Winter Trek 1

This morning I just got back from my first-ever backpacking trip. Five days, four nights (well..sorta) in the great Yosemite wilderness. Woah! We hiked/snowshoed ten miles up to Shuteye Peak, a mountain at 8,400 ft elevation.

The first day, we hiked around 5.5 miles, then set up camp overlooking a beautiful valley--little did we know that our view the next day would FAR exceed our first view. Because our backpacking trip, "Trek," was part of my leadership class, each day we had LOD's, "Leaders of the Day." The second day, I, along with two other girls, was leader of the day. This was pretty easy--we had the map, compass, and watch, so we basically made sure everyone was hydrated and not too tired, made sure we were going in the right direction, kept track of time, and helped designate jobs when setting up camp. Plus, we were in charge of waking people up in the morning. One of the coolest things about trek was that no one, except for the leaders, had a time piece of any kind. No watches. Definitely no cell phones, and no clocks. The first day when I had no idea what time it was (except by judging from the sun...), it was weird. It was a completely different mindset than I'm used to. But it was also very cool.

The day I was leader, we had to veer off the beaten path and blaze a trail up to Shuteye Pass, a saddle between two mountains. It was difficult going, to say the least. We had to pull the two sleds carrying our tents up a very steep incline, but man, was the view when we got to the top worth it! When we got to the top, all the girls and I ran to the far side, whipped off our shirts, and swung them around our heads. It was an amazing shirtless victory haha.

shirtless victory!

When we set up our campsite, we have to dig out an area designated as our snow kitchen. This is basically a rectangular, 1-2 ft trench which we then cover with a tent top, aka "go-light." With body heat and the stoves on, it gets almost toasty in there--out of the wind, sometimes it even feels 20 degrees warmer than outside!

Inside the go-light

Day three we climbed a summit. It was QUITE the incline. It took us two hours to get to the top, but man, it was the highest point for miles around! You had a 360-degree view of the valley, and on top a fire-watch-building thing was built. In the summer, someone lives up there and his job is to watch for forest fires. Kind of a cool job, but I think I'd get cabin fever.

the view from the top

Skylar and Spear standing on top of the watchtower

When we got to the top, a bald eagle soared over our heads--it was such a gift from God! So beautiful. For one of the professors who was on our team, DJ, it was his first time in his life ever seeing a bald eagle in the wild.

Coming down from Shuteye Peak, elevation 8,400 (about 1,000 feet higher than our campsite), we kept slipping because the incline was so steep. So we started sledding down on our butts! It was so much fun! Comparable to Noah's Ark, even.

Sledding down the hill!

After sledding down the mountain on our butts, we went on a solo time. During this time, we can just spend time with God, either reading, writing, journaling, praying, singing, thinking...some people even sleep! For the fall treks, solo is a 24-hour deal. But we only spent 2.5 hrs because it was so cold.

My view during solo--including my snowshoes!

Speaking of cold, you know what I had to wear at night to stay warm?
First, I was in a fleece liner in my zero-degree sleeping bag, which was in my bivy sack (an outer sack that goes over the sleeping bag to keep it dry), on a sleeping pad.
Then, I wore:

• An underarmor shirt
• Underarmor pants
• fleece pants
• fleece jacket
• hat
• neckwarmer
• gloves
• wool socks

And the first night I was STILL cold!

So the next night I stuffed extra clothes in my sleeping bag. This finally warmed me up at night. That morning, here's a list of everything I pulled out of my sleeping bag:

• two pairs of wool socks
• Gaiters
• snow pants
• snow jacket
• extra hat
• extra gloves
• extra fleece jacket
• and a spare T-shirt

 The fourth day of Trek, we woke up to a blizzard. We had gotten over five inches of snow overnight (!). In fact, it had been so windy that night that both I and my tent roomie, Mads, had had dreams about tornadoes!

