Soar X II

                Well last week almost everything that could go wrong went wrong. In other words we had the most fun week ever.

First off, we got locked out of our van on Wednesday. We had to pick the lock with a stake and a Letterman. When we finally got in about two hours later, we then got lost driving to a library. After school we proceeded to drive to Yoakum’s campground. After setting up camp and started to make dinner our grilled decided to blowup. While running to grab the only thing that could possibly prevent our campsite from blowing up Sophie tripped and sprained her ankle. All in all it was an extremely eventful day. I'm not sure what was more exciting that day or the whole expedition.

We couldn't go hiking in the Dolly Sods after Sophie sprained her ankle. Sophie no hard feelings... I guess. So instead of backpacking in the Sods we made a base camp and did a day hike out of there. We only went on one day hike because we wanted to get school done so we could summit Seneca Rocks.

Speaking of Seneca, that was a crazy day. We got up pretty early to meet up with Joe at the discovery Center near the base of Seneca. From there we hiked up to lunch in ledge. We ate our lunch there and then started our first pitch. The first climb was pretty easy and then moving at the top we hung out on the edge of the 250 foot cliff. Then we did another climb which was basically just a walk across ledge. From there we did our last pitch to get to the very top. Well not really the very top, it was the summit landing point, the summer was a little further up. From there we had to repel. I volunteered to go first on account of the fact that I really had to pee. I went over the edge of the cliff and was dangling in midair it was intense. When I got to the bottom of the repel my relief was evident both in the fact of my facial expression and how fast I ran off to go pee.

Sophie was nice enough to not go rafting on the New River and stay behind with me while I freaked out thinking about rafting. Instead we went on a gravity tour zip-line. It was completely insane. The zip-lines remind of some I did in Costa Rica. The second to last one, I had to go with one of the guides because I did not weigh enough to make it to the end. On the last one I couldn't go with anyone. Costa Rica. The second to last one, I had to go with one of the guides because I did not weigh enough to make it to the end. On the last one I couldn't go with anyone. They also warned us not to try to brake on it because if we did it the wire would go through our glove, through our hand and come out the other side. I have a video of me and Sophie racing to get to the bottom of the last zip line. We were able to go at the same time because there were two different wires leading to the bottom. It was insane, at one point my face peeled back because of the wind. I only wore the safety goggles on that one run because apparently a bug to the eye at 60 miles an hour is not the best feeling.

Well that was my extremely eventful expedition in a nutshell; I hope you enjoy the video.

 

climbing at Seneca Alex R

10-24-11

Alex R

On this expedition we went to climb Seneca rocks with Joe. The first day Joe  came and we did ground school which is where we learned to tie knots, belay, and rappel. On the second day we went to the north side of Seneca rocks and we top roped. Top roping is where you don’t have to lead climb. The climbs you could do on top rope day were 5.6, 5.9, and a 5.11. I climbed the 5.6 and a 5.9. I did not get to climb the 5.11 because we did not have enough time. I have climbed before so the 5.9 climb was not that hard for me but I still had a little challenge. 

8 months ago I started climbing and I really got hooked on it. Seneca Rocks was a fun climb because it was my first multi pitch climb I have ever done. I thought it was cool to see Joe lead climb because I am learning to lead climb. 

The last day that we were climbing we summited Seneca. Summiting Seneca took that whole day but we all summited except for Sophie because she sprained her ankle. The climb was a 4 pitch climb, and at the end of the climb we got to do a 200 foot rappel. The rappel was the best part of the climb because you look down and you see 200 feet below you and it’s just crazy. That was the best part of the trip.

P.S. When I was on intervention I made friends with an apple just like in the movie Castaway. 

coley second x

I am done with my second X no!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun. We got to do a lot of fun things like going rock climbing, backpacking and a lot more fun things like that. I got to summit Seneca rocks. It was a lot of fun and hard work but i did it. We got to chill with AT1 and climb with them which was a lot of fun. Now we are back on base and that is not as fun as x but still a lot of fun. We got to make some good food on base that we cannot make on x which is good and a lot of fun too. But I cannot wait to be back on the trail and be backpacking and caving and fun stuff like that. But we get to go to a rock climbing gym on base that has 60 ft.  Walls. So that will be a lot of fun. And we might go to a hunted house. I cannot wait for all the fun we will have on base.

