Long Trips, by Autumn Padilla
For my long trip, I did Oxford Belford. Waking up at 2am was hard, but completely worth it. It was pitch black outside so the stars looked really pretty. While climbing up to Belford, it became difficult for many people to continue the climb but most pulled through. As we reached the summit, it was so satisfying and beautiful.
Next, it was time for all of us to climb Oxford! It was somewhat scary because the rocks were really slippery there. As we thought we were at the summit, we realized that it was a false peak! We couldn’t continue because storms were coming, but it was still a nice view.
The next day we hiked some more. It was difficult because we were all tired and sore. When we made it, it was one of the prettiest sights that I have ever seen.
Oxford-Belford, by Nicolette Hanson
This week was my Oxford/Belford mountain trip! It was an amazing experience, and I won’t forget all of the memories that were made on this trip. We started by waking up at 2am on the second day of our trip to climb Mt. Belford. We ate oatmeal and we started up a ridge with a lot of switchbacks, and it was super cold! I will never forget the feeling when we finally made it to the ridge. Even though it wasn’t the mountain yet, it was still satisfying to know that we were almost there. After a packs-off food break, we started the hike up Mt. Belford. When we made it to the top, the view was amazing and it was worth all of the hard work. Also, it was one of our counselor’s birthdays, so we celebrated by eating Reese’s peanut butter cups and drinking tea! After enjoying the view a little longer, we started the trail up Mount Oxford. It was a super long hike with a lot of uphills and downhills. We weren’t able to make it to the top of the mountain because a storm was rolling in. It was still totally worth it though! The next day, we continued our journey along Elkhead Pass. It was one of the longest days, but it was beautiful. When we were halfway to out campsite, we got sparkling apple juice that one of our AC’s brought. Later, it started raining and we had to set up our tents and wait for the storm to pass. We didn’t get to our final campsite until 8:30 that night. On the last day, we got pizza and fresh water and we celebrated in a park. Oxford/Belford was probably my favorite long trip that I have ever been on, and it was tons of fun.
Krazy Kite Lake, by Toby Utterback
I first thing I thought when I woke up was “mountain!” I finished packing and rushed out the door. After a delicious breakfast, I was so excited for the day. I through my backpack in the car and hopped into the van. When we finally left, it was a 2 hour drive to Kite Lake!
When we got there we set up our tents and took a little nap. We ate lunch and then it rained so we stayed in our tents for a while. After it rained, we got out of our tents and tried to play another game, but unfortunately it started to rain again! And when we tried to cook dinner, it rained again, so we had some more sandwiches! We tried to sleep but I couldn’t because I was so happy to climb a mountain. At 1am, we woke up and ate some delicious banana bread.
We started to climb Mt. Democrat, and Bea had to go back because she was sick. Some other girls were not feeling great, but we continued the climb! At sunrise, we reached the summit! It was so pretty and I took lots of pictures. We started the climb back down and we were calling ourselves mountain goats when we saw a REAL mountain goat!
The climb was really fun and later we caught a fish with our bare hands. Then it started laying eggs on us. THE END.
Pony Express, by Jovanni May
My trip was a horse 3 day. It started Tuesday and ended Thursday. My wrangler was Jamie. The other counselors were Jessica and Maggie. We were told to bring sleeping bags the night before to the barn. Tuesday morning at the barn was LONG. Some of the horses, including mine, were still in the pen, but it didn’t take long to get them out. My horse, Amigo, was very sweet. He was very handsome. He had a white coat with brown specks and a brown mane. It took us about an hour to get ready to leave!
We rode to Pike’s Peak Research Station first, and then we rode to Quick’s Homestead. In between, we were caught in a storm, but otherwise it was a great trip!
Long Trip! By Izzy Nunez
For my long trip, I did Oxford/Belford, where we climbed two 14ers and Elkhead Pass. On the first day, we got dropped off at the trailhead and started hiking. It was only about two miles to our campsite, and it was all uphill. A lot of my friends and some great counselors were on the trip, so it was lots of fun. When we got to the campsite, we had some dinner that was delicious, including my personal favorite, no bake cheesecake. Then we hit the sack to get enough sleep for the next day!
Day 2 was climb day, when we would summit Oxford and Belford. We woke up at 2am and started climbing at 3am. We had to start early because thunderstorms come in around noon so we had to be off the mountain by then. Before we reached the top ridge, one girl had to go back because she was sick. Once we reached Belford, the view was amazing! Then we proceeded to climb Mt. Oxford, which was also amazing. The hike back to the campsite was short because it was almost downhill. We had dinner, then went to sleep to wake up early the next day to climb Elkhead Pass! On the 4th day, we hiked super fast so we could get to the pick up spot and go back to camp. On that hike, we even saw a cowboy riding a donkey! During this trip, I made lots of new friends and had some moments that I will never forget. I love Oxford/Belford!
