yet another super-big update
oook so, as i said, yet another brief rundown on my life since i last posted, with emphasis on this last weekend
Habitats been good- kids are great
there are a few kids who i had last year who are back, and one of them ran up to me on the first day and poked me
so i poked her back
and well, long story short, she now has about half the camp poking me on a regular basis
kinda annoying, but kinda fun, even though it shouldnt be/its technically not allowed or encouraged
o well
back tracking a bit, my first day i led a barefoot hike, which was fun
except one kid decided to go on it, even though he had like 3 blisters on his feet
it didnt occur to him that the blisters are going to hurt MORE if his shoes are off
even better, hes been blaming me for it ever since
and i had 2 girls who managed to step in every thorn bush on the hike
and since the band aids wouldnt stick, cuz it was 90+degrees out, i had to tape the band aids to their feet
not exactly fun
anyway, otherwise its been a great week
staff overnight was supposed to be thursday, but since most of the staff either just got back from being sick the day before/were currently out because they were sick/kinda sick and would probably not be coming to work in the near future, we postponed it
and for a while i was sad, until i remembered i would still be here for the week we're planning on doing it, so its all good
now that habitats out of the way, i had my first venture scout hike this weekend
for those of you who dont know (meaning all of you but one) venture scouts is like boy scouts except its for older people and we usually do harder and more fun things
plus, ITS CO-ED, so all you females out there who enjoy reading about my life can (and if you like to hike/be outside) join up
anyway, now that im done with the promotional speal, on to what happened
i left habitat at like 4 30 and almost immediately got in a car to go up there
we didnt get there until around 10 30ish, which wasnt too bad
we set up tents and went to sleep
next morning, we ate breakfast and started hiking.
We hiked down the road to the trailhead, which wasnt too bad. we kinda got confused at one point because there are 2 trailheads with the same name (imp trail) and we wanted the 2nd one, but it wasnt too bad
plus we got to start making puns about imps
like "the next trailhead is the IMPortant one"
and "i hope this hike isnt IMPossible"
it was humorous, though kinda annoying.
so then, we started hiking up
we had a good hike, except one of the boys was kinda slow cuz he was having trouble climbing
another boy got kinda dehydrated, which is never good, but he survived
we got up to the top and started walking along the ridgeline, and it was really awesome cuz we were like walking in clouds
you couldnt see anythting more than about 10 or 20 feet away, and well it was really cool cuz every so often a part of a cloud would dip down and you could like really walk through it
as i said, it was really cool
so then we had lunch, got to the top of a couple of mountains, and on the 3rd peak or so, it started to drizzle
we didnt think it was that bad, so all of us only put on rain jackets and not rain pant (yes, i have rain pants)
and it wasnt that bad
in my brother's word, "its liquid sunshine!"
and it was liquid sunshine.... until you pants became completely soaked and you considered putting on rain pants except it would be completely pointless because you pants were already soaked
but at least your feet were still dry
and the world was becoming puddle-wonderful and mud-licious, if i may quote E.E cummings
but then the water soaked down your socks and through your boots so your feet became soaked
did i mention we were hiking for another 3 or so hours in this?
but, it was still fun
though a little long
the only time when it wasnt fun was when we finally got down from the mountain, but then we had to hike another 3 miles to get home
but like i said, otherwise it was great
o, speaking of mileage
it was supposed to be like 9 miles long, but we passed at least 3 signs that said we had about 3 miles to go until we hit our next trail, plus the 3 miles back along the road, plus a few signs saying we had 2 miles or so to our next trail
anyway, it ended up being more like 19 miles than 9, so it was a tough hike, to say the least
so, we get back, we're all thoroughly soaked, and i started making dinner
dinner was good
i made this thing i found called pizza in a pot, which ended up being a lot like american chop suey, but better
we had a little adventure while making dinner though
i wanted to make garlic bread, but we needed a fire to do that, so i had just convinced one of the guys to go and get fire and looked over at one of the other sites, and i saw a big fire going and i was like "hey, see that fire over there? they have a big fire going. but we're going to do better cuz we're scouts. we're going to have a HUGE fire" and stuff like that
but then i heard a woman yell "HELP!"
