Experiences from Montrose - Elle Nguyen

Going to Montrose, CO with the green team was so much fun!

My favorite part of trip was just sightseeing around Sonrise [Mountain Ranch]. Riding in the back of Roger’s truck up to the mountain, with Sarah, Stephen, Daniel, Joey, Jason and I having the cold wind blow into our faces. Seeing the Reservoir Lake with the mountains behind while having the sun setting, along with the Aspen trees with their white trunks and lime green leaves below the mountains, it was a sight to behold. Then going up even higher up to the mountains to see the waterfall, while driving up there occasionally see some Elk and snow on the ground, then having difficulty up the hill to just see the waterfall. Since I’m so short and don’t know how to walk on snow, I kept falling knee deep into the snow. The funniest part of me trying to get up the hill was when I slipped on the snow and backed into Sarah, such an awkward position but it was sure funny! Besides that it was wonderful to see the waterfall with the huge amount of snow underneath it.

Elle celebrates after a hard (and dusty) day of work!

The evenings personally for me, were the best part of the trip. I remember one night after talking with everyone, I decided to go back to my cabin to get a good night’s rest, preparing for the next day’s hard work. As I stepped outside I looked up at the sky and all the stars illuminate so bright. The brightest I have ever saw in my life, not to mention seeing as many as I saw that night. I also got to see a shooting star, and of course I made a wish! I know it doesn’t seem like much but living in the city such as Wichita, KS it has a fair amount of air pollution, you'd be lucky enough to see Venus shining in the distance at night at my house. So seeing all those stars was breath taking!

Helping at Sonrise with Roger was a blast, despite the hard work on the two cabins. I have never really worked that hard in my life, truth be told, so sanding and varnishing the East Fork Cabin was certainly a successful and rewarding project. Sanding was such a hard job, seeing as every once in a while I would get sod dust stuck in my eyes and I had a few close calls with my fingers being so close to the sanding blade, although it was fun and well worth the effort. After it was all finished, the East Fork Cabin, and the West Fork Deck looked pretty epically awesome!

Overall the trip was AMAZING!

Elle (Wichita) will be a sophomore at Southwestern College in the Fall of 2012.