Highlights

Mid-October brought an adventure that I did not at all expect. It’s not that I didn’t plan for it carefully and pack everything I needed for the Common Ground Adventures 4-day cabin camping trip to Bryce Canyon. And I sure had seen pictures of where I was going and was excited to finally stand in the presence of the red and white filigree towers of sandstone. In spite of my preparation for the scenic journey, it was the people I traveled with that created a long-weekend trip filled with so many highlights that I can’t remember anything else.

Highlights such as…

..Bathroom stops that were HUGE events. EVERY time! Wheelchairs, walkers and canes and braces needed to be retrieved and dispersed and kind strangers opening the doors and smiling at the strung out brood of wandering would-be campers. So many individual stories and snacks purchased with carefully handled bills and coins. I grew to love these breaks.

..Competitive Clancy, who would lurch forward, threatening to break my protective hold, whenever he thought that another person was walking faster than we were. And his feet spinning those pedals like crazy on the side by side tandem bike we shared if he saw anyone trying to pass us. He pedaled like a maniac even when the chain fell off his side, which it often did. My grease-blackened fingers didn’t bother me at all. They reminded me of the joy it was to put the chain back on and to have the privilege of riding beside this sweet man.

..Wordless but not soundless Jessie and her animation after finishing a short bike ride together. She was making loud sounds and large gestures with her hands but I didn’t know if she was upset or happy! I was finally told she was signing, “Thank you” and was happy and I was taught the sign for “you’re welcome”, which I used frequently after that. This sweet woman was so laughingly impatient with me when I didn’t clean my oranges fast enough, and took pictures of everyone in camp incessantly. She also performed any task she saw that needed done with undying devotion.  Jesse came and went in her defiantly independent manner and created a little nook in my heart.

..The sweet romance of Amanda and Wally… She used him. Probably not on purpose at all. He loved it and did all she asked for, and more. He was so proud to have her attention and she was so proud that she didn’t have to get her own meals. Finally, the break-up:

“I like you”

“I don’t like you”

“I got all your food for you”

“Well, I didn’t want you to get my food”

“You had a crush on me!”

“You had a crush on me first!”

And time to move on. No hard feelings.

“Besides, I have a girl in California!”

..The events shared by a man using a walker to get around, of an auto accident 6 years before that left him walking awkwardly and having to work every day at talking. He was 42 on the day he told me this story. 36 years healthy. Now all he wants is for others to see him as a productive member of society. Independent and smart, his outer appearance belies a heart that craves and deserves respect. Once healthy and deft, every movement and action now requires effort and often pain. 36 years healthy.

..The hunched over young man in the wheelchair teased the leaders and was teased back. And when a guitar was played around the campfire, a sweet voice rose in beautiful song from the man in the wheelchair, making you forget momentarily that his very life depended on help from others almost 24 hours a day. Music caused spontaneous dancing in some and joyful singing in several. Seemed that the guitar played by one of the leaders brought common reactions to the group – and always smiles for everyone.

..The puppy that was tied up by the family in the next cabin over found a way to get loose and came romping over to visit without realizing he had entered puppy heaven. Kind, sweet and loving hands tentatively touched and petted and were licked in puppy joy. When the family came to retrieve him, their apologies were met with such love for the puppy that they let the campers enjoy the furry company for a few more minutes. It was so fun to watch the joy in so many eyes when the escaped pup found its way to a camp of love.

..Awkward steps do not always go as planned. One minute I was being pushed into a tree by a mischievous Clancy and the next, he was falling to the ground against my desperate attempt to hold him up. We both went down and my heart cried out as I tried to find a way to take the blow myself and spare my friend. But the moment happened too fast and a head hit the ground and I scrambled up in an instant to sit beside Clancy and held his head to my chest like he was a small child while I kept asking him over and over if he was all right. I had neglected my responsibility and I let him fall! Fought back my pained tears… Of course, he was gracious and explained how his left foot got caught behind his right and how that happens sometimes. Later in the day, while playing around, I told Clancy that he’d better do what I said or I’d kick him and push him down again. To my joy, he said to me, with attitude, that he was going to kick ME and push ME down!  He repeated this many times in the trip and I laughed with love every time.

..After the last campfire on the last night, I went to head to bed and was met with a big surprise hug by my wordless friend. I was touched by the easy willingness to trust and love. I didn't feel like I did anything to deserve the tenderness shared with me. The surprise I felt by the hug was symbolic of the way I felt during the whole trip. Surprised at how quickly we all became friends. Surprised at what I didn't know about various handicaps and also how giving and kind their hearts were. There was no other place on earth I would rather have been during those 4 days of dawn to late night work. There was some amazing scenery in Bryce Canyon, that’s certain. But the views paled when compared with the tapestry of love painted on my heart by the heavenly paintbrushes of my new friends.