The view from my tent day 2

View from my tent day 3--blizzard! Agh, can't see the mountains anymore! =(

We quickly ate breakfast, packed up the tents, and headed down the mountain. It snowed practically the whole time we were trekking. Initially, the plan had been to go about seven or eight miles, and then camp for the night and finish the remaining two or three miles in the morning. However, because all our gear was soaked, we instead hiked ten miles through a blizzard in our snowshoes, then hopped in the vans and drove to DJ's house, where we spent the night. It was SO nice. For once, I could feel my toes.

Camping in DJ's basement

Overall, trek was an amazing experience. I grew closer to my awesome team, I hiked mountains, I saw breathtaking sights, and I experienced adventure and the workmanship of God on a whole new level.

My awesome group, team "Slayer and the Moments"

Fun to Dye for

Agh! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Trek, a backpacking trip in the wilderness for five days. FIVE. DAYS. No showers. No pillow. No bathroom. And do you know what they recommend we use for toilet paper? Snow. Brr! I'm exciting, but I'm also REALLY nervous. I was walking around with my pack on earlier today trying to get it adjusted so it would fit better, and now, twenty minutes later, my shoulders still hurt. I shudder to think how I'm going to feel at the end of five days! =S

So much to fit into one backpack!

We're following the "leave no trace" principle. This ziploc, covered in pink duct tape is for toilet paper. That's right, if I choose to use t.p. instead of snow, I have to carry it OUT with me!

Kel, one of the guys, decorated all of our bags lol

Goodbye world. Goodbye civilization. Goodbye warm, comfy bed.

 On another note completely (especially if you're wondering about the title), I dyed my hair the other day. No, not the whole thing, just a strip of fuschia. It's pretty legit.

Step 1: Bleach

I helped Jeremiah bleach his mohawk as well. After we bleached it, we dyed it red. It turned out pretty well!

I feel a little like Princess Lei

I was reading the dying instructions, when suddenly I heard Jeremiah say something really muffled. I looked, and he had stuck his whole head in the sink trying to wash his hair! lol.

Bleached, now all it needs to do is dry so I can add the color.

Fuchsia hair!

Ta-da!

Mountain Boarding

Today I woke up and went for a run/hike with Alex--after writing a few articles for textbroker.com. It was a pretty good way to start the day. Our "Weekends" are from Friday-Monday, so I didn't have classes today, but I did have a lot of homework. After lunch I took a break and did some slacklining, and then went and read Descartes on top of the caboose (seriously, there is a caboose here. You can climb on top of it and hang out, or go inside it. I actually haven't been inside it yet...).

After I finished Descartes, I was going to go for a bike ride with Alex, but people were using all the bikes, so we decided to go mountain boarding instead--SO glad we did! I had never gone mountain boarding before, but it's a lot like snowboarding. Basically, you stand on a glorified skateboard with footholds and a hand brake wearing lots of pads and ride down hills.

Zooming down the hill on meh mountainboard! (I'm holding the brake in my right hand)

Just a blur

So hardcore.

Alex 'n' I posing with our boards =)

Tonight for supper, because the guys do ManDate Mondays where they all sit together and ignore the girls, this week we decided to do Mom Mondays, where we all dressed up like moms. It was a LOT of fun lol. There were all sorts of different mothers--soccer moms, a workout mom, lots of expecting moms, a lawyer mom, a bohemian mom, and, my personal favorite, a white trash trailer park mom. She acted her role the whole night--so funny.

After supper we had small groups. In my small group we're focusing on Seeking First God's Kingdom (Matthew 6:25-35). We talked about not worrying and looking at life from God's perspective. For example, when I'm stressing about being tired or something, I should zoom out, as it were, from my life and look at it from God's perspective: I'm here for such an incredibly short time and in the large scheme of things, does my discomfort really matter that much? God isn't calling me to be comfortable, he's calling me to be uncomfortable, no matter how much I don't want to be.

