[Picture of Big Bald Rock]

It is so overwhelming to think about everything that has happened since my last blog. Where I last took off, I was leaving to go to a overnight field trip for my Sierra Nevada Natural History class. We drove the school vans and stopped at a few places like Frog Rock to look at some plants, and a Creek to look at the Kokanee Salmon. It is such a cool class because every Thursday we take a field trip, and instead of spending a lot of time in the class room we are learning first hand. Being outside, and learning first hand is definitely an important aspect of the ORL major. Anyways, we got to Big Bald Rock, made some grub and as a class started walking around learning about how the rocks there were made, and the plants there. It is really interesting, and seeing it up close like that, makes it so much easier to remember and understand. We met again when the stars started to come out. We laid on our sleeping pads with our heads towards each other making a circle... if that makes sense. Darla told us creation myths and some constellations and such. It was a really fun class.

I and a handful of other kids in that class, left early to make it to our weekend class, which happened to be a ropes/challenge course class. I have taken basically all the weekend classes this semester, and this class was the most fun so far. It was weird, because I signed up for the class not knowing at all what it was about, but when we got there it made much more sense. We had to drive ourselves to greenville, which was like an half hour away, to Coppercreek Camp. Its a place where both kids have summer camp, and business people have their work retreats. We learned so much from how to be a good group leader, to propelling ourselves, setting up and taking down a ropes course, belaying, and getting over challenges. The first day we did a lot of team builders which were really fun, because it made the group gain a lot of trust in the other group members. There was a game where you were blind folded and you had to keep your hand on the rope at all times, and you had to find the end of the maze. Basically there is no "way" out except to ask for help, and basically it was annoying, because I am super stubborn and I didn't want to ask for help, so I think I was the second to last person out of there, and everyone was watching me. It was pretty funny. The teacher also asked us to lead some games ourselves, so we got to practice being leaders and participators.

But to the fun stuff! So there was this climb called the leap of faith, it involved climbing up this trunk of a tree with staples in it, about 40 feet high, stand on top, and then jump to a trapeze swing. It is really hard to get yourself to do something like that, and for me it was one of those things that you just cant think about. It was such an adrenaline rush to jump from that high up.


There is a sweet picture of me that Brad took, I look like a flying squirrel or something. hah. The next picture, is a picture of my friend Michael crossing the element called "islands in the sky." You had to swing across these swinging platforms that are over 50 feet in the air, with no one belaying you; you are just clipped into this sliding wire that slides when you work your way across. When I crossed this, it was by far one of the scariest thing I have ever done. It involved so much trust in yourself, physical strength, and not thinking about what you were doing. It was pretty fun. Oh, another thing we learned was how to work at a challenge course like this, so how and when to clip people in and out and stuff like that. So we all took turns on the platforms helping our classmates.


To get to the islands, you had a couple of choices. It might be really hard to explain and for it to make sense. So I will put up lotsa pictures to help. The way I took, involved climbing up this tree to get to a balancing wire with ropes hanging down for balance. From this you climbed around the side of a tree to get to three wires, one which you stood on, and two at your sides for balance. The picture below is of me walking across the wire and holding on to the two.

After crossing the wire section, you would get on a platform, and if you look at the picture with the islands, is on the tree to the left. After crossing the islands, you would get to another platform that you would clip into this zip-line and zip down. It was really fun. Sounds complicated, and I am sorry if it doesn't make sense. But I guess its like most things I write about, where you have to be there to really understand. We also learned how to self belay and repel ourselves, which is also really scary cause your safety solely relies on you. So we climbed up this tree on the back of the climbing wall, and then propelled ourselves down. But by far the most challenging part of the weekend was the element called "vertical playground." To say the least, it was very strenuous, and very challenging.


It starts with firecracker ladders, where its a ladder made of pieces of wood and rope, not attached to anything. This goes to two ladder ropes that is on a teeter-tauter, so it involves lots of teamwork. The thin logs on top have notches on the side to put your hands and feet on. And once you are on those you climb onto a wire with a rope as balance. Craig(our amazing leader) challenged us to climb out to the middle of the wire and since there are two people climbing on this at a time, you lean into the other person until you cant any more. hah. That doesn't make any sense, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!

This does not sound half as complicated or strenuous as it really is, but it was definitely challenging. My friend Randi and I climbed up together, struggled together, and sat on top of the teeter-tauter part of the climb together. Even though some parts of this class were incredibly challenging, and I know I sound negative about some of the activities, this class was absolutely amazing. It not only taught us so much, but we really had a great time doing it. When Randi and I were climbing the Vertical playground together, we were encouraging each other, and working together, and there is no way that we could have made it as far as we did without each other. I learned that I could do a lot of stuff, and when the class was over, each person in the class had such a great feeling of accomplishment. This class is only offered every couple of years, so we were lucky to jump in mid-air, and swing ourselves when we were over 50 feet of the ground, and balance on a wire. It was incredible. I hope at least some of this makes sense and it didn't bore you too much. I hope that everyone gets to go to a challenge course like we did, and get that feeling of accomplishment. Happy Trails!