Third Expedition | Jasset Millhiser
I still can’t believe it’s over. Third exped felt so far away the entire semester – the exped where we are left to our own devices. On the first exped we always talked about who we wanted our student expedition leaders (SELs) to be, and on second we kept dreaming about how warm it would be, but then all of a sudden we were on the bus down to the desert again, and I couldn’t have been more excited. The best part about my final expedition group was that it was mostly people I hadn’t been able to go on exped with, which at this point in the semester is kind of surprising. Our bus ride down there was so much fun, we sang along to songs, renamed our bus, stocked up on snacks, and gave our I-team a nickname. When we finally stepped off the bus onto our first campsite, I was so happy to be back in the canyons. It was funny to think that the last time I had been there I barely knew anyone and had never backpacked before, now I was stepping off the bus with a renewed sense of confidence and capability. The next morning we set off to the canyon after a quick hack and it looked so different than it did in January. It was covered in green grass and thousands of wildflowers, and as we descended into the canyon it just got even more green. It was almost like there were these islands in the canyon covered in these huge ancient trees, it felt surreal. That day we had arrived to camp in the early afternoon so we had plenty of time to explore. We found a way to climb almost all the way up to the top of the canyon and the view we had was amazing: ancient ruins, steep cliffs, and even more tree islands. Then the next couple of days continued on in that perfect routine; hike in the morning, explore in the afternoon, and belly laugh at night.
Wake up– It’s bug o’clock! | Meredith Metz
Coming to HMI, I feared rejection. I am fascinated by insects and arachnids, something that separated me from my peers at my sending school. On third expedition, I found that it actually connected me to my community. My friends asked me about little creatures they found in puddles or half-buried in the sand. They became excited about scorpions and overcame arachnophobia to show me some impressively large black spiders. Two of them even asked to have a pinacate beetle I caught put on their faces. One joined me while I stared for five minutes at a bee snoozing in a flower. I am so grateful for my group and their willingness to immerse themselves in my biggest interest while in the field.
I took a UV light with me into the canyons– my best packing decision at HMI. While discussing our instagram for you pages on a layover day, I realized I could do something my favorite online entomologist did in places like the Peruvian Amazon and Arizona. He calls it bug o’clock. He and I hung a sheet (in my case, a white shirt) and a UV light to attract insects. I found moths, flies, and parasitoid wasps, but more importantly, I found belonging. My friends asked me about bug o’clock every night, eagerly awaiting the next installment. And I was so happy to share this with them. I am also excited to bring it to the HMI campus, per their requests. Semester 56 is one of the few places in which I feel that all parts of me belong, and I am so proud to be myself and share my passion with my friends here.
Dark Canyon | Franny Anderson
I want to transport back into the dark canyon. Third exped was the best eight days. We sport waded anytime we were hot in the creek, searching for swimming holes and comparing our sun burns. I felt so lucky to be with the group I was with, we all were so excited to be down in this magical canyon. But what I loved the most was our gritchens. We had one layover day at a campsite that we had a huge flat rock we all cooked on. We were all sitting, with a solid layer of dirt on us and our food bags becoming bottom line disgusting, but we were unfazed. My cook group had combined with another and we all sat around the stove laughing about the mess we were, and the disaster of making vegan quesadillas. But most of all what made this expedition so fun was the company. Since being at HMI, I feel like it has been one of the best things, to be with 34 other juniors and seniors. And then being on expedition heightens it.
3rd Exped | Anika Jackson
Dinner Time. Honestly my favorite time of the day on expedition. It calls for some good cheesy mac and a gritchen (group kitchen). The conversations are unmatched. A gritchen is a perfect excuse for a good and deep conversation. It holds belly laughs, debates, and sharing of secrets. On the first expedition I never had a gritchen. We all cooked quite far away from each other. On the second expedition we had a gritchen with the boys group made out of snow, it was pretty awesome. We had fun reading aloud, vlogs, and held a connection on the basis of being cold. But third expedition was by far the best gritchen I ever had. We all gathered together every night, sometimes spending whole lay over days sun bathing and relaxing on the massive food bags. At a gritchen I lit the whole thing on fire, but putting it out with the help of others. Thankfully. This by the way still gets brought up to this day. “Kudos to Anika for some FIRE cooking.” At a gritchen we collectively ate raw broccoli to get some water because we were lost and h2o-less. At a gritchen I had the biggest laughs sometimes even falling out of my crazy creek. At a gritchen we played the guitar and enjoyed each other’s presence. Gritchens are an example of community, a core part of HMI. Community is so important. And through Gritchens I have gotten closer to mine. And for that I am forever grateful.
