July 22nd

July 22nd, 2014

Our day started bright and early at 4:30 am – yuck. We were supposed to meet in the main hall so we could leave at 5 for a sunrise hike to Hickman Bridge. The majority of the girls were waiting for 15 minutes past 5 before any of the boys showed up, including our instructor, Kevin. We ended up leaving around 5:30 and made it to the trailhead. At this point our flashlights we brought were useless. I was in the lead for the majority of the hike [despite the steep incline/huge stones to climb up] At the end I was the 4^th person overall to make it to the bridge and 1^st girl to reach it! Yay! We had a lot of time to kill before the sun rose fully so we explored and climbed everywhere! We ended up staying until the sun had covered most of the arch [the last little bit wasn’t going to happen until later in the day] By the time everyone made it back to the cars it was about 9:30. We loaded up and headed back to the station for a late breakfast of fruit filled pancakes and sausage. [Did I mention our aid is also a pro chef? Yumm – He makes carb loading wonderful!] Everyone kinda clonked out after we ate – I even took nap for a couple of hours! It was great! We ate and then tried to go out shooting at sunset, but this crew has a hard time moving! We were chasing the light the whole way down the plateau, but we missed it! However we did happen to stop to take pictures of a family of deer! We ended our night with some star shooting! So beautiful and so many stars! I could see the milky way and even a few planets with just my eyes! We didn’t end up getting to bed until after 12:30! Such a busy, fun day!