25 October, 2016 (Liv Smith)

Waking up to the clanging of pots and pans never sounded quite so beautiful this morning, especially when the previous morning we were all awoken by the intense thunder and lightning above us in the Sierra Mountains. After a hearty breakfast, we all went straight to work on our group chores. From airing out megalight tents to cleaning out Nalgene bottles, we all worked together in order to make the tedious jobs go all the much faster. The chores seemed to go a lot faster than they have had been before. Maybe it was the brief dance parties, the warmth of the sun, or the fact that there was still cold pizza to be devoured, it was just great to have the work done and be given some free time. Time was set aside for newsletters, journal entries and critiques to be done which everyone took full advantage of. Many of us even had time to run up the hill to get sodas and souvenirs from the small Bass Lake shops. The night is young, and many of us have homework to complete before we cross the border into Mexico this Thursday. When I look across Summit’s Lodge and see nothing but smiles and hear only laughter, it’s hard to be anything but grateful. How can we only have a little over a month to go? From steep mountains to sandy beaches, this will prove to be a very challenging, yet exciting week.

“Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire!”

J.R.R. Tolkien

24 October, 2016 (Nick Walberg)

After several days in a row of nice weather, everything changed last night. Last night it started raining and snowing throughout the night. Around midnight lightning began to rattle the tent and went until after sunrise. By the time that everyone started getting up Liv had spoken with the rest of the LOW's and decided that we are leaving the mountains and heading back to the trailer. It was a necessary move to allow everyone to dry off and warm up. The girl’s sleeping area ended up being a drainage area and Emily was floating on the water in the morning. We walked our way out of the wilderness while keeping our eyes on the sky to see if another storm was going to roll in. slowly but surely we walked out to the van only to have to stay out a little longer to do a debrief of the back country. Because we hadn’t planned to be eating in the front country yet, we needed to go grocer shopping tonight and we were then treated to pizza. Even though our adventure ended early, the bright side is that we now have the time to get completely ready for our next adventure into Mexico.

            “Beware the Jabberwocky” Lewis Carrol       

23 October, 2016 (Tommy LeGrand)

Today was all in all a pretty cool day, in reflection that is. When we started the day we were in the normal routine of, debrief the old lows, brief with the new lows, switch the tent groups… hold on switch the tent groups?! Great, new people, new food bags, new tasks. Well that will be fun to work with but what’s this? Meet back at 2pm with water and a bit of food? OK Jeff is up to something, and indeed he was, as we were given the chance to do our solo we spent the next 24 hours to ourselves. Plenty if time to think, think about everything but especially a few prompted things. Here goes nothing, and it was an early night with no light or watch, just a pen, sunlight and the light of the half lit moon. Well… Goodnight Moon. Until tomorrow.

22 October, 2016 (Tyler Gebel)

Today we woke to an easy start after a hard day of winding to Lady Lake. We had our LOW meeting this morning and enjoyed a nice breakfast between our tent groups. My group had a scrumptious breakfast of hash browns and veggies, and Nick was able to replenish his need for a hearty meal. My feet were looking a lot better this morning too. After the LOW group debrief we were summoned to another meeting with Jeff and Ryan as a group. Only able to bring things like our thermarests, sleeping bag, and whistle, we packed carefully and considered what may come ahead. We were also told to not bring our watches and our headlamps. When we arrived we soon found out we were partaking in a solo. We were told to only bring what food could fit in Jeff’s mug, and some chose to fast during the reflection even so. After we were all ready to go, Jeff and Ryan escorted us to our spaces. After reflecting for a while and thinking a lot, I decided to go to bed. The next day I woke up a bit later than I normally do and hung out drawing pictures and reflecting a bit more. Due to the weather coming in, we were brought back for debrief a bit earlier. I never got to experience a solo before, but from my experience I was definitely glad I had the opportunity to do so in the Sierras. I know this experience will be good for the group and what is to come ahead. 

21 October, 2016 (Cody Hardy)

After another long day of backpacking we finally made it to Lady Lake. Who knew a couple of miles could feel like such a long distance. Today started off with the group splitting up into smaller groups of five at Lower Jackass and heading off thirty minutes apart from each other. My group consisted of Alex, Tyler, Joel, Kolin, and myself. Our group was the first to leave and we had a great time today. Slow and steady we marched on. Everything went fairly smoothly until we reached the top of a steep ridge with what looked like no way down. After an hour of searching, we finally found the route down that we decided to take. Once we reached the bottom it was all laughs and high fives. Again we marched on slowly but surely making it to camp around 2:00 pm. When we arrived at camp we found a note to Jeff from Ryan saying, “He had not seen us since 10:30 am so he was going to go looking for us, and he would be back before dark. We stayed put and began to set up camp. Shortly after that Ryan arrived back at camp. He was both happy and mad to see us. As afternoon turned into evening there was no sign of the other group and the worry level began to increase. Luckily they arrived right before dark and I found out that Nick had gotten sick. I have not had a chance to see how he is doing because he is already in bed, but I hear he is doing better. I hope that is the case. Overall yesterday was one of the best days I have had on ECOEE so far. I can only hope the rest of the week goes just as well!

20 October, 2016 (Mariah Von Bruenchenhein)

What a long day. However, sitting on this rock looking out at the view makes today totally worth it. I’m having a hard time keeping up with the pace while mountaineering. I’m writing in this journal and can barely keep my eyes open. I’m completely exhausted. I going to try to eat a lot of food tomorrow morning so I don’t need to carry it tomorrow morning so I don’t have to carry it. Too bad I’m never hungry in the morning. I’m hanging out with some pals right now working on journals and such. We haven’t don’t this since Canada! There just never seems like there is enough time in the day. Glad to have gained friends like these. Joel just fixed his compass! Pretty exciting stuff. Emily hasn’t gotten anywhere with her journal. Good friends and good laughs seem to cause that. Well going to hit the hay soon. Onto Lady Lake tomorrow. Maybe Mister Lake is around there somewhere. 

19 October, 2016 (Alex Olson)

As I sit here writing this tonight I can’t help but look at the horizon lit up by the stars to see the peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Just being here is everything I’ve ever dreamed of plus a little more.  Our day started at Summit Adventure with an early morning at 7am.  With lots of things to get done, we got on task right away after breakfast.  Cleaning out anything and everything in the trailer was a must as I could not even imagine the stench of what it would be like when we will see it again next week after already smelling like it does.  I guess you could say we have a very distinct smell that follows us around.  After group chores were finished up we all had to somehow get all of our things in our packs which ended with me realizing that 85 lbs. is a lot to carry around for a week.  Needless to say, I will be getting my workout in this week.  When we finally left Summit Adventure, our route had us going through narrow and windy mountain roads which was uphill the whole way there.  Once we got parked and unloaded, we had another uphill battle, but this time on our feet.  We had our newly learned trail positions assigned and after a brief lesson reminding us on navigation from Jeff, there was no turning back.  We had an adventure ahead of us for the whole way to camp but the best way I could describe it was that we just took the scenic route.  Eventually our hike came to an end as we reconnected with Jeff and Ryan to discuss how we were doing and we finally called it a day short of our intended destination.  Looking forward to what tomorrow and the rest of the week will bring so I will be needing some sleep to be able to get through the day. Hopefully our bear bags hold up well!

“I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it” -William Shakespeare