14, 239 ft. Longs Peak was the back drop of my first backpacking trip of the summer. 7 campers, Ally Smola and I started off day one with over 2,000ft elevation gain in 2miles. Our first test of skill was morning numero uno; time to cook pancakes. With the whisperlite (backpacking stove) lit and pancake batter mixed we realized that we were without butter or oil. Our NON non-stick pan was glareing at us as if to say "Show me yo' skills". We stepped our game up, threw a glump of peanut butter (which we justified has some 'even if a lil' bit of oil in its contents) onto the skillet but notcied it needed some help, so we added a spalsh of water to help get the oily mixture just right. We dumped a reasonable portion of batter into the slurry, and 'snap, crackle, pop' we were attempting the pancake breakfast. Simce the stove has one setting, extremly hot, we used our best judgement to try to slow cook the cakes. The heat turned the liquid batter into a quazi solid/ quazi liquid doughy ball of nasty-ness. The campers sat around critisizing our every move, although they didn't talk as much once they realized that we must now eat the rubbery pancake batter. LNT (leave no trace) is an important part of backpacking so we had to try to eat what we could to reduce our waste as much as possible. Endless amounts of chocolate chips, peanut butter, and syrup only complicated the matter. The only success that morning was that we managed to eat all of the rubbery batter even though we looked like 6 year olds that were forced to eat meatloaf mixed with their most hated medicine.

The rest of the trip went very smooth. We hiked to the keyhole, which sits about 2/3 of the way to the summit of Longs Peak at roughly 13,000ft. This provided us with one of the most beautiful views of Rocky Mountain Park that I have yet witnessed. The following day we switched campsites and stopped at Chasm Lake on the way. The lake was completely frozen over sitting at the bottom of the diamond face of Longs peak. The diamond face is a shear cliff face that rises about 3,000 vertical feet from chasm lake to the summit of Longs peak. While we were at the lake I am happy to say that Ally was fortunate enough to pull off a very rare ***** (5 star) BIF. We were lucky to have beautiful weather for the majority of the trip although it rained at our last campsite where we had to dig trenchs on the sides of our tarps to prevent our sleepbags from being flooded. As a group, our biggest challenge was fighting off the swarms of mosquitos and resisting to itch our polka dotted bodies. The trip was a huge success and a great way to start off the summer! The campers did not complain about hiking, they actually were stoked to do all of the day hikes and even wanted to do more than we had time for. Besides the pancakes the food worked out well, and we were full for every meal. 19 total miles hiked in the East side of Rocky Mountain National Park, one cool co-counselor, and 7 campers who were rockstar singers and impressive at solving riddles= two happy counselors.

Next adventure will be a whitewater float down the Colorado River.


Can't wait for Independence Day!
...and Cash (not $)

The day has finally arrived, with so anticipation; my campers arrive today. Our agenda includes a 4day backpacking trip into rocky mountain national park. I am so excited to be able to get into the backcountry and start the summer for reals. Our trip will take us to the base of Longs Peak, one of many 14,000ft summits in Colorado. There is still lots of snow in the area so we wont be able to summit the peak but we have some good hiking planned.

As a member of the trail department crew this past week I had my hands full from unloading 689 bails of hay, bleaching cabins, bathhouses, and the cafeteria, luggage transportation, building TeePee's, and even helping clean up a substainatil flood resulting from our dishwashing machine malfunctions. Nonetheless I was busy.

This weekend Chris, Tyler Hoos, and myself summited Byers Peak (12,804ft). We arrived at the trailhead on an overcasted Staurday morning and were not surprised to see nothing but snow. With no trail in sight we decided the best way to the summit was to make it straight up-hill to the ridge and follow the ridge line to Byers Peak. Starting at 10,300ft we hiked on 40 degree snow covered slopes until we broke treeline. Once above treeline the snow was more sparse and we were able to hike on solid ground. Overall the trip to the summit took us roughly 3 hours. Once we summited the peak we could see multiple rain stroms in the surrounding area, and they were headed our way. As we reached treeline again on our decent the rain began to fall. Once we found our footprints again, the fun began. Since we were hiking up 40 degree slopes on the way up, we got to take the same 40 degree slopes on the way down! Glacading is a term that describes using your rain gear or feet to essentially slide down the snowfields/glaciers. We glacaded from treeline to the trail head, completing the descent in roughly 40 minutes.