obviously, something was wrong
i remembered that there was a fire extinguishers in one of the cars, so i ran and got that
when i got to the site that was on fire, the boy who had gone to get firewood was there and had moved their picnic table away and had grabbed all the flamable fuel away
i put out the fire with the extinguisher and that was that
the girls in the site were pretty shaken up- the 2 that i saw were crying
from what i can figure out, one woman was pouring white gas onto a fire they were trying to start, and the fire went up into the can. she threw the can, speading out more fuel
then, they threw water on it, and much like a grease fire, when you throw water on white gas while its burning, it doesnt go out- it spreads out
so then they yelled help, and we came to the rescue
anyway, long story short, dont pour gas onto fires- the woman got lucky and noone got hurt, but she was REALLY lucky and usually she would have gotten burned
and 2nd moral, go out and get a fire extinguisher for your car- chances are someday it will come in handy
so i still have the pin from the fire extinguisher, and i think im going to make it into a key chain, partly cuz i want a new keychain and partly to remind me about how stupid people can be sometimes
anyway, so dinner was good
we didnt finish all of it, and then i was planning to make a cake, but that didnt materialize cuz people weren't hungry enough
but then the next morning, i woke up to "hey will richard! do you want to make the cake this morning?"
turns out while i was sleeping in, those who were up decided that it would be fun to have cake for breakfast
so, we had cake for breakfast!
it was actually kinda cool
i made it before, but had to leave before it finished so i didnt get to see how it turned out, but like i said its cool
you make it, and since its an upside down cake, you put something on the bottom and then put a "topping" on the top
but the it turns out that the topping makes the cake, and the bottoming make the topping aka icing
we didnt flip it over, but it was delish
anyway, so now im home
sore, and in desperate need of a full body massage, but home
can't wait to go into work tomorrow all sore..... and have kids start poking me
Habitats been good- kids are great
there are a few kids who i had last year who are back, and one of them ran up to me on the first day and poked me
so i poked her back
and well, long story short, she now has about half the camp poking me on a regular basis
kinda annoying, but kinda fun, even though it shouldnt be/its technically not allowed or encouraged
o well
back tracking a bit, my first day i led a barefoot hike, which was fun
except one kid decided to go on it, even though he had like 3 blisters on his feet
it didnt occur to him that the blisters are going to hurt MORE if his shoes are off
even better, hes been blaming me for it ever since
and i had 2 girls who managed to step in every thorn bush on the hike
and since the band aids wouldnt stick, cuz it was 90+degrees out, i had to tape the band aids to their feet
not exactly fun
anyway, otherwise its been a great week
staff overnight was supposed to be thursday, but since most of the staff either just got back from being sick the day before/were currently out because they were sick/kinda sick and would probably not be coming to work in the near future, we postponed it
and for a while i was sad, until i remembered i would still be here for the week we're planning on doing it, so its all good
now that habitats out of the way, i had my first venture scout hike this weekend
for those of you who dont know (meaning all of you but one) venture scouts is like boy scouts except its for older people and we usually do harder and more fun things
plus, ITS CO-ED, so all you females out there who enjoy reading about my life can (and if you like to hike/be outside) join up
anyway, now that im done with the promotional speal, on to what happened
i left habitat at like 4 30 and almost immediately got in a car to go up there
we didnt get there until around 10 30ish, which wasnt too bad
we set up tents and went to sleep
next morning, we ate breakfast and started hiking.
