Adventure Oddities #3 Doing dishes in the backcountry:

As I have discussed previously we practice "Leave No Trace" principles. One of the ways that we do that is we lick our personal dishes clean. While we still do the sanitation practices required of us by the health department this is the first step in our system for the back country. Why is that? Because any food particles that go into the dish washing water must be strained and then carried out in someones pack. So it is easier to just have people remove all those food particles in a way that will eventually lead to a nice scat hole somewhere in the woods.

Some meals are hard than others to lick clean and one of the first things you learn as a guide is as soon as you are done you lick your bowl. If you allow it to dry then you might need to add a little water which then needs to be drunk. I don't do so well with drinking that water so I am quick to clean my bowl and if needed I might find a friend to drink mine... I am burly but sometimes those squeamish things come out that I have yet to overcome. 

*Note the picture is from training where we created a competition of licking a bowl it is not normally ideal to have the food all over your hands and face but in this case the Hershey's syrup wasn't so bad to have all over.

Please don't call us the C word.

I don't know what C word you were thinking of because I'm talking about "Camp". I have nothing against Camp, I love Camp! I came to know Jesus personally through my experience at Wi-Ne-Ma Christian Camp. However, we are not a typical camp. Yes students come here to have enjoyable summer memories and to the average eye you might look at Stonewater Ranch and think "what a beautiful camp" and while our facility does have a camp look it is quite different. What is that difference you may be asking? Well let me show you.
One of the main differences is that every trip is customized to what the group is looking for. Whether it be a boy scout group, youth group or school group every trip is carefully designed to meet the individual needs and desires of that group.

 Everything we do has a purpose.(I know this sounds like a lofty statement but I truly believe it) Some of the purpose's might be light, lets get to know each others names by whacking each other with a fun noodle while others have a bigger purpose. For example the photo above is call Helium Pole. The simple goal is for everyone to have both of their pointer fingers touching the pole and to take it from waist level to the ground. Simple right....  Not quite. During this initiative it is very easy figuratively and literally to point fingers at others. It's not working because...
"insert blame game here" While it can be fun this 'simple' initiative can take groups hours to complete and gives us as their guides the opportunity to walk through it with them, problem solve, encourage, and facilitate so that it isn't just a fun 'game' but a learning experience. That can be used in the future as these groups continue to interact with each other and maybe some of the emotions and feelings that they experienced in this hypothetical situation can help them interact in their real life situation. 

May 2012- Introducing Lincoln

Let me introduce you to Lincoln.

Many of you are aware that while I can enjoy animals I am not what you would call an animal lover... I have a strict animals belong outside policy and I really prefer just looking I don't have a strong desire to pet them. (puppies are hard to resist though... I do have  soft spot for puppies:)  It also depends on what I am wearing. For example when I go riding I have special riding clothes and no its not one of those uppity things it is just I don't like to be dirty and horses/animals in general are dirty they leave hair on you. However, Lincoln is our downstairs neighbors dog and he is awesome. I really like that he is there when I come home at night and barks at people to let us know that they are there and the best part is I don't have to do anything other than interact with him when I want to  ;) Chris and Angie feed him, care for him, own him and those of us that live upstairs just get all the benefits. Thanks Chris and Angie :)

May 19th, 2012- Roundup

Roundup Fundraising BBQ

When people would ask me about how I was feeling about organizing the Roundup my typical response was. I love it I get to throw a huge party with a purpose.  It ended up being an awesome event. Really nothing could have gone better. It isn’t the first time I have planned a party because I have been planning get together/vacations/youth group events since I was in middle school. I love planning events that bring people together but this was my largest undertaking thus far.

The entire purpose of the Roundup is to get people to catch the vision of what we are about at Youth Dynamics and Stonewater Ranch.  We want to Roundup new volunteers, donors, and increase investment in the ministry.

While I was leading the charge for the event it is something that could not have been pulled off without our excellent staff team. Everyday leading up to the event I was thanking God for who he brought to this team. We were all busy as our summer staff training started just days after Roundup but still our staff put in the effort to pull this event off. 

