I woke up at 5:35am. I wore my clothing for the day to bed the night before, so not much preparation was needed to be ready for the day. I got my daypack completely ready before waking everyone up at 6am. Countdowns for events and expectation were stressed throughout guide school, so I tried to give them throughout the day - starting by noting 30 minutes until breakfast when I woke them.
We ate breakfast - tortillas with peanut butter, dried fruit, Nutella, ect as well as leftover bagels and oatmeal - at 6:30am. I had a bagel and two packets of instant oatmeal, as I wanted to be on top of my game, and I knew snacks and lunch might be somewhat sparse. I mixed some red Poweraide into my water too.
We had our safety talk and day overview at 7:30am - this was also the time at which we had asked for everything to be bear-proofed. I did the introduction, Sebastian led the warm up and stretches, I went over the general plans for the day, Sebastian presented the weather (which I had smartly found on a bulletin board near the bathhouse in the camp ground), I discussed trail etiquette and potential hazards, and Sebastian mentioned Leave No Trace considerations. Under Leave No Trace, we decided to break our group of 16 into two groups of 8. We said one group would leave in about 5 minutes and would take a more relaxed pace to the top of Emory Peak. The other group would finish bear proofing and cleaning up the camp site and leave in about 25 minutes.
My group - Emily, Jakub, Zack, Hannah, Tessa, Ellie, and Manuel - left first. We drove to the trail head and began hiking at 8:06am. I originally was first and Jakub last, but my pace was a bit too fast. I slowed down, but still had some trouble getting the pace right. Emily suggested that I ask someone of moderate speed to set the pace, and suggested Ellie. Hence, at the next water break, I asked Ellie to go first and set the pace, with me following right behind. We chatted about favorite trails and our trips to Turkey as we climbed. We stopped for short 2-5 minute water, snack, and pee breaks about every 0.8 miles. Manuel had a GPS, which made this mileage goal between breaks easy to measure.
Me showing the group what we would be hiking on a map at the trail head (photo by Hannah).
Tessa was struggling a bit to keep up and was cold during a break, so I suggested that she start a bit earlier than the group. In hind sight, this was a mistake for two reasons: (1) she learned that she liked not having anyone around and (2) she ended up being out of sight too often, which was bad especially in bear and mountain lion country.
This Mexican Jay was very interested in our snacks at a rest break (photo by Manuel)
Nearing the top of the Pinnacles trail with my group (photo by Manuel)
We reached the Emory Peak turn-off, and stopped to take a short break and put our lunch foods in the bear box (since we planned to eat lunch when we returned). The other group caught up to us, and we all decided to walk the last 1.5 miles to the Emory Peak summit together. However, the other group wanted a 5-10 minute break first. As I was talking with the other group, I saw Tessa starting to walk up the trail to Emory Peak. I felt I was left with no choice but to follow her, as I could not stop her and I did not want her to be on the trail alone. Much of my group followed, which left us breaking our agreement with the other group to summit together.
Tessa was out of sight again, and neither Emily nor I was thrilled. Emily said I needed to have the tough conversation with Tessa that she couldn't keep walking this far away from us. However, when we caught up to her at one point, we agreed to stop for a water break, but she hurried away when we stopped. I eventually caught up to her again, and told her that walking that far ahead was not an option. I proposed multiple valid options - like her walking with Jakub or myself ahead or behind our group. She eventually agreed that we could trail her closely, but she seemed despondent and angry with me. I was at a loss of what to do besides trail her closely, with the group moving slowly behind me. When we reached the rock scramble before the summit, she sat down and did not want to go to the top. I stayed with her for a bit with Jakub, but when the second group appeared I led them to the top. I was at a complete loss for how to handle the situation, but felt sure I should be doing something different.
View from the Emory Peak trail (photo by Manuel)
My group on the Emory Peak trail (photo by Manuel)
Most of the ladies at the Emory Peak summit (photo by Hannah).
Group picture at the Emory Peak summit (photo by Manuel).
Me near the Emory Peak summit (photo by Hannah).
