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You are outward bounder
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness out of it and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience..."
-- Henry David Thoreau
When the bus finally came to a stop (after a 3 hour drive up a winding, twisting, nauseating road up the mountains), we all stepped onto solid ground with relief. Immediately they told us to get in a circle and led us into stretches. We were informed that we would start off our course with a "short" run. Only one mile. Now under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a problem. But when you've just gone from sea level to 11,000 feet in a few hours, one mile seems a torturous eternity because of the altitude change. It was the hardest mile I have ever run. I came in last, completely out of breath and ready to pass out. We just couldn't believe it.
So then we were introduced to all of the instructors,
and the philosophy of Outward Bound, as stated by its
founder Kurt Hahn, which was: Next we sat under a tree
to what would be our last meal of fresh food until the 7th day of the course (resupply). I didn't eat though because for
some reason I lose my appetite in the mountains, and
I never quite gained it back. We found out where
everybody was from and how old they were. Lee was
from Montréal, Canada, but seemed like the epitome of
the American boy. He was 18 & just graduated from
high school, too, but in Canada they have an extra
year before college. Trevor was 17 & was going to be
a senior, and was from Virginia Beach, VA. Travis
was from Greeley, CO and was the youngest at 16.
Mark just graduated (18) and was from Boston. Becky
was 21 and from Kentucky, but was presently attending
UNC at Chapel Hill. Kara just graduated (18) & was
from Dallas, and Ally was 18 and from New York City.
Ally is also an entire BOOK, but I'll cover what I
can later.
Anyway, my group was rather quiet and I did not feel
at ease with them yet, but I was sure it would just
take some time. After lunch, we sorted through the
barrel of food for all the groups, figured out what
our group wanted to take, and divided it between us
to carry in flour sacks. There was alot of
soup. dried fruit, crackers, pasta, GORP (grand old
raisins & peanuts), cheese, tuna, hot chocolate (what
we would later refer to as "chocloma"), tea, cream of
wheat, and oatmeal. We also had a small amount of
fresh fruit and vegetables. We then divided up the
group equipment -- 3 stoves, 2 skillets, 3 pots,
lids, tarps (for sleeping under), and a shovel (for
those "precious moments"). We were each given a
canteen cup, a plastic cup, and a plastic spoon to
eat with.
Next we got a quick lesson on the correct way to pack our humungous backpacks (sleeping bag on bottom, stuff sack next, etc.) so that everything was evenly balanced and would fit. Alot of people had poor technique and had lopsided packs. I had an advantage of having done it before at Pacific Crest Outward Bound School for 21 days two summers earlier. Thank the Lord, we only had to put our packs on long enough to carry them to a truck. The damn thing weighed around 45-55 lbs, and putting it on that first time was simply shocking. The soon-to be-frequent "Uh-Oh-Why-Am-I-Doing-This" feeling swept over me. We loaded the packs onto the top of a van and as a group down a jeep road for about a mile. At the end of our hike, the truck met us and gave us our packs and we were set. Once again we put them on (we were shown the "right" way to do this, but I never fully caught on and could not do it by myself without help until the last week.) We then started out for what I now consider to be a very short hike to our campsite for the evening. (Note: by "campsite" I do not in any way mean a pre-established campsite). It was on this very short hike that we first knew we were going to have trouble with Ally. We had this one steep section and all went bravely tumbling down a mudslope (and I mean quite literally tumbling) as best we could. But Ally didn't want to try, and she sat down and wanted to slide her way to the bottom on her ass. Markian wouldn't let her do this and we spent half an hour helping her and coaxing her down. Next we had to do a major river crossing. We linked elbows, put on our helmets, unhooked our backpack waist belts (in case we fell into the river, since this could drown us), and slowly inched our way across a very strongly currented river. We made it!! Wet, but we made it. We still had another half mile to go so we're hiking along and notice that Ally is far behind the rest of us. We happily stopped for and waited for her. Everyone was extremely supportive. After this happened a few times, Sara said that she would stay back and hike with Ally so the rest of us could continue. They arrived at the campsite about 20 minutes after we did. There, we got lessons on how the stoves worked and how to light them. This was to be done at least 30 yards from the "fuel station" -- a designated area of the campsite where every fuel bottle was to be kept. We all took turns lighting and "priming" the stoves (getting the pressure high by pumping). We also got lessons on how to set up the tarps and how to pitch a tarp right so it didn't collapse on you in the middle of the night. To this day, Lee still does not know how to pitch a tarp!! (More details later...hehe)
That night the crew, with Markian and Sara's help, cooked stir-fried vegetables which I did not eat and some Lipton soup which I had half a cup of. We had a meeting around a candle that night (the first of many), and we told everyone why we were there. I said that my goal was to complete a course at all 5 Outward Bound USA schools, and perhaps even some OB international schools some day. I said that my experience two summers ago at Pacific Crest Outward Bound in the Sierra Nevadas changed my life, and I wanted the chance to do it again and again. We learned that Lee had gotten involved in drugs and was in rehab for a while, but wanted to see if he could do something he felt good about and not get kicked out (like he always had been kicked out of things), and to do it drug-free. Ally said that at school, she could always quit something she didn't like and was free to walk away, and she always did just this at anything challenging. But for once she wanted to finish something successfully. (ironic, as you'll see later). Becky was a UNC pre-med Tri Delt who always had so much to worry about, and she wanted to "clear her head". I cannot remember what Travis, Trevor, Kara, and Mark said. What a first day!!Outward Bound was founded on the
assumption:
We were then divided into 4 groups (or
patrols) of 8 that would each go our seperate ways. My group had 4 males and 4 females.
Our male instructor was Markian and our female
instructor was Sara. We played some stupid name game
for what seemed like forever, but it worked. Then we
were told to pick up a pile of items -- each pile
consisted of a backpack, sleeping bag, climbing
equipment, stuff sacks, etc. We went over our
personal gear (clothes, toohbrush, etc) and they checked it to make sure we did not have any soap, shampoo, or toilet paper. (Outward Bound has a very firm no trace camping policy, meaning anything that is not biodegradable is not allowed, and even things that are had to be be taken with us when we left our campsite -- including food crumbs!!). After they checked, I took the cue from my previous experience and remembered to sneak in my half roll of toilet paper
(which I would later appreciate beyond words!!).
That took a good 2 hours.
That one reveres life for having
experienced it in very real and dramatic
terms;
That from successful experience in an
elemental setting, one can learn better to respect
self;
That from respect of self can flow
compassion for others;
That from compassion for
others one draws the commitment for service to
man;
That in genuine service to the benefit of
others one best expresses on a day-to-day basis his
reverence for life itself."