This week was characterized by sassy high schoolers, 4 days of pouring rain all day, and an exhausting but awesome hike-filled weekend.
Monday
I was with the Adventurer group this week and on Monday we had 20 of them. TWENTY. It's the biggest group of high schoolers we've had all summer. If you've ever tried to get 20 different teenagers to hang out you know what a struggle this is. But I was really excited to be with the Adventurers because it was the only group I didn't have before, and I wanted to see what being with high schoolers would be like since I'm used to working with younger age groups (and they do really fun things).
It started out great - we had high ropes in the morning until it started raining, and we ran for cover under the picnic pavilions to eat lunch and play bibbity bop bop bop for like an hour. The Adventurers enjoyed the game a lot more than the Mountaineers and actually had fun adding in new layers and even having two people in the middle. For the afternoon we played Nukem, this volleyball-like game, and hung out in Hempel Auditorium. We also lost a camper (I don't want to talk about it.)
That evening I went out to dinner at The Rock with Erica, Chandler, Abby, and some of Erica's friends that were visiting! It was a great way to relax after the day.
Tuesday
My co-counselor was sick on Tuesday (as were many other day camp counselors sadly because of a stomach bug) but we carried on and went ziplining in the morning. Most of my teens did it once and stopped but you bet I rode that sucker four times (ziplining for free, come on.)
We were supposed to go mountain biking in the afternoon but it rained again, so we ended up playing cards in Hempel (capitalism is their favorite game). The teens have now split into two groups, the sporty guys crowd, and the chill girls crowd.
Wednesday
We went climbing at Mary's Lake in the morning - the girls climbed once then wanted to play BS instead so we did that for awhile. Back at camp we hung out on Admin porch and played Mao, a really fun card game with unspoken rules you follow. It's hilarious to play with people who have never played before because they have to figure out what the rules are.
Wednesday was a good day for me to catch up on China fundraising, sending thank you notes, etc. I leave in about SIX WEEKS and found out they're sending me papers for my Chinese Visa soon !!!
Thursday
On Thursday we played Nukem and cards some more, went swimming, and then half the teens went horseback riding while the other half played more Nukem and a game called Infection inside Hempel. They love playing games in the dark inside the auditorium.
Thursday evening Abby, Elizabeth and I went to Amanda's house to play games, make brownies, and watch Parks & Rec. It was so fun playing cranium and just relaxing for the evening! Shannon and Katie came later but unfortunately Abby and I had to leave because we both needed to be up early the next day.
WHITE
WATER RAFTING!! The Adventurer group goes every Friday and I get to go
for free since I'm their counselor (job perks amiright?) We met at Sweet
Memorial at 6am, left around 6:30 and drove down the Canyon past
Loveland towards Fort Collins. I was in a raft with 4 of my teen girls
and we had the coolest instructor named Leah. We rafted 3 miles, then
had to lift the raft out and put it in at another spot for 3 more miles.
The girls nominated me to sit in the front and I was soaked and the water was freezing but we had a blast. When we got back around 1pm I was free to clock out and leave so I wouldn't have overtime (it was sooo nice having the afternoon off.) That evening Abby, Sarah and I drove down to Loveland to visit Erica and one of her friends for this Loveland Loves BBQ Bands & Brews event. We grabbed dinner beforehand then went to the event and had fun dancing to this band doing tributes to 70s & 80s hits like Boogie Wonderland and September.
Saturday
Bluebird Lake: 12 miles round trip (13 taking the campsite route) 8:45am - 3:45pm hiking
We woke up and met in Spruce around 7:30, then left for the Wild Basin trailhead to begin our redeption hike to Bluebird Lake. Abby and I were so pumped to finally be doing the hike again and we had Michael with us, who had done the hike before, so we knew we would make it. Our friends Catherine and Laura also joined us and we made great time to the sign that marks 2 miles from Bluebird.
The last two miles were rough, no lie. But I was excited to see where we went wrong last year and how close we were to making it to the lake. We hiked through a gorgeous wildflower field and up steep rocks and an awesome snow field when we finally looked down and saw the beautiful blue lake.
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| Da Bluebird Crew |
We hung out for about an hour (and I took a mininap) before turning around, sliding down the snow hill, and trekking back 6.5 miles to the trailhead. We ate burritos and relaxed the rest of the evening because of our hike the next day.
Sunday
I woke up at 6am, was picked up at 6:30, then drove up Fall River Road with Abby, Christina, and Amanda to conquer CCY (Chapin, Chiquita, Ypilon), 3 peaks right next to each other. It took awhile to drive up Fall River Road, but it was gorgeous. It was the road that used to connect Estes and Grand Lake before it was replaced by Trail Ridge. We started around 7:45, heading uphill through trees, then cutting through a meadow before taking more steps upwards. Eventually you cut to a part of the path that opens up to the valley of the mountains and It. Is. Bea-yootiful.
We cut across Chapin and passed the trail up it, so we decided to hit up Chiquita first. It was HARD. Like gaining 2,000+ feet in elevation over something like 2 miles. And the wind was ridiculous - we were so cold and so exposed on the side of Chiquita but we could see the top and the beautiful peaks around us and pressed upwards. Christina and I reached the summit around 10:20 and joined Abby and Amanda in a wind shelter up top.
We sat and soaked in the view of Estes Park and also made a little marmot friend named Franklin who was very adventurous and came a little too close. (He disappeared for a second and we were like, "Where's Franklin?" Then he popped out on top of our wind shelter a foot away from my head and I had a heart attack. It's okay Franklin I forgive you.)
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| FRANKLIN WASSUP |
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| Cold. Tired. Windy. But at the top of a mountain. |
It was amazing being 13,069 feet up - higher than even the Alpine Visitor Center across the mountain. We napped for awhile and took pictures and ate lunch, debating whether to do Ypsilon or not. We decided to head down to the Ypsilon saddle then head back, just because we weren't well prepared to face the cold and the wind for too much longer. We had to cut back across the middle of Chiquita to get back to the trail which was a huge pain - there were loose rocks and steep cuts everywhere and it took awhile. We connected back eventually then headed back to the trailhead.
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| "I'm going on an adventure!" |
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