Our latest adventure as recounted by a client journalist:
Hello all,
Greetings from the very cold and seasonably snowy Flagstaff, AZ! We had quite a bit go on in the last 7 days, including a solo outdoor weekend, a new client arrival, and a cold snap blast through town (it was 7 degrees this morning when we woke up). So without further ado…
Last week we were briefed that our outdoor trip was going to be a solo, where it was just us and nature for the weekend, with staff popping by just often enough to make sure we were still breathing and not lost. So Sunday we got up, most of us pretty eager for some peace and quiet (almost as rare as a unicorn in residential), and we loaded up the van and off we went. We hit the early morning Men’s AA Meeting and most of us got to share before taking a short 15 minute ride down I-17 right outside of Flagstaff. In addition to our usual guides Nick and Zach, we were joined by former client and current wilderness expert Aaron, who apparently is a wizard when it comes to making fire with sticks and rocks, building tarp shelters, and other outdoor skills.
Upon arriving at the group site the guides took turns teacher various classes such as the ones mentioned above, as well as knots, basic survival and basic orienteering. All invaluable tools if i ever get lost with nothing but a compass, map, a tarp, and 100 feet of paracord. I joke, but really, they were great classes that did teach very useful skills. After running through the classes, we were taken to our own individual areas to camp for the night. As the day rolled on, the weather worsened , and by the time the light faded, the wind started whipping through the area. Because the forecast called for rain and/or snow, the guides decided to let us use our tents instead of our newly constructed tarp shelters. I can’t speak for anyone else, but due to an unfortunate snafu with my tent, I ended up having to rig a hastily constructed bivy cover out of tent materials. Thankfully, I was able to make a roaring fire and after dinner and a few hours of meditation and contemplation, I snuggled into my cover to wait out the rain.
We had an early start Monday morning, because the weather was only supposed to get worse so we all hastily broke camp and returned to the group site. Leaving camp was interesting and fun, as the vans alternated between sliding and getting stuck the whole way out. There was much laughter, grunting, pushing, and wheezing but eventually we made it back onto the black top. We returned to Hunter only for a minute, then off to my favorite activity, the gym! We were there for over 2 hours picking up heavy things and putting them down again and playing some fiercely competitive games of wallyball. After that we returned to Hunter, cooked a wonderful chicken parmesan dinner (eggplant parmesan for the vegetarians) and ate together while we discussed how our solos went. After that, we relaxed for the rest of the night and all was quiet in the residential walls.
Tuesday morning came way too early, and as we zombie our way downstairs, we were thrilled to discover we were going to the climbing gym to finish our weekend! We climbed for a few hours and everyone crushed it, especially our guides, climbing things that seemed near impossible for us. The rest of Tuesday was relaxing because the week ahead is going to be busy. So we enjoyed out downtime and just like that our trip was complete.
We have a 4 day coming up this week, as well as two family weekends, so I can’t wait to tell y’all about that next week, as well as introduce our new client. So until then loved ones,
Client T over and out!
