In spite of promise of poor weather for the trip, they lucked out and got to climb on each of the following three days. When it did rain for a bit, they switched modes and did a 16-mile bike ride along Lake Koocanusa. During the climbs, each individual worked on their own personal challenges, and a few definitely surprised themselves! It was impressive to see these boys on the rock (for some of them this was their first time ever) and watch what they were able to do. Talk about “natural highs”!
At camp, they enjoyed plenty of good laughs, some very sincere processing groups, and a fair share of S’mores… For the staff, watching the team function around activities like setting up camp, food prep, clean up, supporting and challenging each other, risking opening up emotionally with others, and just genuinely enjoying each other’s company was – to quote the cliché – priceless.
Girls Kick Off Summer With Wilderness Challenge
by Kelly Yeagle, Clinical Therapist for Girls Green
Our trip began very early Thursday morning as we journeyed from Kalispell, through Missoula and over to Idaho to get to the River Trail trailhead in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. The 6-hour drive and the rainy conditions did not even dampen the girls’ spirits and they were playful and eager to begin the 4 day back-packing trek “into the wild”! Due to the long drive, we did not start our hike until around 2:00 pm, so our goal was to get everyone used to their packs (since 2 of our girls have never been to wilderness nor have they ever backpacked, while most everyone else has not backpacked in a very long while). With full packs, we made it in about 4 miles or so to a beautiful campsite along the Selway River. We had a couple creek crossings, which only seemed to lend to the adventure. Luckily the rain stopped and we were able to set up camp a bit easier. The raging river near our campsite seemed to sing us all to sleep and we all slept well!
Day 2 involved packing up our entire camp and strapping our packs on again to journey further into the wilderness. Aside from a couple kayakers that passed our campsite, we still had not seen any human beings aside from our team! Amazing considering we were heading into Memorial Day weekend! The girls set their intentions for the trip and identified ways to achieve these goals. We hiked another 4 – 5 miles along the trail and found a campsite that one of our girls declared “looks just like Malibu”. It had white sands, beautiful rocks and the river was so full it almost felt like the ocean crashing against the shore! We set up camp, dared to do a polar bear plunge and then cooked dinner. The group around the campfire that night was focused on self-assessment and preparing for a longer hike the next day.
Day 3, despite weather forecasts for rain, brought sunshine and warm temps. We decided to leave camp set up, explore further into the wilderness and return that night to the same site. Staff were serenaded by the students as they sang quite arrange of songs!! We saw some Osprey along the river and found numerous piles of bones and hair from “kills” along the river. While we did not see any known predators, according to scat tracks, we seemed to be sharing the area with Mountain Lion and most likely some coyotes. We saw a couple snakes along the way, including one rattler, which was dead (thank goodness!). It was nice to have Cody, the therapy dog, along with us as he seemed to see or smell things before we even had a clue! We made it further up the River Trail to the Selway Bridge. Wildernesses, by designation, do not have any roads and are not allowed to have any “wheels” of any kind on them. It is amazing to consider how they got all the materials to build a bridge in the middle of nowhere! We had a group session along the river under the bridge and the girls used the time to receive feedback from their teammates about their progress on the trip and their effort to achieve their intentions. We all took time to “play” along the trail, some climbed rocky crags, others walked the beach along the river and some explored the flowers and signs of wildlife in the area. We finally ran into a solo hiker today and he would prove to be the only other human that we saw in four days in this trail! When we returned back to camp, we cooked dinner, made a campfire and began our “Truth Circle”, which is somewhat of a tradition on our team. We explored anger, what it means about us (rather than the person we think we are mad at), what it feels like to handle it well and what it feels like to NOT handle it well, plus how we hope to handle anger in the future. The girls ended with several rounds of amends to one another and seemed to leave the circle a bit more aware and a little more peaceful!
Day 4, the final day! We awoke early to pack up camp and begin our 9-mile hike back out of the wilderness! We knew we had a six hour drive home, so we were motivated to stay on task! It had rained all night, but we awoke to “blue donuts” poking through the clouds and by the time we got on the trail, we had a gorgeous day (weather wise) to help us hike out! The girls were “rock stars” and they worked very well together! All of the staff commented on how few complaints there were and how positive the girls seemed to remain for the bulk of the trip! Even the drive home was entertaining as we watched rafters and kayakers dare to take on a very flooded Lochsa River!!
Overall, the experience was amazing! Standing next to Class V rapids was intimidating and pretty cool! Maybe next time we can raft them! J The terrain was diverse was moved from lush, green forest conditions up into rocky ridges and deep walled canyons. I hope it is an experience the girls always remember!
