Sharptop Cover, Week 2, Tired Week

This was probably the hardest week for me all summer. The reason it was so difficult was because the camp was so full. This means that we had to schedule morning rides. Now, just to update you, the tower, the high ropes course, the quantum leap, and the mountain bikes are all scheduled rides. This means that cabins were assigned a slot of time to go on them. When the camp is really full we have to book morning rides at 7:00am. Now, in order for them to be set up and ready to go we had to get up at 5:45. This week was so booked that we had a morning ride every day. So, I would end up going to sleep around 12:30 or 1:00 and then get up at 5:40 for the entire week! It was crazy. I wish I could write some of the random things that happened that week, but honestly, it was such blur. By the end of the week if I sat down for more the 5 minutes I was asleep. This worried me because all the morning ride staff were getting pretty exhausted. It was inevitable, by the end of the week, we all got sick. It wasn't too bad, it was just an annoying cold, but lasted for the entire third week =/.

However, I did have and awesome experience with one of the kids this week that I can't forget. His name was Mitchell and he was having trouble getting up the rock wall, so we sent him up the pole on the side that we use. On this particular day I was on the repel side. When a person goes down the repel rope, they are also attached to a safety belay rope that I have control over, so if they go too fast or let go of the repel rope, I can stop them from falling. So, I am attached to the kid going down with the belay rope and a post behind me so it the camper weighs more than me, I'm not thrown up the wall. Some kids are to scared to control the repel rope and end up just being belayed down by me. Mitchel was one of these kids. It took him all of the courage he could muster and a lot of trust to step over the edge. Now, just keep in mind he was a lot heavier than me, and I'm a girl, so am not quite as strong as the guys working with me on the tower, but being attached to a post and harnessed in, and with the equipment we use it isn't a problem. So when he finally went down the wall, his whole cabin was standing there watching me belay him down the wall and me getting lifted up about 3 ft in the air. When he made it to the ground he was so happy and thanked me so much. He even took a picture with me =) It was awesome that I could work with him and help him get over his fears. Here is the picture: