Three Days in the Redwoods – No Bear Attacks!

Sorry to my readers who have been longing for the next chapter in my life for more than a week.  A combination of factors (including the slowest computers in the world) make it a frustration to update.  I’ll try not to let more than 10 days go by in the future, but I apologize in advance if I do.  Also, just to update from my last post, whatever virus that was affecting me back on the third has almost run its course.  My cough has not departed completely, but I don’t look and sound like a chain smoker anymore (aka no more coughing fits).

Last weekend was a great break from CTI.  Because of Veteran’s Day, we had a three day weekend (no PT!) and since Red Unit was scheduled to leave for camp on Monday, when the holiday is observed, we had Friday off.  So, after using that day to take care of preparation and packing for camp, on Saturday my roommate, three of the girls from my team, and I took a trip to San Francisco.  Hopping on the Greyhound at 7:00 am, we arrived in the early morning and toured around Chinatown (and it’s many souvenir shops), Pier 39 (for a sweet seafood lunch), Fisherman’s Wharf (for a little shopping, street performers, and the Bushman!), and Haight Ashbury (better known as ground zero for the Summer of Love in 1967 – hippies can still be found there today!).  The weather tried to wage psychological warfare on us however.  For the first three weeks I’ve been out here, it has been consistently sunny and 70, but on this particular Saturday, the forecast was rain all day.  And that was no lie.  By 3:00 we were soaked.  We took the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was so foggy/ cloudy/ overcast/ crappy, that from the observation deck at the foot of the bridge we couldn’t see it!  That just makes for a lot of very sad and angry looking pictures.  It does give me a great excuse to head back to the city, as it was a lot of fun and we didn’t see everything we had wanted to (like the Full House houses).  The rain did work in our favor, however, as after walking around wet and cold for a few hours, we all needed something warm to drink.  So, we stopped into the first cafe we could find in the hippie quarter, which turned out to be a serendipitous boon.  The cafe was actually the ground floor to a bed & breakfast called the Red Victorian.  It has 18 rooms, each of which are decorated with a different theme and given a different name (like The Rainbow Room, The Summer of Love Room, The Sun Room, etc).  Not only did I get a great Chai Latte and Nutella, Walnut and Strawberry Crepe, but I found a great place to keep in mind if ever I plan to go back to the city.

Monday, as I mentioned, began the Red Unit’s trip to Camp Mendecino a couple hours drive north of Sacramento in the midst of the redwood forests.  The camp is run by the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of San Francisco, and in exchange for letting us book the camp during the off season, we help out during our stay with end of the season maintenance and repairs to the camp.  More importantly, it is a chance for us to get off base and out of Sacramento for a few days!

Monday morning began with a drive in the rain, as the weekend’s weather was lingering over the state.  We had to face a continuous mist and rain for the first day and a half of camp.  And our sleeping quarters?  Essentially wooden tents: framed structures with a roof, bunk-beds in them, but no closed windows – only canvas flaps that covered the openings in the wall.  Most of us were expecting temperatures to drop pretty low at night, so we packed warm.  We lucked out, though.  The storm front seemed to keep things mild and it never got as cold at night as it could have. 

Few things were affected because of the rain.  We had to move the “campfire” into a fireplace in the main lodge, and people probably drank more hot chocolate and coffee than they would have if they weren’t constantly damp and cold, but otherwise we were like the postal service: rain, sleet, snow, or shine.  The purpose of the camp was to do some more team building activities, as we only have a week to go before we are officially done with training and begin our first project (thank god).  Notably, we had to go to a ropes course where our team was tasked with a fairly harrowing obstacle.  Nailed between two tall pines, some 30 feet above ground, but looking over a drop into a ravine that was near 100 feet down, was a rounded timber.  Attached to a climbing harness as if we were climbing a rock wall, we each had to individually climb up the tree on pegs nailed to the trunk, balance ourselves atop the beam, and walk across it.  It was great, because it gave our team the chance to come together by sharing an experience that pretty much scared the poop out of us all.  The view from the atop the beam was amazing, looking around at the side of a small mountain range, surrounded by soaring redwoods, trying not to look at the river flowing gently some 10 stories below…  Everyone in my team attempted the obstacle; and each met their personal goal.  I was truly impressed by the balance and coordination that some of my teammates posses. 

After our two nights of roughing it, the Red Unit packed up and left back for Sacramento.  Only somehow our van missed our turn early on, and before we realized that we hadn’t seen a lot of these small towns on the way up and that none of us remember driving through wine country before, we were already an hour south of where we wanted to be.  So, we decided that fate wanted us to take the scenic route and so we continued on down the 101 to Santa Rosa.  We stopped there for lunch at Carl’s Jr. (my first truly Californian fast food joint) and rang up a $73 and change order.  From there we journeyed onward, allowing the local in the van, Mike, to navigate us back to the highway we wanted.  Incidentally, Mike is about as local a guide as we could have hoped for – at one point we drove quite literally past his hometown, some 5 minutes away from his parent’s house.  He did well, and we made it back to Sacramento only slightly more than 2 hours later than all the other vans.  Nothing like arriving fashionably late.

In one week’s time, I’ll be done with CTI.  Next Wednesday morning we have a ceremony to make us official corps members (I guess for now we are still in our liminal phase?) and then Thanksgiving break and then Mississippi.  I can’t wait.