Chris's Blog

 It's been a pretty crazy couple of weeks here at SOAR. Just a few days ago I was six hundred feet in the air, on a cliff no bigger than twenty feet wide at the summit of Seneca rocks in West Virginia. The climb up was long but well worth it in the end and not only for the two hundred foot repel (although that was awesome). A big part of the feeling of accomplishment that I got from summiting Seneca rocks was knowing that we did what we did as a team. Not one person was left behind, and no one was berated for being slow, or scared of heights. Everyone was working seamlessly as one unit, which also allowed us to have a lot of fun on the rocks. Some other highlights of the trip for me was rafting on the New River and getting our instructor soaked several times, and the day hike we did in Dolly Sods national forest where we were supposed to go camping. We ended up bush whacking for about two hours, attempting to find the trail that we were supposed to be on, (which turned out to be about a quarter mile away from where we started) and saw some really excellent views. All in all it was a pretty excellent trip and I think the entire group enjoyed it.  

JJ's Blog On 2nd Expedition

This week was absolutely crazy. We started this expedition with rafting the New River which was extremely cool. The guide there was the man, he was really funny. We went on some sick rapids there, I want to say I was chill on the raft but after I heard that they average two people dying on the New every year I was absolutely flipping out. There was actually one point where I was swimming down the New and I almost got caught in an undercut but luckily instead of panicking, like I always do haha, I leaned back and kicked my feet up then proceeded to kick off the rock and spin around then swim down to the raft. Apparently there was a lot of base jumping that was going to happen off of a 900 foot bridge that we were passing two days from then. After that we went on an awesome rock climbing expedition. Even thought I am deathly afraid of heights the highlight of this expedition for me was definitely the 250 foot rappel. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this expedition.

mitch mega boss expedition blog #1

Mitch Gemmer

October 3, 2011

SOAR Blog

Tales of AT awesomeness can be beat by nothing but another tale of AT awesomeness. Those tales are happening even as we speak. Each one makes you want to be there for the next epic moment on the trail. Hi I’m Mitch Gemmer and this is the Epic Tales of AT Awesomeness. This one is all about something called Trail Magic. Trail Magic is the thing all thru hikers and section hikers love more than anything else, I was fortuitous enough to get the opportunity to provide some trail magic to some thru hikers while I was on the trail.

                The ones I will never forget are the magic I provided to a thru hiker named Darrell AKA Smoke or a section hiker named broken spoke. Smoke and Broken Spoke came into the shelter about lunchtime on Wednesday and were going to stay there for the night. Not only did I get to share lunch with him but I got to share dinner with him as well. I have never in my life seen someone so happy to receive a hot meal or some pepperoni cheese and crackers for lunch. And the stories we got to hear were absolutely amazing. I hope I get to see them again someday.

First Expedition: JJ

This expedition was fantastic. We started it out by going on a really cool canoeing trip for the first week. It was pretty easy on the first day of canoeing. However once we got to the second day it got a lot more difficult mainly because we had a lot more area to cover. However the place we stopped at was great. Every single place we stopped at was an island. The second island was really cool. The first was ok but the third was the one that I absolutely abhorred. The reason I had so much distaste towards it was mainly because it was so cramped and rainy. The rain got my sleeping bag soaked which really got me riled up. However we did have a good time while we are on that island because we did a lot of stuff such as sharks and minnows with canoes, cliff jumping and much more. Anyways so after that we left and went back to base. We only stayed at base for one day but it was fun. After we left base we went on a one week backpacking trip. We backpacked 25 miles alltogether which was a good time. While we there we ran into a bunch of cool through hikers one of which was carrying a cat on his shoulders, another was wearing a kilt, and my favorite was a guy named Smoke. Anyways overall I had a really good time and hope the next expedition was as good as this one.