A glimpse at High Sierra

http://vimeo.com/19082061

Here's a short clip of High Sierra and its students =)

Yosemite the Beautiful

Today we went to Yosemite!

Kylynn and I jumping into fun times at Yosemite! lol

 It's gorgeous there.There were so many things to do, including bouldering, ice skating, hiking, climbing, and biking. I wanted to do EVERYTHING. But...well, I have limits. Most of them are time constraints. So I started out the day bouldering. Bouldering is like rockclimbing, but you don't climb tall rock walls, you try to climb boulders. Because they're smaller, when bouldering, you aren't harnessed in, and you don't need to wear a helmet--you just have someone behind you spotting you, and a crashpad underneath you.

This is the boulder we were trying to conquer. (Brad's at the top)

Some of us had less than stereotypical means of doing this.

I'm at the top! (but Travis, the guy in the middle, pretty much pulled me all the way up lol)

Then, these three deer just walked up to us!!!

Brad kept trying to pet them. He got SO close.

I was pretty close too...

Then some of us decided to hike the Upper Yosemite Falls. To make a long story short, our camp directors told us not to hike the snow part because it is very difficult and time-consuming. We did not receive this warning. We hiked the snow part. We hiked ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP! It was beautiful. Soooo beautiful! But we got back 1.5 hours later than we were supposed to. And we got in a little bit of trouble for that.

Beginning the hike (Right to left: Kel, me, Alex)

The view was spectacular!

 

Upper Yosemite Falls

It's kinda hard to see, but can you see the rainbow at the bottom of the falls? See the very top of the fall? I climbed up there. This is actually the highest of a series of three falls. Reeeaaaalllyyy long ways up, but the three of them together look so beautiful!

See the top of the falls in the previous picture? This is right before it falls off the cliff!

At the top we had to hike through a TON of snow. At times, my foot would go through and I'd be up to my thighs in snow. brr! Plus, I didn't think I would be hiking, so I only wore my tennis shoes and thin socks today

The view from the top

Watching the sunset after a long day of hiking =)

I love Yosemite.

I didn't know THAT!

Every Tuesday and Thursday we have "Plenary." Plenary consist of one of our teachers talking from 10-11:30 a.m. about how what we are learning in all our classes relates together and how it all relates to the time period we're studying. Currently, we're in the Renaissance. Through the semester, we will progress from the Renaissance to modern time. Soo..our art teacher gave the plenary today. And it was hilarious and...wow, so much I did not know, haha. I love how art always seems to have some hidden story.

 Are you familiar with Michelangelo's "La Pieta"?

La Pieta by Michelangelo

 Notice anything odd about it? Jesus was a fairly large sized carpenter, wasn't he? Then why is Mary, his frail mother, practically twice as big as him? Michelangelo was smart. It would have looked silly if these two had been depicted at a realistic size--there's no possible way Mary would have been able to hold him on her lap--with one hand, nonetheless! Initially looking at this sculpture, you don't notice that at all, do you? I know I never did.

Another odd thing about this sculpture: Look at Mary's face:

Wasn't Jesus around 36 when he died? So saying Mary was 17 when he was born that would make her...53. Then why does she look like she's in her 20's!? Michelangelo, as a good Catholic, depicted her as young because of the Catholic belief that Mary was a pure virgin all her life, and those who live a pure life hardly age. (I've found the fountain of youth: purity)

 Not quite as interesting, but still nice to know for trivia...Michelangelo's sculpture "David" was of the Biblical King David, right? I mean, he has a sling and he's holding a rock in his hand and all. But there's one inconsistency:

David, by Michelangelo

Notice it? I should hope not, 'cus if so you'd have to look reeeaaaallllyyy closely. David was Jewish. Jews practiced circumcision. Then why isn't David circumcised?! There are quite a few answers/guesses for this question, but one that makes sense is because Michelangelo carved this during the Renaissance when the human form was seen as the ideal form: He didn't want to change the human form. And he also could have left David uncircumcised because that was the Vogue of his time.

