Backpacking Lake Georgetown

This weekend Emily and I led a backpacking trip on 16.5 miles of the Goodwater Loop of the San Gabriel River Trail.

Goodwater Trail map, Austin Explorer description, download all photos

We had asked the participants to arrive between 3pm and 3:30pm, with the goal of leaving at 4pm.  Hence, I arrived at the Outdoor Center at 2pm to repackage and split up gear with Emily.  It was like a guide school reunion in the outdoor center! I saw and talked to Chris, Sean, Tommy, Tessa, Hannah, Manuel, Ellie, and probably more - truly great to see everyone!  We prepped everything, including cutting up all the veggies and cheese to avoid taking cutting boards and knives and preparing little bags of snacks (granola bars and fruit gummies) that everyone could eat whenever they felt like it.  We put some tent parts in each of the gear piles so that groups could then evenly split up tents between their occupants after the first night.  I opted for one of the heavy piles with a rainfly, ground cover, dromedary bag (6L / 14lb), oatmeal, and water filter.

We originally had 10 participants, but one girl did not show up and when Emily called her she said she decided not to go, so we ended up only having 9 participants.  This required Emily and I, as well as two other participants, to share what the girl who cancelled should have carried.

We left campus around 4pm on Friday and made it to the Russell Park trailhead around 5:15pm.  We left the participants to eat their dinners in the campground near the trailhead while Emily and I drove a shuttle car to the Cedar Breaks trailhead.

Once back at Russell Park, we waited for the participants to return from eating their dinner and then we hit the trail.  It was a quick 1.5 mile hike to Walnut Spring Camp.  My pack was pretty heavy, which was not a problem for the short, flat hike - but made me realize just how rough Saturday might be.

Once at camp, I picked a site (there were 3-4 to choose from) and then did a tent set-up demo with Emily.  I wanted to incorporate this because (1) you can show the participants how to set up a tent, which decreases frustration and makes them capable of setting-up and taking-down their own tents and (2) you can give a quick LNT talk on picking appropriate camp sites.  Emily and I took the tent from the demo, and set-up our sleeping pads and bags in our tent while the participants set up their tents.  Then we started some water boiling for tea/coffee/ect and got out the snacks allocated for Friday night (pre-cut cheese, crackers, jerky).  Then Emily gave her '6 Ds of Dumping' talk for how to appropriately poop in the backcountry.

Everyone opted to retire to their tents around 9:30pm, mainly for warmth.  The plan was for Emily and I to wake at 7am and then for us to wake everyone else at 7:30am after heating up some water.  I awoke at 6:30am to gunshots, presumably from nearby hunters.  Our trail ventured into some hunting area, and we were camping near the hunting area.  I wanted to nestle deeper into my sleeping bag, but I heard many of the participants up and about, so I decided to get up and help Emily get water started.  I learned on this trip that the idea is to get out of your tent ASAP and start water and then go back to your tent and prepare for the day while it is heating up.  Unfortunately for us, Emily had connected a gas tank to a stove with a broken connector, so the stove would not connect but would also not disconnect - and was spilling gas and fumes everywhere as we tried to disconnect it.  To make matters worse, the gas spilling everywhere was extremely cold.  Emily finally took it far away and broke it apart completely in order to stop the spillage.

For breakfast we had oatmeal with dried fruit and brown sugar.  We bought (and thought we packed) enough oatmeal for everyone to have two packets each morning.  However, it became obvious quickly that we had much less oatmeal than we had planned.  At the end of breakfast we only had 6 packets left!

At 7:40am we decided to aim to leave camp at 9am.  We packed up camp and then I went down to the lake to explore while the participants finished packing their tents and personal gear.  The lake was pretty cool in the morning with fog rising from the lake and all of the dead trees sticking out of the lake.

After stretching, we hit the trail around 9am.  We had an easy 4.5 mile hike from Walnut Spring camp to Tejas camp, where we ate lunch.  The morning hike was relatively flat, following a jeep trail for at least 2 miles.  There were splits in the trail that were only sometimes marked - I generally followed Manuel's advice to stay on the trail closer to the lake unless a clear making indicated otherwise.  We reached Tejas camp around 11:15am, and we stopped at a campsite to relax a bit and eat lunch.  There were also trash cans to dump trash in and a water spigot to refill our personal water containers and dromedary bags.  I usually hate camping lunches, but this one was actually okay: tortillas with hummus, salmon, and dried tomatoes.

After lunch I had a bit of trouble finding the trailhead, but eventually found it.  My pack was indeed heavy, and as the terrain got rockier and hillier, I really started struggling.  The 6.5 mile hike from Tejas camp to Cedar Hollow camp felt so long.  Some of the hills were rather steep and muddy - which is hard normally, but becomes almost impossible when you have a heavy pack.  I'm guessing mine was around 55-60 pounds.  The entire group seemed quiet after lunch, and I resorted to imagining songs in my head and counting repeatedly just to get my mind off of the weight.  I really wanted music.  I internally wanted to stop for so many breaks, but limited myself to just a few.  We stopped for a long break with about 2.5 miles left before Cedar Hollow, which felt great.  But we climbed a hill shortly after the break and I internally really wanted another break.  And of course, all I could think during the hike was how hard Guadalupe Mountains will be.  Determination, stubbornness, and mental toughness really are important when guiding - you need them to push through the challenging times.

When we reached camp, everyone was pretty tired.  But Emily and I pushed onward and got our tent set-up before she napped and I wandered down to the lake to sit and relax for about 30 minutes.  The lake was really pretty, and it was peaceful to just relax and reflect for a bit.  Then it was time to head back to camp and get my ramen dinner started.  I had forgotten the bag of spices I had prepared back in the Outdoor Center, so we opted to use the spices that came with the ramen.  We added some carrots and celery to the boiling water with the ramen, and it turned out great.  We cooked 11 packets, so everyone was able to eat about a packet of ramen each.  We also had cashews for a topping, which I think made the meal.  I was happy with how the meal turned out, and think it is a good backpacking meal.

After dinner we boiled some water for tea and then sat talking for a while.  After most of the group decided to get up to watch the sunrise, Emily and I opted to retreat to our tent at 8pm.  Everyone else seemed to do the same around 8:30pm.

I slept nicely, only waking up a few times.  I was not thrilled when my alarm went off at 6am, and decided to reset it for 6:30am after looking outside my tent.  However, as the sky grew lighter, I decided to go ahead and get up.  It was pretty cold, but the fog on the lake was pretty.  I waited for the sunrise until about 7am, before deciding to go boil water and start making breakfast.  In the end, the sunrise did not seem to end up being that pretty because it rose behind a peninsula.

