four weeks in the mountains of North Carolina
August 2, 2012
Twenty-eight days and dozens of miles later, my Outward Bound course in Pisgah National Forest is complete. It’s difficult to put into words how special the experience was, but I can describe it as a challenging, fun, exhausting, eye-opening, and powerful adventure. I pushed myself to my limits both physically and mentally, got to know 12 amazing people, and fell in love with the Appalachian Mountains. Here’s (just a small part of) my story.
We kept driving on the parkway until we saw two people lying on the side of the road with a bunch of gear. We pulled off the road and realized this is where are course was going to start. We met our instructors, Brett and Elizabeth, and started to get to know each other. We spent the next few hours packing our packs, which is harder than you may think!
We laid out all the clothing and gear that we packed. We took some of it with us, and put the rest of it in another bag for “re-supply.” About once a week, we got to change out our dirty clothes or dead batteries for new ones, so we didn’t have to carry all of our belongings on our backs the entire time (our packs were heavy enough as it was!) We also had to divvy up our “group gear” into all of our packs – I ended up with the water filtration system and a dromedary bag full of water (who knew that water was so heavy?) We divvied up food bags, as well, so we each ended up carrying roughly one meal for the week. It doesn’t sound like much, but one meal for 13 people can be a lot of food! When I first put on my back, I got pretty nervous. I couldn’t even get it onto my back without someone’s help, and the quarter mile we walked that day was one of the hardest walks of my life. As time went by, though, I learned to put my pack on by myself, and I barely felt it on my back after a while. Hiking uphill with 60 pounds on my back was still a challenge, but after a while I got used to carrying the weight.
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For the next several days, we learned so much about living in the wilderness. From how to cook safely, to how to go to the bathroom, to how to use a map, to how to brush our teeth while still following “Leave No Trace” policies, we learned so much in the “Training” phase of our expedition. We hiked around 3 miles those days and got to see some beautiful views.
We even had some time to learn some games – like “Snort,” where you try not to laugh while someone snorts at you.
We had our first of many experiences with “lightning drill,” where we had to sit on our packs while lightning was close by. If only we knew at this point how many times we would go into lightning drill during those 28 days!
On Day 4, we had our first experience going off-trail “bush-pushing” – which turned out to be a lot harder than all of the students and instructors expected it to be.
The trees had grown in thicker than expected, so it took us 10 hours to walk a few miles. We made it through, though, and gave ourselves the nickname “Briar Friars” because of all the briars we had to go through.
After our first few days of hiking, we took a break from backpacking to start whitewater canoeing! Given how far the rivers are from where we were hiking, we spent some time traveling in a van, and we found ourselves back in civilization for a short time.
After our first few days of hiking, we took a break from backpacking to start whitewater canoeing! Given how far the rivers are from where we were hiking, we spent some time traveling in a van, and we found ourselves back in civilization for a short time.
We spent our first day (which happened to be the 4th of July) on a lake, practicing canoe strokes and communication skills on still water before heading to the rivers.
Our two river instructors taught us so much on that first day – we all started off zigzagging through the water and by the end of the day, we were paddling together in straight lines.
Over the next 3 days, we whitewater canoed on the Tuckasegee and Nantahala rivers. It was difficult at times, as we all had to communicate with our partners to navigate through the rapids. We learned so much about hydrology and different features of water (i.e. Who knew that an “eddy” was a calm spot caused by an obstruction in the water? Well now I know how to get in and out of one!) We all had a great time canoeing and were a bit sad to see it end on the 4th day.
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Especially because we got pretty good at tying the boats back onto the truck!
We spent that afternoon at the Outward Bound “Town Office.” After cleaning our river gear, we each got to take a short shower – and we definitely needed them. Even though they were short and we each got a sliver of a bar of soap, we all felt so clean after swimming in dirty water for 4 days. That night we slept up in the “crows’ nest” atop the office, which was definitely one of our best sleeping spots.
We learned a little bit more about the history of Outward Bound. The first school was founded by Kurt Hahn and the original course lasted 28 days, making our course special. The name comes from a nautical expression referring to ships going “outward bound” and leaving the pier. The Outward Bound symbol, the Blue Peter, is the international maritime signal flag that shows that a ship is heading “outward bound.” That night, Elizabeth raised the Blue Peter flag above us to sleep under. |
We also continued learning about Outward Bound’s Four Pillars. Throughout our course, we were constantly working on improving our fitness and craftsmanship, becoming more self-reliant, and living by the phrase, "Above all: compassion."
In the morning, we started our “Service Day,” an important part of each Outward Bound course. We spent the day at CooperRiis, which describes itself as “a healing community in beautiful western North Carolina where individuals with mental illness and emotional distress learn new ways to improve functioning, gain independence and attain fulfillment in life through a comprehensive program that addresses mind, body, spirit and heart.” We had a very hot and sunny day, but we worked hard on their farm cutting weeds and picking potatoes. We had a great time working with their farm director, Mike, and talking about sustainable agriculture and the distinction between “recovering” and “recovered.”
In the morning, we started our “Service Day,” an important part of each Outward Bound course. We spent the day at CooperRiis, which describes itself as “a healing community in beautiful western North Carolina where individuals with mental illness and emotional distress learn new ways to improve functioning, gain independence and attain fulfillment in life through a comprehensive program that addresses mind, body, spirit and heart.” We had a very hot and sunny day, but we worked hard on their farm cutting weeds and picking potatoes. We had a great time working with their farm director, Mike, and talking about sustainable agriculture and the distinction between “recovering” and “recovered.”