Happy Father's Day

Today is, the... Summer Solstice!
15 hours of sunlight

Here in Colorado we are still experiencing spring, early flowers are blooming, trees haven't had their leaves for long, and there is still snow patches above 9,000ft. Whitewater rafting during this time is good because the water level is high which helps the river run faster, create bigger rapids, and provide extra splash. The splash however is similar to someone throwing freshly melted ice down your back with no warning. Despite the frigid water, on our staff rafting trip we still managed to get a nice sized crew to jump off 'jump rock' which stands 25ft above the Colorado river. It being the first cliff that I jumped off, it holds a special place in my heart. One cliff jump under my belt for the summer and hopefully many more to come. We made it through staff training with great spirits and lots of energy. We were finally able to get some time off this past weekend, short but, oh so SWEET. I was able to test my balance on a slack line for the first time this weekend and really enjoyed the challenge, unfortunately lightning storms in the mountains, at 8750ft, is nothing to be messing with. A huge storm came through for about 45mins shooting lightning to the ground about every minute or so; the best lightning storm I have seen in way too long.

Today camp really started. Kids are the key component to make the wheels spin, and they are spinning. This week, I am without campers, my job is to stay at camp and help drive people who have trips to their trail heads, help pack for next weeks trips that are going out, and to do random work projects around camp. Since I don't have as much responsibility this week, I joined the cast of Rock Out week (Theme of session 1 here at camp) as yours truely, Lil' Wayne (pictured above). I was lucky enough to pull together a convincing get up, and help start camp off on the right foot.


Newest hobby: slackline;ing

:Summer Trip Schedule:
6.14 - 6.19
CCO [Granby, CO]
6.21 - 6.26
Backpacking Rocky Mountain National Park [Granby, CO]
6.28 - 7.03
White Water Rafting [Colorado River, CO]
7.5 - 7.10
White Water Rafting [Colorado River, CO]
7.12 - 7.24
Surf n' Turf [Utah, Arizona, California]
7.26 - 7.31
CCO [Granby, CO]
8.02 - 8.14
Rafting, Backpacking, Mountain Biking, Horses [Granby, CO]

I woke up this morning in a frost covered sleeping bag, luckily my liner, layers and sleeping bag kept me warm and asleep thru the night. It was difficult to fall asleep last night because there was a full moon, natures nightlight, kept the ground lit and created wonderful shadows you could even see some colors with the moonlight alone. Come roughly 8000ft closer to the moon and remove light pollution and it is amazing how well it reflects the sun. Staff campout is always a great time, cooking dinner on coleman stoves and then always some frisbee and ridiculous games. I am still awaiting on my trip assignments for the summer but I am excited by the possibilities. Lately at camp we have been learning general stuff about how to care for campers and how to solve conflicts. I was also able to take a Wilderness First Aid course so that I am now certified to administer first aid in the backcountry. They taught us lots of interesting things like how to fix dislocations, spinal injury care, hypothermia, abrasions, shock, setting bones and even how to make good slings and "casts" in the backcountry using gear you would find in a backpack. The weather here has improved we are now lucky to have nice warm sunny mornings, although the windy or rainy afternoons come like clockwork from the west around noon each day. Life here is good but the sunests, cloud formations and night sky are superior.

My mind was racing creating unrealistic expectations while trying to absorb my situation as the twelve of the trip staff (including our boss) traveled to New Mexico. Chris, two co-workers and myself were leaders of the day the first day on trail. We followed what we thought to be the correct trail, soon we realized we were on a different trail. Soon that trail faded and we were left with map skills and a river. Luckily we stumbled upon our campsite after bushwhacking for miles and a couple hours. The second day we day hiked to Lake Katherine, roughly 12,000ft. We were surprised to see a frozen lake, soon the snow storm began. On the third day we started to hike to what would be the second campsite but since the New Mexican, Pecos wilderness, has experienced severe droughts in the past and pine beetle problems the campsite was too dangerous due to potential widow makers (dead trees about to topple). We decided to hike on and explore the caves on our way out. One more night in New Mexico and then we headed to Colorado's Sand Dune National Park (pic above). The trip was a success! New friendships were made, spirits lifted, and once my feet were on the mountain slopes in the back-country my mind was free. After some group backpacking I have a lot more confidence leading youngsters into the wilderness and I am looking forward to my trip assignments for the summer.

Current Read: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Life is Good when you are getting paid to do what you LOVE!