Sweet Victory

     This past week has been busy getting ready for our Donor Appreciation Week, aka preparing for all of our different events (a dinner, golf outing, etc). I've made name tags, finished the slideshow video and wrapped gifts. Well, I put ribbons on the gifts. Wrapping is not one of my strong suits. A volunteer who helped out in the department last year is also back for the week. He had hip surgery so he could only come back for this week, which is a bummer because I've loved working with him. He's so kind and easy to talk to. Through a conversation we found out that him and his wife donated a cabin that my family stayed in once so that was cool!
     I also got to present the themes I created for the Annual Campaign. It went super well and took a while to narrow it down to one! With the World Council one year behind us, a trip to Russia happening in the future and Rio de Janerio, we decided to go with the Olympics. Soon I'll get to start finding ways to incorporate the theme into the campaign materials and kickoff event.
     The best thing that I did this past week was travel out to Snow Mountain Ranch again. We got there Tuesday night but all of the things I helped with were the following day. There was a pinning ceremony in the morning where people were honored with their Y anniversaries. I also got to meet the rest of the SMR staff who works with philanthropy. After I told one of the guys that I went to K-State he said and I quote, "Oh I like K-State. I like their basketball program." We got along great. The other event that we did that day was a cookout with people who donated to the Staff For Kids program. It's a program where employees donate to provide scholarships for kids to come to camp. A group of CCO kids joined us so we could hear all about their camp experiences.
     I took a spontaneous road trip to Loveland on Friday to visit Erica and Chandler. Rachel and Sarah were also there and we met another super nice girl named Natalie. We all went out to dinner and walked around downtown. Loveland is such a nice area- if I ever move out to Colorado I would definitely consider moving there. We got a grand tour of Erica's apartment and also spent some time at a music festival downtown. Rachel and I were hiking early-ish the next day so we left a little early but we'll definitely be back so I'm looking forward to visiting again.
     Saturday was a big day for me. It was a day of beauty, but most importantly, redemption.
     If you've heard any of my hiking stories from last year, there's a 98% chance that you've heard about my bitterness towards Bluebird Lake. Telling the story all the way through would take a blog post of its own so if you haven't heard it, here's the Cliff Notes version: I was nauseous for the first three miles of the hike. Rachel and I got lost taking an alternate route and ended up wandering around a meadow full of dead trees for two hours. I fell on one of the logs and got a nasty scar all the way down my shin. It was straight up miserable. The worst part of it all is that we never actually made it to the lake. We got so lost and tired that we ended up turning around in the last half mile of the hike. Bluebird Lake became a mystic destination, and we constantly joked about someday making it back. Then we both got rehired and, well, we knew what we needed to do.
     Thankfully things went much better this time around. Rachel and I gathered a small group to join us and witness a beautiful moment of redemption. Cathrine, Michael and another girl named Laura all came with us and we had a great time. Going in a bigger group helped us find the correct trails (still not sure how we missed them last year...) and we made it there in excellent time. It was nice being able to admire all of the scenery. The Wild Basin area is known for having lots of wild flowers, and it was so cool walking around and seeing all of the different color patches. I rounded the final corner to see the lake and my heart exploded with joy. The lake was stunning. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Celebrating because WE FINALLY MADE IT!!!

*Cue "Just Around the Riverbend"*

     I could have stayed there all day. It was just fantastic. Unfortunately, we had to leave at some point, and the way back was just as beautiful. My favorite part was sliding down a huge snow drift. It was a little steep on the walk up so we decided to sled down to make it down faster. I tied my raincoat around my waist and made a valiant attempt to go the whole distance. Instead, I almost ran straight into a rock. I got the bright idea of moving to my side and sliding, which made my whole left leg almost go numb from being so cold. Eventually I made it down without injury and we continued on our way. The hike wiped me out so I stayed home and prepared to hike CCY on Sunday.
     CCY is a super popular hike in the park. It's three peaks that you can see right from the YMCA. Kristina, Amanda, Rachel and I drove up Old Fall River Road and started on the trail around 7:45 AM to conquer them all. It was way steeper than I expected. (At the top of Mount Chaquita we realized that we went 2.4 miles and gained over 2,400 feet of elevation. So that's lovely.) The trails haven't been maintained for two years because Old Fall River Road has been closed from flood damage. For us, that meant that we had to figure out where to go when the trails split. We were optimistic and thought at one point that taking the trail that went downhill would still get us up the mountain. We were wrong, of course, and ended up having to go straight up the mountain to get back onto the trail. Even though we were on the right track, the turn to hike up to the peak of Chafin was easy to miss. We hiked right past it. Instead of hitting our first peak we started a 1,000 foot incline to the second one.

Going straight up is a little less terrible when this is your view.

     Here's where I have a bit of a confession to make. I enjoy hiking and I try to read up on things before I do them, but when it comes to mountains I tend to go all into without thinking everything through. When I thought of doing CCY I thought about how cool it would be to do three peaks. I didn't think, "Hey you're hiking above treeline so you should bring a lot of sunscreen or maybe wear actual pants or think to bring thicker clothes, right?" I just thought, "Three mountains HELL YEAH LET'S DO IT!" So when we started getting to the peak of Mount Chiquita (it's 13,075 feet high) and things got super windy, I started feeling miserable in my Nike shorts, t shirt and sweatshirt. Everyone else felt unprepared as well, so we decided to only summit Mount Chiquita.

At the summit and wearing my roommate's raincoat because she had an extra and, of course, I forgot that I took mine out of my backpack from the day before (I'm usually better prepared for hikes. Promise).

Seriously one of the most beautiful things I've seen all summer.

     Even though I was disappointed about not fully completing CCY, I was totally content with only doing Chiquita. It was beautiful and definitely one of my favorite hikes ever. There were some wind breaks built up on the summit so we were able to spend three hours there. We ate food and napped and it was glorious. My favorite part was making friends with a marmot that we endearingly named Franklin. Franklin enjoyed coming super close to us to try and get our food. There was a point where he came around the wind break and poked his head out right on top. We all screamed, thinking he was going to jump on us, but thankfully he let us be.

"Everything the light touches is yours"- the conversation marmots definitely have with their children.

He basically cornered us, which was adorable and terrifying all at once. 

     The descent took forever, mainly because we tried to go a different route. We ended up miserably climbing over a ton of rocks to try and get back to our original trail. After finally making it back, we drove up the rest of Old Fall River Road, which leads to the Alpine Visitor Center on Trail Ridge Road. We could see the center throughout the hike so it was cool to come full circle and see it up close.
     After the hike I hung out and wallowed in deep regret for not applying enough sunscreen to myself all day. I have a sunburn on my face and down both of my legs and it hurts so freaking bad. I wore a coral shirt today and, no joke, my legs matched my shirt. Oh well. I deserve it for not being more careful. At least I learned before I did Longs and at least the view was beautiful.
     This next week is going to be fantastic. Not only is it a week full of fun events, but one of my roommates from last summer is coming to visit. It's going to be a blast catching up with her and taking time on my days off to actually relax. I can't wait!!!