge rocks, thinking Bluebird would be just around the corner, just over the next ridge.
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| On our way back from "Bluebird" |
Long story short, we never found it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't even exist. (Just kidding, obviously it does.) It was so frustrating to come so far and have no idea where the lake was. There were no more signs and not even a clear path. We decided it was already 3:40pm and we didn't want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere when the sun went down, so we just booked it back to the trailhead.
After hiking the 2 miles back to the sign, we decided to follow the trail and see where it connected since we didn't come from that way. We followed that trail almost another 2 miles and made it to a fork in the road. The sign for the Ranger station said something like 3 miles, so we went that way.
And suddenly it was like deja vu. We hike through a forest and then up a few switchbacks past these orange rocks. And we realized we had been this way already on the campsite trail. So we double back to find the campsite trail to get back to the trailhead....but we never found it. It was gone. We have no idea how the campsite trail connected into this trail. There were no other openings where 2 trails combined. It was the strangest thing.
Since the campsite trail was our way back and we couldn't find it, we had to go to option 2: crossing the Ouzel Falls and taking that trail back to the trailhead. We had to go several yards downstream to find a place to cross. Now, keep in mind this is a fast, cold river. It doesn't sound like a scary thing to do, but it kind of freaked me out crossing over first. Once I was over I helped Abby over and we crawled up the side to make it to the trail. We made it down to Calypso Cascades and then had another 1.8 miles to go. (I'm telling you, we took the longest route possible)
We finally made it back to the trailhead at 7:11pm. 10 hours of hiking. Losing the trail, getting caught in the rain, wandering around in a field. What a crazy day.
We went back to the YMCA, showered and got ready, then went to subway with Jenna, Vannessa, and Cora because we were starving (I had food with us on the hike but we didn't eat much because we just wanted to be done) After eating I went back and started packing.
Looking back now, it was an awesome, experience filled day. (I know it makes us sound like inexperienced hikers, but we've been hiking all summer and no other trail was like this one.) I'm glad I was able to spend my last week here doing a big hike (the longest I've done all summer!)
My last day of my internship is here! There's so much I could write about my internship experience and all the things I've learned, but I'll probably save that for another post (and for my internship paper I have to write for college credit) It's strange that it's my last day in Colorado. Today has felt like any other day in the office and I'm kind of glad. It makes it not so hard to leave and say goodbye.
Laura and Andrew went over my internship evaluation with me right before I left. They had the most positive and encouraging things to say about me and my job performance. Laura gave me all 10s on my writing, event planning, communication skills, and attitude/work ethic. She praised my professionalism and initiative and said my writing skills and ability to connect with people and go above and beyond were great strengths of mine. Both Laura and Andrew agreed I was definitely ready for any entry level position in the field (based on my internship evaluation questions) and gave me an A for the internship grade. What a wonderful way to end my last day. They both told me that if I needed anything, a letter of recommendation or questions, to talk to them and stay in touch. They also told me to check back in a year and see job openings at the Y. They were hoping to expand their marketing department, but if not they said my skill set would be great for not just marketing, but also philanthropy, membership, etc. That was awesome to hear. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing in a year, but I definitely wouldn't mind considering Colorado.
So thinking back on it, my only regret is I never saw a black bear.
No, really. That's kind of a cool thing around here, saying you saw a bear.
Anyways, tonight is the night I've been dreading/waiting/emotionally unprepared for. I went out to dinner with 9 great friends at Poppy's Pizza, this great little place downtown I've been dying to try. Everyone was in a great mood - we had a 45 minute wait so we went to Hayley's (reverse dinner) and got cookies then explored this awesome old castle like structure by the police station that you had to climb up to. By the time we got back we had a table and ordered quickly. (Individual pizzas for 5 bucks. yum.)
After eating I went to the bathroom with Vanessa and Cora, and when I came back to the table my friends had a beautiful card for me with notes from all of them and a cute little black bear stuffed animal (its ironic I was writing about bears earlier, I think this counts now) I almost started crying right there. Handwritten notes are the most wonderful thing to me. They told me they worked on it before I got off of work (since they get off at 3:45 and I get off around 5:30 it was easy for them)
We all piled into cars and got back to the YMCA a little after midnight. Goodbyes aren't the easiest thing for me. It's easy for me to fall in love with places, with people, with moments. And knowing that they'll never happen again the same way twice is both tragic and beautiful to me. It makes you enjoy those moments even more. As hard as I tried I knew I would end up crying several times tonight. And I did.
But that's the best part of all. I came out this summer not knowing anyone or anything about Colorado, and now I have more people and places to call home. I'm so blessed to be feeling this way, to feel sad about leaving. That just means everything was real this summer.
I have so much to do tomorrow: sunrise hike to Bible point, finish packing, clean room, check out, return linens. It's going to be a crazy day, and it's weird that I will wake up in Colorado and go to sleep in Texas.
Saturday
Here we go.
I woke up at 4:45AM to make sure I would stay away for our hike. I met Abby and Jenna in the lobby at 5:10 and we drove down to the livery to meet Melanie. Around 5:20, we started hiking and boy did we keep a brisk pace. They say you normally take 45 minutes to hike up Bible Point. We did it in 22. (Thank goodness too, I did not want to be hiking much longer than that I was so tired)We reached the top with time to spare before sunrise. The weird thing about sunrise is that there's light before the sun actually comes up. You can see, but you're just there waiting for that burst of light to come in over the mountains. It was beautiful.
After that early hike I had a lot to do. I got through packing and cleaning and saying goodbye to friends again without crying and left Estes Park with Abby around 10:50AM. And that's when the tears started. It was hard leaving those mountains behind, the place I called home for the past 3 months. It was even harder once we made it to Denver, when you could barely see the hazy mountains in the distance at all.
My flight from Denver was great, and after a short delay we made it to DFW in something like 2 hours. My sister had flown in earlier that day from California and waited for me with my dad.Walking outside was an immediate change too: I had forgotten what humidity and real heat was like. I'm sure it won't be the first time I whine about the weather now and complain that Colorado was nothing like it, but I understand why Texans go to Colorado for the summer!
So anyways, it's the end. The end of my glorious summer in Colorado. If I haven't said it enough in this blog, I'll say it again: I was so blessed to experience this summer where I did, who I did it with, what I was able to do. God lined this summer up perfectly. His plan was far better for me than I could have ever imagined.
I'll be back for those mountains again sometime.
***Check out this video I made about life in the Rockies this summer! Forgive the shaky, dirty camera and iPhone footage! But, you get to see me skydive and that's pretty cool. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncv73QXSqqo
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