I slept under my personal/solo tarp last night. Aside from the mouse problem it was a great sleep. I was able to roll over in bed and watch Petite Vero and Ernie get breakfast ready. There is something strange about watching someone cook for you when you know they don’t know you’re watching. I felt guilty and had to get up to help.

The morning was absolutely beautiful. The air was warmer than it had been for a week. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. A perfect day.

I walked down to the edge of the river that ran along side our campsite. The river was deep and strong. It made all of the streams and creeks we’ve crossed over the weeks looks pretty tiny. I wondered how long it took for the water way up in the mountains to reach here. A day? A week? A month? I had no idea. As I laughed at myself and my own stupidity I decided to stay until the end of the course. The weather was too nice to ditch now.

We had breakfast and began the somewhat sad process of getting rid of excess gear. We cleaned out our packs and threw them in the back of the van. Here is a piece of gear that has carried my stuff for three weeks. Strangely I have an emotional attachment to it. We are to only keep what gear we need to sleep in tonight. Everything else needs to go.

We packed up the van and take off. First stop is Outward Bound Headquarters. We grab a cooler lunch and make our way down the road to a crag (Happy Crag?). Before we get to the crag to climb Matt pulls us in to the “Pony Espresso”. A crappy looking, but absolutely fantastic café. I think Matt and Jasmin only intended it to be a coffee stop. We, the hungry barbarians that we are, gorged ourselves on the quiche, scones, muffins, etc. The food was absolutely delicious. After I had stood in line for a few minutes I realized how bad we all smelled. The clerk behind the counter was serving us with a quickness that only a nose could bring upon.

We piled back into the van and made our way behind newly being built condos to the “happy crag”. Only 45 seconds walking from the van, and overlooking a train track, this was the place to be on a sunny warm day. We all stripped down to shorts and t-shirts and began climbing. For a few of us climbing gave way to sitting, sitting gave way to talking, and talking gave way to….well….more talking. Jasmin told us mountaineer stories. She talked about the mountaineers (her friends, or friends of friends) who were the first on the scene when the freak avalanche killed a large number of teens on a school trip. We talked about the business of outdoors tourism, what she hoped to do in the winter, what she was planning to do with her life etc. It was a perfect day of relaxing, some climbing, and an endless supply of fresh fruit and sandwiches.

In the afternoon we made our way back to Outward Bound headquarters to wash our gear. Everything we had used up until this point that we didn’t need for the night was to be counted, cleaned and stored. With the warm afternoon sun on our backs the work was quick, and fun. Lots of water splashing, laughing and shenanigans with our new friends. We also took this brief opportunity to use real bathrooms. We washed our faces, used toilets and generally basked in awe of the modern amenities surrounding us.

Just after we had hung the last ropes to dry we took advantage of the late day sun and we took our final group photo. What started out as a group of strangers now was a group of friends who had conquered the great outdoors. The timid nervous smiles from the start now were sincere and familiar. I remember this moment as being the first where sadness set in. It was a slight foreboding sadness that I would not spend all of tomorrow with all of these people. Change, not matter what, is always awkward for a human.

We headed back to camp. A camp we had all to ourselves now. We had no packs, no helmets, no ropes, no tarps, no carabineers, no gaiters. In fact we had virtually none of the equipment we had come to rely on for our survival over the past three weeks. I felt somewhat naked. Much like a soldier without his gun.

Camp was ours. We had the whole thing at our disposal. We cooked up a stir-fry feed of mammoth proportions and ate until our bellies hurt. After things were all cleaned up and put away, and of course a mushroom incident that will never ever be told outside of the group, we sat down for our de-briefing. A time to share, reflect, talk and think about the previous three weeks. While it seemed cheesy at the start, it ended up meaning a lot to all of us. We shared about each person on the trip and what they meant to us. We each indicated what we put in to the trip and what we got out of the trip. The grand finale was the presentation of the Outward Bound Pin to each person. Tears were shed. Jasmin and Matt did a wonderful job of wrapping up 21 days of teaching and caring in a few hours of quotes, funny letters, and kind words.

We sat around the picnic tables for an hour more or so. Things were strange. I had the excitement of going home openly waging war with the sadness of leaving these people who had grown so close to me.

As we made our way to camp, we played pranks on each other. We threw rocks, said funny things, laughed. Eventually the noise quieted down and we were all left to our own thoughts. Morning would be coming quick. We had a mini marathon to run in the morning. Very early in the morning….

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