The Azusa Pacific Blog

I’m back from the wilderness!

After six days, thirty-two miles of hiking, and 4,000 feet of elevation gained and lost, I’m pretty worn out. But I’d be ready to go back tomorrow.

At 7:00 AM a little over a week ago, all of High Sierra stood in front of the dorms, joined hands in a circle, and said a prayer. Our prayer was for safety, fun, community, bonding, and growth. God blessed that prayer ten-fold and gave me one of the best and most memorable times of my life.

Me with Mt. Ritter and the Minarets

Moments after we said, “Amen”, the four vans were rolling up the mountain roads that lead us to the trailheads. Each van held a different team of ten students and guides and each were beginning their trek at a different trailhead. Our trail began at the very southern entrance to the Ansel Adams Wilderness, a designated and protected section of backcountry that spans 230,258 acres on the eastern side of Yosemite National Park. For those of you who are familiar with Mammoth Mountain, Ansel Adams is basically all the land between it and Yosemite. Just about the entire Sierra Nevada range as well as the surrounding forests and high country are protected by the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. If you’ve never been to this area before, it’s an absolutely spectacular sight to see for the first time. To look out and, for hundreds of miles in every direction, see nothing but trees, lakes, and towering granite peaks, is downright amazing.

Porphry Lake from 11,009 ft.

Our trail started deep in the woods, but by lunch on the first day we had gained around 500 feet and could see the Sierra off to the east. By that night we were at about 9,000 feet above sea level and still had 2,000 more to go before we could lose any elevation.

Each day we hiked around 8 miles and carried our roughly 50-60 pound packs up the trail. By the second day my hips were feeling the weight, and backpacking suddenly became a more difficult endeavor than I first thought. Still, the peaks and lakes and trees we were surrounded by on the trail were more than enough to take my mind off the pain.

Each night we camped at a different lake. After arriving at our campsite, we split up jobs – pumping water, setting up the tarps, cooking dinner, collecting firewood, etc. – and got to work. Then we sat down and enjoyed dinner and desert – something I looked forward to every day. Our sleeping bags and bivy sacks kept us warm as we slept under huge pine trees or on the side of a mountain overlooking a valley, and each night we were treated to a spectacular show courtesy of the Milky Way Galaxy. And when I say show, I mean SHOW. I’ve never seen so many stars…

One of the most incredible aspects of the trip and ways that God stretched me and taught me was our daily leadership tasks. Every morning Katie and Scott, our wonderful guides, picked a guy and a girl to be “leaders of the day”. This entailed navigating the team along the trail, keeping up moral, picking where and when to stop and rest, and, at night around the campfire, telling their life stories. Seeing my peers lead a group through a wilderness in which they’ve never been was truly incredible to watch unfold. I saw the best come out in each and every person on my team. And hearing their personal stories of where they’ve been in their lives and how God’s grace and patience and goodness has brought them through to where they are now was amazing. When it came time for me to lead with my partner, I felt ready – but only because I watched and learned from Katie and Scott and my friends and their ability to lead with discernment and grace. Having the opportunity to lead in a place like the backcountry allowed me to learn so much about myself and my capabilities as a leader.

My team!

Another remarkable experience I had on Trek was our 24-hour solo time. On the fourth day each student was split off to a different spot around the lake we had stayed at the night before and was to remain there for 24 hours without any food or human contact (we had a whistle just in case, don’t worry). My spot on the lake was gorgeous and my time alone was one of the hardest, but most fulfilling and growth-intensive times of my life. I spent the day sitting on a rock in the sun overlooking the lake. Lyrics from a song by John Denver echoed in my mind all day –

“And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high,

I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky,

You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.”

For the first time in my life that I can remember, I sat completely still, cleared my mind, and listened to God. I looked around at the mountains and trees and I felt His presence. I heard His reply. By the end of the 24 hours I wasn’t hungry, but full with fellowship with God. My solo time reminded me how important it is to be alone with God – and if you’re near a place like the Ansel Adams Wilderness, that’s not a bad place to do it.

A BEAUTIFUL meadow between Ansel Adams and Yosemite NP

The next day we hiked all nine miles back to the trailhead and reunited with the other groups. It was so good to see everyone and hear about all the different Trek experiences. After returning to campus we were treated to a feast with hot-off-the-grill burgers. Food hadn’t tasted that good in a very long time. That night I cleaned all my gear so it was ready for the next adventure.

Trek was absolutely my favorite High Sierra moment yet. Trek II is in 45 days and counting!

Don't worry, I made it.

This is it. Tomorrow is the day I’ve been waiting for all summer. Tomorrow morning at 8:00.

For the next six days, my classmates and I will be backpacking through some of the most beautiful country in the United States. Each of us will be carrying around 60 pounds of clothing, food, and gear on our backs for nearly 30 miles.

Our trek takes us through the Ansel Adams wilderness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams_Wilderness) and Yosemite National Park(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_National_Park). We’ll travel around 5 miles each day, waking up with the sun, eating when we’re hungry, and sitting by a campfire at night, sharing stories with one another about our lives. Each student, at the beginning of the semester, was issued the essential gear for backpacking (a pack, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad, and a bivy sack). As my job at High Sierra is to be in charge of the “gear shed”, I’ve become quite familiar with all the equipment that resides in our packs as we hike through the backcountry. The job has most definitely served in making me increasingly excited for our trek.