After spending the past few days canoeing and working on the farm, it was time to get our packs back on and start hiking again. We left the “Training” phase of our expedition and set out on “Main” – which meant that our instructors took more of a back seat, walked farther behind us and left us to do all the navigating on our own.
During this part of the course, we saw more rain than any of us expected. For several days straight, we saw heavy showers and lightning storms, and we got pretty familiar with our bright yellow, heavy rain gear. |
In the midst of this “Main” expedition, we all went on “Solo.” An integral part of each Outward Bound course, solo is a time of reflection and relaxation in the middle of a course. It wasn’t a survival test – we didn’t have to go anywhere or navigate on our own. In fact, given all the rain, many of us sat in our tents the entire time. It was a really powerful experience, and something I may never get to do again. For approximately 40 hours, I was completely by myself with no outside influence. I spent my time alternating between writing and sleeping, and coming out of it I felt revitalized and ready for the rest of the course. I do wish our solo time had been a little longer and that the rain had let up a bit (and that my pictures had come out, darn!) but overall it was a great experience.
During the rest of our “Main” expedition, we did manage to see some sun and get some time to dry our clothes.
During the rest of our “Main” expedition, we did manage to see some sun and get some time to dry our clothes.
We crossed a ton of creeks during this time – sometimes more than 10 a day. It usually involved 2 people “scouting” the scene, figuring out the safest way to cross and lending a helping hand to the rest of us as we crossed. With all the rain in the past few days, the creeks were often moving pretty quickly, but we learned about different hazards and how to cross the creeks has safely as possible. We had to cross one river, which had an awesome bridge across it. It looks pretty sturdy, but as the first one to go across, I quickly learned that it was more wobbly than it looks.
After our “Main” expedition, we headed into the next phase of our course – rock climbing! We started off at the Cedar Rock Base Camp. On the calendar in our crew journal, the event for the day read “Something Awesome.” For the first few weeks, we all made guesses about what that awesome something would be – berry picking? napping all day? We finally learned that it was an Alpine Tower: a 30-foot structure with various ladders, ropes and “rocks” like those on a rock climbing wall. Looking up at the tower, I was both excited and nervous, because I’m definitely a bit scared of heights. We all got a chance to climb the tower and to practice belaying someone else – great practice for when we started rock climbing! It took a lot of time and help, but I made it to the top, which felt amazing! The view was great, but I had no idea how good the views were going to get in the next few days.
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We spent the next four days rock climbing at various spots on Cedar Rock Mountain. It was my first time rock climbing, so I was definitely nervous, but overall it was a good experience! I’m definitely not planning on becoming a professional rock climber in the future, but I think it was really good for my fear of heights. Here are some shots I took of us climbing:
A great view from the ground on our second climbing day. Not too far from Cedar Rock was Looking Glass, another great spot for rock climbing.
Our day two climbs were definitely much hard than those from day one:
Our day three climbs were perhaps a bit easier than those of day two, but we practiced repelling ourselves down after our climbs, which was a new challenge.
On our final day of climbing, we did a “multi-pitch” climb, so we stopped half-way up to change ropes. This time we went up two at a time, which was tricky at times because you had to coordinate with your partner and keep the ropes tight.
It was probably my most difficult climb because it was longer and more exhausting. The views from the top made it totally worth it, though, and thankfully we got to hang out at the top for a bit before heading down.
With the rock climbing portion of our course complete, we headed into our “Final Expedition.” We were basically given a destination that we needed to get to 48 hours later and a general plan for how we were supposed to get there, but our instructors basically left us on our own to get there. The pressure was on! In the span of 48 hours, we hiked for 20 miles (partially because we took some wrong paths…) and slept a maximum of 7 hours. It was definitely one of the most challenging experiences of my life. We had a long bush-push that lasted until 2:30 am, and the next night the only sleep we got was a nap from 4:30-6 am. We hiked two thousand feet up the switchbacks of Pilot Mountain – which was quite difficult with 60-pound packs on. Getting to the top of that mountain was amazing, though – a feeling of accomplishment I’ll never forget.
After waking up from our nap at 6 am, we felt slightly lost, but decided to keep going on the path we were on. We found out later that we were on the right trail the entire time, but at 4 am it’s easy to second guess yourself! The last portion of our Final was a hike up Sam Knob, which felt so easy because we left our packs at the bottom.
We all sat at the top, soaking in the view and the events of the last 27 days.
And with that our hiking was over! Our last part of the course was an 11-mile run the next day, perfectly titled the “Personal Challenge Event.” It was definitely a challenge – running up and down hills and mountains on rocky trails. It felt amazing to run that far, though (with some walking in there, too) especially with no pack on my back! We all successfully crossed the finish line.
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Overall, my Outward Bound experience was incredible. I learned so much about myself, being a leader, and working as a team. I would recommend an Outward Bound course to anyone, even those who don’t like heights, aren’t very physically active, or don’t like bugs. A 28-day course might not be for everyone, but anyone could benefit from one of their shorter courses! I know I was sad to leave the mountains after 28 days, and I hope I can do another (longer) course in the future. Here are some extra shots: