Here is wilderness in a nutshell:

Day 1: We started at the Ute Trail head. Crossed the Rio Grande (lovingly we nicknamed it the Frio Rio). We hiked about 7 miles. 

Day 2: Middle Ute Pass. Through twin lakes and over the Continental Divide. We camped at Rock Lake. We hiked about 8 miles. 

Day 3: We rock climbed in the morning and then had our solo time and night at Rock Lake. Unfortunately in the middle of the night it started raining and hailing so we had to come back in to the flys. 

Day 4: Hiked along Rock Creek. Around the base of Guardian to Stormy Gulch, which is at the foot of Storm King. We hiked about 8 miles. It started raining soon after lunch and didn't stop for the next 36 hours. 

Day 5: We were suppose to summit Storm King, a 14er. But it rained all day so we sat inside the fly and ate breakfast and lunch and told stories. We decided to head out because the rain was not stopping anytime soon. We took the Vallecito Trail across Nebo creek over hunchback pass (aka death in the rain) which is the Continental Divide. We hiked about 7 miles.  We camped in Starvation Gulch. It rained the entire day and hunchback pass was 100% miserable! But we survived. I was pretty sure I was going to die this night of hypothermia. Everything was soaking wet and I couldn't get warm. 

Day 6: We woke up to no rain and our first fire! Extreme backpacking over trees with no sign of a trail most of the day. We stayed 3 miles down in Starvation Gulch. We had the most perfect spot to camp that night. It was one of my favorite days. We stopped for lunch and after lunch the guides told us that we were staying here for the rest of the day. It was a nice little meadow surrounded by trees and we had another great fire that night. 

Day 7: We crossed over the Frio Rio again, but this time I thought I wasn't going to survive. It was much farther and deeper than the first time. I was about waist deep. We hiked to hairpin where we were picked up. We hiked about 5 miles. 

My pack probably weighed 60lbs. We all split up the meals for the week and community gear. I carried a lunch and one of the sleeping flys. I ate out of one cup for an entire week. We got all of our water from streams. I wore 2 socks, 2 shorts, 2 shirts all week. We couldn't wear deodorant. We didn't shower for a week. 

It was the most incredible trip of my life!

I am currently looking for jobs in Denver. I have a place to live when I am done here. 3 of the girl interns and I are living in Lakewood. I am so excited to see what God has in store for life after crooked creek! 

Wilderness

This summer went by so fast which really was not that unexpected. I had an amazing time and got to meet some wonderful people who I hope will be in my life for years to come. Summer camping is now over and it is back to mostly weekend groups. I will stay in retail until September 30th.... my last day here at CCR! Its hard to believe that I have lived here for almost 16 months. I have been looking for jobs in the Denver area. 9 of the 10 interns will be living in the Denver area. I want to try and go home for a few weeks, but it depends on the job situation. It is very hard to think of being away from my family much longer but I do feel God calling me to stay out here and pursue jobs and community out here. 

The interns and our property manager, Brett, leave tomorrow for a 7 day hiking and backpacking trip with Wilderness Ranch. Wilderness is also run by Young Life. We will be doing a trail that has never been done before. Should be interesting. I am super excited and terrified beyond words. I know God works in extreme ways and I am ready to see how that plays out for us. 

I will try and keep this updated more since I have a little more free time on my hands. And I will definitely update after the trip with pics and stories. PRAY FOR US!

Namaste. 

Summer time.

It is already week 3 day 1. I can't believe summer is happening so quickly. I want to explain what summer is but I don't have time tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about this thing is has just been very busy. Please pray for the last week with my summer staff. I know they are tired but this is week only for the campers. And pray for me as I continue fundraising. And pray for me and my job search. nothing exciting so far, but hopefully I will be hearing something soon. 

love.

Mom, Rachel and I in Grand Cayman.

Me, Peg & Erin my roommates from the cruise. 

My new hair cut.

Time is going by so fast these days. The cruise was awesome. I should be sending out a e-newsletter in the next week or so. I donated 8.5 inches of hair to locks of love. I have been painting like a mad woman in maintenance. I am so glad they actually trust me to do some fun stuff, like drive trucks and paint the new swing.  I spent a great weekend in Denver for Easter with one of the interns and all of her family. I went to a sunrise service at Red Rocks. Tomorrow night I am going to a Denver Nuggets game. This weekend we are having girls weekend in Steamboat Springs. I know this is all short sentences and very sporadic, but those are the major highlights!

This past week has been beautiful. Highs have been in the 30s. Which calls for shorts!!! Who would have thought this FL girl would be wearing shorts  when its 30 degrees out. The nice weather was short lived, today we have gotten 5 inches of snow and its pretty cold out, no sun. Today was my last day in the kitchen. Monday is housekeeping and then Tuesday I start in maintenance. I am really excited about this rotation. The maintenance department here is great. We call them the heart smart club because they have all had heart attacks or been hospitalized because of heart problems. Everyone jokes that it will rub off on you if you work with them too long. Good thing I will only be with them for 2 months. And 10 days will be spent in FL! I leave Thursday for home. We leave for the cruise on Sunday. I am so excited. It is bittersweet. It is going to be hard to be away from my community for 10 days. 

Please pray that I can be useful in the maintenance department and that they will not give me menial tasks because I am a girl. 

The snow is still coming. We got 7 inches last night. I would normally not be happy about this, but today is my day off and I might go to the mountain. This past week was crazy. I worked 9 days straight. We had a YL group from Mobile, AL come for a ski trip. They got stuck here for an extra day because he roads were closed. 

Nothing too exciting is new. I have just been working hard. I am looking forward to a family cruise in March. My cousin is getting married and then we all head out on a 6 day western caribbean cruise. It will be  a great relief from the snow. And I am ready to see my family again. 

Tonight was the most incredible night of my life so far. 7 of us decided to snowshoe up the mountain to the hike lunch spot. (My first time ever snowshoeing!) We did it all by the light of he moon. It was so bright out the entire time. It took us 45 minutes to get to the lunch site. We walked around and took some great pictures which I will post soon. We took another short little hike over the the helicopter pad where you could see the whole town of Fraser. It was so beautiful and clear. The 2 boys had carried their snowboard up with them. So the girls headed down first and almost towards the bottom the boys came flying past us. They were having a great time coming down. Right as we were getting to my car we all so the most glorious shooting star. You could see the huge ball of fire so clearly. It was the perfect ending to an amazing night. 

This past week my cousin Barry came out for a short visit to ski. It was a beautiful day at the mountain. Then it was my first weekend as dining hall hostess, which I loved. I will go into more detail later. I just wanted to share about my night mostly!

Blessings.

The girls convinced the guys to take old time photos.

And they loved it.

We had way too much fun taking these pictures!

Me and my snowboard.

These are a few pics from the past few weeks. I know I haven't posted in a while. I have been off schedule for a while. We have had ski camps lately. Which means big groups come in and we feed them breakfast (really early) and dinner. The rest of the day they spend skiing at winter park. Christmas was amazing. I loved being home and getting to spend time with my family. On January 14th, i switch jobs. My new job title is Dining Hall Hostess. I am pretty much the lay person between the kitchen staff and the work crew. I am really excited to be in the kitchen. The nice part about the job is that I work the same schedule as the work crew. So when they go to the mountain, I can go too. Last weekend most of the staff got together for night skiing at a small resort near by called Sol Vista. It was so much fun.

This post has been very scattered, but I feel like that's how the past month of my life has been. I will try not to wait so long to update you all on my life. Please be praying for my new job and pray for the intern community in general. I feel like we are finally getting the the point of being friends and loving each other well.

Namaste.