This is my story
of surviving Outward Bound. What you are about to read is the edited
word-for-word copy of my journal kept during my trip. I thought it
was time to let everyone in on my experiences that I will never forget.
Thanks to all the people that made this trip worth $1000, I will never
forget you (Emily E, Emily AE, Charlotte, Robert, Ryan, Rachel, Karen,
David, Will, Chris, Ashley -- even instructors Josh and Scott)!
(Notes: They took all but 1 person's
watches away, so the times are from asking that person at the time given;
Also for the people who went, I tried not to be offensive, but show my
true feelings on this course; These passages were written either late that
night or the next morning, so it is displayed just how I felt at the time;
If I said that something "rocked!", it was my word for outstanding -- I
got in a little over my head with that word; Just to let the readers in
on how difficult this was, the first day was mainly for instruction and
all the rest of the days to come, our instructors wouldn't say a word about
if we were going in the right direction or not.)
My Goal on Outward Bound:
1) Finish the course w/o trailing behind. Being the leader on the first day, showed that if the going gets tough, just grit you teeth and move on. My friends and classmates back home, figured I was just a lanky guy that couldn't pass something that took major physical endurance. Well I am here to prove them wrong, but also for myself. I have always loved to try "daredevil" stunts, and mountain climbing is one I have not yet done. I also want to skydive, but I have to wait until I am 18 to even to a tandem. I am doing this course to prove to myself that I have all the persistence and self- motivation it takes to accomplish anything in life.
My Partner's goal:
1) Charlotte was my partner that pretty much had the same goal as I did when it came to pushing herself to prove she could do anything. I guess the 3- week trip mountain climbing in Wyoming just wasn't enough.
Day 1 (7/20/98): Dad and I arrived at
the airport early, not knowing which of the many groups were from Outward
Bound. But once I found my soon to be "family" -- our adventures
began. Out of 24 people, we split into 2 groups of 12. We then
took separate vans and were on our way to Linville Gorge and Pisgah area.
It surprisingly took 2 hours to arrive at our destination, driving us insane
with anxiety. When we arrived, we played name games, and took a one
mile run to our starting point. We did it so the person in the back
would jog to the front of the line. Well instead of jogging, I gave
it my all, making it in record time to the front. This was the first
impression that I wanted -- an athlete that would NEVER give up.
After the course was described to us,
we were issued our new best friend -- our backpacks. We packed them
with the bare essential clothes, gear, and food, leaving most of the toiletries
behind. So we were finally on our way after 3 hours at the airport
and 2 hours in the van. Since it was already 4:30 pm, we only hiked
1 mile. We still had packs on that were heavy to most, but not me.
I had trained for this and was ready. I decided to lead without question,
and at my own pace, people kept trailing behind -- so at my dislike, I
had to slow it down a bit. Then we were tought how to setup tarps
to sleep under and the other group cooked. When dinner came along
it was 11:05 pm! Yea it took us a while to get camp setup for the
first time. Everyone was so hungry we could eat a whole barn.
We had no campfire, just a stove to burn the mac and cheese. The
onions were awesome, but the cheese really let the evening down.
Mainly because we had to lick our bowls bone dry -- no trace policy.
So we all went to sleep nauseous at 1:30 am.