Harris's first X

Well yesterday one of the more unexpected things over AT trip happened. I was sitting in my crazy Creek and heard footsteps. So I looked up and jogging down the trail poles sticking out sideways, fanny pack and all was a man with a cat on his shoulder. He was a weekend warrior type dude who ran sections of the AT with a cat. The cat’s name was Baxter He would camp out in the shelters along the trail and his cat would catch mice for him. He would not eat in mice but they would not get in his food because of this cat.

                We also met a man wearing a fedora, a man wearing a kilt and a man whose trail name was smoke. Smoke told us lots of stories about his adventures on the AT. He was doing something that he called boomeranging the trail. This meant that he was going to start at the middle and travel all the way down the AT into Georgia, then go all the way north into Maine, and go back to his original starting place.  I found this to be truly impressive, he said it would take about two years. When we met him he was about seven months into his hike. He was living off about $200 a month and that was just for food and possible supplies that he needed to buy.

                One of the very cool stories that he told us was about the time that he almost got attacked by a bear. He said that he was camping out one night and heard dirt bikes. So then the next morning when he heard a sound that very closely resembled it is assumed it was a dirt bike. But then after going round a curve in the trail the noise was directly above him. He said he looked up, and saw a black bear growling as it crawled down the tree. He said he just stopped and lay down the ground to act like he was dead. The bear came over and sniffed him and walked away, he was very lucky it did not have clubs with it.

                Another funny thing that happened on my trip, was that Chris, my field instructor, spent time sitting below a fire tower stroking his beard and looking like a guru. I am now on a conquest to find all Chris's very amusing moments.

coley

Expedition was very fun because it had my favorite sport backpacking. We went backpacking in the   Nantahala  National Forest on the Appalachian Trail. It was fun because of the hike and the people we got to meet. We got to meet a thru- hiker named Smoke. He has been on the trail for 9 months. He was a boomerang hiker. He starts in the middle then goes south to north then back dawn to the middle. Fun, right? We got to meet a trail runner that runs with a cat on his back. That was cool to see too. We got to go rafting too and that was a lot of fun but cold. It was my third time going down and I did not fall out. We got to do like 25 miles in a week. That is ok but I wish that is was longer like 50 miles in a week. We got to see a really cool fire tower that you can see for miles. It was fun and cold that day and night. But we got to make some cool and big fires that keep us warm. We got a chill day and we got to make a good breakfast that day. It was pancakes and it was very good .It was a very cool and fun expedition.

Chris's Blog

Soar Blog

Chris Gewehr

10/2/11

Woweee! What an interesting week. We started off by canoeing on Lake Fontana for like a week which was pretty tight. Coley was almost attacked by a rabid squirrel and we created a double canoe pontoon boat-splosion (unfortunately it went really really slow). We also did all sorts of awesomeness like cliff jumping and canoe balance challenges. After we got off of the lake on Saturday we headed over to the Appalachian trail to do a little backpacking. We hiked about twenty miles in the first three days and met some really cool through hikers. One of them (whose name was Smoke) had been on the Appalachian trail for almost seven months and was planning on hiking it up and down for another two years. He had some really crazy stories to tell and even though he looked like he was about sixty-five he was as spry as a twenty year old.

Alex Rapoport blogger 2

Alex R

10-3-11

This week we hiked some of the A.T. We met some thru hikers and one of their names was Smoke. Smoke is his trail name. He got the trail name because he smelled like smoke, not because he smokes but because he had a lot of fires while backpacking. Smoke is boomeranging the A.T.  A boomerang route is when you start the hike in the middle, then you hike all the way south, then all the way north, then all the way back to the middle. In all Smoke is hiking about 4,360 miles in 2 years. A cool fact about Smoke was he grew up in Detroit on 8 Mile road.  Eminem grew up on 8 mile road too, but also 8 mile road is like 2 or 3 miles long. Smoke used to race remote cars down some of 8 mile road. Smoke spent most of his life as a mechanic and a welder. Now that he is done working he wants to live in the outdoors. He also wants to canoe the entire Mississippi river. It seems like he has lived a very cool life.