Elk x 2

So the last week of the camp was great! While the water was a little on the low side we managed to do some good hard work without too many boat/rock incidents.

The highlight of the week was the epic assault on Elk Mountain. After Saturday morning fulls the group opted out of the hard session, I had planned, for an easy hike. heeheehee. How's Elk Mt. sound guys? Doesn't sound bad.

Ok, so in preparation for our pilgrimage up the mountain we feasted on everything left in the fridge. We're leaving the next day so we don't want to waste food. There were some interesting concoctions but the piece de resistance was some meat named aptly after the mountain. Thanks to Alex we feasted on Elk steaks before we went for glory. It was delicious.

Driving to the hike parking lot was more difficult than anticipated. The less than ideal tires on our rental van couple with the excessive power of said minivan meant uphill progress in half a mm of snow was impossible (after complaining to the rental company we got two free days of rental). We parked and walk the last bit.

It was a lovely jaunt straight up with the boys, being boys, knocking the snow off every tree all the way up with the hopes of hitting the next person. It's amazing how much energy they had at the start of the hike compared to the last pitch that not everyone finished. The snow got progressively deeper as we ascended. By the time we hit tree line it was more than knee deep. The last pitch to the view point was a bit sketchy but certainly worth it. The view was....all snowy. Clouds blocked any view we might have had, and minutes after reaching the top it started snowing pretty hard.

We evacuated the peak in record time. It was about an hour and a half up (for some of us) and less than 30 min down. We essentially let gravity do all the work and just hung on for the ride. Running straight down a mountain has never been so much fun.

When we got home we commenced the, nearly as epic, cleaning of the house in preparation for departure. All went well and Sunday we had a flawless drive back to the land of the beef. We are now recovering for a couple weeks prior to Senior Team/Olympic Trials in Charlotte, NC. It will be an amazing race by all expectations.

Till then..