Wilderness Trek 2008

This was the year I finally signed up to join the teens in their annual quest to summit a mountain in Colorado. I knew this would be difficult on an old guy like me and I had every intention of working out and showing Cameron that his dad is still pretty tough guy. But a couple of things got in the way. The first being either my schedule at work or my uncontrollable laziness. There's something about getting home late in the evening from 12 hours at the office and looking at that treadmill that causes all gladness to leave me. The other thing that got in the way was a small child's foot. Let me explain... Cameron's summer job requires him to supervise children and lead them in various activities. Two days before we left for Colorado, this entailed a game of soccer. To avoid stepping on small feet with his shoes, Cameron decided to play soccer barefoot. Fourteen years of rec., competitive and High School soccer were no preparation to avoid rolling his ankle and causing him to miss out on this years trip. The ER doctor said it was broken but two weeks later, we still wouldn't know the actual damage due to the fast paced world of Workman's Comp. The good thing out of all this was that I could spend more quality time with Emily and she could easily show me how it's done.

We left for Trek early on a Saturday morning. I had rigged the church van just like the ski trip to have a monitor on which we could play movies or display my laptop's GPS mapping software. This year I added speakers to the front of the passenger area. This way we didn't have to crank the speakers in the back of the van just so the front van passengers could hear. Unfortunately, I took everything down before taking a picture. I did however snap this photo of several happy Trekkers. Note the enthusiasm. We'll see how they look after a week of no showers or toilets and having to carry the equivalent of a small person on their backs for several miles and up and down several hundred feet of altitude.

This trip we made sure all of the adults were on the church insurance. This way we could split the driving up a bit. Rachel grew up in Amarillo so her driving leg was like driving home.

Once we arrived in Raton, NM, we made our way to the KOA campground where we'd rest for the night. The sponsors and girls got the cabins while the boys were relegated to Marcus' 8 man tent. The rain during the night would prepare them slightly for parts of the hike up the mountain. A little football before bed for those with the energy