04 October, 2016 (Nick Walberg)

After quickly rescheduling, the group gets to have the honor of touring NOLS with Kevin. We got up early to get everything ready for our day with the National Outdoor Leadership School. Kevin is one of the most enthusiastic people I have ever met, sorry Mariah. His energy turned a cold and wet morning into an exciting day at the NOLS Rocky Mountain campus. We found out that NOLS is currently undergoing a re-branding and is in fact only an acronym. We got the chance to tour the map room, rations room, and equipment storage room. We didn’t get the chance to tour the administrative buildings because the board is coming into town soon to discuss the companies re-branding. Our time with Kevin ended with a question and answer section. After our tour we got the chance to shop the NOLS store as well as Wild Iris down the road. Several members of the group were able to get the sleeping bags they needed to keep warm as the weather is expected to get worse. At Wild Iris I was lucky enough to find a solar Halloween lantern that is bright enough to read in the entire tent. Liv got a similar lantern and the plan is to put them on color strobe mode to party on Halloween. While in Lander we found out that the weather was holding out and we needed to move out to Yellowstone. Jeff drove through the beginnings of a snow storm near the south entrance to get us to the park around sunset. Seeing Yellowstone in the winter is one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen, and I have been dreaming of this day for years. I am finishing this journal up under the last moments of the solar lantern slowly dying from a discharged battery.