39 Days + 1 Lower Ballfield

Posted by Madden Driver Coghlan

On day 3 you notice how bad the van smells. On day 13 you can't really smell it anymore. On day 30 you still can't smell it, but other people sure can. That smell is what happens when 9 males spend 39 days together in a 15 passenger van. To be fair, only about 14 of those days were actually spent in the van, but when 7 of those 9 males are 15 year olds...well...the smell tends to build quickly.
Its a smell I've become used to over 120 days of tripping during the past 3 summers. This summers trip was, like all others, an adventure. Unfortunately, this summers trip was also probably the smoothest...which means less crazy stories for me to share. But here's my shot at the top ten list from this summer. Stories to come soon...if I feel like it...which I probably will sometime around Thanksgiving.

1. Waking up in a thunderhead, peeing in a snow storm in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of Oregon.

2. Backcountry horseshoes in Eagle Cap Wilderness

3. Informing the leaders of a group of Canadian Girls Scouts with whom we shared a group campsite that their girls had some late night male visitors from town.

4. Epic thunderstorm on the drive into the Badlands on night one.

5. Swimming at the foot of a glacier in Berg Lake of Mt. Robson Provincial Park, B.C.

6. ...well that 5 for now...the next five to come soon...feel free to suggest your own if you were on trip with me this summer...