Since we only had six packets of oatmeal left, Ben, Emily and I split a packet of ramen and someone else had a tortilla with peanut butter and tuna (yuck?).  Then we packed up camp, stretched, and left camp around 9am.  I ended up carrying the trash bag, but my bag was so light with an empty dromedary bag that I really did not care.  It's amazing how much difference the dromedary bag makes!

Our Sunday hike was just 4.5 miles.  We took a few short scenic breaks, and stopped at Crockett Gardens to see the weeping rock.  Then we hiked onward along a cliff-side trail with pretty views of the lake for the remainder of our trip until we neared Cedar Breaks park.  Once back at the parking lot, Emily and I drove to get the other Suburban while the participants headed to the boat dock to eat lunch.  After lunch, it was just a short 40 minute drive back to campus.

Once back at the Outdoor Center, everyone returned their group gear, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and backpacks.  We said goodbye to everyone, and then hung the tents, ground cloths, and rain covers to dry, hung the sleeping bags to dry, did the dishes, disinfected the sleeping pads, and essentially got everything that we could ready to be rented/used again.

All in all, it was a great trip.  I have been really stressed with paper deadlines, so this was a perfect escape.  I also enjoyed working with Emily, and our group was good (although quiet).  We planned out our gear and food much better than on the Lost Maples trip - we took very little gear that we did not use, and we had very little food remaining at the end of the trip.

All of the girls, and some of the guys, on the trip began mentioning that their hips were sore at some point.  Some of the girl's hips seemed sore to the touch even.  But my hips felt fine.  I wonder why I was somehow exempt from hip pain (despite my backpack certainly being one of the heavier ones due to the dromedary bag).  Perhaps my backpack fit better?  Or my hiking poles helped?  Or I have more fat?

After a great weekend, it is time to focus on finishing up conference papers for the next week.  And it is exciting and encouraging that we leave for our Guadalupe Mountains backpacking trip in about 2.5 weeks!  I'm so incredibly excited!

Take-away points:

• Ramen is a good backpacking meal.  Cooked carrots and celery worked well, as did the cashew toppings.  The included flavor packets were fine.
• Tortillas with peanut butter and/or hummus work well.  Meat (chicken/tuna/salmon) work well but is somewhat smelly.  I wonder if there is a better option for meat?  Perhaps tofu?
•  I still need to find a good balance between making good time and stopping for breaks when leading.  And why is it that when I stop for a scenic break, a better view always happens to be further ahead?

Morning at Walnut Spring Camp

Our group + Emily near Tejas Camp

 Climbing one of the steep hills shortly after leaving Tejas Camp

Morning at Cedar Hollow Camp

The view from our Cedar Hollow site

Lake Georgetown at Cedar Hollow Camp

The sole of one of my boots became almost completely unattached and had to be removed :(

My pack on day 3, with the group trash on top

Our group + Emily at Crockett Gardens

The group returning from the side hike to Crockett Gardens

 Pretty view of Lake Georgetown as we neared Cedar Breaks trailhead

Backpacking Lost Maples

This weekend I guided an UT Outdoor Recreation backpacking trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area with Tommy and Sara.

We had our pre-trip meeting on Thursday evening where we met the participants, went over the trip itinerary, and gave out backpacks.  It was interesting to find out that only two of the twelve participants were male, that we had three foreign exchange students, and that most of the participants were freshmen.  Most of the participants seemed to not know each other prior to the pre-trip meeting.

Tommy and I met at the outdoor center at 2:45pm on Friday to finalize preparations.  We checked the gear that had been set out by the Outdoor Center staff, selected what food to take with us, and then divided all the food, tents, and group gear into 15 piles of approximately equal weight and size.  We had two group water pouches (one 6L and one 4L), so those piles were obviously heavier.

As the participants arrived we gave them sleeping bags and pads to add to their packs.  Then we told them to each select a pile and also put that into their bag.  We departed at 4pm as planned.

Traffic was rough leaving Austin, but the participants in the Suburban I was driving were talkative and seemed to be getting along great considering they had just met.  We reached the Fredricksburg Whataburger at 6pm, where we stopped for a quick dinner.  I enjoyed some chicken nuggets and fries, and we got back on the road around 6:30pm.  After dinner most of the car slept although Sara stayed awake with me and we chatted some.  I followed Tommy's Suburban the entire way.  Once we reached the park we filled out the after hours registration cards and parked by the trail head for the West Trail.  There was a boy scout truck projecting flying eagle designs into the skies using lasers by the trail head, which we though was a bit excessive and certainly not LNT since they were causing light pollution as well as pollution from the gas generator they were running to power the lasers.

Lost Maples SNA trail map

Once we had our packs on, we headed for back country primitive campground E.  After hiking 1.73 miles (with one uphill climb), we reached the campground, where we found only one family set up.  We selected an area, and then set up our five tents.  Tommy led a demonstration on how to set up the 3-person tents, but broke a tent pole while setting up the tent so we took that tent as the 'guide tent'.  We helped the participants set up their tents after finishing ours.

Once the tents were set up, we all walked out from under the cedar trees to look up at the stars.  It was a new moon and a clear night, so we could see so many stars!  Tommy studies astronomy, so he pointed out some constellations.  We could also see the Milky Way!  This was only the second place I'd been able to see it (the first was Big Bend), so that was pretty near.  Eventually some of us walked back to the composting toilet 0.25 miles away, where we ran into some boy scouts who rudely shined their lights into our faces and called us Sasquatch.  Not a good way to greet others on the trail.  Most of us went to bed around 11am.

Tommy started the night sleeping outside the tent, but he opted to crawl in around 3am since the bugs were too bad outside.  This forced Sara to the middle of the tent and me to the right side.  When we awoke at 7:30am (after snoozing our 7am alarm since it was still pretty dark out), we noticed that Tommy had a dead mosquito on his face that he had apparently killed during the night!  We started packing up and started water boiling.  We made some coffee and oatmeal with the hot water.  We left camp around 9:30am.

