lord of the STEENS: the return of the king

Well, as this was the concluding part of my Steens trilogy, I thougt this title would fit. Anyway, Steens was a really good experience once again. I was not in as great shape as I was in last year, but that is okay, because I am coming back, and I have the advantage of knowing that I should take my iron. My worry at the beginning of the week slowly died away as the week went along. This was the first time I have been up to Steens with three teammates, so it was a slightly new experience in that respect. I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan almost the entire way on the bus to Steens and back. It is quite interesting. It makes you think about things in the Universe. I was motivated and interested to read it, which was a good sign. It's a little bit theoretical, but still good. Anyway, finally getting to Steens, Monday was nice enough, the easy day it was supposed to be. I ate plenty, as the food was excellent once again. I went up to Kiger Gorge and did some sight seeing, because it was my last time up there, and I wanted to part seeing Kiger Gorge one more time. I ran three miles that day. Tuesday brought on the final BIG DAY of my life. A memorable one. It was actually fairly cool, which was amazing. Hiking was pretty easy, and I felt pretty good afterwards. I have to say, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had to pack nearly made me through up. I really had to force it down. I didn't even try to eat the second one. That was probably a bad idea, but we had barely any time to eat. That kind of stunk. The week of contemplating which group I would go into for 60-60's resulted in me going half way in group 2 and half way in group 3. I was going to start in group 3, but the line was so long that I figured I should try in get towards the front of group 2, because that would be a whole lot better rest wise. I went pretty strong in group 2 for a ways, but it was pretty tough. My legs were starting to give out on me around 35 minutes, and I really did not want to have my legs completely die. So I decided to fall back. Running some 80-40's and 70-50's also influenced my decision. Group 3 was way back. I had to wait about 20 minutes, and we had only been 35 minutes in when I stopped. I was then at the front of group 3 for 15 minutes or so, and that was great. That was truly 60-60's. We stopped eventually to get water, and I decided to move back in the group to allow other people in the group to have an easier time, for there were a lot of girls in the group who where behind me. Once towards the back middle, it was a fair amount tougher, and the rests were screwed up. The gaps become pretty bad towards the back. It felt continuous at times, and the rests often felt like they were 15 seconds. Oh well. I survived. It actually felt kind of underwhelming, since I ended up behind some girls that were pooped and walked quite a bit. To make up for this, I stayed at the creek only a couple of minutes and went out with the first group to hike out of the canyon. This may have been somewhat of a mistake, cause that hike may have been the hardest part of the entire week. That was rough. It was a mile, and it took an hour. Overall, the entire big day took 8 hours and 57 minutes. 23 miles. Wednesday was another fairly easy day. I was again about 100 meters off on the predict a mile, but this time I was short. Some people ran almost 2 miles. That was crazy. I planned on running four miles on the way back, but the 4 mile marker was poorly visible, so everybody ran past it. I ended up running about 4.5 miles. It was fairly slow. Thursday was cross canyon. That was pretty cool, as I was one the leaders for our tent because of my experience. It actually went really well for the first 17 minutes until we got about half way down the large canyon into the trees. I'm pretty sure we were on pace to get first. Once we got half way down the large canyon, however, we somehow got separated from Jeff Randall, my counselor this year, and two other guys. That seriously slowed us down. We waited about 5 minutes and argued about which way we should go, back to look for them or onward in hopes that they would be there. If we had just gone a little slower a ways back, it would have worked out. We ended up pushing onward, and we went up the hill, fairly slowly. It is definitely a long, steep hill. To make matters worse, a guy in our Tent from Salem, Bryan, got stung by a couple bees, and he was allergic. That made it more intense. WE tried to push up the hill quickly from then on. Luckily, Jeff and the other guys had made it up the hill before it, but he seemed pretty pissed, even if he doesn't show it much. We ended up making it in about 42 minutes. We actually got third, which was a miracle. The first place team got 38 minutes or so, which actually seemed quite slow. I remember getting about 33 minutes the year we won. We kicked ass. Anyway, this year we learned a pretty good lesson. The main point of the race was to stick together as a team, and we failed to do that. It could have turned out a TON worse. We were lucky. Bryan did not react badly to the bees whatsoever. We need to do what is right, regardless of what place we would get. We should have turned around. Oh well. It turned out okay. We, or Parker Elder from Scappose, aced our quote. It is as follows: "the winds and waves are always on the sides of the ablest navigators- Edward Gibbon. Definitely not a bad quote. It was pretty easy. I guess all of the quotes were pretty easy, as only one mistake was made by all the tents put together. The Big Day and Cross Canyon were the main things I had apprehensions about before hand. Those were the humps I had to get over to survive the week. Drills later that day were pretty easy. The Henley girls led the uphill running. They kindof weren't given enough respect there I thought. We didn't do aggresion running this year. That was kind of dissapointing. We did stretches instead. They showed us some pretty crazy new streches this year. The main one was one where you grab the hands of someone behind you and left them up onto your back. It really stretches your back quite well. We fit that stretch right into our Borat skit. Anyway, the Henley girls were there, and that was pretty neat. They all did end up doing pretty positive things and still being a tight knit team even though they've been separated since 1995 basically. Friday rolled around, and we once again were Ninjas for the opening ceremonies. It wasn't that original, but oh well. We got some laughs anyway. Some people came in riding on broomsticks, as Harry Potter was quite prominent during the week. It was crazy. At least 3 counselors were reading it and at least 10 campers could be seen every break with their noses stuffed in the book. It kind of drove me crazy, but I was strong and made it through the whole week without reading it. Luckily, the ending still remains unknown to me. I was worried, with all the Harry Potter floating around. ho ho. Anyway, the olympics were good, even if we didn't end up doing the greatest. We are the sack hop kings, or better known as best in the sack. Oh yes. I only competed in the tug of war, surprisingly enough. We ended up losing both times I was pulling. That kind of stunk. I was on the 5 man team and the whole team. We fought hard, but we lost. The tug of war was my last event at Steens. It was kind of wierd to realize that I was done. I guess I should say I ran the uphill 5k that morning. I ran fairly slow, 30:45. It may have been my slowest time ever. I'm not sure. I was trying to push it, though. However, I still got that feeling I also had last year were I felt like I wasn't tired at all after I finished. That's quite annoying. Our team ended up getting last in that event. I don't think my tent has ever done well in that event, at best maybe 4th. Anyway, those two events were the culmination of my steens participation. Awards were good. Turkey dinner was pretty good also, lest I forget. I actually did have a date to the turkey dinner. I finally worked it out. I took NAdja Warren, from Siuslaw. She was from Siuslaw, but oh well. I least took somebody. She's pretty nice, and she doesn't seem self conscious whatsoever. It's refreshing to see that in a girl. She's open. Anyway, that was it for life up on the mountain. I got my dog tags. I am a survivor. On Saturday, we had the traditional fun run to the pool, and this time it was a boat load better. Different worlds, just as running at the front of a group or at the back of a group on the big day can be the difference between Heaven and Hell. We truly only ran 2 miles this time, and it took about 17 minutes. I didn't feel tired and crappy then, although I did not run the relay this time either. I ended up not swimming or even showering there, unforutnately. Oh well. I was waiting a long time to go to Subway. It was gooooood. The drive back was pretty uneventful. I read cosmos and travelled throughout the galaxy. It was good. And the steens has been good. My dog tags were forged in heat and cold and dirt of the steens. I will always have a place for Steens. It is a different world.