High Adventure with Ethan

THE BIG EVENT

From left to right: Devin Durrant, Chance Burnham, Ethan and Adam Baca.  These 4 did this obstacle course at least 20 times.  They wanted to break the course record and come in first place and were bound and determined to not let anyone beat or upset them.  They did keep getting the best time, but then another team would come in and beat their time.  It was good for them.  They got so tired.  In the end, they tied for first...accounting for human judge errors.  They first had to unlock themselves, which one of their teammates had to get them the key.  They then ran over a see saw horse that lead to a climbing wall.  After the climbing wall, the group had to swing over a pit hanging on to a long rope which was kind of difficult.  The concluding event was to strap one boy onto a rope which was tied around a type of pole in which they could not hit the ground.  After that, they had to all sprint to the finish line.  I believe the object lesson of this event, besides getting them all tired, was to promote team.

The hike

We decided to do our own hike which was not part of the scheduled events.  Upon concluding with dinner on Thursday night, James looked up into the mountains and said, "let's go on a hike."  I don't think they knew what they were getting themselves into, but I did.  I was very hesitant in starting such a strenuous hike so late in the evening.  My sole concern was for the safety of these kids.  I didn't want to have to call any mom or dad and give them any bad news for which I was responsible.  This turned out to be an extremely difficult task.

James Johnson - Adam Baca - Nathaniel Hanna - Chance Burnham - Ethan - Devin Durrant

The start of the climb was awesome and beautiful! 

The area had a fire about 7 years ago which destroyed most of the natural habitat.  Nevertheless, it was pretty  breathtaking.  I love the Utah mountains

The boys found a burnt and dead tree which created a natural "fence."  As most curious boys are, they were fascinated with it and just wanted to hang out for a while

When we were eating, this is the peak that we saw from the campsite in which we were determined to conquer.  From the campsite, it didn't seem too far away, but it turned out to be pretty far away and with a lot of elevation gain.  Surprisingly, each of the boys did amazingly well.  I should have known that teenagers would be full of energy, not like their 40-year old counterpart.  As you can see, the peak was pretty narrow.  I was pretty nervous letting these kids go out because of the very steep drop off on either side.  Plus, the wind was howling and I was a little afraid of anything bad happening.  Needless to say, we weren't out there very long

The kids dared me to go out to the edge, but I told them there was no way they were getting me out there

 

The view from up here was amazing!  This is what it was all about...spending some time with my boy

For the trek downward, one of the boys, Devin, had the bright notion to take a different route, one that followed the river.  It turned out to be pretty gnarly.  From the fire, there was a heck of a lot of debris and trees.  It was brutal trying to navigate through all the brush.  In fact, these two pictures don't do it justice at all.  These areas were super easy compared to the majority of what we found ourselves traversing through.  I think the more difficult the journey, the more thrilled these boys were.

We just barely made it back before nightfall

On Friday evening, at the conclusion of our adventure, we had a campsite fireside.  The cool thing, is that most of the boys shared how awesome the hike was, even though it wasn't part of the scheduled events.  They loved doing something difficult and challenging.

Jaxon Hanney.  He decided to stay back from the hike.  But, he was awesome with the hatchet throwing.  He was one of just a few to get the hatchet to stick multiple times in the wood roots.

Matt Hanna - he was too tired to head out on the trek with us.  But, this boy has a brilliant mind

Brad Erekson - our Young Men's President.  He is  a spiritual giant and a great man.  It was fun hanging out with him for the 3 days