We had a short downhill stretch before walking through Mystic Canyon.  After 0.88 miles we reached the turn-off for the 2.37 West Loop Trail.  My backpack was substantially heavier Saturday than it had been Friday, since some people in our group did not claim some food items and tent parts when we packed up Saturday morning so the guides were all forced to carry more.  Personally I ended up with almost an entire tent (rain fly, tent, stakes), oranges, and cutting boards in addition to my original supplies.  Feeling the additional weight, I offered to stay with all fifteen backpacks while the rest of the group went on the loop.  I had forgotten my hiking poles at the UT Outdoor Center, so my knees were already getting sore.  I talked to the many groups passing by and took some pictures during the hour it took the rest of my group to complete the loop.  We had a small snack once they returned, and then hiked the 1.11 miles to the lake at primitive campground C.  Once at the lake, we stopped for lunch.

Lunch was pita bread with sausage, cheese, tomatoes, avocados, oranges, and cookies.  I sliced the three blocks of cheese and tomatoes while Sara sliced the sausage and a participant sliced the avocados.  I only ate cheese and avocado, since I really can not stand pita bread.  After lunch we relaxed and some people played with some of the dogs around the camp.  We saw some fish and snakes in the pond!  As we were getting ready to leave, about three different boy scout troops arrived.  This caused us to discuss (1) how some of the troops seem to have a wide range of ages an (2) how we saw so many boyscout troops and boys out with their families but no girl scout troops and fewer girls out with their families.

After lunch we struggled up a 0.35 mile steep trail to the plateau overlooking our lunch spot.  This was a tough climb!  We stopped for pictures at an overlook, and then continued 1.37 miles to primitive camp ground A.  We had to endure a short but steep downhill segment shortly before camp, and rested in a grassy meadow for a short while after the downhill stretch.  Then we completed a short hike to primitive camp ground A, where we picked a grassy area near the trail to set up camp.  Sara and I quickly put up our tent, and then most of the group walked to a stream on the other side of the camp ground to filter enough water to fill both water bags and all the personal water containers.  The guys used the older filter to fill the water bags while the girls took turns pumping, holding the input tube in the water, and holding the output tube in each personal water bottle.  I spent the majority of the time holding the output tube.  It took us about 45 minutes to fill all the containers.

Once back at the camp ground, Tommy and I started cooking dinner while Sara rested after taking Benadryl for her mild rash and itching.  Sara, Tommy, and I thought the macaroni and cheese dinner turned out great - box mac and cheese is a comfort food - but unfortunately most of the participants did not seem to enjoy it.  After dinner most of us hurried back up the steep trail to the plateau overlooking the lake and primitive camp ground C to watch the sunset.  Only about a third of our group made it in time to see the sunset, but the sky was pretty even after sunset.  After enjoying the views, we all made our way back down the trail in the dark using our headlamps.  Most of the group stayed up for a few more hours sitting in a circle and telling 'scary' stories.  We had a great group!

The next morning we had oatmeal, bagels, coffee, oranges, and hot cocoa (as in, adding hot water to cocoa powder - thanks Tommy!).  I noticed a trash bag hanging from a tree, and although I did not think we had brought any trash bags, decided to throw trash into it after noticing Sara put trash into it.  Later Ian saw someone else putting orange peels into it and realized that we had mistakenly been using his clothing trash bag as a real trash bag.  Learning lesson: do not hang your clothing in a trash bag from a tree and not expect others to throw trash into it.  He took it well, but insisted on throwing away everything - clothing included - once we reached the dumpster at the trail head.

We had a quick hike out after breakfast.  While the group waited with Sara at a picnic table and used the bathroom at the trail head, Tommy and I walked to the parking lot near the other trail head to retrieve the vehicles.

We had planned to stop at the Stonehenge II replica in Hunt, TX on the way home.  However, no one had enough cell service to get good directions before the turn off, so we decided to follow the printed directions home after stopping for some snacks at a gas station.

It's an interesting experience now that I'm forming some strong opinions about ecological, sustainable, and ethical outdoor practices and tourism because I struggle with how to approach situations where I'm talking with people who are doing things I do not agree with seemingly because they do not know any better.  I  find myself struggling to find a good, non-confrontational response and instead just remain silent.  How do I find my voice without causing conflict and upsetting people?  How do I present my opinions in a compelling manner?  A few examples from this weekend: Sara saying how great a 'snake farm' that we passed on I-35 was, two participants pooping in the woods instead of in the nearby composting toilet (one because they said the toilet smelled too bad, another because they claimed they could not find the toilet), people talking about how great riding camels and elephants were on trips abroad, and both participants and other campers getting too close to/poking at crawdads and snakes.  As a guide I feel like it's my responsibility to educate people, but at the same time I do not want to upset anyone.  It's tough.

Guiding lessons learned / Pro tips:

• Tent demos are great, since they both teach the participants, decrease frustration, and speed up the process of setting up tents
• When backpacking, carefully allocate items across participants
• Separate food items across people by breakfast/lunch/dinner?
• Try to separate tents/group gear evenly
• Make sure to only take gear and food that we need

• Tell participants why surveys are important
• Bring some extra large zip lock bags and a few trash bags
• Repackage much more food in the OC before leaving to cut down on size and trash
• Actively find ways to bring LNT into discussions more

Stick insect on my tent

Our group taking a break in Mystic Canyon

Near the turn-off for the West Loop Trail

The group overlooking the valley and primitive campground C

 Overlooking the valley and primitive campground C

 One of the few trees that was changing colors during our visit

Tubing, SUP, and Hiking at South Llano State Park

This weekend I led a trip to South Llano State Park with Jakub and Manuel.  We had 11 participants on this trip, giving a total group of 14 people.

We decided at the pre-trip meeting to meet outside Gregory at 4pm on Friday and leave at 4:30pm.  Hence, I arrived at the Outdoor Center (OC) at 3pm to finalize any last minute trip preparations.  When I arrived, I slowly figured out that very little had already been done for the trip besides getting the box trailer from IM fields and doing the food buy.  Since this was my first time guiding a weekend trip, I wasn't sure if this was normal.  Once I realized how much was left to be done, I quickly started pulling kitchen and camp gear with an OC staff member while two other OC staff members went to pull the tubes, SUPs, and other gear from 1A (a further away storage room).  I also found out that Emily was currently at Academy Sports buying sleeping bags, since the OC had accidentally rented out all of the sleeping bags (including the ones allocated for this trip).  Once Jakub arrived, he helped tailor the supplies and remembered to add some additional necessary supplies.  In the end, we did finish pulling gear and loading it just barely after our desired departure time of 4:30pm, but it felt like a very frantic effort.

