SOARing in Southern California with Chris Keifer

My two favorite places we went to on the southern California trip were Joshua Tree National Park and Channel Islands National Park. We stayed in Joshua Tree first. There, we hiked and did some rock scrambling, which is mainly just jumping from rock to rock. The view was incredible, even though it was a desert. I have never camped in the desert, so the experience was new and exciting to me. We also got to see the things from which the park has its namesake, the Joshua Tree, which look like they come directly from a Doctor Seuss book. Along with being my first time camping in the desert it was also my first time bivying because I had received my bivy before leaving on the California trip, along with a new mummy bag made it wonderful.

After a few days in Joshua Tree, we caught a ferry to the Channel Islands. It was a great trip, even though it was raining the first night. We manage to make camp during a light pocket of rain, with tents from the ones without the “hardcore” bivys like mine. The next day it was a clear sky and a nice day for the hike we went on. We began to see many foxes . Some got close, others did things to make us laugh. One even returned to a table we had removed stuff from and it had a look that seemed to say, “There was something here before, where did it go?” The rest of the hikes lead us to beautiful views of the water. During the hikes the group did a lot of bonding. My two closest friends here, Kyle and Connor, had some wonderful conversations with me. One day we went to the beach and I did some sun bathing. During that time I had a nice conversation with our new team member AC. We also played a hide-and-seek variant called Camouflage, where we had to hide in bushes and behind trees while the seeker had their back turned. The seeker then turned around and tried to spot the hiders, either by calling out the color of clothing visible or by sending a spotter to the exact location. It is a game I am going to tell my friends about when I get home. I loved California and can't wait to go back.

SOARing in Texas with Chris Kiefer

Introduction

My name is Chris Kiefer. I am 14 years of age, and I am from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My immediate family consists of my mom, Anna Kiefer, my Grandfathers, Joe Traigle and Carey Long, and Katie Pryor, who is not related to me, but she is a very close friend of mine and the rest of family, and she is very important to us. I also have two cats, Casey, Kasey, or KC (depends on the day) and Sam. I love to play and talk about Video Games, especially RPG and ones with a good story. I love to read, especially dark fiction, such as works by H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. I also like to write stories, mainly Science Fiction, such as the Travelers Tales series I am writing, and occasional stories more like Lovecraft. I also like to casually bike in the area near my house. I enjoy talking to my friends Grace Bryant, Jeremy, James, and Josh LaCaze. One of my favorite relaxation time things to do is watch TV, like all the CSIs, Storage Wars, Glee, Tosh.0, The Soup, and other crime and/or comedies. I want to become a much healthier individual, with better organization habits. SOAR helps pushing me to be healthy while I am here, and also how to keep the healthy habits. They also teach me how to be organized and keep up with my work and personal items.

SOARing in Texas

The Texas expedition was my first expedition with SOAR, and on the all-and-all, it went really well. After we arrived in Texas, we met up with Wes, the third addition to the field staff, and headed out to Franklin National Park, where I had my first taste of Bivying. The next day I had my first food buy, then after labeling our food and sitting down to eat, the staff told us that there was a storm coming in and that we had a change of plans. We would be flipping our schedule around and be doing our 3 day expedition first. We then drove 5 or so hours do Big Bend Nation Park, where we stayed for the night. The next day we pack up our X-Packs and headed out on the 4 mile hike to our first site. The next morning we awoke to frost and frozen water bottles. We then hiked 3 miles to our next site. The next morning we awoke to light snow fall. We then began the 6 mile hike back to the bottom. The closer we got to the bottom the thicker the snow got and the heavier the snow fell.

Once we arrived at the bottom we were told by rangers that the roads had been closed due to icy roads. We had to stay at Big Bend National Park for the night, but we were told by one of the park staff that we could sleep in the bathrooms. This sounded like a wonderful idea due to the fact that the park would reach record lows that night. We set up in the bathrooms, which were warm and in very good condition, for the night. The next day we left the park and headed to a site at Rio Grande Village. We stayed there for two days, and one evening we went to a hot springs on the Rio Grande. The next exciting trip was to McDonald Observatory where we got to look at planets and star clusters. We then got a constellation tour.

