This summer I really wanted to push myself and do some things that were new or out of my comfort zone. My biggest out of the box adventure was participating in the MYLES of Science summer camp through Montreat College at Black Mountain, North Carolina. I’ve grown up outdoors and always have loved hunting, riding ATV’s, hiking, and camping, but this experience was a whole new level of well…. Outdoors.
Going into the camp the only thing I knew was that I’d be with strangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, doing scientific research of some kind, and camping/ hiking along the way. Upon arrival in Black Mountain I met my two group leaders, my six fellow student researchers, got my two hiking packs (aka your lifeline), and discovered we would spend our week studying.... Salamanders.
You see it turns out the park has the largest biodiversity of these little amphibians in the world. Everyday we would hunt, catch, measure, weigh, and identify the breed of sallies. We started this sally search at Purchase Knob, probably my favorite location we camped. Here we could see an almost 360 view of mountains, at a height above the clouds. The second morning we woke up there we actually cooked and ate breakfast while in cloud.
Our next camping location was Big Creek. This campsite was near Blue Hole the prettiest swimming hole in the Smokies. I 100% recommend this stop if you make a trip to the park. Of course this site included hunting for salamanders.
Wednesday we camped at Cosby. This site… and day really were definitely the most memorable. This day after we ate lunch we had a small medical scare when a student passed out. Then well a bigger scare when as we were eating dinner a large and very curious bear decided to join us. Yes… you read that right. We anxiously stopped eating dinner and began working to scare the bear away from our campsite. While we were successful in scaring it away, it didn’t stay away. That bear came back three times to visit our camp. Thankfully he didn’t get close enough to cause any harm, but from that point on we walked to the bathroom in pairs.
Our last day we visited Cataloochee a campsite, that did not include running water, we drank filtered creek water, ate under a rain tarp while we sat on the ground, saw about five adult elk, one baby, and played poker using rocks as poker chips. There’s only so much you can do to entertain yourself in the backcountry afterall.
Each day included packing up a campsite, moving campsites, resetting up at our new site, sallie hunting, hiking, licking our bowls clean every meal, and eating every piece of food we unpackaged, no deodorant because the bears like it, no trace of food because the bears like it, no smellables because the bears like them, no phones, sleeping in a four person tent with three other girls, plus two packs a piece, and limited food rations.
Our last day we visited Cataloochee a campsite, that did not include running water, we drank filtered creek water, ate under a rain tarp while we sat on the ground, saw about five adult elk, one baby, and played poker using rocks as poker chips. There’s only so much you can do to entertain yourself in the backcountry after all.
While all of those things might not have been my favorite summer activities, waking up in the mountains every morning, making cross country friendships, unplugging for a week, learning about the most visited national park in America, and spending five days in self reflection, was 100% worth the experience. Going from Miss Arkansas’ Outstanding Teen to not showering for a week was quite the 360 in experiences, but that’s exactly what I think is most valuable about them.
My advice, do the random things that put you out of your comfort zone. It'll be worth it.
Love,
Brooke
Comments