Geocaching in the valley of caches

The Saturday was supposed to be a hiking day and I had really been looking forward to it, but when a couple of hikers came equipped with GPS’s loaded with geocache data, it was clear a new adventure was afoot.  My son had gone geocaching a few times and had returned generally unharmed (not sure if the strange behavior was from geocaching or just expected from a teenager. Started about age 13… ), so I was interested to tag along and see what this was all about. 

We headed up the Wind Caves trail, a route that takes one to the Wind Caves, a set of caves in the rock that was formed by wind. One of the geocaches was named the Wind Caves Cache. Got some clever namers at work! Not long after we started, we stopped, and the 2 geocachers told us geomuggles that there was a cache nearby. But I knew that before she said anything… I could smell it!! (Later I learned it was a sandwich from my previous hiking trip in my backpack, but for now, it was the scent of a foe! A pretty disgusting foe…) I was handed a GPS and after being shown the basics, I jumped downhill from the trail in search of my first geocache!! The screen showed the distance from the cache and as long as the number was going down, it meant you were getting closer. I found a spot where the number was really small then would get larger and then smaller as I walked around a tree. Didn’t make any sense. One of the geocachers said that sometimes you just had to use your eyes. I looked up, and there it was!! A large military ammo box at the base of the tree! Gleefully… I mean, majestically, I opened the ammo box to discover the treasures hidden inside. Someone thought I was taking too long and told me to lift some latch over some catch and twist it backwards twice or something like that. I knew how to do it but was just savoring the moment. Savoring for a long time. Kind of like I’m doing now in this paragraph. Finally open (she didn’t need to do it. I would have got it eventually), I was ordered to hand over the log book, which I quickly did. Inside the box were children’s books mostly, and a few teen and adult books. I wanted to read them all!! This particular cache was called the Library but I didn’t see any tables or chairs so I grabbed a book and plopped down.

“On to the next one, Huffyboy!”

“HuffyMAN.” I reminded. “And what about reading?”

Someone pulled the book from my fingers and put the book back in the ammo box.

“Library’s closed, Huffyboy.”

Before putting the box back where we found it, I was shown where my name was listed as one of the discoverers in the log book. That was very cool. And one of the geocachers was doing this challenge where she had to bring 100 people with her to find caches. Turned out I was number 100!! I was pretty stoked about that, and she was too, I think, cause she kept trying to verify it with her friend…

“Are you POSITIVE I didn’t already get number 100? Can’t we lie and say it was someone els…”

The end of the sentence was drowned out by my loudly singing out the tune to “Taps” in excitement for the quest to the next cache up the trail!

We found the geocache near the Wind Caves after enjoying the beautiful scenery created by the unique features of the cave and the gorgeous colors of the foliage around us. Exultantly, we headed off to the next trail, where we found 3 more geocaches. We tried to find another but after fruitlessly searching for 15 minutes or so, we had to give up on it. It was pretty tough to walk away from the quest because there was the feeling of failure looking above. We finally all agreed that it just was not there and moved on up the trail, just like George Jefferson.

This second path was the Jardine Juniper Trail and the end was marked by the majestic yet creepy Jardine Juniper that has been alive for an estimated 1600 years – which is slightly longer than the Rolling Stones have been performing. After taking some pictures, we headed along the side of the hill for about 50 yards to the indicated area of the last geocache we would be searching for. We ended up at the base of a small rock outcropping and the GPS’s seemed to say it was right there. We searched all over and thought we were going to come up empty again. One of the others climbed the outcropping and was about to push some big rocks over the edge.

“Hey, Huffyboy! Come stand where I drew the X in the dirt down there!”

I was looking for the X when he shouted that he had found the cache! Turns out we were seeing 0 on the GPS because we were almost directly below the cache, which was at the top of the outcropping and not the bottom. We were elated! Though oddly, the same searcher kept asking me to go stand on the X at the base of the cliff anyway… He really looked sad when I told him we needed to go so we could get off the mountain before dark. He must really love the geocaching.

It was a great day of hiking (almost 14 miles!) with really fun friends and a new hobby discovered. I love finding those ammo boxes now. When I was in Smith and Edwards last week, they had to pull me away from a big display… I knew one of those ammo boxes had to be holding some treasures!!