Week 1 with Enrollees (Part 2)

Boy oh boy, that was interesting. This whole 40-hour work week in a little over 2.5 days is sure different. Not necessarily bad because now I have Tuesday-Thursday to do whatever I want…but definitely a little draining.

This weekend was park tour, so we loaded four burbs with enrollees and headed our own directions to go explore/esplain the park. My burb started out with Sheepeater Cliff, then headed to the park ranger museum in Norris, Norris Geyser Basin, Canyon Village Visitor Center, Lookout Point/Red Rocks trail, Fishing Bridge, Lake Village, West Thumb Geyser Basin, Grant Village Visitor Center, and finally—Nez Perce, where we also stayed for staff park tour. There the groups were all back together and we had them go through different stations on Leave No Trace, bear safety, hygiene, and kitchen stuff. Throughout the whole day, most of my students were more interested in the general stores and gift shops than the actual visitor centers, so I always gave them a certain number of fun facts they had to be able to share with the groups after we were done. It worked out pretty well for the most part, but at the Canyon Village General Store, over half my burb loaded up on junk food while I was waiting outside for them. Lesson learned.

The next morning our burb battery was dead. No, I did not leave the lights on. I have a guess as to what happened, judging by the guilty looks from two of my enrollees, but I won’t throw them under the bus because I don’t know for sure. Anyways, I had to jump a vehicle for the first time, so that was fun. *eyeroll* Actually, the battery placement made it super tricky to try to attach the negative terminal end because it was too close to the edge and under the part that isn’t very open. But don’t worry—Alicia and I got it. We also go to Old Faithful just in time for the enrollees to gather their two fun facts and then walk out the door of the visitor center to watch Old Faithful erupt 12 minutes early—which is out of their +- 10 minute range. We also got to see Grand Geyser erupt, which doesn’t happen very often—so lucky us. We headed out to Morning Glory pool, then stopped at Old Faithful Inn quickly, then hopped back in the burb. From there, we went to Madison Junction, Dunraven Pass, Tower Fall, and finally back to the YCC facility—arriving at 2:58, not last for our 3:00 arrival time. (That was Uma’s burb…getting back around 3:30.)

Because we had used so many supplies over the weekend, we had to redo Friday Drill—so tents, KP, cars, and tools/gear. We also had to do Sunday Clean, where each of the enrollees is assigned a specific job around camp to do. Apparently cleaning the Hobart (our dishwasher) is one of the most detested jobs, which I did not know when I assigned them all tasks, so I gave it to Elijah—one of the youth leaders. Oops. Should’ve given it to a student that we wanted to punish. ;) It took Elijah and I a total of three hours between us to clean that darn thing. Part of that was simply figuring out the instructions for deliming it. Most of the time was spent scrubbing the crap out of all the pieces. Jeepers creepers. Hopefully it will go smoother next Sunday though now that the knowledge is there.

After supper and after the all-camp meeting is this weird YCC Sunday Dorm Check tradition, where we tell all the students that we’re going to inspect their rooms and we want them super clean. Then one rec ranger goes in and pretends to be upset with one of the rooms because it’s not clean enough, then all the other rec rangers come in and have a mini dance party. Then we move to the next room…etc. til we’re all in the common area together. Last night was beach theme, so we had inner tubes and I had water guns that I shot all of the students with. :D

Oh, also at the camp meeting (just enrollees and Matt and Alicia—no other staff), they do a compliment box throughout the week and then read them at the camp meeting. I got one from Avery that said something about how excellent my tush-sliding was. J hahaha so proud

This morning all the enrollees left for their spikes for the week. It’s super quiet right now and I am very thankful. I have a long to-do list and I need to plan my hiking trips for the next three days and my rec trip for next Saturday for my enrollees.

Sorry there weren't any pictures this time. They all get taken on a YCC camera, so my youth leader—Lexie—was responsible for picture-taking.

Until next time…