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  It's not a sequoia, but yeah, it's big! Takes about 15 people to wrap around it! |
The Drive:
So, the drive was a little intense. It took about five hours to get from North Highlands, CA to Camp Mendocino due to a few conditions. 1) We have to switch drivers every 2 hours as a NCCC driving policy. 2) The last few miles are on a single-lane dirt road in the mountains...and there are logging trucks.
One of the vans that left for the camp the day before I did was actually run off the road by a logging truck. It's not quite as dramatic as it sounds, although I'm sure it was scary. The road system turns from a paved road, to a gravel road, to a dirt path. The walls of the mountain are on one side of you, the drop-offs/cliffs are on the other side, and extremely tight turns that make it impossible to see for any distance. Let's add to the mix that loggers apparently don't get paid by the hour, they get paid by the volume of wood that they transport. Thus, they can drive a bit recklessly. The van that was run off the road met a logging truck at a turn in the road and veered off into some gravel. The gravel wasn't sturdy enough, and rumor has it that the van sunk down and got a bit stuck. Everyone was fine, there was no dramatic scene of a 15 passenger van rolling down a mountainside, but the van did have to get towed away.
Our drive to the camp (on Tuesday) was slow and uneventful. I take that back. We rocked out to some awesome 90's music. I had planned on sleeping most of the ride there, but I got too pumped up with all the great music and didn't sleep a wink!
The ride home from camp (on Friday) was a different story. It had been raining since dinner time the night before, and all through the morning (we left around 10am). This did not make for good road conditions. Our team leader, who took the responsiblity of driving on the dirt portion compared it to driving in the Wisconsin snow, ice, and slush. The speed limit on this portion of the road was posted at a whopping 15 mph. After we fishtailed the first time, we dropped it down to a meager 5 mph. Nobody complained. There was a great amount of nervous laughter followed by cheering once we reached pavement!
Sleeping Conditions:
We slept in open-air tents that were raised on wooden platforms. Somehow there weren't enough bunks, so my team leader took it upon herself to bring a mattress to the middle of the floor. What a trooper! A bunch of the girls decided to do a spider check when it was still decently light out to ensure a Black Widow-less night's rest. I was very supportive of their endeavor.
I slept in my underarmor the first night, covered up by my sleeping bag and an extra blanket that a friend had given me with I first got to Sacramento to use as a comforter. Even with that, I woke up twice in the night rather chilly. The second night, I slept in my underarmor and absolutely passed out. I'm not sure whether that was due to the slightly warmer temperatures, or because I was absolutely exhausted! Night three, I slept in my underarmor bottoms and a tank top. I think it's safe to say I was getting used to it. Also, the cloud cover and rain helped keep in some of the heat.
The First Full Day:
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| Why wouldn't there be a street light tree in the redwood forest? |
Oh, by the way, this camp is run by the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco. This is the off season, when all of the maintenance happens.
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| Also, why wouldn't there be a turkey wandering around? |
I took a rather heavenly shower after this while the warm sun was still up.
After dinner one of my teammates and I decided to go on an adventure up the mountain. We left camp via a swinging bridge and started hiking up the logging hill. My sweatshirt, underarmor, second layer of pants, and work boots were a bit of an overkill. It was dusk which made it all the more creepy and mystical, and added to the eeriness of seeing some random contraption off the beaten path that had a face of some sort. We decided to head back. When reaching the main road again, we about gave one of the Team Leaders a heart attack though, as she thought she was alone on the road. We were carefully watching for the path we needed to turn onto to get back to camp, and thought we had found it. I personally felt like we should keep going a little, but my buddy (who claimed to have a far better sense of direction than me) directed us off the road. Right...We did end up finding the camp, but came back a completely different way about a half of a mile past where we should have been. Oops.
That night we had a camp fire near an ampitheater where each team put on a skit representing themselves/Americorps NCCC so far. We knew of the skit since the night before, but of course didn't come up with any ideas for it about 20 minutes before performing it. Our skit was a representation of a little something we call "AmeriLove." AmeriLove is the epidemic that hits groups of 18-24 year olds all living in one place in which romantic connections are sped up and love is around evey corner. It's ridiculous, funny, and a very real concern.
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| The railroad tracks in daylight. |
Later that night I went on three hikes. The first hike was more of a night walk down some railroad tracks. We lost some people when we got back near camp, but about half of us continued on a nature trail that lead to the river. (I donated my socks to the person who fell in!) The last portion of the hike consisted of myself, one other girl, and about four guys. We decided to go up a steep incline that required holding on to a rope to kind of pull yourself up. We found a mountain road that we followed for a while until we hit a small camp area complete with an outhouse, a loaded firepit, and two overturned bath tubs. It was straight out of a horror film if you ask me. Fun!
The Second Full Day:
After another early morning pt (this time it was running around our camp) we had an absolutely amazing day! From 8 am to about 3:30 pm my group romped around a low/high ropes course. This, in my opinion, was our first real team-bonding time. I honestly cannot say how much it did for the cohesiveness of our group, and boosted our team morale! We did team-building activities, enriched with lessons in communication, cooperation, laughter, and encouragement, we climbed a rock wall (which I made it to the top of, thanks to my college rock climbing class!), and we did a high ropes course. My teammate Chris and I partnered up for this adventure and followed each other through the various challenges. At one point, we came from different ends of a swinging log and crossed in the middle. We were supposed to go no-handed...I definitely cheated and held onto the ropes that were attached to my harness. We tried to balance in the middle without holding on. He did it, but I could only get one hand off my rope given how much a swinging log shakes with two people trying to balance on it. It was very fun! The best part, however, was the zipline through the Redwoods and over a little creek! It was awesome! It was actually kind of relaxing! I got my second and last shower in after all of these adventures, but was completely covered in dirt within ten minutes due to a very dusty volley ball court.
That night I went on another hike. This time we went up to a helipad landing in the rain. There were 10-20 of us who all walked up the dirt road to the landing. About half-way there (it was about 3 miles round trip) we saw a bear! Or maybe a hole in the tree that was the shape of a bear... Or maybe not. The black shape didn't move, but that doesn't mean it didn't enduce a slight adrenaline rush. This adrenline rush was revamped when we got to the top of the helipad. This was the only area in the camp that got cellphone service so a bunch of people were making phone calls. I, however, had no idea where my phone was. Go figure. So me and 5 other guys decided to venture off into an uncharted path. We told the group we'd be back within five minutes, and to wait for us. We made it about a minute and a half in when we heard a rusteling in the bushes next to us. With all flashlights aimed at the bush we back away. Rattle snake. Maybe. Or maybe just a chipmunk. It's hard to say. We weren't going to mess around though, so with me clutching whoever was next to me we started walking away. Then one of the macho gentlement asked how we all felt about running...before the words left his lips we were all in a dead sprint, laughing at how ridiculous we were. The rest of our group was a little confused when we got back.
The Last Morning:
It rained. We did pt yoga-style in the dining hall, packed, cleaned, and then had Ameri-Olympics. My participation consisted of a three person four-legged race. We didn't win, but we didn't lose.
Big Trees and Other Random Pics!
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| This old bridge is the reason these trees survived the logging. They served as the support basis for the bridge. |
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| Is this creepy to anyone else? This was located right outside our open-air bathrooms. |
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| No, I did not crawl in, this was the home of far too many black widows. Or so I was told...I didn't venture in to check for myself. |
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| Had to throw in one more shot of the random turkey! |
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