Rain Poncho

We were going to be in the woods for 32 days. That's 32 days without a shower, 32 days of water with pieces of who knows what in it, 32 days of being at the mercy of the elements. After 29 days on that NOLS course my now-close friends and I had survived rock climbing, staying up all night in lightning position, summiting new heights, various injuries, getting lost, and now we were ready. Our instructors split the nine of us into two groups, and had each group choose their leader, and then they were going to send us out and we were going to be alone for three days, we would meet our instructors a few miles away from where we would be picked up.

Saying quick fair-wells to the other group, I led my group off trail until we came to a small spring where we decided to have our lunch of trail snacks. Harry, our small toned ginger, decided he wanted to take a swim so we all sprawled on the warm banks and absorbed vitamin D. Kallie and I put the finishing touches on our list of things to buy when we got back to civilization, which included: cheesecake, Oreos, chocolate sauce, and various other deserts that would satisfy our raging sweet tooth. We decided it was time to leave when Harry started suffering from the effects of the bag of thunder chili he had consumed the night before. After consulting our map we continued our off trail adventure. Not long after that we stopped to make camp in an open meadow surrounded by trees. The boys, the ginger boy Harry, our southern boy from Tennessee Preston, and the tall shy awkward Scott, set up their tent and started on dinner while Kallie and I found a secluded spot to erect our tent.

The games started before dinner. First, wrestling! Next thing I know I had little Kallie running at me, surprisingly she knocked me over and had me pinned in 30 seconds. Rematch- when she ran at me I lunged to the side, which caused a chorus of "ohs" from our audience, but it ended the same way. We had several matches, until finally one ended in a cow pie fight. We had a dinner of mac and cheese, and then Kallie attempted to make a cake (she used yeast since we didn't have baking powder, so it tasted like sweet bread.) Preston had trouble putting the cap back on the white gas; he spilled a bunch on his rain pants. It looked dry, so you could imagine our surprise when I lit the stove and Preston's pants lit too. His crotchal region and his upper thigh area were alive with fire as he ran away from us yelling "I'm on fire you Jack A**!" Someone yelled "Stop Drop and Roll!!!" Which Preston did, and then he was out. We all laughed nervously as Preston walked cautiously back to us, as if he was worried that his pants would burst back into flames if he moved wrong. After closely examining his rain pants, which appeared to never have been on fire, he spilt more white gas on himself and we lit him on fire. YAY for stupid kids playing with fire in the middle of the woods. Luckily nothing bad happened, and after playing a few tricks on each other we turned in for the night.

The next day we summited our last peak, which was about a thousand vertical feet. We stopped at the top for a few hours and talked. We looked back to where we had come from, and then looked to where we were going. We talked about our memories of our month together, all the adventures we had had, all the challenges we had worked through. Then one by one we pulled our packs on and with heavy hearts we turned to the future and made our way down the peak, toward civilization. Little did we know our adventures hadn't ended quite yet.

That evening we stopped in a beautiful little clearing not seven miles away from our meet up point. After exploring the area for awhile, looming thunder clouds racing towards us made our instincts scream to set up camp. We had experienced quite a few storms, but this one continues to stand out in my memory. After double checking that our tents were properly staked down we started dinner. Kallie pulled out the food we had saved for this night; soon the aroma from the juicy fried onions and sausage filled the air as Preston stirred. I kneaded dough for cinnamon sticks, which was the second part of our three course meal. The second the onions and sausage had been served the cinnamon sticks were frying in the leftover grease. Our group moved as a unified force; cooking had become second nature, as had reading each others body language. Finally, as we started cooking the brownies, rain hit the rocks making the pitter patter we were highly accustomed to. Scott covered the bubbling chocolate with the dented lid we had been rationed with. Always hungry eyes were locked on the water evaporating off the lid as we salivated intently, with only one thing on our minds; the moment gooey chocolate would explode on our taste buds. A flash of lightning, we all froze in our tracks, counting, one, two th- three was cut off  from a crash of thunder from above, "LIGHTNING POSITION!!!" The boys rushed to their tent, but Kallie and I took shelter in a small cave not too far away from our kitchen site. Soon the lightning past and Scott came to report that Harry had hypothermia, again. We sent him back to the tent with a pile of burnt brownies, and a nalgene filled with hot water, with the order to come back if Harry got any worse. Kallie and I then started singing "Umbrella" by Rhianna. This angered the gods, for they sent down more lightning. Scrambling back into our cave, we changed the lyrics to "under my rain poncho," which was not followed by lightning. With the gods pleased it was now time to lustfully devour our long desired brownies. When the last of the  chocolaty goodness was gone, we let rain water pour into the pan and then after stirring a bit, drank something to the affect of chocolate milk, without the milk. Soon the rain started to let up. We looked across the green misty meadow, and it seemed as if the world was holding its breath. Absolute calm blanketed us in a sense of placid harmonious contentment.

There was something marvelous about sitting in that cave, succumbing to the will of larger forces, with our pan of brownies. While examining that memory a kind of awe overtakes me, makes me understand how small people are. To ourselves we are the world, but to the world we are a grain of sand in the Sahara desert. We have so little control over what happens around us, the only thing we can control is ourselves.