Lazy Day Weekend

This weekend as most of you know was Labor Day weekend, but I decided to rename it Lazy Day because I didn't do much of anything and really the last word I would use to describe it would be labor. It was an extra long weekend because of course I got Friday off from CHRPA and so it was an excellent 4 days of freedom, ahhh. Friday I went for the first time to BICAS to volunteer. I was a little nervous but I knew that was nonsense and was also excited about riding my bike downtown. My dad shipped my Trek touring bike down south and so I got it on Thursday and had fun putting it back together and then riding it Friday. It's nice to have a mode of transportation besides driving or walking now.

So, on my way to BICAS, it's about 8 or 9 miles into downtown which is kind of a bummer, wish it was closer but what can ya do. It took me only about 25 minutes to get there but I also seeing how fast I could get there and it's also really hot so you have to figure out that balance between working hard and not drenching yourself in sweat. Once I got to BICAS they put to work on checking used tubes for leaks, which I was ok with except that there were probably 200 tubes haha. So I ended up doing that for 3 hours and then leaving. Wasn't the greatest experience but I talked to a girl that I know who works there and I think the second time will be a little bit more enjoyable and educational.

This Sunday was the first Sunday I wasn't busy hiking so I got to go to Tucson Mennonite or Shalom for the first time. The congregation is really small, only about 30 people but it does fluctuate quite a bit and the numbers are usually down in the summer. The service was good and was informal which I liked and they sang hymns which I liked and the people all seemed real warm and welcoming.

With the first two weekends in Tucson both filled with a hike it was nice to be able to relax and take a little time of the ol boots. But wait, this weekend was extra long, I forgot about Monday... Yeah, I went on another hike. This time up a trail called Butterfly Trail in the Catalinas. It was actually right across from Sunset Trail where I hiked the first weekend. Just me and Amy went from the house and we went with the unit leaders family, Sue, who's the leader, her husband Mark and their three young kids, Matt- 11, Joshua- 9 and Brenna- 7. They are quite a handful but fun non the less. So here's my thought process: were going just on a short hike, young kids involved, can't be too hard or technical, weather will be great, this should be fun. Didn't turn out quite so warm fuzzy and fun ha. First we got there and it started raining so we just waited it out in the van hoping it would clear up soon. The plan was to hike give or take 7 miles one way. Sue wasn't hiking, she would meet us at the other end and we would have a picnic. The weather cleared after a few minutes and we were on our way. While waiting under the back door of the van with rain pouring down it occurred to me that I might have been a bit ill prepared. I had shorts, t-shirt (which I had changed into since I originally was going to wear a sweet tank top) and my birkenstocks. Hmmm, maybe not the best all weather clothes but what the heck, the weather was clear, we were fresh and ready to go.

First main problem, it seemed the hiking country had gone through a forest fire years ago which meant everything had burned but what does fire do? Revitalizes foliage and makes everything green. This meant the trail was heavily overgrown and the underbrush at times was quite annoying and made things slow going. Now for me, even with shorts on it wasn't too big of a deal but for young kids who aren't real big on getting even touched by the slightest, lightest, smallest leaf it made hiking a bit more interesting and taxing. Let's just say we all did make back to the van alive and leave it at that.

At times the view was beautiful and we did get to see a bit of a gully waterfall which was met with such vigorous excitement by the kids you'd think they'd never seen water actually FALLING besides out a faucet in their life. We all seemed to keep our spirits up and continued on our way although from the water it was a steady climb back up a ridge. Then the "are we there yet?"'s began. You'd have to guess in the triple digits to figure how many times I heard that, and then I multiply that by 3 and you can begin to imagine the frequency and amount of begging requests I got to hear. I was hopeful we truly did not have much further to go or else I was going to start turning to Mark and ask him the same thing.

If things weren't FUN enough, the clouds decided to come in and within 3 minutes my Target $2 white t-shirt, cargo shorts, mop for a head, feet and underwear were soaking. It was like I had hoped and prayed for a cherry on top of my sundae and God decided he'd deliver just in the nick of time. By the time the rain finally stopped I wasn't sure if was more mad that it had even started raining or that even after it had poured on me for 20 minutes we still weren't back to the van yet. The kids really pulled through and though they didn't enjoy it much at all, weighing their options of stopping and pouting in the rain or getting through it all to a warm van on the other end, it wasn't a hard choice. We had just under a mile to go after the rain stopped and from there all we got to hear about were freezing hands, and some very creative ways of getting back to a normal temperature. One of which, suggested by Brenna, was for Sue to go down the mountain, borrow a trailer from one of their friends, buy the hot tub that had been promised for the future, put the hot tub on the trailer connected to the van, come pick us up and we could drive down the mountain sitting in a hot tub. Wow, what a brilliant and completely feasible idea!

Freezing, starving, drowning, dying, falling, scratched to death, fainting, quitting, hands freezing to sticks, frozen blood, giant mudslide. Just a glimpse into the extreme, large, and at times quite creative vocabulary of 3 young children out in the wilderness. I have to look back and wonder if my grip on reality was that poor ba- I mean if my imagination back when I was a kid was so booming and bubbly. Maybe it was the Calvin and Hobbes they had me read out loud to them on the way up, who knows.

In the end though, it's these trips that stick out the strongest and you remember them for defining a small piece of your adventure in a broader experience. When all you can do is mumble and grumble to get through to the end, you get back and your mumblings turn into memories. So, it may have turned out to be a much longer trip then originally anticipated, and the nice picnic lunch might have turned into a small dinner while driving down the mountain, and my feet may have gotten numerous blisters from hiking in wet birkentstocks, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't have it any other way. Dry clothes are overrated anyway.

Daniel