Conquests of Tankbird

Man, I keep postponing writing this entry, because I know there’ll be so much to it.

This past weekend I did the four day Camping Outdoor Leadership Training with the Appalachian Mountain Club. It was wonderful, but very intense! They kept us going from the time we got up (usually before 7) until we went to bed (usually after 11). I’ll walk you through the whole thing here.

We started at 5 Joy St. in Boston at 9am on Thursday. It had been a really early morning for me and a long drive. I only hit a little traffic, though, and arrived in plenty of time. Once everyone got there, we loaded all our gear into the van and headed out.

Here’s the back of everyone’s head in the van:

And here’s a picture of me, looking sleepy and less than glamorous:

It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to Cardigan Lodge in the Lakes region of New Hampshire. Cardigan Lodge itself is beautiful, though, inside and out. Beautiful and HUGE. Here’s a picture of the outside:

And here’s part of the second floor. We’re sitting in the recreation area looking toward the eating area.

You can come here when it’s full-service and they’ll cook for you, or you can come during self-serve season and use their kitchen. We had the fabulous Volunteer Logistics Crew (VLC) to cook for us that first night. Here we are all sitting around the table, filled with delicious dinner and dessert (the brownies and apple crisp in front of us were amazing!)

Clockwise around the table, starting from the lower left corner: Jesse, Diana, Leslie (one of our instructors), Kim, Ricky, Mikey, Me, James (our other instructor), and Terrence.

After dinner, we settled in a little to our bunk rooms, home sweet home for Thursday night only. Here’s the girls’ room:

We actually had a lot of workshops that day, learning knots and tents and tarps and leave no trace and all that stuff, and also some “getting to know you” games that were silly and fun in all the right ways. We learned the concept of “leaders of the day,” when we took turns in partnerships leading the group through the various logistics. Since there were only 7 of us (and 5 after Friday), it meant we were leaders a LOT. But that’s good, because we got to experience leadership in different situations. What did I learn? I learned that when I’m being observed, I micromanage like crazy.

The next morning, it was time to pack all of our gear, food and supplies and trek out to our camp site. First we had to load everything up.

Then people got fitted for their packs.

Then there was a lot of waiting to get going, during which time we lounged around. Here we are, lounging:

At last, time to head to camp! Here’s a lovely group shot before we go.

Left to right: Me, Terrence, Kim, Mikey, Jesse, Ricky, and Diana. Terrence wore that towel a lot as defense against the black flies. Not sure how well it worked, but man, black fly season in New Hampshire is FIERCE. I used enough Deet to kill a cow.

Once in camp, it was time to test our knot-tying skills to set up tarps. Here we are setting up some sexy, sexy tarps. We are knot MASTERS.

Once camp was all set up, it was time for a hike. It was at this point that Ricky and Mikey had to leave, which saddened all of us. We hated to see them go. But there was a hike planned, and so we hiked to Welton Falls, a lovely destination spot. Before we got to the falls, though, we had to cross a river.

Terrence crosses first…

Then Diana…

Then Kim (unphotographed)…
Then me..

Then Jesse and Leslie.

Welton Falls was beautiful! Here are some pictures looking down over the edge into the river.

And here’s the falls itself, at least part of it.
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And here we are, lounging around and snacking after the first half of our journey.

Then it was back to camp in time for dinner and more workshops. We got to bed after 11. That night was our first night in tents, and man, I was super uncomfortable. Those 1″ ground pads are terrible! Plus I had to use the bathroom not once, but TWICE, and it was a long, cold walk in the dark to the outhouse. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep, so I was pretty run-down by the morning.

The next day, Saturday, it was time to hike Mt. Cardigan. No time to complain about lost sleep; there was a mountain ahead. This is Mt. Cardigan as viewed from the lodge.

Here we all are, lined up on the bridge at the start of our hike.

PJ’s Ledge was our first pre-summit “destination” spot, where we lounged and took pictures.

Somehow, on this trip, I got the nickname “mom,” checking in on everyone all the time. But hey, when people aren’t eating or drinking, you gotta check in on them! I make no apologies.

It wouldn’t be a group outing if we didn’t horse around a little bit…

We are at this point sporting our orange bandanas. We became “Team Orange” somewhere around this point.

Clark Trail: less than a mile to the summit!

Here’s a group of us at the summit: left to right Jesse, Kim, Me, Diana. If I’d have known that blue was the required raincoat color, I would have planned differently.

Ahh, the view from the summit is always beautiful. Even if the clouds are threatening…

It was so windy! Really loud and just intense. You could lean against the wind and it would hold you up. Don’t do it at the edge, though.

This fire tower is at the top, and in the summer, you can climb it. It’s not technically summer, so it’s not open.

We headed back to camp, then. There was a bet about what time we’d actually get back to camp. Kim won with her bet of 4:40pm. We arrived at 4:42, so she was the undisputed winner. James, however, voted on 6:37, and tried to introduce us to some scenic detours to make the prediction come true. We hiked for about 8 hours in total, and after very little sleep, I was emotionally raw and pretty exhausted. But I was on dinner duty with James and Terrence, so no time to feel sorry for myself! Dinner was indeed delicious (chicken burritos, yum) and we ate almost all of it.

It threatened rain all afternoon, but we lucked out: it didn’t start to rain until late that night, right before bed. The rain made nice sleeping white noise, and I slept wonderfully, with only one 2:30am bathroom break in the rain. The rain stopped by the time we had to take down camp the next morning, though. We made waffles and sausage for breakfast. I’m quite proud of the fact that we had crispy waffles. Less proud that they took an hour… but who cares, great breakfast!

Here we are, engaged in the “camp take-down” process.

After packing everything up and practicing our “leave no trace” ethics, we headed back to the lodge for some debriefing. We also got cool T-shirts (like the one Jesse’s modeling). And, of course, another group picture! We all look pretty good despite four days of not washing.

Then it was back to civilization (Boston), and we all slept like the dead on the way back. What a weekend!