Day 2 (7/21/98): We woke up at 7:00 am and for some reason I felt like I had gotten plenty of sleep. I guess this is because I dreamed of nothing but camping. We took our baths (take water from the stream and splashing our face with it) and then we ate breakfast. It was awesome! When you put oatmeal, brown sugar, apple bits, and hot chocolate together with 14 hungry stomachs -- it rocks! But then I just had to get stung by a bee on my left bicep. It stung for about 30 minutes, then it was fine. Before leaving we learned about the 3 kinds of lightning, how to take a "grumpy", and about maps. After 2 miles we stopped at another open field. This is where we learned everything about a compass and we played a tag game that rocked! So we left there after a snack (trail mix), to go to find our night campsite. After a mile or so, we stopped at Steel Creek for a swim. Three of them were stupid enough to lay in the stream and got cold later when it began to rain. A few people, including myself just dipped our feet in the ICE cold water, which was the smart and refreshing thing to do. Next we learned about the different parts of a mountain, so that we could read topographic maps easier. We ate lunch which consisted of PBJ bagels. I had two, even though they were pretty messy. Then we set out on the roughest 2- mile hike I have ever witnessed. It went up and down, with slopes that went nearly vertical. There were about 3 big spills, but everyone was all right. Using our map skills, we passed 3 forks in the road and made it safely to camp. We ate Mexican which rocked, and I ate 200% of what I am supposed to. I expect to be using the shovel tommorow. Oh well, it will be an experience. We played "Wind and Willows" and then went to bed.
Day 3 (7/22/98): Today was supposed to be a LONG day, and it was! I woke up with 60 bug bites on my legs (I counted) and we ate breakfast. We had granola with powdered milk and just added water. It was so good! Then we got packed up and left. The rest was torture! We started by taking a 2- mile hike almost directly straight up. We had to push ourselves to the fullest, but a few people held us back. We encouraged them to keep moving, and even though they collapsed a few times, we finally reached the top. We ate crackers and bagels -- I made them. This was the point in which we went blindly down a hill, with only a compass. We switched places by playing leap frogs and got kinda lost, but found our way after about 4 hours. I led the leap frogging and think I did an excellent job. We cut through a place with many trees down and I was a scout along with Will and Chris. We always seem to be the ones finding the right path. I got pretty cut up, but the blood was pretty cool. The tough part was to find the gravel road, which took an extra hour of searching because it was well hidden. We were dead tired at this time, trying to figure out where we were and where camp was. We eventually found it and ended our 7- mile hike. All of our back were aching at this point. We then cooked dinner of potatoes and onions; spinach noodles with alfredo sauce. All of our food up to this point ruled (excluding the mac and cheese). I then took my first Grumpy (Dump) and became part of the shovel club (4 people to this point). Dad, you would be proud of me! We then told jokes and went to bed to get ready for the ropes course and swimming tommorow.
Day 4 (7/23/98): Today was an all out Ropes Course Day! It was exciting and got my heart pumping. After the first few stages of it, I was scared to death. But I was the 3rd person to go, because I was just so anxious. After I passed the Hourglass (5th stage), I became relaxed. I spent the average of 1 hour, up in the ropes. The height ranged from 20 ft. to 65 ft.. Robert was the only one not to finish the course, tried it twice, and only got through the first 2 stages. He seemed pretty freaked out. Well, damn! On the Balance Beam (4th stage), we couldn't use the ropes to grab onto, and my knees were shaking wildly. The farthest I got was 5 steps without holding on. I am glad I did this and want to go tommorow -- but it won't happen. After taking the whole day, we got a new box of food and made spaghetti and chocolate pudding for dinner. I am looking forward to rock climbing tommorow.
