It all started with an early morning; 5:40 am to be exact. The minute I got up I was excited, but also unsure of how well I would do on this journey into the wilderness. By the time we hit the road my mind was racing with a million different thoughts. What kind of work will we do? What kind of people will I meet? Will they be nice, mean, young, old? How long will it take to get used to the altitude hard to breathe factor? Honestly I was getting myself overwhelmed for no reason and I laughed about it later because the other volunteers were super nice, welcoming and eager to get work done. I didn’t know what to expect at all though and for good reason. I’m from Austin, Texas and I’ve only been on a mountain one other time. It was a couple days after Christmas and I went with family to Taos, New Mexico to go snowboarding. This is all pretty foreign to me. I mean I’m really not used to the altitude, ‘cause I come from a pretty flat city ya know?

When we got there the minute I walked up and introduced myself I was offered coffee and breakfast. In my head I was like ‘‘COFFEE!!!!!!!!!’’ I was really pleased with everyone already. It was really cool to meet people from all over. There was a couple from California, a guy from Minnesota, a woman from Kansas, and a guy from Belgium – out of all places!! So now I just had to worry about “what the hell are we gonna do in the field?” Come to find out we were going to hike about ¾ a mile and build check dams on this trail that was pretty tore up. What we had to do was dig holes long enough and wide enough for these logs to fit pretty tight in the ground and stick out about two inches or so. From what I understand these dams filter water, keep water from eroding the trail, and when they eventually fill over time they fix the trail so it’ll be all pretty again. YAY. Building the dams was super easy and pretty fun at the same time. It felt good to have finished all of them in one day of hard labor.

Day two consisted of a lot more walking than day one, about a mile and a ½ more. I really was not the happiest camper out there ‘cause of this. But when you look out to the mountains it’s just so amazingly beautiful you don’t know anything better to do than take a million pictures. If you have, “Witness something truly majestic” on your bucket list visit Colorado. No joke. And if you want to give something back to the community I strongly suggest working with VOC. If you would like to know more about Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado click here They’re a great organization. And if you want a new perspective, go to the mountains and camp out for a few days ‘cause it definitely changed me(not like I’m a new person but you know).

Anyways, when we got to the site all I saw was a very small trail and lots of rocks. What we did as a group was attempt to make the trail more safe for horses and people. What I did was build a rock wall that turned out pretty damn good if I say so myself. Building that rock wall was the worst most hard game of Tetris I’ve ever played, but in the end it looked so good I just had to brag about it. Fitting all the rocks together was definitely an artist’s job, my job. It was a challenge but I came, I saw, I conquered. In other words Veni, Vidi, Vici.

About Meredith
The above blog entry was written by Meredith, 17 years old. She is an inspiration, full of spirit and setting goals for what her life will be like when she becomes an adult in a few short months. When she is not working at constructing rock walls she is pondering how those “old people” get up the big mountains and work at digging in the dirt for hours at a time.

About Step Outdoors, LLC
Step Outdoors wants you to go outside and we lead individually inspired one foot in front of the other adventure pursuits to get you there. We tailor a first time overnight backpack or a more challenging multi-day hiking adventure just for you. All adventures take into consideration your goals, fitness and experience level. Perfect for mothers and daughters, couples, families, co-workers or a group of friends, we provide a 100% guarantee of fun.