Taylor Challenge

For this adventure there was only 9 of them. L.B. was off to Denver on some very important business, Josh was freshening up his medical skills, and the T.A.'s and Mark were bonding together....

As for the rest of them, they woke up bright and early excitied to work with the 8th graders. Their purpose at this point was still a little unknown to them. They arrived at the school and meet with an advisor they were assigned to. They hoped on busses and were on their way.

When they arrived in the foothills of the Taylor Challenged they were briefed on the camp, and from their they started activities. Jen, Tommy, Esther, and Erik went with low and high ropes. Drew and Casey went rafting and rock climbing. Walker, Izzy, and Joe went mountain biking, studied bugs in the water, and tried to find brightly colored planks of wood for orienteering.

At by this point the group had learned that the outhouses at this camp, even the 2 story ones, were quite possibly the worst smelling outhouses to exist in the whole world. The people at the camp told them not to throw toilet paper into the "toilet" because it created an aweful smell... but I'm not totally convinced that it helped controll the smell.....

For the most part it rained on them everyday..... But you can't controll the weather....

Some of them, Casey and Izzy for the most part, even got to use their new found WFR (wilderness first responder) skills. One girl ate it on the mountain bike and Izzy made her up a nice bangade. Then one boy threw a rock at another boy , to get his attention of course, and it hit him in the head.... Leaving a rather bloody mess for Casey to try and take care of. Off to his cabin he ran, to get his first aid kit... And from there the rest is history.

Each of them, for the most part, got a chance to participate in every activity. And by the end of the 3 days they were all exahusted. They had 3 days off before their next adventure. And it would prove to be an interesting one. 3 days at Daniel's ranch (Daniel is the person who helped organized where they will go when they get to Chile) in Crawford CO and then 3 days on the river is all they knew to expect.......

An Overview

Over the summer they waited... and waited... and waited.... They waited for some kind of information about this journey to Chile. Only a few of the members knew what to expect of the upcoming trip.

They had been sent an e-mail, sometime around the middle of the summer saying that there would be an information meeting on Monday, August 27th. It would be at 9am and the location, TBA.

When they arrived no one really knew what to expect... so they waited patiently for the arrival of their beloved instructor Mark Gibson. And they waited... and waited... and waited...

When he came everyone was still a little apprehensive about what to expect. They went over some basics: gear, answering questions, and a little bit more of what the trip would entail. Then they went to lunch and on the way back from Blue Iguana (the best Mexican food in town) it sounded like Mark was making plans for us to go on an adventure some where deep in the Taylor Canyon.

Later they found out that this adventure would take place 2 days later. Our instructions were this: Be at the middle school at 6:00am ready to be support for a bunch of 8th graders on a beginning of school retreat kind of thing...