Roundup included Childcare, Whitewater Rafting, Horse Rides, Helicopter Rides, BBQ Dinner, Program, and Square Dancing. Yes all of that in one day! 

I really enjoyed organizing the event and before the day was even half way through I was already making lists of how we can do it better next year.   

If you weren’t able to make the Roundup this year you should put it on your calendar for May 18^th, 2013 because it is going to be a party with a purpose that you don’t want to miss.

March 2012- Video Update

Excuse the ridiculous thumbnail.

February 2012

Winter is full here of office work as well as retreats happening every weekend.  For some groups that want the extra challenge during their winter retreat we offer adventures like ice climbing, dogsledding, crosscountry skiing, snowshoeing and team building.

Our staff team had a welcome lunch for our new staff Rachel Young and The Stay's.

 Rachel moved here from Southern California in February so she had never gotten to make a snowman before!

 Chris and Angie are our next door neighbors (well techncially downstairs neighbors) and have just loved getting to know them. Chris is the new Operations Manager so I have been working with him to pass of many of the duties that I took care of last year so I can move more into just marketing and social media.

It was a beautiful day that we had some local mushers come out and run dogsledding for a group.

Join us on Summer Staff this summer!

Summer Staff 2012

If you have read this blog at all in the last year you will have seen quite a few stories about how awesome it is being on staff with Youth Dynamics.  I love everything about being a part of YD the students, my coworkers, adventure, hard work and lots of fun. We are currently looking to hire summer staff at all three of our bases.  We desire people that have a heart to serve God using his creation. You don't need any technical skills coming in we will train you in all our different areas we just need you! If you know of anyone that is looking for something to do this summer whether it be your niece/nephew, grandchild, friend, son/daughter or YOU pass along this link! goo.gl/IqZbe

December 4, 2011 - Video Update

This is one of the highlights of my summer.

UPDATE: Fall 2011

I realize it has been way too long since I have posted new stories but that is because I was so busy experiencing those stories. Now that our busy season is over and we are in the office season I am hoping to get many of those stories written down so that they can be enjoyed by all.  So stay tuned and check this out while you wait.

July 12, 2011- On the Rock

We experience a lot of different attitudes on rock days. Some don’t particularly want to be there, some are crazy afraid of heights you name it we see it. These students for the most part had never been climbing but they were more than willing to give it a go. Like most rock days real emotions come out during the rappel. I talked about it earlier in the blog and every experience is different but a lot of the emotions are the same. Fear of heights, fear of trusting their belayer, fear of trusting the rope etc… This group really stepped up in encouraging each other. Multiple gals didn’t really want to rappel. One gal in particular got to the top sat down and said she wasn’t moving. By the end of the afternoon she was willing to walk to the edge with me. With the support of her community of friends and willingness to challenge herself she stepped over the edge. It is funny to me how an arm around a students shoulders is big help. When in reality the arm does absolutely no good for anything other than reassurance but it seems to help. We were all stoked for her when she got to the bottom and celebrated her victory with her.

 Walking her through each step.

July 11-14, 2011 – College Leadership Foundation.

We have a group that brings around 60 students. These students come from inner cities throughout Washington. They are students who are primarily from lower income families and have displayed leadership potential in their communities. These students are accepted into this leadership program where they receive full need scholarships to attend a university in their town. The goal is that they receive higher education while staying in their communities for support and then they go back into their communities and change the community for the better. For most of these students this is the first time that they have ever slept outside, rock climbed, gone hiking… you get the picture. It was awesome to walk through a couple days of challenging experiences with them. I got to hang out with a group that will be starting at GU in the fall. There are so many stories of the students pushing themselves and pushing each other. This has been one of the most inspiring trips to be on.

 Doing group initiatives with the students.

Lesley came out to be food staff for this trip which was a huge blessing.

Playing forced choice.