Our next site was at Balmhrea, where we got to swim in the acre size pool. After a couple of days there we went to Guadalupe Nation Park. We stayed there for 3 days, one day we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which was my favorite part of the trip. The Caverns were beautiful beyond any description and could not be captured by photography. We also climbed to the highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak. After we left Guadalupe we went back to Franklin Nation Park. The next day we flew back to Atlanta, then drove back to base. Altogether it was a great first expedition. I became much closer to all of my team mates, especially Kyle, who helped me get through the tough hikes by chatting with me. This trip definitely made me look forward to the next expeditions.

Allen's time at the McDonald observatory

The McDonald observatory is located in western Texas. We went there after we hiked in Big Bend National Park.

The telescopes at the observatory are used for research and to look at stars. The observatory is home to the world’s largest telescope the hobby Eblery telescope.  At the observatory there are four telescopes that the public can look through. There are also smaller telescopes at the observatory.  The smallest telescope they have is the. 0.8 telescopes.

 During the constellation tour we learned that Orion, the hunter is the most recognized constellation in the sky. Taurus also called the bull is right next to Orion. The little dipper and the big dipper aren’t constellations. Pegasus doesn’t look like a triangle it looks like a square. The guide used a laser pointer to point out the constellations. 

The sun is also a star and it’s called the night star. All stars are located in the Milky Way. Polaris is called the North Star because it always due north star. Satellites aren’t stars they are moving objects   that get brighter each time they get closer to the surface.  Satellites come once a year during certain months at certain times during the night. 

The McDonald Observatory  was very  fun and we learned lots of stuff  and we learned a lot of interesting facts about stars and about are universe.  I hope to go back there again

south west texas trip Alex R

Alex R 

2/14/11

Blog

When we first arrived in Texas we did not except it to be cold but is was. The first week we went to Big Bend National Park. The second week we went to Guadeloupe  National Park. When we finished our back county trip in the Chisos mountains in Big Bend we got to go to a hot spring. The hot spring was right next to the Rio Grande. I dunked my whole body in the Rio Grande, and it was really cold. 

When we were in Big Bend it was really, really cold. It was really hard to stay warm because it was 7 degrees the first day and 6 the second and below zero the last day. To stay warm we ate strawberry and cream oatmeal, we layered up, ran, and kept a positive attitude. I thought the warm and delicious oatmeal worked the best because it kept us going.

scorpion

 The best thing was we pushed through the coldness and we got out of the Big Bend mountains. In Guadeloupe National Park we got to climb to the top of Texas and it was really cool, but very windy. Now the very best thing on the trip was seeing a scorpion and going to Golden Corral and celebrating.     

expedition #2 Texas: Nolan Turner

On this expedition out in Texas, we went to Big Bend National Park, The McDonald Observatory, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

When we went to Big Bend National Park, it was extremely cold. At one point, it reached a low of 1 degree outside. There was also a lot of snow. Even though we set up a tarp over our sleeping bags, it was still full of frost in the morning. The cool part about all of this was that we were so high in elevation that we were in the clouds. It was a total of 13 miles (much easier than the Grand Canyon). That was our first backcountry trip in Texas.

Our second trip was a one-night trip to the McDonald Observatory. It is a huge place full of telescopes showing us all kinds of neat stuff. When we were done with that, we got a constellation tour. The guide taught us about my favorite constellation, Orion the Hunter. Orion the Hunter is the best shaped and the coolest looking in my opinion.

Lastly, we went to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This was a day hike and was a total of 8.5 miles round trip. It was an easy hike. We cruised through the first part of the top of the mountain, which is also the top of Texas (so yes, I once was the tallest man in Texas). The bad part about reaching the top is that it is very windy. When we got up there, we put our names in the record book at the top of the mountain.

