Walkabout/Family Camp

This week on the Trail, I had a little variety. We didn't have any new Young Walkers so I got to do a walkabout. The young walker was one I was with five weeks ago so it was fun to see the progress he has made especially in the area of spirituality. He is reading a book on buddhism and loves it. We hiked over Hutch Mesa on the western edge of the Bloody Basin; the last time I hiked it was in 2007 and I had forgotten how amazing the view was from up top. We could see from the San Francisco mountains in the north to the Superstition Mountains in the south; the Mazatzals in the east to the Bradshaw mountians in the west and almost the entire Bloody Basin. I know the area so well now that I was pointing out Final D's and hiking routes to the others. Unfortunately the risk with hiking on mesas, especially when its getting warmer, is you might not find water and thats exactly what happened to us. We dry camped on top but despite the fact I was quite dehydrated, we made the most of it by getting in some phenominal star gazing and learning new constellations from Nate's star chart. Before the stars came out, I had an awakening. Here we are in this amazing spot to watch the stars and I put my stuff under a bush. I knew it would be more protected from the wind under there and yet it offered me a tiny view of the night sky. I realized that this is sometimes how I am in life. I have this amazing opportunity to view the entire sky full of stars (this doesn't happen often because we are usually down in canyons) and yet I go for the spot thats safe. How many times do we do this in life, where the Creator wants to give us something amazing which may require a little discomfort on our part and yet we choose to take the safer route and miss the opportunity. The next day as we hiked down Jacks Gulch, I taught my young walker how to eat scorpions (pretty much you just cut off the stinger and pop it in, but he decided to kill it as well and he confirmed that it tastes like shrimp). He enjoyed that and later that day took it even further by eating two grasshoppers. He almost got me to eat one until he boiled it and it came out all limp. I would have eaten it if it had been roasted and crunchy. We also were able to see a gila monster (my seventh one I've ever seen in the wild) and watch it swim across the creek (my first time seeing that). The place that we stayed for Sunday layover was an old ranch. This meant we got an outhouse to use and there was some toilet paper stashed away as well. We also slept on old, springy bed frames that someone had dragged out under a juniper. They were five star accomadations by Anasazi standards. If we only could have gotten the pipe from the spring unclogged, I would never have left. Monday we headed into Final D. This involved hiking over a good sized ridgeline. I had done my best to eat as much of my food the day before so that my pack would be considerably lighter but it still was heavy. I realized I've softened by only doing rabbitstick hikes; the full badgerstone hike kicked my butt. We still managed to pass two bands before noon which I was impressed with considering they had a two mile start on us. In fact, we were the only band to hike the actual planned route. Once we reached Final D, my young walker had a sitting with me in which he thanked me for hiking with him once again and all the things I have been able to teach him. He said he likes the way I teach in that he realized what I was teaching was to benefit him and not just to make myself sound smart. I appreciated his remarks because sometimes I wonder if they like at all what I am teaching or if they are even interested. So the goal of the walkabout was to try and take things deeper with his ponderings. I think in some way we were able to accomplish it by creating more meaningful conversations on a variety of topics, but I don't know whether it sank in or not. I guess time will tell. Wednesday I checked out some cool indian ruins with the oncoming Trailwalkers. There were at least 10 rooms, a partial metate (grinding stone), a mano (handstone) and pottery shards everywhere some of which still had paint on them. Its been a couple years since I have seen a ruin in such good shape and this one was right above were switch-outs took place and we had never discovered them before. I also had a wonderful talk with Tate. He is a man I greatly admire and an example of what a trully humble servant is. Besides doing alumni for Anasazi, he also sponsors 12 people for AA and he volunteers for a homeless shelter. He looks at every day as a gift and the reason he is here is to serve and help others. He never takes credit for it but always says its the Creator who is leading him and blessing those people's lives. He is a testament to the fact that "he who loses his life for my sake shall find it." Family camps were great as always. I had two amazing families with wise young walkers. During the dawnstar ceremony, one of them talked about his lesson of life as a waterfall. He said that life can be turbulent like the water as it cascades down the rock but eventually it will hit a calm pool below and that even if its crazy now there will always be better times in the future. One set of parents asked forgiveness from their young walker for the decisions they may have made that contributed to the YW's backwards walkings. The other YW thanked her parents for sending her to Anasazi and how much she respects them for the tough decision they had to make. I love doing the dawnstar ceremony and I have yet to not cry at some point while doing one. I have also decided to pull Trailwalkers out of bands, if its feasible, so that they can see the family reunions because that is what Anasazi is all about, bringing families back together. I remember the first time I saw a reunion, I realized I would go through whatever to be a part of something so great. These same YW's came into the office today and spoke with the new parents. They were so willing to help these parents by answering questions and speaking about their own walkings. You could tell it eased the minds of some of the parents who were visibly worried. I am so lucky to work at a place like this and interact with such awe-inspiring people.