Day 5 (7/24/98): This day was unique, ending with Robert on top of everything. He rappelled, moved all the way up Mount Tabletop (including an ascending fixed rope), and slept on the mountain top without any problems. I did these same things and had an outrageous time. First we had a breakfast of granola and powdered milk. And you guessed it, it was great! We hiked up to the ropes course (just outside of it) and learned how to rock climb. After that it started to pour (which always happens when it is my turn -- ropes course too), and I rappelled off a 15 ft. boulder. It was scarry at first, but an awesome finish, not making any mistakes. The rain kept up, so we had to push rock climbing to Sunday. But this was only the first of our adventures for the day. We then made our way to the campsite to pack our stuff up and move to our new and exciting campsite. The way of getting there was the exciting part! First I must explain what an ascending fixed rope is. You are just going to have to imagine this (after looking at my picture, I figured that I would just have to try and describe it, hehe): There is a doubled-up rope with holes and knots (prussiks) that move up and down. It is hard to get started, but you begin by putting your foot in the foot prussik and move the arm prussik up, then move the foot prussik up and step up; keep doing this until you reach the top (I hope that cleared it up a little bit). Now that you know, I did it in record time (6 min.), and was the only one to not need help getting over the top. It took about 4 hours to get everyone up and by then dinner was ready. It was an awesome and filling chicken, rice and onion stew! But before I ate, I took my 2nd Grumpy. This one was hurried and probably explains how I ascended up the mountain so quickly. No one brought TP (toilet paper) up the mountain, so I just used leaves. Everything turned out great and I feel the leaves feel better than TP just as a side note. When everyone made it to the top of their ascend, we had to climb to our campsite on the TOP of the mountain! at midnight! The majority of the hike was steep and took us 2.5 hours in the dark with flashlights. Myself and about two people led the whole group and had a great time. Oh -- two things: the trail was called SOB (Short of Breath) and we had our baby packs on (Mel packs- which didn't make it much easier). So where we stayed was called the Attic Window. We had to get up at 7:30, so we had 5 hours to sleep -- any sleep felt good at the time. Oh and it was freezing up there! We had 3 layers on including our rain gear and we all had chills throughout the night. I finally found sleep around 5:30 am by laying on my back with my feet propped up. But after my feet fell asleep, I just sat up and went to sleep in the indian style position. It was the most appreciated 2 hours of sleep I have ever gotten!
Day 6 (7/25/98): Today started off with a bang by finishing the climb of the mountain. It was just 30 ft. more to go and we got a group picture in front our amazing feat. You wouldn't believe what we did next -- we rappelled off the cliff that we slept on! It had a 150 ft. drop straight down before it hit part of the sloped mountain. But first we painted our faces in the way that described us best. It took a total of a few hours to get everyone down the mountain face. I had a great time on it, except for my butt hurting from being up there for 10 minutes. I seemed to just be taking my time with the great view. On the other hand Robert got halfway down and panicked. He took his hand off the brake (NEVER DO THAT!) and grabbed all the ropes above him. With his belayer holding him up, we all convinced him to keep moving with his hand on the brake. With the help of us as a team, we may have saved his life. Next, we hiked back to our packs, to be told that from 3 pm this day, we would eat lunch and then have our Solo. We all gave our "goodbyes and good lucks" to everyone and we went to our designated areas. I was given probably the most difficult lie. It was going downhill in two directions with a five foot of somewhat flatness. Just to the side of the flatness was a fallen tree (dogwood), with just it's small stems keeping me from rolling down the hill. On the top of my area was a 7x14x20 ft. boulder, just to get the dimensions straight. I needed to sleep on the flat surface, but all I had was a tarp with 3 strings. So I thought about the situation A LOT! After about 2 hours of agony and taking an unexpected Grumpy, I finished my "home" for the night. I tied the strings I had to trees and then took off shoe laces from my tennis shoes, tied them together, and used them as a string. I was also being creative by taking the stretchy belt out of my suspenders of my rain gear pants and tied it to the dead tree. To finish off the deal with it raining on me this whole time, I took all my rain gear and the clear plastic tarp on which I put my sleeping bag/mat on and covered the empty spaces above my head along the dead tree. I had to do this because the tarp ended right where my sleeping bag laid and I wanted to be protected from the rain. I slept along the only flat slope leaning against my bag, the fallen tree, and the boulder so that I would not slip down the hill. I had to be careful of sliding because I was longer than the tarp and the flat area, so that I was going somewhat downhill. I laid down feeling relieved it was done. It was about 5 pm I guess, and fell into a deep sleep, only waking up one time (about 20 feet down the hill), finding it was night, I awoke in the morning thinking it was about 8 am. I had skipped dinner on accident, but still had the nuts, raisins, and orange I was given to go ahead and use for breakfast. We were all given an envelope to write a letter to ourselves and our mail that only comes once a week. It got a letter from Sandy, my step-mom Alisa's friend, wishing me a great time. I read it and was glad she sent it knowing I could not respond because it would not reach her for a long time. Last I would eat my breakfast, try to get some of the Dallas Cowboys star off my face (It was the painted symbol on my face that represented: that I was the Cowboys defensive line and when I would fall down, I would get up again and keep moving), and write a letter to myself that I would get in 6 months. I think the letter to myself is a great idea and am about to write it now. Just as a side note, mountain climbing is looking doubtful after we got rained on, on Day 5, but I am still o.k. with it, but a little side of me still wants to do it.
