SUNRISE HIKE
This hike is always a great one. Sure, it is hard to get up so early in the morning. I think we had to meet around 5:15 am to get up to our destination in time. (Sunrise was right around 6 am) But I love this hike. It is one of the most beautiful. You'll be able to tell from the amazing pictures. Everyone from our ward went, since they didn't know it was optional. :) I know not everyone was there, but we had a great turnout and it was wonderful to hear from our new Stake President, President Moore. He is such an awesome man. It was so great to have him at camp the whole week. I hope the girls feel like they know him a little bit better. Anyway, enjoy some photogs from our morning hike.
PRACTICE HIKE
My next hike was a practice one. Katie was in charge of the hikes and she had maps for all of us. The hikes were divided into three: Easy, Intermediate, and Hard. However, Shalom has been empty for a couple years and trails tend to become overgrown without use, so Becky, Stephanie, and I decided to hike the intermediate hike the evening before so we knew where we were going. And it's a good thing we did. The trail we were supposed to take was Pal's trail, but it was gone. There was a sign and then absolutely no trail, so Katie gave us a different route. We started by going up the exact same way as the Sunrise hike. That was easy enough. But we continued on to Joe's Trail. You may laugh at Stephanie and I who are still wearing our makeup from the skit we did earlier that evening.
We traveled down Joe's trail, past some good landmarks like Turtle Rock but suddenly there wasn't a trail. We found a sign that said the trail went both ways, but there was not a trail in either direction anymore. So...we turned around and found another way back. It passed by some lovely beaver ponds and an X in the middle of the trail. Once we found the X we knew this was the best choice. After all, X marks the spot.
INTERMEDIATE HIKE
We made it back using most of the original map and we were all set for the next day. I was surprised at the numbers we had. Somehow I figured that people would settle for something in the middle, but it ended up being the other way around. People split and the majority went for the Easy or Hard. So we had a small group, but that was nice. Ivory came on my hike, so she is featured prominently. Remember, it starts up on that same hill. The weather was overcast to begin with which made it nice and cool.
The sky and the trail were so pretty. It was such a lovely day. Stephanie found 11 different kinds of wildflowers the day before, so we challenged the girls to find more. Ivory took this to heart and found 24 varieties. She smoked us. (But to be fair, we were looking for the trail more than for flowers.) Ivory also found a little butterfly buddy that stayed with us for a fair amount of time.
Stephanie and Katie had gotten together to make everyone shirts. So we looked stunning in our Hiking Crew gear. We stopped at the beaver ponds again because that is a nice resting point. I stood on a stump and zoomed out and it almost looks like I took a picture with a drone. But no...it's just me on a log.
This is Ivory on a log.
It really was a great morning for hiking. It sounds like both the other hikes had a great time as well. Here is Nicole and Christy on the hard hike and some of the campers on the easy hike. Jenni got some great shots of the wildlife on her hike.
She actually got a few good shots of the animals and I was trying to get pictures as well while we were up at Shalom. We saw deer, bunnies, lots of potguts, some salamanders (to be spotlighted later) and almost a bear. One of the deer had two baby fawns following close behind. They were adorable. Also, can you find all three pot guts in the wood pile?
DISCOVERY HIKE
On Thursday evening we were discussing the service project for the following morning and I mentioned that it would be really cool if we could clear some of the trails, or at least Pal's trail since it didn't exist anymore. The missionaries said it was marked and you could see some ribbons on the trees, but it is more helpful to have a trail under your feet. Everyone thought that would be a great idea to clear some trail, so we set out in the morning to see what trail was still there. Katie and Becky started from the non existent side and Stephanie and I hiked out to the far side we had seen before.
It was a fun hike, although super wet. The trail was there, but it was very overgrown and with the morning dew, we ended up with our legs being soaked from the knees down. Our side of the trail was pretty easy to follow. It did split at one point and both sides looked good, but we chose the right and continued that way. We felt like it was a good choice since we were still seeing ribbons on the trees.
Eventually we could hear Katie and Becky. In fact, they were VERY LOUD. We heard them long before we saw them. We walked into a field and there they were. Except they were at the top of the hill and we were at the bottom. "Why are you way down there?" Katie yelled. "Well, why are you way up there?" we asked. We were both supposedly on Pal's trail. Katie kept telling us there was only one trail, but we had to disagree since we were clearly standing on a different one. Can you see Katie and Becky way up there?
We also found out the reason they were so loud. Katie had seen fresh bear poop on the trail. They kept yelling, "We're OKAY!" to each other to make sure all bears would hear them and go away. Stephanie and I were pretty clueless. We were just enjoying a nice morning hike.
We never met up. Our trail spit us out on the main road, down from Pal's entrance. And they didn't finish the top trail since it disappeared. But we went ahead with the service project anyway. I wasn't up on the hill, but the pictures look amazing and there is definitely a trail now. I'm so proud of the girls (and brethren) and all their hard work.
CONFIDENCE COURSE
I'm adding the confidence course in here as well. (There was room for a few more pictures.) I got to help out with confidence course on the last day. Everything is set up so it's easy for the groups to come over, read the instructions, and figure out the task. There were lots of fun challenges. Most groups got through a lot of them. Some even finished them all. Here are a few pictures from the tasks.
This was the day I got sunburned a little. It rained in the morning and I don't think I got my face sunscreened like I should have before heading to the course. My cheeks picked up some pink while I followed the girls around to take pictures.
All the outdoor stuff was so fun. I honestly wanted to go up and hike Pal's trail again, but I ran out of time before we had to leave. What a beautiful area Shalom is and what a blessing it is to have such a lovely place to come closer to God.
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