The Owyhee
There I was sitting in the hot spring: the year 2017, I had just spent the day kayaking on the Ohywee with my classmates. It was my turn to be the Leader of the Day, and everything was completely fine: however there is a kind of stress that stays with you when your responsible for peoples’ experience in the backcountry. You could say I was really excited to get in a hot spring that night: on a side note, I really love hot springs, I’ve once spent 7 hours in one. Anyways, as we are approach the campsite, we see that there is a group already camping out there. River edict says don’t camp at the same beach with others staying there already. No problem, there was a second beach near the hot spring, the only thing was that the spring was on the other side of the river. So first things first, we get the kitchen and tents set up. And as people are working, one of my teachers come up to me and asks what I’m thinking about. I tell him I’m thinking about how to get people over to the hot springs. So we start discussing options and scenarios all based on how big the springs are. Since we didn’t know its size we couldn’t decide on a good method to ferry people. So with a smirk, my teacher finally says,
“You know what? Ill just take a kayak and go check out the hot springs for you.” (He also really loves hot springs) And I say back to him,
“Thank you Rick, but you know, as the leader of the day, I think I should be the one to bite the bullet on this one.”
He laughed, and then I took a kayak over to the hot spring. So there I was sitting in the hot spring, looking at one of the most amazing landscapes I’ve ever seen and I started to think about how lucky I was. To be surrounded in such an beautiful canyon as this, with my classmates all learning about what it means to be a leader. But then I realized, I’m not lucky, this is school. Im working towards my goals and future career. Im stoked to come back to the program after the summer and see what else holds for me here in this beautiful town.