We ended up pulling away from Gregory Gym around 4:45pm since people were still rushing around and using the bathroom.  Jakub drove the Suburban with the box trailer, Manuel drove the other Suburban, and I rode with Manuel.  We quickly realized that the box trailer had been hitched to the wrong Suburban (one Suburban has a higher hitch than the other, and the box trailer needs to be hitched to the lower one).  However, since we would not be going off road, we decided to wait until reaching camp to make the switch.

We stopped at HEB near Ben White for quinoa (which somehow got forgotten on the food buy) before stopping for dinner in Fredericksburg.  In Fredericksburg, Manuel and Jakub went to fuel up the vehicles while I went with all the participants to the Auslander, which was able to seat all 14 of us together.  Dinner took a while, but my Chickenschnitzel with potato soup, mashed potatoes, and potato pancakes was pretty good.  We left the Auslander around 8:45pm.  Jakub led us on a short walk around Fredericksburg before we returned to the vehicles, which were parked on a backstreet.

On the last part of the drive to South Llano State Park, we saw multiple deer and rabbits near the road.  We arrived at the park around 10:15pm.  The camp hosts were off-duty and we hadn't been assigned a specific camp site, so we took the first two sites we saw together - sites 3 and 5.  These sites ended up being really great sites due to the wooded and spacious areas behind the picnic shelters.

We quickly set up 5 3-person tents, and then I set up the 1-person tent I had borrowed from the OC in the frantic gear pull.  I figured this trip would be a good opportunity to try out a 1-person tent.  Once all the participants had grabbed sleeping bags and pads, there was only 1 pad and 1 sleeping bag left (and 3 guides that still needed/wanted pads and sleeping bags).  I claimed these, but later felt pretty guilty about claiming them instead of offering them to Manuel or Jakub.

Manuel offered to lead anyone who was interested on a night hike to an overlook.  Everyone but Jakub opted to go, as he decided to stay and figure out where the missing pads and sleeping bags were.  We took a short but somewhat steep walk up to a scenic overlook from which we could see Junction.  Manuel led the group and I walked behind the group to be sure we didn't lose anyone in the dark.  The entire hike was 2.23 miles and took us 65 minutes.

Once we returned to camp, we learned that Jakub had found an additional sleeping pad since two had been rolled together.  However, this still left us 2 sleeping bags and 1 sleeping pad short.  Jakub improvised a sleeping pad out of some life jackets.  Both Jakub and Manuel put on most of the clothing they had brought, and I gave Manuel my sweatpants.  Then we all finally went to bed around 12:45am.  I enjoyed just laying in my little tent for a bit looking at the surrounding area and at the stars.  The little 1-person tent had mostly mesh panelling, so it was very well ventilated.  The mesh was indeed pretty close to your face and the area for your legs was narrow - but I actually really liked the Mountain Hardware Sprite 1.  The sleeping bags from Academy were pretty huge, so you had to gather a lot of the material around you if you wanted to keep the cool air from coming in.

 My home for the weekend, taken Saturday morning :)

I awoke to pots being moved and other cooking noises around 6:30am.  I assumed this was Jakub waking up and starting breakfast so I got up.  However, when I walked through our camp, everyone was asleep and I realized the noises were from a group of boy scouts across the street.  Hence, I walked to the bathroom and then got back in my tent.  However, then it started to mist, so I debated for about 10 minutes whether to get up again and put on the rain fly.  Around the time I decided to do so, it stopped misting.  About 10 minutes after that, I heard Jakub setting up the stove, so I got up.

We set out breakfast materials (bagels, cream cheese, oatmeal, tea, hot chocolate), heated up water, made coffee and put it in a carafe, and I cut up some oranges.  Then there wasn't much to do, so I got ready for the day and put the rain fly on my tent in case it rained during the day.  Then I ate breakfast after walking up the participants and telling them breakfast would be in 10 minutes.

Some of the 3-person tents by the picnic area on Saturday morning

 Breakfast on Saturday (as well as Jakub's makeshift sleeping pad on the left)

We ate breakfast around 8:30am, and told the participants to try to be ready to go hiking by 9:30am.  Doing dishes was easy at this camp site since we had a water spigot by the road at our site.  Jakub and I went to park headquarters around 8:45am to register our group using our Texas State Park Passes, pay for our site the night before, and determine if we could extend our reservation for one more night (since there was a mistake when the sites were originally booked that led to us only having reservations for one night).  There was only one open site at that time, so we decided to book it and hope another one came available.  Shortly after we returned to our site, the camp host came over and said park headquarters had just radioed that another site had come available.  With this information, I hurried back to park headquarters to claim and pay for this site.  With all this hustle, we didn't end up leaving camp until 10am.

I led a group of 5 participants along the Fawn trail for about 1.5 miles.  We saw a wild turkey as we were walking on this trail.  The turkey was right next to the trail and ran away right after we passed it, which drew our attention to it.  If it had just remained still, we may have never noticed that it was there!  I noticed that a participant had picked a purple flower, and tried to tell her individually that you really shouldn't pick flowers (both under LNT and so others can enjoy them), but I'm not sure she understood/cared.  We waited for the other 8 people where the Fawn Trail intersected the Golden Checked Warbler trail.  The participants opted to join the groups at this point, despite the fact that this would likely lead to seeing less wildlife.  In the end, we usually walked in small groups that were reasonably spaced out, so it didn't feel too crowded. We only saw two other groups hiking the entire day, so at least our big group wasn't disturbing other visitors.  We stopped for lunch at the primitive camp ground shortly after noon.  I cut up some tomatoes, a block of Munster cheese, and a block of Swiss cheese.  We had pitas with hummus, cheese, lettuce, deli meats, Pringles, and Oreos.  Jakub ended up fitting all our trash (including the Oreo container) in the Pringles can!

As we were walking back to camp, we came across an old ranch with a windmill and a water tank.  We looked into the water tank and studied the windmill (a few people climbed up).  Then we attempted to find the caliche pit that was supposed to be nearby.  Most of the group gave up and went back to camp with Manuel.  I wandered up a trail and off a side trail with three participants and found a pit.  However, this pit was not what we expected!  It contained animals (at least boars and young deer) in various stages of decomposition.  The smell of the pit was rancid, and there were bones scattered all around (likely from scavengers that had come to eat the meat).  We were all originally disgusted, and then a bit interested.  Eventually we decided we should find the rest of the group.  Jakub was waiting patiently back at the ranch, so we followed behind him.  He showed us a pretty cool bird blind on the way back.  This blind had so many pretty birds eating and relaxing within its view.  However, it also raised the question to me of why it is okay to 'feed the wildlife' when the wildlife is birds and the food is birdseed (despite all the signs all around the park about not feeding the wildlife).  Is something like that LNT?

