I Would Walk 30 Miles (Week 2)

Week 2 was so much fun! This week we had our first group of campers and it was interesting to learn how the day-to-day camp life works here at the YMCA of the Rockies.

This week I was on support, so I didn't have a set group I stayed with all week. As a teen counselor, I'll rotate between Mountaineers (7-8th grade), Adventurers (9-12th grade), Outpost (5th-8th grade that have a camp out Thursday nights) and support staff (you basically fill in for any group K-12th that needs help).

Every morning at 8am campers are dropped off by their parents and then we lead songs and put up the flag from 8:30-9am. They also do song time in the afternoon right before they're picked up, from 2:30-3pm. Song time is so fun because we're all outside in a circle and the campers love to jump to the center with a counselor and lead songs with them. It was a little weird for me at first because I know most of the songs from girl scout camp, but they're sung differently here. I've had such a blast singing and learning the new versions.

So anywaysss, here's a little about my week.

Monday

Being on support for week one had many perks, but it also meant some tough work at first. We cleaned out the Outpost building that the Outpost group uses for campouts and cooking. We also had a lot of errands to run and drove around camp all day. Later I played some sand volleyball and then minigolf with some of the other camp counselors after work! 

Tuesday

Tuesday was so awesome. We finished cleaning outpost and then I helped teach archery with one of the other teen support counselors. One of the groups had a little boy who had amputated fingers, so he only had his thumbs and shorter limbs where his fingers would be. This kid was amazing. When we were showing all the kids how to hold the bows, we noticed his hands and he looked a little unsure of himself. I talked to his counselors and they told me he could still do lots of things like swing on the monkey bars by himself, so he could probably do archery too. I was so excited to help him - I helped him steady the bow in his hand while he shot and he hit several close to bullseye. The smile on his face was priceless.

I ate dinner with some friends and then we played more sand volleyball. There hasn't been any talk about a staff tournament yet but I'm hopeful they'll do it again!

Wednesday

I went on an all day hike with the group of 5th-6th graders on Wednesday into Moraine Park and part of the way to Cub Lake. Once a week each group has a day set aside for an all day hike into RMNP and being on support I got to go with them. I LOVED doing this hike because the kids were great, the conversations I had with other counselors was great, and being able to walk next to the most amazing mountains was great. We didn't have enough time to reach Cub Lake, but we ended up walking 9 miles in total and the kids were total troopers.



I went on an evening hike with Abby and Erica after dinner and we just did a loop from Outpost down into Moraine Park and then out through Tuxedo Park.

Thursday

I went on another all day hike with a group of 4th graders on Thursday. I found that I love being on support because you get to know so many more kids and get to do more hikes. We pretty much did the same hike with the 4th graders as yesterday. We hiked into Moraine Park through Tuxedo Park and then ate lunch and played games in RMNP for an hour. We're pretty limited with where we can hike with the kids because the park shuttles haven't started up yet, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of Moraine Park's beauty.

Thursday I ate dinner with another group of old and new friends and then we went into Estes Park to walk around and grab coffee. We wandered into Kind Coffee, this cute little coffee shop by the river that I went to once last summer.

 We ventured into the Elk Horn Lodge after that, this creepy but interesting 100+ year old lodge with cabins for people to stay in. We also drove into the park a little bit to check out these adorable baby owls that are nested right off the road in RMNP (couldn't get any decent pics of them. disappointing)

As you can tell (and probably already know) Estes Park is full of elk errywhere. They hang out at the YMCA, in town, on the roads, where ever they feel like it. Last summer we felt like locals and rolled our eyes at all the tourists who stopped traffic to take pictures of the elk just hangin out right next to the road. I'm sure it'll get to that point again, but getting to chill with elk all the time is something I don't want to take for granted either.

Friday

I was really excited for Friday because it meant I would be taking over the Outpost group so their counselors could rest after their camp out Thursday night. Friday was one of the most challenging days I've ever had as a camp counselor though. I've handled a number of difficult children before, but I had two boys that just want to disobey and pick on another kid. It was such a huge reminder that us counselors need prayer for patience and our kids need to be covered in prayer, too.

Friday night we went camping in Allenspark! It was so fun getting to hang with friends and enjoy being in our old campgrounds.

Saturday

We slept until 9 am and then went for breakfast at this cute little place called Meadow Mountain. Later that evening I went on an evening hike to Sprague Lake. I hiked Sprague last year and love it because even though it's an uphill struggle at first, it flattens out so you pretty much go the next 2.5 miles on flat ground. For a 6 mile round trip hike from the YMCA, it's not bad at all.

Sunday

Sunday was a big all day hike! We started at the Bear Lake Trailhead and went to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lake. This is a fun hike because you reach Nymph after .5 miles, Dream Lake after another .6 miles, and Emerald after another .7 miles. It was cool to see how much snow had already melted in 2 weeks since I went to Nymph Lake, but there was still a ton of snow the rest of the trail up and Emerald Lake was frozen completely.

Nymph

Dream

Emerald

We dropped by Bear Lake for a lunch break and then headed down to the Glacier Gorge trail. We went to Alberta Falls and then hiked up to Mills Lake. It was SO beautiful and worth extending our hike to 10.5 miles round trip.

Look at this cute little friend we made.

It was a fantastic hike and a great week overall, with 30+ miles hiked. And it's just going to keep getting better.