2nd Exped, Elle Canarick
We just arrived back from our second expedition, which was so much fun! It started off with a real bonding experience, as a little over an hour into our first hike, we got hailed on. When we arrived at our campsite, Dry Lake, we quickly assembled our kitchen tarps and managed to be somewhat-dry as we ate our dinner, despite the storm outside. My cook-group mate, Violet, made the most delicious cheesy pasta. Sitting under one tarp, all cooking and eating together, many of us found we could open up. This set us up for a close-knit second expedition, where we regularly all ate together.
On day two, we set out in full sunshine, filling our time on the trail with games of Contact. Our second campsite was beautiful, filled with trees of many different species. We ate dinner, had Circle, and went to sleep early in order to wake up at 3 in the morning for a 4:20 start up Mount Shavano, a 14,000 ft mountain. The hike was difficult and took 11 hours total, but most of us made it up! Everyone is now so proud of themselves. I personally stayed at camp with my friend Zane, working on our essays and losing card games to our wonderful instructor, Lindsey. When the main group returned, we all made pizza and laughed together about our days.
We camped at the same site as the night before, but set off again with our packs the next day. We had a gorgeous and wonderfully flat hike to our next campsite. When we arrived, we learned about microaggressions and how to address them. We also all took the HMI leadership-type quiz, to determine what is our default leadership style. That was super fun and informative! I received the relationship-master leadership type, and the description really resonated.
The next morning, we ran into the other expedition group at a beautiful waterfall. It was so great to see them. We kept hiking up, and eventually camped near a gorgeous lake, where we hung out in a beautiful meadow. Our writing instructor, Chris, hiked out to join us and delivered helpful feedback on our personal essays. It was so great to see him, and get our drafts back.
The next morning, we had a fascinating discussion on inaccessibility in the wilderness. We also had our eight hour solo, where we all did various peaceful activities. Many of us napped. Upon returning, we giddily shared our first drafts of our full-circle reflections, which we had written that day. Then, right before Circle, we saw two moose! We were all so excited, but none of us were more so than my friend Hoang.
On our last full day, we had a quick hike downhill back to the waterfall, where we saw another moose! It was on the trail, and so our view was excellent as we quickly backed away. Once at the waterfall, we hung out there for the rest of the day, enjoying the beautiful views and delivering end of expedition feedback. After a long game of silent football, we headed to bed early, in order to wake up at 4am the next morning. We began walking out at 6am, and found ourselves back in the bus at 7:30, wondering how such a wonderful week passed by so quickly.