| Rocky Mountain Way log (2006-07-08 -> 2006-07-21)
Leaders: Walker Cobb and Krista Nelson
Students: Justin Baker, Daniel Breeden, Charlie Deer, Chris Kim, Sean McCormick, Tim Moore, Ben Rhyne, George Rue, Drew Stockton, Campbell Wilson, Daniel Woodall
July 8, 2006
All have arrived safe and sound. Preparations are underway for whitewater rafting. Stay tuned!
July 9th update
Rocky Mountain Way has gotten off to a great start. We just finished rafting down Brown's Canyon section of the Arkansas River. We spent about 4 hours on the river hitting rapids and hanging out. The weather was pretty good to us!!! From splash wars to surfing in the rafts we did it all on the river!!!! The river was running at a nice level and the rapids were exciting. The rapid "Zoom Floom” had to be the highlight!!! This morning Campbell, George, and Daniel cooked up some awesome chocolate chip pancakes for everyone!!! After we got off the river, a couple of the boys wanted to go fly fishing!! We headed down to the river and castled the fly rod; we had some hits and Chris had a big bite, but we have not reeled one in yet. We are hoping to catch a lot of rainbow trout in the San Juans. Daniel had some bites on the rod as well. At our camp Justin, Sean, Drew, Tim, Ben and Charlie all went on a hike to see the Colorado 14ers!!!!! It has been a great start and we are heading to the San Juan Mountains for our backpacking section!!!!!
July 15th update
Greetings from Telluride, Colorado, where the group is enjoying civilization after five great days in the San Juan Mountains!
The days flew by on the trail, though we pushed ourselves to the max and hiked around eight miles a day! Daniel Woodall set the tone as our first leader of the day, sharing his experience with the rest of the group. Chris shared the leader of the day responsibilities and motivated everyone to keep a good pace and successfully make it to our first camping destination. We were a little nervous about the lingering rain, but the skies cleared that night, offering great views of the stars from "Chuck Norris" rock.
With hopes of summitting Centennial Peak, we woke early the next morning and were off, hiking through sunny meadows, getting better views of Colorado’s 13,000 foot plus peaks with each step. It was a long push, but Ben's enthusiasm kept us going. We made it to an open meadow where we set up our base camp and planned our ascent of Centennial. We feasted on burritos; George took the lead hanging our "bomber" bear bag, and we were off to bed early.
Our summit day began early at 4:30 am - a true alpine ascent to make sure we summitted before the threats of afternoon thunderstorms became more real. Tim, along with Ben, were our leaders of the day and did a remarkable job encouraging the group and checking in to make sure the pace was fast, but steady. We passed through more meadows, mountain streams, and eventually broke treeline around eight am. We kept pushing on, and made our way up the basin after several switchbacks that us itching for views from the top. After Daniel Breeden's "nature nugget" on alpine ecology, we were ready to make our final push.
We ascended through scree fields, up the ridge, and eventually made it to the top by eleven. At 13,062 feet, we had stellar views of the valley and couldn't believe how far we'd come. The hike back to camp was tough, but Campbell had us laughing the whole way back.
We finished up at base camp that night with more pasta and pushed on the next day, plugging away another nine miles. Justin was leader of the day and subtly led by example, and Charlie and Sean hiked with smiles despite their hearty blisters! Drew took the lead on cook crew that night, and there was no shortage of food, despite our hearty appetites!
We woke this morning with cheeseburgers motivating us on the trail. After a moment of reflection at a look out point and John Muir quote, we were at the car "ram rod" in no time. Now it’s off to Lake City for some rock climbing and we couldn't be more excited!
We have had a blast climbing in Lake City!!!!! God's crag is truly a special place!!! Our first day started off with belay school and other training!!! After we finished building our primary skills we took to the rock!! I have never seen someone so excited to climb on real rock as George was!!! Charlie instantly was addicted to the idea of climbing and belaying as well!!! At the end of the first day we all took a hike to see if we could find the mysterious mountain goat named "Billy Goat"! He did not show up but we found many signs that he was around. The second day was a blast as Chris started off on the hardest route and finished it!!! Drew, Sean and Justin sent all the routes multiple times and were psyched for other people to get up on the rock as well!!!!! Daniel and Daniel found a particular route that was their favorite and really focused in on the moves of that particular route!! Ben and Campbell climbed all the routes multiple times and on the hardest route they were both able to do the "crux" move with no problem!!!!! We finished up the day with multiple rappelling sessions!!! I nice traverse over the top of God’s crag was Drew and Campbell's favorite part!! Rock climbing was a blast; we were able to work in an ultimate Frisbee hat tournament at base camp to!!!! The camping and weather have both been great to us and now we are off to Mountain Bike in Crested Butte!!!!!
The weather today could not have been better!!! We headed in to Crested Butte at 11:00 to pick up bikes and helmets!! We then hit the trail!!! We started our ride on a dirt road and then we reached a single track trail known as the "lower loop trail". Chris led us down the trail first. With a couple of falls here and there we were okay. Everyone was very supportive and helpful with Charlie!!! Charlie we all hope you are feeling better and we baked a cake in your honor last night!!!! Best of luck to you and we hope to see you back next year!!!!! Justin and Sean could not get enough during the second part of the day as they both were cruising down the single track with no problems!!!! Tim and I had a blast telling jokes and laughing down the trail as we cycled across some pretty tough terrain!!! As the loop ended and town was back in site Daniel, Drew, and Campbell all found their technical skills on bikes as we finished up the last downhill!!! They loved it, especially the downhills!!!!! George and Daniel W both stepped up and lead the way from time to time!!! Ben had no trouble with Mountain biking and I hope to see him and everyone else continue to Mountain Bike in the future!!!!!! After a hard day on the trail nothing was better then some Cold Chocolate Milk!!!!!!!
The Royal Gorge!!!! What more can I say, this is truly an Awesome place!!!!!!! The first mile or so after the put in is a nice flat section, which allowed us to practice our strokes and get into a team mode of paddling as a group!!! After the bridge we quickly dropped into the Royal Gorge!!! From this point on it was rapid after rapid!!!! One particular rapid that was very exciting was called "Wall slammer"! The river turns hard left and has carved a massive wall on the right side of the canyon!!!!! The weather was outstanding and spirits were high on the river!!!! We finished up with another more relaxed section of river and had some time to splash each other!!! Our guides were again the best!! Another awesome day on the river!!!!
The final push!!!!!!
The last two days of Rocky Mountain Way will never be forgotten!!!!!!
From singing Wagon wheel at the top of our lungs to trying the ultimate
saltine challenge, there was never a dull moment!!! The RMW banquet was at Fiesta Mexicana and awards were received by all!!!! On top of all the festivities Daniel B. also had a surprise birthday party!!! After a quick stop at a thrift store the awards were ready to go out!!!! Crazy hats, goofy sunglasses and one Elmo character were received by all!!! All and all this trip was amazing!! I really cannot put into words the experiences that we all had together!!! A toast to new friendships, and also to Charlie, finished our banquet off!!! We headed back to camp jamming "we are the champions of the world"!!!! At our final moonup we shared what we got out of the trip and what each person brought to the group!!!!!! This was a really special time; with the foot of the Rockies in the background and the sun setting we began to realize that it was over and that we were all going our separate ways tomorrow.
RMW- It was a blast!! Truly and unforgettable trip!!!! We wish you all well and remember to always, always follow your dreams!!!!!! Never stop dreaming or drinking Chocolate milk!!!!
Peace,
Walker Cobb
Krista Nelson
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