3rd Exped | Gabriel Herring
When we got to the puddles and were done filling up our 4 drums and all the nalgenes and water bottles we could imagine, as Meredith looked at all the bugs, I asked to wash my face. When I hiked with my youth group in Ireland one of the adult leaders got on all 4s and got over the rocks to wash his face in the river so I thought I would try the same. Thea took pictures with her camera, well probably never to see because she doesn’t know how to get them off the camera, but it was very fun and funny, the highlight of my expedition so far. After I washed my face and they did too and Meredith, I wanted to get into the puddle and do some sport wading in the 2 feet deep puddle. Thea got in with me and we did the lush life dance before getting in.
A drum which holds up to 10 liters of water. It is gray with four holes in it weaving a small thin gray rope around it for a handle. I like to call it a bladder like a camelback bladder that I hike with often. This drum is used so much during the HMI expeds and every cook group of usually 3-4 people had to carry it and share the weight along with their other cook group supplies. It is often used for holding water to cook with and the water inside is never purified inside the dram itself. When you pour the water out of it you have to purify it yourself, by using aquamarine or boiling it, or any other way you so choose.
When we got back it was so hot and dev and tate set up a shade tent with our mid. As everyone was gathering under it and playing weird games I started to doze off so content and happy with that short puddle swim, but I didn’t know it would end up being the last time we got water for over 24 hours lost in the desert the next day. Thea would end up taking a dram of unpurified water and drinking any drop she could get from it because she was so thirsty.
Water is something I have always taken for granted. I didn’t really know much or learn anything about the reality of what people have to do in my own country just to get water until I came to HMI. Where I come from on the east coast there are rivers, creeks and lakes everywhere you go, but here, not particularly in Leadville but in the western part of the United States, I can clearly see the drastic difference in water availability. My mom always complains that the water bill is too high but I never paid much attention to it because I figured it would never run out, but that is not true for some people. At him I have learned all about the colorado river and some of the extents to which indigenous people have to go just to get water. I’ve learned that factories and big corporations release chemicals that affect the water supplies of the surrounding towns, and the pollution and horrible effect on water sources all across America that is happening.
We had just hiked 2 miles, our shortest day. They asked for volunteers to take a water mission down into the nearest canyon, but just like on the first exped no one really volunteered so in my guilt I did, so again Meredith and I were waiting for the third to join us. It would have been funny if tate had joined us again just like first when we almost going to resort to using our shoelaces to tie a rope down to fill up the water from the puddle in the deep depths of the sloth canyon someone had set up a slack line to repel down into. Then Thea volunteered so Sarah led the three of us down a rock scramble unmarked trek to the puddles we could see in the distance.
On the third exped we went a whole 24 hours without water, and it’s not the hardest thing ever done but it was awfully miserable and hard. We all dreamed of water and said we would never take water for granted again, but as soon as we got back to him and we could get as much as we wanted at the simple flick of a faucet, I almost forgot about the pain of not having it. Then on reflecting on everything that happened and all five learned about its availability in different places and the difference of work people have to do to get it, I realized how grateful I am for something as simple as water, a necessity to live, not so simple in the end if you think deeply about it.
The dram has an interesting spigot, one tiny one for a small steam of water, one larger one you can screw off to pour perfectly into a nalgene if you hold it still so the water doesn’t spill, then there is a very big cap you can screw off which I never use for anything but filling it back up. To fill it you go to the nearest puddle in the canyons which is usually very far away. You fill it by lowering into the deep depths of the canyon by your shoe laces, or by using a baby nalgene or cup to fill it from a puddle right below you.