From the Hum of the City to the Hum of the Crickets

She had been on one camping trip before CLC: on a retreat for a volunteer tutor group, but she said it was not nearly as “authentic” an experience as the weekends with CLC were.  Her favorite weekend was the first one at Slide Ranch in the Marin Headlands.  One of her fondest memories of the CLC program last spring was the second evening at Slide Ranch when the students walked from the campsite to a yert and spent the evening talking, making s’mores over a campfire, and playing the popular game “Suma.” 

 CLC was not all s’mores and games, however.  Veronica’s boundaries were pushed when she walked across a log forty feet above the forest floor, during the Challenge Course at Westminster Woods.  Her fear of heights made the experience breath taking (to say the least), but she managed the entire course and appreciated the encouragement of her peers.

 On July 27th, Veronica is packing her backpack for a 12 mile hike up Mica Mountain in the Saguaro Desert, to the backcountry campsite where she will spend a month building trails.  She feels that CLC has prepared her for her month long crew, but she is still a little nervous about rattlesnakes and African bees in the Arizona desert.  She is also sad to leave her family and friends for an entire month, but she suspects she will be distracted by the new experiences. 

 I hope Veronica has as wonderful an experience as I did two summers ago in the backcountry of Saguaro National Park.  We share in common the Bay Area, a love of the outdoors, and a fear of snakes: I survived and had an amazing time.  I told her she can probably count on it, when she said she suspects the experience will “change my life.”

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