Ok, last one!
So, last morning! As is becoming the custom, I think, the other leader, Bea, and I made plans to sneak away whilst the children were sleeping. I was actually sleeping outside so as to sneak away more quickly. Bea was sleeping right inside the door, so that I could easily wake her up when the moment was right--I had the only extra watch. Which, turns out, I set the timer for, but failed to actually turn on. You'd think I would have learned something in college! So, we made it out, but not with as much extra time as we'd planned; we made our getaway something like 20 minutes before the kids' alarm went off. Yikes!

The student leaders for the next morning know we're leaving, just for safety's sake, and so they ask us any questions they might have before we leave, but they're sworn to secrecy. So whey their alarm went off, they got to break the news to everyone: they're on their own! It's not really true, of course. Bea and I went back up the trail just far enough that we could hear them go by, but they'd not be able to see us. And we sat, and waited, and I learned all sorts of interesting things about Australia from Bea. Did you know that the only reason anyone in Australia would go out into the woods was if they had a deathwish? It's so full of poisonous EVERYTHINGS that it's against the law to hike anywhere without a professional guide. She said her friends would flip out when they found out she was in the woods for 4 days straight as one of the leaders!

The hike down was fun--trying to stay close enough to keep tabs on them, but far enough away that they wouldn't see us. There were a few times that we suddenly realized that they were closer than we thought, and stopped in our tracks, and there was one time when I thought we'd stumbled on them around a corner into an opening, and one time when I really did. It's hard to hike fast enough to keep up (I'm learning that the kids really hike unbelievably fast that last morning), but still try and keep an eye out. The time I thought we saw them, I actually hurt myself falling on the ground trying to keep out of sight. Turned out to be a tattered piece of tarp. The second time, I really was probably less than 15 feet away from them. There were a few stretches with big boulders to clamber down and around, and I rounded a corner and just about threw myself off the mountain trying to get back out of sight. The trail did a switchback, and the whole group was struggling through a tough spot right below me. Ha! They never saw me, but it made for fun conversation later.

As we neared the end, and the town we were hiking to got less and less distant, I realized that I had told the leaders to go to the town, but had said nothing about what to do once they were there. Because I had the bigger picture, I knew that it was the same town we started from, and the Camp we were headed to was a few stations back, but I had never told them! Bea and I caught up to the kids just as they were heading to the nearest police station to ask directions. They had suspected that we were back there, they said, but they were still pretty surprised/excited to see us. We moseyed to the station only to find that the trains only come every 45 minutes, and one was leaving in about 1! As the often do, the stationmaster told us to get on the train, and pay wherever we got off. I love Japan! (and we did pay, of course!)

From there it was a sort-ish ride back to Camp, and exciting reunions--some other groups caught the same train as us, and some of us had spouses waiting at camp! We weren't the last group in, but we were the last to go through the food line and the bath line--we had a really long debrief, which actually makes me happy. We went around and all shared stuff we learned about ourselves, and encouragments for others. Definitely my best debrief yet.

Yay!

Man, so much cool stuff has happened that I can't post about, because I never finished my stress camp blog.... :'( So, I'll finish it quickly.

The next morning we woke to a light but steady drizzle, the kind that soaks you before you really notice. Some of the kids woke up pretty wet, but I way warm and dry! This was probably the hardest day for the kids to hike. They were tired and wet, and the ones that had been hiking the slowest were also the ones that had set up their flysheets the worst, so somehow that made them hike even slower. At one point, two of our gals from up front actually came back from the peak to carry one guys' backpack up the last bit for him! Wow. Thinking about it, the group really represented both ends of the spectrum--I feel I had some of the highest-quality gals I've ever had, but the slowest 2 guys I've ever had. Hm.

We made it to the hut in time for a late lunch. It had stopped raining at this point, but was still wet; the low temperature coupled with the wind had motivated us to never stay still for too long on our breaks. The hut actually had futon and quilts in it, an area for a firepit, and a little stream. These are all wonderful things. We sat around out front and ate our lunch, then I had the kids go inside while I explained our activity for the day--a solo. We had a handout for them with a story about integrity on it, and I told them the rules: Don't leave where I put you, use the whistle for emergencies, etc. I also promised them emphatically that I would not forget about them or leave them out in the woods anywhere. They aren't supposed to know how long they'll be out in the woods, but I sort of blew it...I told them that we'd be staying in the hut that night, which a few of the brighter ones realized meant that I would be leaving them in the woods for kid of a while, since it was only lunch time now. It might have been good to at least give them that, though. I talked to them about it later, and a few of them initially thought that a "solo" was for like 20 or 30 minutes. I left them out there for 4 and a half hours! I think if they hadn't known that they were going to be sleeping in the hut that night, some of them would have sunk farther and farther into despair with every minute.

So, I set off down the trail and dropped the kids off. Some of them spent the time sleeping (until it got dark, which freaked them out too much to sleep...?), trying to build fires (none of the guys did this, which i was surprised by), and at least one person was praying/reading scripture at the top of his lungs, which was actually pretty cool to hear bouncing off the hills in the fog.

While the kids were doing this, Bea and I were hanging out, talking and laughing, and getting stuff ready for when the kids came back. We tried to get some firewood gathered, but had a hard time finding much that was dry. Eventually I found the motherlode--siding and flooring leftover from the building of the hut! I brought a saw with me, so I went to town. No worries about a fire tonight! We got my stove set up and got supper going so the kids could have supper when they came back in from the cold. When I finally went to get them, it was well after dark, so it was extra freezing. I was glad I'd had them take their full packs with them on the solo--last year on the solo, the kids got so cold one of them actually blew her whistle in a panic, and they were all chilled to the bone. This year they were fine. Yay for learning!

The theme for the solo is supposed to be integrity, and we have questions that are supposed to guide our discussion to that end, but I didn't really like them, and the kids aren't really going to open up and share ways that they lack integrity in life with 11 other people that they don't know terribly well. I asked some of my own questions, had them share their experiences and whatnot, and it actually turned into a surprisingly good conversation. As much as I like to let the kids volunteer to talk, I learned that sometimes we just have to go around the circle and everyone talks. Next year I'll start with that, and move towards volunteering information at the end. Hm, hm... very wise.

As is becoming the standard, Bea and I were planning on sneaking out of camp an hour before the kids broke camp, so we went and found the leaders and broke the news. HA! they were super nervous. I was scared that they were just going to find the nearest road and walk downhill, but in the end they chose to follow the path, which I liked, and which turned out to be some of the coolest geography I've seen on stress camp.

So that night, all the kids bundled up in the cabin, sleeping on futons and under quilts. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty--where were the other groups sleeping tonight? What ever happened to roughing it? I felt like I was doing them a disservice my making stress camp too easy. I still do, a little....but we'll give this curriculem a few years, and see what the kids are saying about it when they're 20 and 21. That's when we'll know if it was worth it or not.