The Fast and the Furious

My dream of going home and seeing all my friends was scattered abruptly by a tapping on my tent. It was 4:00 am, and today was the day that we were to summit Baldy. the troop was divided into two groups, the Urgles and Team Eragon.

Eragon went first about 30 minutes earlier. As the Urgles left, the sun was about to peek over the mountains. I was the pacesetter, and we took off at a furious rate, scrambling up the base, resting only to drink and eat occasionally. It was hard work, and it was even harder when about a third of the way up was switchbacks only. I ran back down the mountain alone to retrieve a forgotten nalgene bottle.

Only about an hour or so into the hike, we caught up with team Eragon. We let them go ahead, only to catch up with them again. That time, we passed them and went on up to the meadow, about 600 feet below the summit. We stopped here for a while, and once everyone had caught up I decided to exhaust myself even further and run up a hill at the meadow to admire the view. The lack of oxygen was rather discouraging, seeing as I collapsed after sprinting about 10 paces. However, me and Kyler decided to go on ahead and start the Zenith. It was harder than I could have imagined, with the angle of the slope being almost 75 degrees the entire time. I passed Kyler along the way, and pushed myself to almost the breaking point. However, when I was only 10 paces away from the peak strangers started cheering for me and told me to run. So, I sprinted to the top of Baldy and fell, gasping for air, seeing the indescribable view spin before my eyes.

The Campfire

We arrived at the Pueblano Campfire at around 8pm. There is a good sized crowd of people there, some of whom we know from the trail and others we've never seen before. The campfire is started off with a song by the Pueblano boys and the mood is set for our cheerful, yet serious evening.  As the evening progresses, song and laughter fill the cool summer air. The Pueblano boys seem to have a talent for taking us from side aching laughter to edge of your seat captivation by their stories. As the campfire winds to an end the crowd begins to thin and the songs become more somber. We wait as long as we can to capture just one more song to remember the Pueblano boys campfire by.

"I AM THOR"

When I first joined the troop we all slept outside so on the last day of the trip I slept outside. At first it was clear, then it got cloudy then the thunder started. Flash! BOOM! and this went on four hours, then it started sprinkling so I covered my face.

A while later Mr. Gamble yelled out - over the gale, "Zach! Get outta the rain!"  So, I strolled over into the rain fly and the next morning we joked about it and Mr. G said, he thought a lightning bolt almost struck a tree within 20 feet of our camp. He said he looked over and saw me sleeping soundly with the rain pouring down onto my sleeping bag. I AM THOR.

"Caaarl, Git Down Here"

After hiking all morning and about to ascend Baldy's steepest section, the air was thin, patience was thinner, the sun was burning overhead. We all lied down to take a break, have a snack, and hydrate. Sitting on a log with the air crystal clear, suddenly a scream, "Caaaaarllll! Git down here! It's time to climb the mountain!" the southern accent was thick as molasses. Cracked me up. I laughed off my...

See a video of the after affects at:
http://www.facebook.com/gregory.adams.108#!/photo.php?v=10151035074564527