View of the basin from Emory Peak (photo by Manuel)
After taking pictures and enjoying the summit, we all walked casually back to the split point and our food left in the bear boxes. We had lunch together, and then split into two groups based on who wanted to leave now and who wanted to leave later. Sebastian went with the now group, and I finished eating and carried the remaining food and trash with the later group. Chris took Tessa with him, and I went with Jakub, Hannah, Manuel, Sarah B, and Zack. I opted to walk in the back, as did Jakub, as I figured I could see the group and the trail was obvious and the same trail we came up on. However, the group kept getting farther and farther ahead of Jakub and I (since we are both slow on downhills), until we eventually lost them. We never caught them, and were physically unable to safely go any faster. I felt like this was a failure as a guide, but no one else seemed to think this. Chris and Jakub knew (since Jakub was with me and we caught up to Chris and Tessa on the trail), but I guess they were okay with it and I guess the four people in that group were also okay with it. As Jakub and I walked down, we talked about our different PhD programs, job searches after PhDs, and defenses. Jakub had just defended his thesis in December.
People were shopping in the general store and the ranger station when we came down at 2:16pm. We had hiked a total of 9.26 miles. I hopped in the first suburban to leave for camp, and told everyone they had 10 minutes to change before we left for the hot springs. Then we drove about 45 minutes to the hot springs near Rio Grande village. We saw some petroglyphs on the short hike to the hot springs. The hot springs were empty when we arrived, and they felt good. Many in our group enjoyed jumping into the cold river from the hot springs. Brenden and Manuel even swam down river a bit. We all had fun relaxing and chilling. By the time we left, about 10 other people (9 men and 1 woman) had arrived. Most of the girls were in sports bras and shorts or bikini bottoms - which was fine with our group but seemed kind of awkward with all these random men.
All of us relaxing in the hot springs (photo by Manuel)
(L->R) Sebastian, me, Ellie, Hannah, and Sara B sitting on the ledge to the hot springs with our feet in the river (photo by Jakub).
Then we happily walked back to the cars and drove back to camp. The other car, which was driven by Sean and contained most of the girls plus Sebastian, was having a pretty humorous dance party ahead of us. We had fun watching them bob around as we drove back to camp.
We took about 10 minutes to change out of our wet clothing, and then headed to the lodge for dinner. Chris had walked up to the restaurant the night before so they were expecting us and were able to quickly handle all 16 of us at one table. Some people went out all, getting the $22 duck special and dessert and/or the $6 soup and salad add-on. I opted for a simple turkey burger and fries. It was tasty and we all enjoyed just relaxing and being together.
After dinner, we went back to camp and met for the leader of the day debrief. Sebastian and I both got a lot of positive feedback and no negative feedback. I personally got the following feedback:
- I was confident and decisive when answering questions
- I was well-informed and knowledgeable about the hike
- I gave good countdowns, especially the humorous but useful 30 second countdowns during hiking breaks
- I was receptive to altering pace, and was smart to use Ellie to pace our uphill group
- Ellie said she enjoyed chatting with me on the uphill climb, and said she felt like I was accessible and was leading without trying (I agree - leading today did feel natural)
- I had a 'motherly' feel to my leadership - I did a good job looking after people and caring for them during the hike
- They liked the friendly/funny reminder the night before: 'This is your friendly leader of the day reminding you to pack your daypack tonight'
- They liked the happy tone of my wake-up
Chris talked shortly after the leader of the day debrief about the next steps. Trips usually have 2-3 paid guides and then can have some volunteer guides as space permits that do not get paid but also do not have to pay to go on the trip. Volunteering on a trip is a good opportunity to gain experience guiding as well as to gain experience in an area that you want to strengthen (like canoeing, climbing, kayaking, ect for me). Volunteering at their outreach activities will help you gain priority on trips. They also have some staff trips, and we can plan scout trips for potential new trips (they pay for everything except food, and will provide us a suburban and gas). We can volunteer until we get our wilderness first aid or wilderness first responder certification, at which point we can get paid if we are one of the trip leaders.
We packed up everything except for tents, sleeping bags, and pads (sleeping in what we planned to wear the next day), and repacked the box trailer. Then I went to sleep. I listened to Brenden play guitar for a while, as well as listened to some people talking outside the tent, as I contemplated the entire epic experience.
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