It was the 19th of July… our course start date. I was super excited to get started on this mysterious journey. I had met everyone (well…almost everyone, Lee forgot the starting date and booked his flight for today…. So he’ll be late..) and we all seemed to be drunk with intrigue and eagerness. While sitting in the rec room last night surrounded by a flock of boys, I inquired loudly “HEY! Who’s doing Roc 1???” A group of boys raised their hand and introductions began. “How old are you??” I was asked by Jack. Since all the boys had stated their age as between 18-20, I was hesitant and decided to play a guessing game… would my maturity shine through?? “I would guess 22 or 23” (I guess not..) the boys announced together. My reply… “sure… we’ll go with that….” I would of course share my age that evening at our meeting when our instructors asked if any of us were over the age of 21, and I embarrassingly enough, was the only one to raise my hand. Thank goodness my instructors were good at their jobs and raised their hands with me to make me feel just a bit better. To be honest, I was sort of worried to be the oldest by a good solid 5 years (Rich showed up… he was 22 and Tyler, he was about to turn 18). Now I can play “kid” as well as the rest, but would I genuinely fit in? Guess I would find out.
We ate breakfast early and scooted off with our belongings to the NOLS branch where we received a tour. On the wall in a small hallway there was a gigantic map of Wyoming where our instructor Jared proceeded to show us our route. I got scared at this point. It looked on the map like we would have to walk for long hours for many days to ever get to where he pointed. Would I be the fool to get evac’d because my knee couldn’t handle it??? Deep breath…. Positive thoughts. I can do this.
What’s very remarkable about this organization is that from the very start of a course, the students are responsible for everything. We stood in a line, washed our hands, and entered a room full of big garbage type pails on wheels shoved under counters with lists and scales and plastic baggies. Overwhelming… nahhhhh. But what the heck are we doing? Oh…. It is our responsibility to prepare our food that will be going with us and also the food that will be re-rationed to us at two points during our course. How awesome! We got to work, grabbing scales and baggies and sharpies. We looked at the list, found the food, measured out what the list said, tied it up, crossed it off. I ended up bagging one of my top category of foods… pasta!!! And boy would we have plenty of that! Four 8oz bags of this, six 12oz bags of that, five 16oz bags of these. It really makes you appreciate the food and the work that goes into planning out an expedition. I can’t say I will ever take packing up food for a camping trip for granted ever again. And having this responsibility placed upon us really started to involve us in the preparation process for what would be OUR experience. Now, food is important, and someone needs to make sure it gets to us, and we left that in the hands of NOLS. Let’s hope it makes it!
We received a lesson from our instructor Andrew about how to pack our packs. It was basically a magic trick. I am convinced he had a trick bag. Here we were with large hiking packs, and on the ground surrounding us was about 50 pounds of gear/food/etc that needed to somehow be put in what now looks like a small pack…. Yikes. Needless to say, Andrew showed us about 5 ways to pack our bags. I chose to go with the no compression sacks, just shove it in and work it down technique. We laid out all of our gear we brought ourselves and waited for an instructor to come check it. My instructor Adam came over and confirmed and dismissed plenty of items of mine. Then I was sent to the Gulch where Kelly, an employee there, helped me rent/purchase the last of the gear Adam thought I needed. And if we went back and forth on the NOLS wind pants enough…. Sheesh. I did rent them and they were pretty rad.
After an extremely awkward discussion between the three of us girls going on the trip and our male head instructor, Jared, on feminine hygiene, I was pumped to start the packing. Well… I thought… this is going to be interesting. No deodorant, no razors, 1 pair of clothes, climbing gear, toothbrush, soap (multi use for toothpaste too), long johns, warm jacket, wind jacket, fleece, socks, underwear, sports bra, food, a rope, and small items like sunscreen, bugspray, etc. Doesn’t seem like much. Talk about minimalist. Now I was getting real nervous. I’m going to STINK! I thought. But I guess I wouldn’t be the only one. So relax. I miraculously shoved all my items into my pack (yes…after unpacking and repacking about 4 times trying to figure out the best way). I’d pack most my stuff, then notice a large item that belonged on the bottom. Shoot! Mulligan! Now it was time to lift it. I thought to myself “pleaseeeee be able to pick this pack up and not blow out a knee.” BAM! Success! It was up and onto the scale. 53 pounds! Excuse me?!? I only weight 113 pounds. BUT, there was no complaining. I was a part of team, and that means I carry my weight in group gear, and travel lightly with my own gear. Now put a smile on your face and say “I am ready for this.”
We placed our packs on the roof of the most diesel school bus you will ever see! It was like a school bus met the terminator. I hopped up onto the roof (yes, little ole me…) and helped haul up all those 50-60 pound packs. Jared and I tied them down, then I hopped on the steaming hot bus and we pulled out of the lot around 3:15pm. This is it. No turning back now.
As the mountains appeared in the distance and continued to get closer I could feel my body relax. It was strange. I thought I’d be nervous the closer I got, but instead just the opposite. I had never felt so happy and excited to begin this journey with these people.
The bus ride was smooth….then bumpy….then REAL bumpy… then we stopped. I again hopped onto the roof and started to unload the bus. That night we’d be staying in a campground at Sweet Canyon I believe it was called. Our last day with somewhat of a toilet. We grabbed our packs and hiked literally 100 yards up a slight hill. I thought I was going to die!!!!!!! Now, I have very mild asthma, and I had heard that sometimes people could have problems with it in the thin air. I was PRAYING that it was the thin air and not ME being out of shape. I don’t want to be that person! BUT, I was put somewhat at ease when fellow coursemate Chase said he was out of breath and nervous about it too. At least I wasn’t alone? Here’s to a hopeful QUICK acclimation!
Our lessons that night included bear camping protocol and how to use the bear spray, setting up a tent and water purification. I’d have to say that the water purification scared me more than the bear information. Now I don’t like water anyways, it kind of grosses me out and has no taste and it’s pretty boring if you ask my taste buds. And now… now I would have to drink at least 4 liters a day from ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, marshes…heck maybe even a puddle. I don’t know. There’d be dirt, and little buggies, and other weird things in there I’m sure. BUT, I could do this. Smile. No complaining, I have no choice. I need to drink something. I will figure it out.
My first tentmates and cookmates were the other two females, Lillie and Paige. Lillie was what I consider, an earth child. She was mellow, and just seemed to fit right into the wilderness with ease. Paige was a rock climbing GIRL but was probably one of the most caring people on the course. This will be interesting. We ate our packed sandwiches (from the cafeteria at NOLS that we made for ourselves after lunch), learned, talked, joked, and then huddled into our tee-pee shaped tents to attempt to get some sleep. Unfortunately, sleep would not come……..
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