Leader In Training

For the past two weeks I have been in and around Rocky Mountain House involved in the Leaders in Training corse. It was INTENSE! The first day we end up starting the hike. I had it in my head that the out trip was only for five days, little did I know that it was for eight and a half! I aslo thought that there would be five people in the cousre, but there were only two others, making a grand total of three participants. Our leaders Joel and Lauren were great and so were Antonia and Thomas who had just graduated. We all had very different personalities and it was cool to see how we worked our differences out.

Our trip began witha very easy hike up a clear path. However, the next day we were knee deep in moss trudging over hundreds of dead, rotting trees while hiking up a steep incline, all while carrying our 40kg packs.

The third day was the day that tested me the most. I had not been feeling well the entire day, and around 5:00 pm I ha hit a wall. We had just reached an unexpected waterfall that was about 40 feet high. I was having an extremely hard time getting up the incline. I felt bad for slowing the group down, but they were very understanding. It was soon after that incline that I trew up. That night I trew up 4 more times. What made it worse was that a huge thunderstorm had rolled in. I couldn't even count one second inbetween the lightening bolts ffor about five minutes. We were also very close to the pass (inbetween two mountains) and it was extremely wind. The girls tent was actually moving, and it was a pretty scary time.

The next dayI was feeling alot better and we were able to make it over the pass and down the other side. I was a great view until we reached a canyon that we had to climb down. At one point we encountered a 70 foot water fall that we first had to craoss then climb down the one side of. We named it the "Gordge of Death". It was one of the scariest moments of my life, b ut I survived and we moved on.

The next day we were going to cross the Stifler River to get to some lakes on top of a mountain. Unfortunately the river was much too high to cross. Joel attempted but was carried down the river for a bit with his pack on. It took him about half an hour the get back to the other side again. That night we made our first fire so that Joel would not die of hypothermia. It rained that night and nothing we wanted to dry really did.

We had found an old cutline in the forest, but it was not much better than bush whacking. At one point we came to a marsh, and all decided instantly that we would much rather get out boots slightly more wet, then to trudge through the trees again.

The rest of the hike was less a little ambitious and we had alot of time to play. I feel we got to bond a lot and we also learned a lot after the trip. We had a bunch of awsome speakers that were very helpful. It was just a great time. Ask me about it if you get the chance!