The Frosty End

Wednesday morning. The final day. It dawned beautiful and...FREEZING!!! We woke up to find all of our belongings, including our fancy tarp serving as our shelter covered in a nice thick layer of frost. We all crammed around camping stoves attempting to regain some kind of feeling in either our toes or our fingers. When everyone was finally ready, we hit the road. It was only about an hour hike back to our vans and when they came into view, we all cheered. Because of the short hike, Wednesday was pretty bearable.

Cool picture, right? This is one of the advantages of being a sweeper--you can get some great pictures at the back of the group.

The whole thing came to a culmination when we got back to the vans. Our instructors had us all sit down in a circle and told us that this was the end of our program. We were through. That hit a couple of people pretty hard. But they just had us reflect on our time here and things we'd done and learned. It's incredible to look back on all the experiences we've had together. I mean, I kayaked--I can do anything!! Really though, as we sat there and talked, I realized that I have learned a ton from these guys and from being out in nature where we are all exposed for who we really are. It was really interesting to just sit there in the cool, beautiful air and think about...everything. The last few months of my life have just been one unforgettable experience after the other. I think I'll have to get back to you on my complete list of thoughts about this whole experience. But those are the things that I thought about this week. Meanwhile...some views that as usual, made it all worth it...

Looks like something out of a movie, doesn't it?