Camp Bighorn Day 18 7/7/2010

Camp Bighorn Day 18 7/7/2010

The adventure continues. My day began with devotions at 7:30 am. We all gathered in the lodge to go through the devotional reading for the day. After devotions I got cleaned up and ready for the day. I went back to my cabin to pack for our three day camping trip. The staff was broken up into three groups for the trip. My group was hiking first. I got packed and got the mail out before breakfast. We all gathered in the lodge for some food. After breakfast we packed up the vans and headed out on our trip. My group drove to the Idaho/Montana state line to hike the state line trail down to the Bonanza lakes. The hike was six miles round trip. It was harder than I thought it was going to be. The first two miles in were not that bad. I was feeling pretty good about the hike in the beginning. It was fun to be on the trip with some of the other camp staff. We stopped every once in a while to rest and take some pictures. Everyone was have a great time. The first two miles of the hike took us about two hours. We stopped for lunch at the two mile point. I was already feeling tired at that point. It was nice to rest a while and get something to eat. After we ate lunch and rested we hiked the last mile down to the lake. That is when the hike got more difficult. That part of the trail is all down hill going to the lake. The terrain is very rocky and somewhat unstable. Andrea Underhill helped me walk down most of that way. My legs and ankles were really tired and sore at this point. It was fun to be out with everyone, but I was getting really tired. We finally got down to the lake. I was ready to rest for a while. Some people swam in the lake. Others tried to do some fishing. Some of the guys built a raft. They paddled the raft across the lake. It was falling apart as they were trying to cross the lake. When we got to the lake I wrote up my blog entry for the day before. I would type and post that entry when I got back to camp. After I finished my blog entry I went back and sat by the lake for a while. We stayed at the lake until about 5:00 pm. Then we gathered up and headed back to the trail to hike three miles up from the lake. The first mile going back was mostly up hill. I had a really hard time walking the second half of the hike. We had not been hiking very long when I had to stop and rest. Everyone was behind me, so I felt like I needed to move a bit faster. I told the people behind me that they could go around me if they wanted to. Eventually people started getting around me. Everyone was very accommodating and encouraging to me. I am used to getting left behind in situations that require athletic or physical ability. I was not left alone on the entire hike. It was nice to feel like a part of the group even though I was so tired. I honestly thought I could not go any farther. I got really discouraged and said I can’t do this. I knew I had to get back to the beginning of the trail. I just felt so tired I did not know how I could. By the grace of God and through strength that only came from Him I was able to finish the hike. Once we finished the first mile back out and got to the top of the hill the last two miles were not that bad. I was still moving pretty slowly. I was trying to focus on the scenery and the conversation going on behind me and not on the pain I was in. We finally got the beginning of the trail. By then I was more than ready to sit and rest for a while. Sarah took a picture of me with my walking stick I used for most of the hike. Jeremy, Sarah, and Andrea were all very proud of me for finishing the hike. I gave Andrea and Sarah hugs and Jeremy a high five. I was also pretty proud of my self for accomplishing that difficult task. We all piled into the vans and headed to our camp site for the night. We got to our camp site around 10:00 pm. We had dinner between 10:30 and 11:00 pm. I was so sore I could hardly walk. I hobbled around and got my stuff out of the van and got ready for bed. I shared an air mattress with one of the other girls on summer staff. It felt really good to lie down and rest. Beth and I talked for a while until dinner was ready. We had hamburgers and chips for dinner. They were very good. I ate my dinner on my bed because I could not get around very well. After dinner Beth and I talked for a while then went to sleep. I went to sleep thinking about what was in store for us the next day. More on that later…