Golden Bell...The Beginning.

Arrival Date: Sunday, May 17, 2009.

As you may see, I have been at Golden Bell for a little over two weeks now. Camp is an awesome place and has been very interesting. Rain has become an everyday occurrence here in Divide. I am not sure how much I enjoy being wet all the time, but there is not much I can do about that. Hopefully, the weather will turn sunny as the days go on.

The official first real work week just began on Monday. The summer has begun. The past couple weeks were full of training, getting to know the staff, and preparing for this summer.

On coming to camp, seven other counselors and I jumped into lifeguard training. We all bonded over swimming 500s, reading through the instructional manual and watching a few hours of videos displaying the different saving techniques. Saving people is definitely tough work. For our testing, we had to "save" a 10 pound brick and swim it about 20 meters, swim a 500, and preform different saving techniques. Some of these situations were quite difficult and I have had my fill of chlorinated water for the next year. Tonight is my first time guarding and I am a little nervous.

Along with swimming, I have passed my test on how to belay, gone on the zipline and the high ropes course, learned the ins and outs of housekeeping, and experienced other random aspects of camp life. Recently, I have had the pleasure of driving many of the camp vehicles around. I actually like driving them. :) Before Sunday, I had never driven any larger sized vehicles around. Now, I have driven 15 passenger vans, a suburban, and regular vans. Sometime this summer I am hoping I get to drive one of the four wheelers, but we will see if that ever works out.

We even went on a short hiking trip in the Crags near Pikes Peak and it was snowing.

Last Friday, all of the summer staff packed up to go on a backpacking trip. That first day we hiked about a mile and a half and then set up camp. It was awesome just being together in the mountains. A group of us decided to hike up the top of a pile of rocks and the view was gorgeous.

I was a little scared to stand up at the top.

The trip began very nicely. We threw a little Frisbee, set up our tents, and climbed on the rocks. One thing I would recommend when climbing rocks is to keep your camera in a safe place where it cannot fall out. Yes, my camera was in the front pocket of my hoodie ... and ... although it wasn't destroyed, it fell out when I was in the process of climbing a rock. I ended up stepping on it and now it supports a couple of cracks in the screen. So far it I can still take pictures ... I am hoping it just stays that way.

We had dinner and then headed to bed after using the BIF...(Bathroom In Forest)...That is always quite the experience, to say the least. That night I shivered more than I slept. It got to about 32 degrees F. The entire night I would wake up and just lie there trying to go back to sleep and to stay warm. I ended up cuddling against Arielle who was sleeping next to me in the tent. At first, she thought I was the tent so she started moving away from me. It didn't help that we were on an incline. She finally realized it was just me and let me cuddle against her. It helped a little bit, but I was very thankful when morning arrived. I stepped out of the tent and hurried to the fire, after struggling to put my contacts in, of course.

Well, a group of boys gathered around the map and decided that they were wrong about how long the trail was. I was pretty sure I read a sign saying it was 6 miles long, but they told us it was 11. That meant we had to hike 8 on Saturday. It was going to be a long day. We packed up camp and started off.

We had hiking buddies...this is Laura. She was mine. :)

The hike began well. Along the way, we shared our life plans. It was nice to get to know people more and it helped pass the time. By lunch time we made it to the summit. It was a relief to know that the rest of the way was mostly downhill. I like going downhill a lot more than uphill. :) As we ate lunch the clouds started to build around us. The distant thunder reached our ears and we could see lightning jutting out of the clouds.

While hiking down, we had to climb over many fallen trees and avoid the water that overtook the path. When we had just about reached our new camping sight, someone came down the mountain with news that Arielle had hurt her ankle. We set up camp while a group continued to help her down the mountain. I could not set up my tent yet, because I did not have all the parts, so I just hung out, waiting, around the fire. Then, it started to rain. The group arrived and they were soaked. After a little while, I noticed that everyone in our group was either cold, but somewhat dry, or in the rain, but somewhat warm. I was in the latter group. Finally, Levi announced that since it seemed not everyone was prepared for the rain and the chances were very high that it was going to get below freezing that night, we were just going to return to camp. Arielle, with the help of three other amazing girls, started down the path, while the rest of us broke camp and followed after.

*Side note: The guys had figured out that the trail was only 6 miles, like they previously thought.

The trail was very wet and cold. At places where the trail crossed a river, we had to walk over soaked logs that were laid across forming a bridge. The scenery was marvelous; however, since I had my poncho on and we were trying to go quickly down the mountain, it was very difficult to enjoy it. By this time, my jeans weighed 10x as much because they were soooo soaked. It was a joy to reach the end of the trail and the vans, just in time to discover the Suburban would not start. But that's Golden Bell. :) We sent people back to help the rest of the group. After jumping the Suburban and regrouping, we all jumped into the cars and headed out. Once we were back at Golden Bell, we all got dry and then went to the lodge for pizza. It was delicious.



It was a relief to not have to stay that night on the trail. I cannot even imagine how cold I would have been considering I was freezing, but dry, the night before. But with everything that happen, I would definitely go again.

Well, that is it for now ... I am just waiting to see what other adventures come my way this summer...