Adventure Oddities #2

So you might have wondered what this tube on the back of everyone’s kayak are.. well this goes back to the Leave No Trace subject. Earlier I mentioned that in the backcountry you dig a hole for your “ahem”. On the river a hole is not possible because there really is no way to say where high water is so if your hole is below high water mark in the spring when high water comes your ‘ahem’ will be washed down the river and is now contaminating the river… thus you pack it out. Well when you are on a 7 day trip you don’t really want your ‘ahem’ bag of goodness in your dry bag so that is why we have the tube. Just because I know the next question is always you go ‘ahem’ in the tube?!!!! No!!! just like the shovel... cleanliness is next to godliness. The tube should NEVER be contaminated with said ‘ahem objects’. How it works is you are provided with a ‘landing pad’ this most often is a paper towel. When you are done with your business you pick up the four corners of the landing pad and what ever toilet paper you might have used and you put it in the blue plastic bag. You also get to add a little “Mr. Sprinkles” (everything has a name at YD) Mr. Sprinkles is poo powder (yes that is its actual name) but it is the chemical that is found in diapers that gels the ‘business’ thus making it so when we empty the poo tubes we can dump them straight into the dumpster and it is no longer considered hazardous material. Though I must say after 7 days in the hot sun in a sealed pipe the smell is QUITE Hazardous. So to continue the how to (just in case you ever need to use this method) you pick up your landing pad and deposit it in the blue bag add some Mr. Sprinkles then you drop the bag into your pipe and seal the lid. If you need to go # 1 it is a little different on the river instead of peeing on a rock you pee directly in the river… if you were to pee on the beach that is just going to attract animals and make the beaches gross for others who will be coming after you.

July 2011 - Fun at the Pool

I love that our staff team chooses to do what we do for work during our off time. One of the kicks we have been on this summer is learning to roll hard shell kayaks. A local outdoor outfitter holds pool sessions on sunday nights throughout the summer to learn to roll in a warm controlled environment as opposed to all of the snow melt river and lakes around us.  I chose to watch the first weekend because I wasn't so sure about hanging out in the water having my body connected to a big piece of plastic holding me there. I did enjoy videoing my friends doing it. This is Dano he pretty much rocked roll practice. I don't know that this is a skill I will ever choose to master but I do know how to wet escape :)

July 10, 2011 – Sheriff’s Department.

Plain is classified as a wilderness setting when it comes to treating medical stuff. All of our services are volunteer like the fire department and paramedics. We got back from our IK training got all of our gear put away and our River Manager got a call from the Sheriff asking if we could be a part of a rescue on the Wenatchee River. It was quite humorous because we were all walking up the hill on the ranch towards the Lodge where most of us live and Shane stops walking to talk on the phone and a couple of guy guides are giddy at the fact they get to take part in a rescue… well I guess we were all a mixture of giddy, worried and ready for action. So Shane tells Sheriff Mike that he has his team assembled and we will be there in 10 min. Sheriff Mike was expecting a response time of at least an hour or more so he was pretty shocked. So we run… and I mean all out sprint to get our wetsuits and PFD’s. We weren’t given much info about what the rescue entailed so we took enough guides/paddlers to fill two boats if needed. We drive over to the scene that was 5 min away from our location and all of the fire trucks/aid cars/ rescue vehicles from the area are in these people’s yards so we rig up our raft. In the end we were thankful that it was a really simple rescue scenario. An older couple somehow had run their “raft” otherwise known as a K-Mart Coffin into a strainer in the middle of the river and had been able to get on top of the tree but needed a ride from the tree back to shore. One of our guides tried to get their raft loose so that it wouldn’t become river trash but it was thoroughly stuck (side note we floated by it 3 weeks later and it was still there) The sheriff mentioned at the end how thankful they were for our help and quick response. He really hadn’t expected any rafting outfitter to be able to assemble a team that was sober enough to respond since the rafting community isn’t known for its soberness but we proved that we are a different kind of outfitter.

Many hands make light work of rigging a raft.

In my sprinting and grabbing gear I grabbed the DSLR but I couldn't quickly put my hands on my long lense so these photos are less then exciting but better than nothing.

A quick trip to the middle of the river to pick up the two stranded passengers and now it is time to de-rig the raft.

But first it had to be carried through a lot of people's backyards.