This expedition went by fast. It was fun but also cold. Though it won’t be cold on my expedition in California (channel islands). I can’t wait to be back in warmth and humidity and also to blog about it.

kyle nystrom: everything is bigger in texas (except the tempurature).

Our last expedition sent us to Texas. Oddly enough, Texas was really cold, even during the day. It sometimes got down to below freezing at night.

The biggest part of the cold front was backpacking in the Chisos mountains. It was so cold one morning that if you licked your lips the spit would freeze within the minute. It was really hard to get out of your sleeping bag in the mornings. Even with such huge challenges, we did really well with the cold. We helped each other out, and worked hard.

After the backpacking trip, we went to a hot spring! It was a nice change of pace. It was a five minute hike from a parking lot right to the Rio Grande, which is a river that borders both Mexico and America. The hot spring was a small pool on the American side of the river. We spent a few hours just soaking and chatting. It was really fun.

The next day, we went to the McDonald observatory. It was fun seeing the stars, but the telescopes were really cool. One of them looked like it belonged on the Millennium Falcon. 

We also went to a pool. Luckily, that was a pretty warm day (65-ish degrees), and the pool was pretty warm (72-ish degrees). I did a cannonball so big the mushroom cloud splash went higher than the board.

Guadalupe National Park was rather cold, but mostly from wind-chill. We went into Carlsbad Caverns, which is a neat place. We saw several formations that looked like gnomes (should we be afraid?), and a rope leading into the roof, to a place called the Over World. We didn’t get to go in (the cave is about 200 feet up). The next day we went to summit Guadalupe peak, which is the highest point in Texas. It was a tough hike, but it was a cool view from the top. It was so windy at the very top that it was hard to stand in one place.

The reason I don’t have any pictures of Cedric is because he really didn’t like the cold. He wasn’t even willing to come out of his home. So, gno gnome pictures this expedition, sorry.

It was a pretty good expedition this trip, but I think the next one will be my favorite. I’m going to my home state (and home area) of so-cal. I’m hoping to see my parents, and even maybe have the group go to Islands (a very California-style restaurant) with my family. All-in-all, it promises to be a good trip.

Random thoughts

“Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” looks like a really good game, since they are adding a lot of things fans have been asking for for a long time. I know this because I got the newest game informer when I got back. Also, Bioshock 2 (one of my favorite games) was in the top 50 games of 2010! And Gideon Graves (the seventh evil ex from Scott Pilgrim) was the tenth greatest 2010 villain!

Wal-Mart stopped selling magic cards, sadly.

Feel the gnomes burning stare and change your ways.

Quotes of the expedition: “if I die, you can have my orange juice. But not my cookie. I want to be buried with it.” And “pfft, doom blade.” And “I love you… but only enough to kill you for your bacon (said to a pig, AU.)”

by the way, if any of my friends can see this, feel free to comment. that way i can answer questions.

Sarah Wolfe’s Blog Part 2

This blog is on our Texas expedition. This is our second trip of our four-month session. Now we only have three trips left to go, these two weeks went by fast. Here are my favorite parts of this trip.

My first favorite part was Big Bend National Park. The nights we spent there were very cold. So we all bundled up and used our bivy sacks to get nice and warm. This time we didn’t do very long hikes like the ones we did at the Grand Canyon. I had an easier time with the hikes thanks to my new hiking poles.

My second favorite part was the hot springs. When I touched the water it felt so warm. Once I had my whole body in the water, I felt so relaxed. During the whole time we were there, I thought about how cool it would be if my family was there.

My last favorite part was going to the McDonald Observatory. I enjoyed looking and learning about the different stars. It was really cool to use one of the telescopes to see the moon up close. It was interesting to learn that we see satellites during the nighttime.  

Even though we had cold weather while we were at Texas we still had a good time. We are going to California next. I can’t wait to go. We will have sunny days to enjoy. We will be going to a beach. We will also go to the home I’m planning to move to with my boyfriend when I’m older, that place is LA.