Climbing the windmill (photo by Jenna)

The 'Pig Pit'

My small group stopped by the park headquarters office on the way back to camp to inquire about what a caliche pit was (Jakub was right, it is a pit with white powder), and ask why we instead stumbled across a pit of dead animals.  The lady in the office said "Oh, that's the pig pit" and explained that whenever animals are killed by cars or otherwise found dead in the park, they move the dead bodies to the pig pit.  Our entire hike was 7.72 miles and took us 4.5 hours (including lunch and other stops).

Once we returned to camp, most of the participants laid down to relax or played games.  Manuel and I used the time to determine how to best inflate the tubes and SUPs for the afternoon time on the river.   Manuel found no electric outlet at the put-in point on the river, and I found the outlet in the car didn't support the voltage of the electric pump, so we decided to partially inflate the SUPs and fully inflate the tubes using the electric pump (which could be powered using the outlet at our camp site).  Then we bent the partially inflated SUPs so they would fit in the box trailer and decided to hold the fully inflated tubes out the Suburban windows (since they wouldn't fit anywhere else and we didn't bring extra straps to tie things down on the roof racks).  After changing into river clothing, we headed to the river.  We finished inflating the SUPs by hand near the river and gave helmets and life jackets to those riding on the SUPs.  Then Manuel and Jakub ran a shuttle to the parking lot nearest the take-out point.

We got on the river around 5pm.  We only had 8 SUPs, so Jakub, Pratik, and I rode in tubes and Manuel walked along the river.  The SUPs were able to move much quicker than the tubes, so all the SUPs quickly passed the tubes.  The last SUP had two girls who nicknamed themselves 'the grandmas' - and they offered to tow me down the river.  I felt somewhat bad about this - especially since I felt it would look bad for the participants to be towing a guide - but I also knew that all three guides shouldn't be stuck really far behind the group.  Hence, I accepted and it was a pretty fun ride.  My tube often pulled the SUP in strange directions since we were not using the large fins on the SUPs since the water was really shallow in parts, but I was also able to add extra stability by holding the board flat with my hands (and I was also able to adjust the heading pretty easily).  I used my flip line to connect my tube to their board so that we wouldn't get separated in rapids.  We certainly crashed into many vegetated banks and rocks though.  One time when we had crashed into a bank I noticed what I originally thought was a turtle head right next to my tube.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the tongue was certainly a snake tongue and it was indeed a green patterned snake in the water right next to my tube.  I couldn't see the body, so I have no clue how big or long the snake actually was (or what type it was).  I mentioned to the 'grandmas' that there was a snake right next to me.  They froze at first, and then asked what to do.  I suggested that we paddle away from the shore, which they quickly did.  Fun times.

Being towed down the river (photo by Manuel)

When I reached the sign saying 'Tube take-out', I noticed that all the other SUPs were pretty far downstream.  I blew my whistle and motioned for them to come back and get out at the tube take-out.  Manuel took a SUP out for a bit in the meantime.

We carried the SUPs and tubes a long 0.3 miles to the parking lot.  However, upon getting there, we realized that Jakub had the keys to the Suburban and trailer that were parked there.  Manuel had the keys to the car at the put-in, but it didn't seem that running the 1.5 miles back there in wet clothing and sandals was a good solution.  We sorted the gear, but some of the participants were getting pretty cold and wanted dry clothing.  I went back to the take-out to wait for Jakub and Pratik, but was soon told that they actually exited early and were attempting to climb up a bank.  They made it up with little trouble, and we all walked back to the parking lot.  I loaded all the gear into the box trailer in an efficient manner.  Then we drove back to camp so we could get dinner started and everyone warmed up as soon as possible.

Jakub started dinner and Manuel and I went to get the other vehicle from the put-in point.  On the drive over, we saw a herd of about 50 deer crossing the road and jumping over a fence!  Many still had their spots, meaning they were still young.  Once I returned to camp, I washed my hands and then helped cut up mushrooms for dinner.  Some of the participants were also helping Jakub get dinner started, although most were playing cards at the other site.  This is completely fine, as the participants are only encouraged, not expected, to help.

Dinner, which was quinoa with salmon, tuna, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, and onion, was really good.  Then Jakub made his 'secret' dessert.  You'll just have to come on a trip if you want to know what it is. :)

After dinner I helped with dishes, and then we all opted to go on a night hike to Buck Lake and to walk along the river.  I opted to go on the hike despite my right knee being pretty tender, mainly because I didn't want to miss out on anything.  Perhaps not the most responsible idea.  My knee was generally fine when I was walking, but whenever we would stop and take a break it would be really sore once we started walking again.  Jakub walked in the back, Manuel led, and I walked in the middle.  We lost Jakub and the back of the group a few times, but they always caught up once we stopped.  We tried to walk mainly by the moon (ie, without our lights), which made it hard to see where everyone was at points. One participant claimed he would have been scared to death if he had been out there alone.  The entire hike was 2.15 miles, and took us 74 minutes.

Once we got back to camp, most of us went to our tents quickly.  A few people stayed up playing cards somewhat loudly, but I guess I was so tired I could tune them out pretty easily and fall asleep (my tent was also farther in the woods than our other tents).  I opted to leave my rain fly on overnight, as it was predicted to rain.

I awoke a few times overnight to light rain, and when I heard pots and cooking sounds in the morning (again from the boy scout group) it was lightly misting.  Jakub awoke around the same time it seems, so we put out the leftover bagels and cream cheese, he started water boiling for drinks, and I cut up two oranges.  He didn't want to start the breakfast tacos yet since he thought people would be slow to get up due to the rain.  Hence, I opted to take down my little tent before the rain got worse (and then I'd be able to help others more later) and then got ready for the day.  I eventually pulled out my rain jacket and rain pants so I could keep my shorts and hiking shirt somewhat dry.  In hindsight, this was a great decision that should have been made even earlier.