 Finally (and my personal favorite), are you familiar with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel? There's probably one picture from it that you've never seen. Background story: Michelangelo considered himself a sculpture, not a painter. However, the pope wanted him to paint the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo ran away. The pope sent his armies to find Michelangelo. They found him. Michelangelo did NOT want to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. "I am going to paint whatever I want on the ceiling, and you pay me this exorbitant sum," he told the Pope (probably not in those exact words). The replied pope: "O.K."
 
So Michelangelo started painting. He hated it. From constantly looking up, his back was killing him. His face always got full of paint and plaster that dripped down. He was broke because the pope wouldn't pay him until after he is finished, and the pope kept coming in to check his progress and telling him to hurry up. Four years later, he finally finished. Did Michelangelo like the pope? Not one bit. But you can't insult the pope, he could excommunicate you. He could destroy your artistic career. But Michelangelo had a plan. How do artists express themselves? Through their work. Although no one knows exactly when, one day when doing mass, the pope looked up, and what should he see positioned directly above him?

Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo

That's right. Michelangelo painted God mooning the pope. To begin with, it wasn't appropriate at all for the bottom of feet to be visible, but for a butt--God's butt, no less--to be seen was *gasp* terrible! Why isn't this in history books? Well, for one because it's inappropriate. For two, because it wasn't discovered until late. As soon as he saw it, the pope had an artist paint over it. It wasn't until recent painters were cleaning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that they found it. Not just cleaning, but chipping off all the previous touch-ups. X-raying the plaster over this piece, they found that it had been touched up. After chipping off a few layers, they finally found what Michelangelo had originally painted.
I don't know about you, but now I don't think I'll ever be able to think about the Sistine Chapel without laughing just a little.

Altogether, mom, I think I'm learning a lot of new things at college! =)

Bust a Move

So today, while the entire group from Azusa went snowboarding/skiing/snowshoeing, I stayed home and rested my foot. I'm not sure what's wrong with it, be it plantar fasciitis, tendoninits, or what not, but for these past few days it has hurt so much I've been walking with a limp =(. It woke me up at 3 a.m. last night cus it was so painful! Not being able to use your feet at High Sierra is a bummer...I'm really hoping it heals quickly.

When the group got back today, some of us went to a cafe with live bluegrass tonight after dinner. It was pretty cool--I loved the atmosphere, and I think over the summer I'll need to take advantage of live bluegrass in my area. I wish I could have joined the group dancing today though. Oh well, I will heal!

Some APU students bustin' a move!

In the words of Boaz, "I didn't just bust that move, I broke it!"

So, I guess this concludes my very uneventful day. =(

oh, but i did get to watch When in Rome. Which is a cute chick flick that I recommend to any chick flick lovers.

Clean Feet and Frost

Last night we were supposed to meet in the dining hall wearing warm clothes, but we all had no idea what we would be doing. When we were all there, we found out we would be bonding with our roommates by washing each other's feet. This was such an amazing time of worship and bonding: my roommates and I are so much closer now.

That night I decided I needed to be more adventurous and not give in to fears (such as my fear of being cold and of not sleeping in my bed), so I told my roommate Alex, who had been wanted to sleep outside since we got here, that wherever she wanted to sleep tonight, I was in!

So last night, we set up camp on top of Star Rock, a high hill on the north side of campus. We dragged mattresses out from a storage area up there: they were quite wet, but still provided padding. Snuggling into our sleeping bags, I was like, "Hey, wow! I'm not even that cold!"

Alex, Lisa, Kelsey and I setting up camp

On the mattresses

Snuggly-warm! lol

The next morning when we woke up, boy were we in for a surprise! No wonder I was cold near dawn--turned out our sleeping bags were covered in frost!! Agh!! My boots were full of frost, my pillow, my sleeping bag, my mattress--crazy!

Covered in frost! =(