The past six weeks was well spent in the northern end of the Tahoe National forest area at a Girl Scout camp called Camp Wasiu II. After realizing that graduate school was not where I necessarily wanted to be in my life right now, I decided to go back to the one thing that made me happy no matter what- camp. Sure I dropped out of graduate school, gave up a full ride, and am now more poor than I was when I moved out here, but you know what? I'm happy.
Who needs to sit in a classroom and be told what to write and how to write when you can just run away into the mountains and do two things you love; working with kids and giving them opportunities that they may not have outside of camp, and writing on your own time in a setting that provides much more inspiration than a brick room with no windows.
So without further ado, here are the summer happenings spent near Sierra City, CA.
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Graeagle (pronounced Grey Eagle, or if you're me: Graegle)
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Graeagle is a tiny little place on the way up to camp. From Reno, you drive into California, through mountains and fields of cows, through Portola, and right before you turn up the mountain road to get to camp you get Graeagle. To the midwesterners, this would be that popular 4th of July destination where there was a lake for boating (though this was small enough that no motor boats were allowed), great food, and a great community of people. We stopped there for some food and some ice cream, and the locals were excellent. (Although they warned me to not stop for the 4th of July because it gets crazy! But that's when you know it's one of those destinations that the world may not realize is there, but there are always those regulars who wouldn't travel anywhere else for their mid-summer holiday)
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| Sierra Buttes hike (about halfway up) |
The Sierra Buttes hike is about four miles round trip from where we started, mostly uphill (although there are some nice flat areas of forest to give you a break), and you gain over 2000ft in elevation, so bring water, and if you're like me, bring your inhaler.The hike seems long, but you get the bad hills out of the way at the end. I went with my CIT's who were about fourteen years of age, and we made it up in about two hours. Though we break halfway up for a snack and to lookout at the view above. Once we made it to the top, it reminded me roughly of a mix up between the mountains in Switzerland and South Africa. It was breathtaking.
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| View from the lookout tower at the Sierra Buttes |
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| My first ziplining experience |
With both of my groups this summer, we traveled to a co-ed camp about twenty minutes away for a high ropes adventure. My CIT's told me I looked like a woodland fair when I shimmied up the vertical challenge. Crossfit for the win there. Alas, I got to zipline for the first time in my life and check it off of the ambitions list.
I also got to check off whitewater rafting, we went down the Truckee river out of
Tributary Whitewater Tours in Truckee. The grades of the rapids were mostly ones and twos, though we hit a number three rapid at the end. This is definitely something I will pursue in the future because it was amazing. White water kayaking still needs to be checked off.
Below is a photo of Frazier Falls. It's called a hike but is really a stroll on a paved path to see the falls (which is apparently more epic in the Spring time after the snow has just started to melt)
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| Frazier Falls. |
With a summer full of adventures like hikes, high ropes, stand up paddle boarding, white water rafting, camping, and overall just challenging both myself and my groups of girl scouts, I can without a doubt say that although the summer may have been rough and tiresome emotionally (what camp life isn't?), I had a swell summer. Too bad I'm back in Vegas where it's a billion degrees and disgusting. Back on the job search, and still living on the edge.
"Adventure is out there." Go find it!
The One and Only,
Carly K.
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