Then Manuel started scrambling eggs and I started cooking bacon while Jakub helped us both.  Another frying pan would have been nice for cooking the bacon, as while cooking the bacon in a pot decreased splatter, it was certainly more difficult.  My first batch of bacon was a bit unevenly cooked, while the two subsequent batches were really good.  Both the eggs and bacon were indeed delicious.  I put some cheese on my eggs and ate it out of my bowl (instead of eating a taco).  Once we ran out of scrambled eggs, I cooked a second set of eggs that were mixed with some of the quinoa leftovers from dinner.  This was probably my favorite meal despite the rain because it was delicious and I was proud of my bacon and eggs+quinoa leftovers mixture.

After breakfast the participants packed up their gear while we did the dishes and packed up the kitchen (making sure to put everything needed for lunch in one place).  Then we helped the participants take down their tents (which were pretty wet and muddy).  At this point, the participants decided as a group they would like to hike during the time before lunch.  After taking down the tents, I opted to hop into the box trailer and play Tetris with all the equipment.  Jakub thought we would need to deflate the SUPs more, but I felt confident we could make everything fit as is.  In the end, I made it happen!

Then I quickly changed to hiking shoes and filled my camelbak, and we were off on another hike.  This time we hiked on the River trail and the Buck Lake trails.  Many of these trails were the same trails we had hiked the previous night in the dark.  My right knee was incredibly sore at points  (mainly the outside) and completely fine at others.  Really strange.  I hung in the back of the pack with Jakub for a decent bit of the hike.  We shortly chatted about comments for the guide evaluation form (the form the guides are supposed to fill out post-trip about how they thought the trip went), which led me to think more about that throughout the hike.  As we got closer to the river, some participants climbed down a river bank and found bones from a dead animal.  They brought them up for us all to see, and then one took one of the vertebrate bones.  I'm really not sure what to do in these situations.  Manuel and I discussed it later in the day when we returned the box trailer to Intramural fields, and decided it might be best to give an LNT talk before each hike reminding people to leave what they find and dispose of trash properly.

As we were walking along the river, we found lots of pecans.  Some of the participants opened the shells and ate the nuts.  One participant carried lots of pecans home with him, which I felt a bit uneasy about.  I'm not sure if that is something we should actively discourage or not.

We eventually walked back to camp after hiking 2.86 miles in just under 2 hours, and the participants opted to have lunch at camp (as opposed to driving for a bit and then stopping at a park somewhere).  I cut up Munster cheese and tomatoes.  We also had some sandwich bread, pitas, lettuce, avocados, hummus, deli meat, Pringles, Cutie oranges, and Oreos.

After quickly doing dishes, we loaded into the Suburbans and headed back home.  I rode in Manuel's car, and got that car to fill out the post-trip evaluations.  Between the park and Junction, we had to stop in the middle of the road to let an armadillo cross.  Pretty awesome.  Then, I started working on the guide post-trip evaluation.  In Fredericksburg we stopped for gas, and I switched with Jakub to drive the other car (so he could rest and add his comments to the post-trip evaluation).  I finished filling up Manuel's car.  The OC originally could not find the gas receipt, but found it about a week later after having given up.  Apparently I put it in the trip card envelope in the trip binder instead of in the receipt pocket in the trip binder.  Live and learn, but at least I did not actually lose the receipt!  I drove Jakub's vehicle the remainder of the way to Austin.  The new Suburbans have XM satellite radio, which is awesome since you can usually find a station that everyone can agree with.

Our entire group (photo by Manuel)

Once back at Gregory gym, we took all the gear out of the cars and moved it into the OC.  Then we let the participants go.  Overall, their evaluations were good.  One person noted that they would have liked peanut butter, which we had and just never got out.  I wish they would have asked!  Two people noted the missing sleeping bags and the need to be sure we had enough gear for everyone.  Two people marked that they would have liked a campfire.  We try to avoid doing campfires because it isn't LNT.  But is it really not LNT if we use a provided fire pit and follow fire safety guidelines?

Jakub and Pratik (who nicely offered to stay and help) hung up the tents and unpacked lots of gear while Manuel and I returned the box trailer to its home at Intramural fields.  Then I finished unpacking the food and took some water gear back to its home in 1A.  Jakub and I returned one of the Suburbans back to its home in Jester Circle (since I hadn't done this before, and wasn't sure how to get there), and then we did a final review of the participant evaluations and our guide evaluation while Manuel was going to get his car (since we couldn't leave since he'd be locked out).  Jakub made his notes in black and I made mine in red so Chris/Emily/whoever actually reads the form could tell who had which comments.

Overall, it was another great trip.  Despite the various organizational and planning issues, the participants mainly didn't know about these issues and were not affected by most of them.  As guides, we did a pretty good job of isolating the participants from as many of the issues as we could so I'm proud of us for that.  I'm also thankful to Jakub and Manuel for letting me have a sleeping bag and pad - it made my nights much more pleasant.

I feel like I'm learning and growing as a guide.  I'm getting much more confident, and growing as a person so much through this experience.  It's forcing me to become more social, and learn to balance being an introvert with leading a group and trying to make everyone feel involved.  It's pretty cool to watch myself mentally and emotionally grow like this.

Of course, there are still many things I need to work on.  In terms of anticipation, I'm doing much better.  Guide school, and then having Grand Canyon as my first trip, really taught me how to think ahead of the group and figure out what needs to be done before it needs to be done.  I still have a ways to go (the shuttle issue on this trip is one example of that), but I think I'm learning quickly.  One thing Jakub noticed during this trip that I could do better is using the empty time between activities.  One example was when Jakub and Manuel ran the shuttle before we got on the river.  I got the group to carry their equipment down to the river and gave a paddling talk, but then failed to get them to do anything useful after that.  They ended up chatting and playing games themselves, but I could have done something better.  I tend to naturally be a quiet, organizational leader - trying to be a louder leader who commands attention is less natural but I'm working on it.  I'm also actively trying - especially when guiding - to avoid talking over people.  Spending time with people in my research group has taught me to speak over people, since that is often the only way to get your opinions heard with that group.  But its unnecessary with most groups, and can come off as rude.  After Emily pointed this out to me during the Grand Canyon trip, I've been actively working on improving this.

I'm loving being a guide.  I'm actually pretty sad that my next trip is over a month away.  However, it will be an epic trip - I'm so excited to go back to Big Bend and Santa Elena canyon!

Guide School Day 14: Emory Peak Hike

Today Sebastian and I were leaders of the day!

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

The four guides did not have much to say during the debrief.  Emily said on the uphill hike, as I was not sure what to do about Tessa, that she thought I was doing a good job.  Chris said that he thought we did a great job, and thought that the 6:30am breakfast ended up working on nicely.  We seemed to be the first group of the day to the Emory Peak summit (a guy who arrived after us seemed surprised that he was not first).