Adventure Oddities #1

#1 Leave No Trace (LNT)


For many of you who live in the Pacific Northwest LNT is not something new or crazy. The concept of Leave No Trace is just that Don’t leave a Trace. There should be no trace that anyone else has ever been there. I don’t want to walk into a camp area and see toilet paper from others scattered around thus, I don’t leave my toilet paper to be scattered around by animals for others to find. We are more of LNT enthusiasts than many others because as an outfitter who runs lots of trips if our group of 10-20 people doesn’t practice LNT it is a big deal and leaves a big impact.

So you might be asking what are some LNT practices you follow? Well let me tell you:

- “Pack it in, Pack it out” Everything you carry in you can carry out. If you don’t want to carry it out don’t carry it in. In the back country this includes everything but it does not include bathroom deposits. For # 2 you dig a hole 6-8 inches deep and bury your ‘deposits’ (It is different on the river but I will get into that later) Always remembering that the community trowel NEVER, we emphatically emphasize NEVER touches anything but dirt. For #1 you go on a rock or on a durable surface. The whole concept of “watering” the vegetation is past. Though you think it makes sense to ‘water’ the plants…. Your pee is not water but is very salty so the deer and other animals will rip up the plants to get to the salt thus killing the vegetation you are working to protect by walking on the trails. So why pee on rocks…. Well you are pretty much creating a salt lick for the animals. Gross, yes but they might as well not kill the plants when they are searching for the salt. Toilet Paper if it is needed is put in a blue bag which is just a plastic bag that is tinted blue. The nice blue bag then goes in your own pocket/pack and never again makes contact with the community trowel/TP/Hand Sani kit.

- Micro Trash: Is not our friend. Even the littlest crumb attracts animals which is not practicing LNT so we are all about micro trash. You have a choice when you find yourself with some micro trash…

o First option is many of our guides favorites and that is to pick it up, dust it off and eat it. Option # 2 If you are not into that then you can put it in with the lunch trash and carry it out but it does not stay on the ground.

- We always hike on the trail there is no cutting switch backs or making a new path. If it is muddy we want everyone to just walk through the mud so that we don’t widen the path more than it needs to be.

- If we are walking off trail you don’t follow each other in a single file instead you fan out so that lots of plants are experiencing a little trauma instead of a few plants facing extreme trauma.

Adventure Culture

For those of you following Jessica’s blog you know that she has been answering some questions and talking about some of the ‘normal’ things that a day in Alaska entails and as I am telling stories to people who have yet to be on a YD Adventures trip they are shocked by some of the things we do. Not shocked in a bad way more of the wow I don’t know if I would like to do that way. So Ill talk about some of the oddities that now that I am in the culture of Adventure don’t really seem like oddities.

July 10, 2011- Methow River Training

Black Canyon (Class IV)

July 9-10, 2011 –IK Training

It is amazing how much training it takes to keep all of our guides current and prepared for guiding in each activity. As the water levels drop we switch from rafting to inflatablt kayaking so that we can continue to minister using water activities throughout the summer. We headed to the Methow River in the Methow Valley for an overnight Kayak training. It was amazing because the CFS was HUGE for kayaking. We did it over night so that our guides would have experience on what it looks like so that our first overnight river experience is not with guides since things are quite a bit different on the river then in the backcountry environment. I didn’t do the second run down Black Canyon (Class IV) so I was able to get some footage of the run which was pretty sweet. But a great training so all of our guides are experienced in Kayaks and can be competent guides.

What is the white pipe for? (Stay tuned for a future post on what the pipe/tube is for)

A beach in the middle of the river is the perfect spot for a lesson.

We only have so many meals that are health department approved so we eat a LOT of the same stuff. One of those meals is Logan Bread. I don't particularly care for Logan Bread but Ashley (Pictured Above) LOVES Logan Bread. We had extra so she is choosing to eat it instead of dessert.

Scouting Black Canyon Rapid (Class IV)

Making Pita Pizzas pretty much everyones favorite meal.

Drying out clothes. It kind of looks like the rapture happened (minus the people standing there)