Off the trail, on the road, and home

Lightning illuminates the hills outside of town and the smell of fresh rain is on the air. It is monsoon time here in Flagstaff.

I am home again, and by that I mean Flagstaff. The Homestead is still uninhabitable, the once orange “Condemed” sign has faded to grey as the house sits empty with a gaping hole in the roof. Low level warfare is underway between the city, the contractor, and other interested parties, not the least of which is me. I was told before I left that I’d have a house when I returned in August. Now here I be with no house and little hope for one any time soon.

I do however have a roof over my head, and it is considerably bigger than the nylon one I have had o’er head the last 28 days in the field. There were 12 of them, 16-17 years old, with very differant backgrounds. Challenging as any students I’ve ever had before, but with equally high outcomes in the end. It were’nt easy though, took every trick in the book and then some. Since I was the lucky one who hiked an extra 26 miles to evac two students for non-med reasons, I set the course record for most miles covered at 151. One the super cool side, the other instructors and I got to climb Gannett Peak, the highest in Wyoming at 13,804 and fully glaciated while the students were on independant small group expeditions away from instructors for 4 days.

I took a new route home from Lander, through Utah, a state I have largly neglected for too long. Turns out it is quite beatiful and geographically diverse; I camped out near the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Lots of other exciting, cool, and beatiful things happened, and now I am home in Flagstaff for a month and a half to two months, assuming everything is still on track for the big ice.