We hiked down the road to the trailhead, which wasnt too bad. we kinda got confused at one point because there are 2 trailheads with the same name (imp trail) and we wanted the 2nd one, but it wasnt too bad
plus we got to start making puns about imps
like "the next trailhead is the IMPortant one"
and "i hope this hike isnt IMPossible"
it was humorous, though kinda annoying.
so then, we started hiking up
we had a good hike, except one of the boys was kinda slow cuz he was having trouble climbing
another boy got kinda dehydrated, which is never good, but he survived
we got up to the top and started walking along the ridgeline, and it was really awesome cuz we were like walking in clouds
you couldnt see anythting more than about 10 or 20 feet away, and well it was really cool cuz every so often a part of a cloud would dip down and you could like really walk through it
as i said, it was really cool
so then we had lunch, got to the top of a couple of mountains, and on the 3rd peak or so, it started to drizzle
we didnt think it was that bad, so all of us only put on rain jackets and not rain pant (yes, i have rain pants)
and it wasnt that bad
in my brother's word, "its liquid sunshine!"
and it was liquid sunshine.... until you pants became completely soaked and you considered putting on rain pants except it would be completely pointless because you pants were already soaked
but at least your feet were still dry
and the world was becoming puddle-wonderful and mud-licious, if i may quote E.E cummings
but then the water soaked down your socks and through your boots so your feet became soaked
did i mention we were hiking for another 3 or so hours in this?
but, it was still fun
though a little long
the only time when it wasnt fun was when we finally got down from the mountain, but then we had to hike another 3 miles to get home
but like i said, otherwise it was great
o, speaking of mileage
it was supposed to be like 9 miles long, but we passed at least 3 signs that said we had about 3 miles to go until we hit our next trail, plus the 3 miles back along the road, plus a few signs saying we had 2 miles or so to our next trail
anyway, it ended up being more like 19 miles than 9, so it was a tough hike, to say the least
so, we get back, we're all thoroughly soaked, and i started making dinner
dinner was good
i made this thing i found called pizza in a pot, which ended up being a lot like american chop suey, but better
we had a little adventure while making dinner though
i wanted to make garlic bread, but we needed a fire to do that, so i had just convinced one of the guys to go and get fire and looked over at one of the other sites, and i saw a big fire going and i was like "hey, see that fire over there? they have a big fire going. but we're going to do better cuz we're scouts. we're going to have a HUGE fire" and stuff like that
but then i heard a woman yell "HELP!"
obviously, something was wrong
i remembered that there was a fire extinguishers in one of the cars, so i ran and got that
when i got to the site that was on fire, the boy who had gone to get firewood was there and had moved their picnic table away and had grabbed all the flamable fuel away
i put out the fire with the extinguisher and that was that
the girls in the site were pretty shaken up- the 2 that i saw were crying
from what i can figure out, one woman was pouring white gas onto a fire they were trying to start, and the fire went up into the can. she threw the can, speading out more fuel
then, they threw water on it, and much like a grease fire, when you throw water on white gas while its burning, it doesnt go out- it spreads out
so then they yelled help, and we came to the rescue
anyway, long story short, dont pour gas onto fires- the woman got lucky and noone got hurt, but she was REALLY lucky and usually she would have gotten burned
and 2nd moral, go out and get a fire extinguisher for your car- chances are someday it will come in handy
so i still have the pin from the fire extinguisher, and i think im going to make it into a key chain, partly cuz i want a new keychain and partly to remind me about how stupid people can be sometimes
anyway, so dinner was good
we didnt finish all of it, and then i was planning to make a cake, but that didnt materialize cuz people weren't hungry enough
but then the next morning, i woke up to "hey will richard! do you want to make the cake this morning?"
turns out while i was sleeping in, those who were up decided that it would be fun to have cake for breakfast
so, we had cake for breakfast!
it was actually kinda cool
i made it before, but had to leave before it finished so i didnt get to see how it turned out, but like i said its cool
you make it, and since its an upside down cake, you put something on the bottom and then put a "topping" on the top
but the it turns out that the topping makes the cake, and the bottoming make the topping aka icing
we didnt flip it over, but it was delish
anyway, so now im home
sore, and in desperate need of a full body massage, but home
can't wait to go into work tomorrow all sore..... and have kids start poking me