Day 7 (7/26/98): I awoke feeling great! I wrote my letter to myself, then ate breakfast. I also had the first bottle of fresh water (they gave it to use before the Solo) without dirt, iodine, or bugs to fool with the taste (all the other times to get water, we would fill our water bottles up in the creek that was dirty and put a few drops of iodine in it, wait 20 minutes, and presto -- we could drink it). Water never tasted so good! After that I went in and out of sleep waking only to see Scott waking me up, saying it was 1:30 pm! I could not believe it and neither could anyone else. We ate cheese grits and granola cereal for lunch and told the stories we all had during our Solos. Like: Will went to sleep as soon as it started and woke back up at an unknown time, but it was still light. He didn't know what day it was -- either later that day or the next morning. So he looked to the East and West and found out the sun had just risen. So it was the next day and he had slept 18 hrs, kinda like me. Someone else saw a snail on her body, freaked out, squished it, and got it all over her. Hehe! With not much day left we ran 2.2 miles to get ready for the Personal Challenge the next day (6-7 mile race, after being exhausted this whole week). Then we ate noodles, chili, and potatoes. We all slept in an open cabin (thank god - Chili!).
Day 8 (7/27/98): We woke up early (6 am) for pretty much our last physical day -- the Physical Challenge. It was a race between the 24 students, even though the instructors ran too. My goal was to finish 8th or better. It was 7 miles up and downhill, including a trail in the woods. I wanted to lead some part of it, so I got off to a lead and led for the 1st mile and a half. I dropped a few places and then gained it back. About halfway through, I caught up to Will, who also dropped from 1st place and Chris caught up with me. So we ran and walked the rest together and finished T- 3rd as friends! Ryan finished 1st and Emily E. 2nd, and Will, Chris, and I finished 3rd. That was a lot of fun because I have never finished so high and so fast in a running competition (1 hour 34 min). Next we cleaned our gear and finally took showers. Even though it was ICE cold water, it felt great. We changed into our new clothes and were clean for the first time in 9 days. We went to dinner and had lasagna, bread, salad, and 5 pieces of chocolate cake. Oh and lemonade, which probably was our first ice cold drink on this trip. We had a skit on the "Top 10 reasons you have been in the woods to long". Some examples were whiping your butt with a pine cone, soap is an important possession, laughing for no apparent reason, and water is o.k. if there is nothing living inside -- oh and our feet are so bad, they are used as insect repellent. We had graduation after that with all of us: Josh, Scott, Will, Chris, Robert, Ryan, David, Charlotte, Emily E., Emily AE, Karen, Rachel, Ashley, and I. We passed around candles, got certificates, and pins (I don't like fire as much as you think I do! I still like storms though). And then the bad news came -- Ryan's cousin or someone had died and his parents were picking him up now. The rest of the night came with tears and goodbyes to Ryan. I think this situation brought us closer together, not just as friends, but as family.
Day 9 (7/28/98): We go home, and get good food, electronics, and toilets. Outward Bound begins now.
- NCOBS July 20th- 28th, 1998
More Stuff from Outward Bound
- More Pictures
- The Official
Outward Bound Homepage
E-me at rarslan@mindspring.com,if you have any comments or questions about my page . Thanx!
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