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.

Guide School Day 12: Entrance Camp to Gourmet Camp

Ellie and Tommy were the assigned leaders of the day as we entered the Santa Elena canyon!  My team (Sean, Manuel, and Sara B) was in charge of meals today.  For breakfast we served apples and bagels with dried fruit, peanut butter, jelly, honey, Nutella, and cream cheese.  We left camp at 9:02am.

Entrance Camp in the early dawn (photo by Manuel)

Entrance Rapid has been making us nervous since we had first seen it on our hike on the second day on the river (guide school day 10).  Navigating Entrance Rapid did require some good steering and draws - but we all got through without any serious issues.

All but three canoes decided to line the next rapid, since it was an easy line and the chance of flipping seemed high (and there were no anchors nearby if we wrapped a canoe on the rocks).  Manuel and Chris as well as Sara B and Jakub (video complements of Manuel) went through the rapid with no issues.  However, Sean and Brenden (who had decided to run it together as their partners - Zack and I - lined the other canoe) flipped (video complements of Manuel).  It was an easy recovery, but they and the stuff in Zack and Brenden's boat got wet (luckily we had removed the guitar, just in case a flip occurred).

Then, we reached the rock slide rapid (which was only about a mile from Entrance Camp).  Manuel and Chris 'went to Mexico' to scout, and then Sean and I followed.  As we cut across the current from the Texas side to the Mexico side, I was certain at multiple points that we would flip and/or end up going through Rock Slide prematurely (with or without our canoe).  But we made it.  Then we did a tough but fun rock scramble up to some lookouts where we could see the entire rapid from above.  I did not go as far or high as Sean (who is really comfortable with rock climbing), but could still see all of the rapid.  We stayed high to watch as some of the other groups made their way through the Mexico Gate of Rock Slide (Texas Gate was blocked by a strainer).

 Scouting rock slide rapid from above on the Mexico side (photo by Manuel)

Sarah and Emily aiming towards Mexico Gate (photo by Manuel)

There was a bit of drama when both Emily and Tommy were standing on a rock in the middle of Rock Slide yelling conflicting instructions at couple groups.  Some of the people in those groups got really irritated.  Seeing this, I asked Sean before going into the rapid whether I should listen to his directions or theirs while in the rapid, and he said theirs - I felt better knowing we were on the same page going in.

Sean and I ran the rapid 7th, and actually ended up going through the narrow middle gate although we were originally aiming for Mexico Gate.  We started to go towards the middle gate, and just opted to go with it, since we knew from looking from above that we would be fine.  Although the middle gate was narrow, it was actually much easier.

Sean and I starting off from Mexico side, getting ready to go into the rock slide rapid (photo by Manuel)

We stopped for lunch at Camp Misery, which was located right after rock slide.  We served sandwiches with tomatoes, bell peppers, avocados, summer sausage, salmon, tuna, cookies, oranges, and chips.  After lunch, we saw a presentation by Manuel and Sara B on the 'Respect Wildlife' Leave No Trace Principle.  Their presentation was really cute, and involved them role playing with Sara being knowledgeable in Leave No Trace and Manuel being a naive tourist.

We ran a variety of tough rapids before reaching Gourmet camp at 3:29pm (4.88 miles from Entrance Camp).  Sean had been pushing me to learn to steer, but I was glad while running these rapids that Chris has said to wait until the following day.  Sean and I are working well - my paddling skills have improved a bunch since day 1!  We rocked rapids today that we would have struggled with (or chosen to line) on day 1.

Sean and I chilling (photo by Manuel)

Once at Gourmet Camp (in the middle of the canyon!), we set up the kitchen, changed into dry clothing, and cooked quesadillas for dinner.  We served tortilla chips, salsa, and oranges as an appetizer.  As I was cooking, flocks of birds began swarming inside the canyon, which was pretty awesome to see (especially considering how it relates to my research!).  The presence of the birds also decreased the presence of the small flying insects we had experienced earlier in the night.

Looking downstream from Gourmet Camp (photo by Manuel)

 Looking upstream at Gourmet Camp (photo by Manuel)

For dinner we mixed and cooked corn and pinto beans and grilled zucchinis and onions.  We then had people add these ingredients and/or sun-dried tomatoes and cheese to a tortilla, and then we grilled their made-to-order tortilla for them.  Sean insisted on manning the grill the entire time, claiming it kept him warm.  Everyone seemed to really like the quesadillas, but I think we could have had more food.

After dinner, everyone started chilling at the fire listening to Brenden play guitar. Sean and I washed the dishes, and most of the girls were braiding each others' hair.  After we finished the dishes, we all sat around the fire listening to Brenden playing and singing with Sebastian playing drums on an empty water container.  It was a pretty cool feel.  For me, the most memorable song was about the Groover: 'My name is Charles (thanks for asking)'.  Brenden is indeed really talented at crafting lyrics on the fly.

After a bit, Sara's dutch oven chocolate cake was finally done cooking.  It turned out pretty nice (especially considering we didn't know the exact proportions of the ingredients), and we all shared a few plates and forks around the camp fire.  Tonight was a great night of bonding around the camp fire.  Looking up and seeing the stars and the canyon walls was also completely amazing.

Relaxing around the camp fire (photo by Manuel)

Gourmet Camp at night (photo by Manuel)

Tonight the guides announced that Sara B and Manuel would be the leaders of the day tomorrow, which leaves Sebastian and I to lead the Emory Peak day by default.  I'm pumped, as I wanted to be leader on the Emory Peak day from the start.  Sebastian seems cool, so I'm excited to be working with him.

Everyone seemed to think today was amazing.  I thought it was cool to be in the canyon (looking up at the walls is pretty neat), and I enjoyed the challenge of the many rapids today, but I thought yesterday was so much cooler.  I guess different people have different things that really excite them.  For me, although today was awesome, yesterday was super amazing.

Guide School Day 10: Ledges Camp to Entrance Camp

Zack and Sarah Rose were the assigned leaders of the day today.

My sleeping pad was on a weird split incline, so I slept somewhat poorly because I could either sleep on the split incline or I could sleep on flat ground against the side of the tent (which seemed to be a better option, but led to me waking up often due to cold).  I woke up at 5:30am, since Hannah and Tessa were on the food team today, but didn't get up until around 6am.  Apparently Hannah had a dream about nature taking revenge on us and Tessa started her (apparently) nightly dreams of having sex with various people in our group.  Pretty strange but interesting dreams.

