A Weekend in the Wilderness

A journal of the Wilderness Leadership weekend at Pingree Park – an edited version.

I like friends, I like aussie rules football and I like beer, and that is how it started on Friday night. I guess it was a big night, heaps of face paint, heaps of yelling and somehow between then and Saturday morning I found myself riding my bike with Anna and two mates, up Shields St in the bitter cold at 10 to 7 in the morning in search of a breakfast burrito from Qdoba.  Anna joked how funny it would be if we bumped into Rodney and no matter how unlikely, that is how it happened. As we arrived Rodney was there, meeting us at the door, and I think my greeting was a little over ambitious for that time of morning especially given the state of my face – still painted (or smeared) in the St Kilda team colours.  Our awesome friends ordered a burrito and coffee as Anna and I made a mad dash back to our apartments to pick up our gear, I furiously cleaned up my face which proved more difficult than I had imagined. But was back at Qdoba to pick up our breakfast and headed off, wobbling down the road with our burrito and coffees in hand by half7.

The atmosphere of the wilderness crew seemed a little subdued, and I gather the impression that I’m not the only one suffering from lack of sleep. But we all pile into the ‘party van’ and have a sleepy drive up the Poudre – so peaceful and so helpful to my state of consciousness! We arrived and soon were in our cook groups heading up the trail to the loooove shack. Walking and talking we are all captured by the beauty of the aspens turning from fiery red, thru brilliant orange to mellow yellow.

After a quick bite at the love shack, new groups are formed for the second phase of our hike – bush bashing up to the top of the tree line. So, in a new group, which just so happens to click rather well, we take it in turns to navigate up, through the forest. We are all capable, and are all relaxed enough to let each other lead – or maybe its just that we’re too tired. Walking up through the forest was pretty choice, no defined track, ducking, weaving, the clean fresh air and the periods of crisp snow under foot.  Meredith found herself upside down at one stage – the weight of her pack too heavy to pull herself out of the logs she was wedged in. So despite a few nervous moments we made it to the top of the clearing in good time. We played a few games; although I’m not exactly sure what kind of game involves sitting on me in a squat position but it was fun anyway, a circular massage and then a human table idea which somehow we managed to pull off, and was a lot of fun. An hour or so laying on the ground using each other as pillows and having a snooze was awesomely relaxing and capped off our hike perfectly.

I am cold now, most of the clothes I packed are on my back and we quickly break into our hike groups to share our good and bad experiences for the day. Bed comes soon after admiring the stars and I decide to sleep open under the trees. With Meredith (such a cool name that one) as company we chat about the warmth of our OAP sleeping bags and how glad I am that I didn’t bring my own. But eventually drowsiness takes over our conversation and leads us to sleep… only to wake up sometime later, the wind is strong and sounds like a never ending wave crashing on the beach. My nose is cold, which sometimes spreads to my face and ears. I also find it difficult to lay still, the slope gradually tugging me down the hill and my liner twisted inside my bag slowly restricts my rotations and makes it even more uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I do manage to find another hour or two of sleep.

Up and at em! Noice sunrise over the mountains – our direction for our hike this morning, and it is nice to be snapped out of my semi conscious slumber. I’m now looking forward to breakfast and a hot drink – a coffee thanks to Cole. Most of us may have lacked sleep but there was no lack of enthusiasm as we head off from our windy home. Walking out I hear someone saw moose. And so I keep looking toward the tree line as we rock hop our way up the mountain. We are forced to change direction and so I take the opportunity to search the scrub and I see a tanned blob moving against the sway of the branches. This was awesome, my first male moose and a good view too from above.

Today we climb Fall Mountain, its good fun, a decent hike but not too taxing and we all make it to the top. These are good times, and there feels like good vibes amongst the whole team. The walk back down is also good, and a snow fight between Meredith, Anna, Melissa, Kevin and myself was pretty spontaneous, a great laugh and left me shaking snow out of my dacks as we continued walking down the mountain. The walk down to Pingree saw the end to our camp trip which was full of kisses (Hersheys) and some quality conversation topped off a great weekend.

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