Boys Silver Explore the Yaak Wilderness
by Jason Calder, Clinical Therapist for Boys Silver
Day One. After getting packed up, we began our travels around 1pm. Along the way we went to “swinging bridge” and some pretty falls (where they filmed “The River Wild”). We then traveled to the cities of Troy and Libby,MT. Here we were able to do some “geocaching” in which we used a GPS unit to search for “treasure” people had buried (after caches are buried, coordinates can be posted on www.geocaching.com for the public to utilize). Items can be taken from the cache only if you leave something in turn. Though the coordinates typically got us within 10-20 feet of the cache, we then had to be creative in looking under fallen logs, rocks, and even in water to find the cache. This activity demonstrated just how difficult it was for “want it now” teens to delay their gratification! This proved to become a theme throughout the weekend.
That night we camped at the Yaak Falls Campground roughly 60 minutes from Troy in some very beautiful country. Two of our boys attempted to “bust a coal” with their Wilderness “bows”. Unfortunately, the materials were a bit too damp to be successful. Nevertheless, it was pretty awesome to watch!
Day Two. We stopped briefly at Yaak Falls for some awesome pictures (our rivers are in flood-state right now due to the heavy/late winter). We proceeded to the trailhead for the Fish Lakes region. The hike in was only 4 miles, but took quite a bit of time due to the deadfall from winter and the floodplains from the overflowing river. At one point we found ourselves in a slight dilemma as to which way to go (our directions were not very clear) and were pleased to see one of our newest team members share his knowledge of alpine lake formation and a correct prediction of which way to go to get to the lake. We sent him up ahead to scout with SHP Derek and found that, sure enough, he was right! It was great to see his leadership at such an early point in his stay at SPS. Also along the way we had an opportunity for more geocaching. This cache was near the beautiful Turner Falls. We probably put the 2 of the least geocaching-friendly members in charge of finding this cache and were happy to see their teamwork be so successful. They found it under some rocks within about 5 minutes! After setting up camp near Fish Lake some of the boys played Frisbee while others went fly-fishing. One of our youngest members caught a rainbow trout as well as a cutthroat trout. These were a welcome addition to dinner! Ended the day with a therapy group around the fire.
Day Three. After a leisurely breakfast we packed up and prepared to leave camp. We then informed the boys that we had another adventure; to find a difficult cache 1 mile up-canyon at another lake. Amidst some grumbling, we departed. Again, the overflowing rivers and deadfall resulted in a challenging hike. Once we got to the lake we followed the guidance of 2 members assigned to find the cache. Because the canyon was narrow, our GPS signal bounced around quite a lot. Frustrations rose as nobody could even tell what side of the lake the cache was on! After much travail, the group members voted to abandon their efforts. We agreed that there are situations in life in which the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze.” This was one. We sat down and had a great discussion about patience, humility, and gratitude. We then went back to camp and made the hike to the cars in under 2 hours. We then drove to a quaint forest service cabin called “Ford Cabin.” We had it reserved for the night. The boys enjoyed the 8 hours before bedtime to play Frisbee, read out on the lawn (in perfect 70 degree weather), or to rest. We ended the day with a brief group in which each boy made commitments as to how he could show greater gratitude.
Day Four. After getting the cabin cleaned up and getting all the boys packed up, we departed for the Trail of the Cedars in the Ross Creek area. Unfortunately, we found that we couldn’t even access the trailhead due to the high snow levels. The boys didn’t mind this too much as they knew it meant getting back to SPS earlier and actually getting to shower before showing up in the cafeteria for dinner! All in all, this was an excellent trip. We saw some beautiful country, become much more united as a team, and were able to get a better sense of each person’s individual strengths and talents.
Summit Eagles Play First Ever Baseball Game
The Summit Eagles played their first two baseball games in the history of SPS. The first game was a battle and the SPS Eagles came through with a 15-11 victory over the Great Falls Hawks. The second game ended up in us losing 16-3 with our bats being very fatigued.
Shane pitched 4 great innings and he was the winning pitcher. All of our boys played huge roles in the win. One of the highlights being Luke N (who has never played baseball) catching a fly ball with the bases loaded to preserve the victory. Scott G, in his first game, played outstanding in the field and at bat.
Current Edition of The Peak Available
Summit Preparatory School's student jounalism publication, The Peak, is now available for download. Just click on the newsletter image to the right. Thanks go to English/Spanish teacher Amy Borgen and her journalism class for working so hard to produce this interesting and informative newsletter!
SPS BI-WEEKLY MENU: Feel free to click on the link to the right to take a look at the current menu for lunch and dinner:
LlBRARY WISH LIST: Please download the Library Book Wish List by clicking on the BLUE DOWNLOAD button below.
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