Breakfast consisted of oatmeal and yogurt.  It was a really cold morning, so I had some hot chocolate and two packs of oatmeal before having a bit of yogurt followed by some hot water (to 'clean' my nesting bowl).  I had left out my wet water shoes (old tennis shoes) and wool socks to 'dry' overnight - what a mistake!  They were frozen and pretty miserable to wear in the morning.

False Sentinel from Ledges camp (photo by Manuel).

Ledges camp in the morning (photo by Jakub).

We loaded the canoes - Sean and I took the big kitchen dry bag, two ammo boxes with food, 2 8-gallon water jugs, and the Groover. The Groover is the portable toilet that we used for solid waste.  The equipment team would set it up somewhere a short distance from camp that was both private and had a good view.  We would then use a paddle to designate whether it was in use - when you went to use it, you would take the paddle from a tree nearby and when you returned you would replace the paddle.  We were supposed to take a bit of hand soap after using the Groover and go wash our hands in the river.

Our introduction to the Groover the night before (photo by Manuel).

We got on the river at 9:13am, and it was extremely cold.  We only had 4.14 miles to paddle today.  We stopped to take a water break and a snack break.  In general, the paddling was simple today so we didn't need to stop and scout and/or line any rapids.  However, it was extremely cold when we were not paddling, to the point that I would start shaking every time we stopped.  At one point I remember thinking that I was the coldest I had ever been.

On-water water break (photo by Manuel)

We didn't quite run this rapid shortly before Entrance Camp correctly...

 ...which led us to run into the river cane (photos by Manuel).

We reached our camp for the night - Entrance Camp - at 10:53am.  We were all terribly cold, and Zack was semi-hypothermic as evidenced by his decreasing ability to function and his blue fingers and toes.  Emily tended to Zack (warm sleeping bag, warm drinks, rest, ect) as the rest of us unloaded the canoes, changed into dry, warm clothing, and enjoyed some warm drinks.

Once we were dry and warmer, we set up the rest of the kitchen, tents, and the Groover.  Then the food crew prepared lunch.  After lunch, we had two Leave No Trace presentations.  The first was one by Sarah Rose and I on the 'Dispose of Waste Properly' principle.  We focused on packing out trash and on disposing of human waste properly in different environments.  The second presentation was on the 'Leave What You Find' principle.

Entrance Camp (photo by Manuel)

Sarah R digging a cat hole in the sand for demonstration purposes during our Leave No Trace presentation (photo by Jakub).

Entrance Camp from the kitchen area (photo by Sara B).

Our canoes nicely lined up for the night at Entrance Camp (photo by Jakub).

Originally we were scheduled to have paddling practice in a calm area near camp, but the water and air were so cold that the 4 guides decided a hike into the Mesa de Anguila was a more appropriate activity.  It was an optional hike, so about 5 people stayed behind and about 11 of us went on the hike.  The original idea was to hike across the back-country to see the Rock Slide rapid from above.  We started by hiking up the cliff by our camp, and then joined a rarely-used but carned back-country trail.  We took the trail for a while, but eventually Chris decided that we would need to walk 45 more minutes to get to the Rock Slide rapid and that we didn't have enough time to get there and back to camp before sunset.  Hence, we went back to camp on a more visible and quicker back-country trail before taking the faint trail back down the cliff.  Partway down the cliff, we detoured to see the Entrance Rapid from above, which we would be tackling early Wednesday morning.  I walked near the front of the group as we hiked, usually behind Brenden and Chris and right before Hannah and Zack.  We walked against and through many spiny bushes and cacti, which left lots of thorns in my sweat pants and socks.  I learned on this hike to only wear nylon pants (even thin ones) when walking in the back-country - sweat pants were a terrible idea (they were a magnet for spiny things).  Ellie got some spines in her hand and Sara B got a few spines in her feet (that's why you wear close toed shoes!) - both required tweezers to remove.  Sara B noted that even upon returning home she still had two spines in her foot.

The mouth of Santa Elena Canyon from our hike up the cliff (photo by Manuel).

 Hiking up the cliff from Entrance Camp (photo by Manuel).

Entrance Camp from the hike up the cliff (photo by Jakub).

Hiking across the Mesa de Anguila (photo by Manuel).

Group picture taken with a timer in the Mesa de Anguila (photo with Manuel's camera).

Wide-open space in the Mesa de Anguila (photo by Manuel).

Short break during our hike in Mesa de Anguila (photo by Manuel).

Manuel's GPS track from our hike - Start: 3:01 pm. Finish: 4:48 pm. 1.95 miles round trip.

It made me really happy to go hiking in the back-country!  It was neat to see so far, and to see no one but us.  It was also pretty cool to hike in an area that very few people visit.

We did see one person today, once while canoeing and then once at camp.  It was a Hispanic guy on a horse.  He ignored us, and we attempted to ignore him.

We had dinner shortly before dark.  The do it yourself kebabs were good - but there was not enough food and some people resorted to eating leftover quinoa from my group's dinner the night before.

Tent mates! (photo by Manuel)

Great sunset photo at Entrance Camp (photo by Jakub).

After dinner, we had another Leave No Trace presentation on the 'Minimize Campfire Impacts' principle.  We carried two fire pans on this trip in which to build fires, which is one way to minimize impacts.  Chris said that UT is trying to move towards not having any fires on trips.  However, sitting around a campfire is important to some people, so in those cases, we should attempt to minimize the impacts.  In this presentation, we learned how to build a 'log cabin' base for starting a fire using small sticks and kindling.

Although some people were sitting around the campfire chatting tonight, I opted to go to bed early after our final meeting of the night since I did not have kitchen duty and I had no personal dishes to clean.  It was to be the coldest night on our trip, so I slept in long underwear, tights, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt inside my liner and sleeping bag.  It was still pretty cold all night.  I used a cotton scarf to cover my nose and mouth to make breathing easier (to avoid breathing really cold air).

Tessa and I were talking in the tent after she had been assigned to be leader for the next day about what day I would want to be leader.  I stated that I would strongly prefer to do the Emory Peak hike day because I thought this day would showcase my abilities best.  Only after saying this did I remember that Chris and Billy were in the tent right next to us, and were probably awake.  Whether they heard me or not, (spoiler alert) I got my wishes and led the Emory Peak day on the last day.