Over the summer, I was so excited about this very trip that I traveled to my local REI several times, each visit returning with a new piece of gear. Each individual purchase took me closer to my destination: the wilderness. This trip that we’re leaving on tomorrow will, in fact, be my very first time backpacking. I’ve recently, over the last few years, become infatuated with the outdoors.

By the outdoors, I don’t mean simply being outside. I mean being in nature, in God’s beautiful creation – The National Parks, the forests, the canyons, the rivers – the places that make this country unique. Coming from Illinois, we don’t get much of that. So when I came to APU for school, I jumped on the opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy the mountains behind school. As I’ve become familiar with Southern California, I’ve found that there is an endless supply of outdoor activities, hiking and cycling being my favorites. There are some great trails and rides in the Azusa area!

Since going to school at APU, my appetite for the outdoors has been increasing, and tomorrow is the culmination of a growing hunger for the backcountry. Tomorrow my feast begins.

As I said, I’ll be gone for the next six days, so there won’t be any new posts from me until I return. But you can trust that when I get back, I’ll have a lot to tell you! And some pictures to show you too. So until then – get outside!

Following an entire summer of climbing in a gym (http://www.upperlimits.com/bloomington/) in my hometown, I was really excited to get outside and do some “real” climbing. I learned that climbing outside is quite a bit different than it is inside a grain silo. Today was the first of hopefully many trips to the local climbing and bouldering spots around Bass Lake.

We drove the vans up at about 10:00 with all the gear (shoes, harnesses, helmets, etc.) and hiked down to “The Axel”, a huge slab of granite that resides in a beautiful valley of overwhelming coniferous trees and a flowing creek of mountain melt water that felt more refreshing than any pool or water park.

While Rob (the director of High Sierra) and Katie (a grad assistant at High Sierra) set up the climbing routes, the rest of us had “belay school” with Meredith (the Resident Director of High Sierra) where she taught us how to belay, or hold fast, a climber. Once the four routes were set up and we received a little training from Rob on how to ascend the granite wall, the first climbers were off.

After I conquered a few of the routes, Meredith dared me to climb one blindfolded. Just the thought of groping around for the next hold while trying to find a spot to place my toes to support my entire body sounded ridiculously frightening. But after a little coaxing, I wrapped a bandana around my eyes, tied my figure-eight loop through the harness, strapped on my helmet, and took the first, fear-inducing step. Half way up the route I decided that this was a very frustrating way to rock climb, and I began to get angry when I couldn’t find a single crack or hole to place my fingers. With sweat dripping down my back, a bandana tied around my eyes, and no idea on how I was about to continue up this vertical obstacle, I decided to calm down and listen. With a few directions from my belayer and Meredith, I was able to feel around and find the correct holds and finish the route!

With a simple blindfold, I learned a lot about trust, a great deal about climbing, and a little bit about life – that whenever we can’t find our next “hold”, we’ve got to trust that God is still “belaying” us, and that if we simply ask, he’ll show us the “route”.

After all that work and philosophical thinking, it was time to hop in the river. Swimming in the clear, cool pools created by giant dips in the granite rocks that guide the water from high in the Sierra mountains down the mouth of Bass Lake, and playing under the waterfalls formed by fallen trees and boulders that may have flown from up river, or fallen from above, was easily one of the best moments of my first week up at High Sierra.

Today was Monday. Tomorrow is a new day. I can’t wait to see what it holds…

This was the wall we conquered

Waiting for the next climb

Hello!

Greetings from Bass Lake, CA!

            Allow me to introduce myself and tell you about my unique APU experience this semester…

            As you’ve most likely gathered so far from my bio, my name is Ben and I’m a junior this year at APU. I’m from Central Illinois and I’m 21 years old and this semester I’m taking advantage of what we call the High Sierra Semester. Being that I’m the first APU blogger to study up here, I’m really excited to tell you guys all about it!

            Basically what High Sierra entails is a very unique alternative study option where around 30 students spend the semester in the Sierra Mountains, just south of Yosemite National Park, at a campus on Bass Lake(http://www.flickr.com/photos/happygirltc/2759225140/). These students live, study, eat, bike, swim, rock climb, hike, camp, and kayak together. The professors and faculty live on-site with the students, share meals with them, go on week-long backpacking trips with them, and create an amazing community that really can’t be experienced anywhere else. The importance of academics is an extremely high priority here as well. Studying philosophy, literature, history, art, among other subjects, students are placed in a semester where they have the opportunity to learn about the great works of history, then go experience God’s great works out in nature. It’s really an amazing combination that lends itself to academic rigor.

            This is what I have been living for the past week, and already it’s been, by far, my best semester at APU. Thirty four of us left the smog, traffic, and hectic life of Southern California behind for the pristine peaks, lakes and trees of the Sierra National Forest. We eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together every day and night. We sit in each class with each other. Last night we had a pool party together. Today we’re going boating together on Bass Lake. And Monday we’re going rock climbing together. We’re forming an amazing community and we’ve only been around each other for 5 days!

            I’m still mentally settling in and shifting gears from the tempo of the city. But this is definitely where God wants me this semester – I truly believe that. He’s got some amazing things planned for the rest of the students and I, and I know that because of the amazing people He has placed over us here.

            I’m so excited to share this semester with all of you, and I’ll be posting pictures and hopefully a few videos as time goes on!

            Until next time – God Bless!