6-4-13 9:06 pm
Dear Journal,
Today is our second day at Mission:Wolf. This morning I got to help one of the volunteers gather the daily pills for the wolves. First I took out each bottle of pills that went to the dogs (all things they need to stay healthy), then I placed them into the small boxes labeled with there names. After that we brought the medicine to the kitchen where they were preparing the meat. You had to cut a certain amount of meat for each dog. We had some of us crushing the pills (some dogs were picky), slit some pills, and popping holes in some to squirt the juice out in to the bowls. Also there was someone in charge of putting a ladle of meat juice in each bowl. Then they were done and we packed them into a big container and watched their techniques of putting the food in different places. We helped clean up.
The next part of our fun-filled day was A hiking trip up to Hota Hill. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the top and about 40 to come down. I'm going to tell you a little bit about this tough hike. First off, let me say it was only our second day at about 9:00 am and we still weren't fully adjusted to the altitude and we were just about to climb 2,000 more feet! We started off by making sure we had all the things we needed just in case anything happened. We each had a backpack. In my backpack I had sunscreen, bug spray (even thought there was none because there was no moisture), a first aid kit, extra pair of socks and 2 litters of Water. We needed lots and lots of water. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the top of Hota Hill. As we were walking we started at our camp and walked down to the valley into the alpines. once we passed the alpines we got to this area before the road were we found some kind of animal bones. We could almost put it together and figure out what it was. Once we passed that we came to a small steep hill that led us to the road that led to Westcliffe CO. Once we got to the top of that we sat on the side of the road and drank, and drank, and drank. While we were drinking, Ms.Chapin went down the road a little to look for a trail we chose a trail not one that most people walked on, but one that we could make a path on. We were now at about 9,000 ft, we have about 1,000 feet to go. We went up but this time it was a lot steeper, so this time we took about two more stops. We got to our next stop and we were now in an open field, all you could see was trees, grass, one tiny tiny tiny house in the distance and steep drop back down. By this point we couldn't see our camp site anymore. The next time we stopped we were finally at the top! The view was so ridiculously beautiful! This was a once in a lifetime site, so we sat at the top for about 10 minutes and just enjoyed the view. When we were done soaking in the view we each added a rock to the rock pile that was at the top of Hota Hill. On our way down we stumbled upon an ant hill where little ants with red heads and black bodies were scrambling in and out in several different places! Walking down got a little hard because of the steepness so I grabbed a stick and used it as a walking stick, then I was a true hiker. It only took us about 30 minutes to walk back to the valley were then it took me 10 minutes just to climb up the large hill to our camp site, but I didn't give up. But when I got to the top, guess what... I sat on a small cactus which isn't that a great reward for pushing myself to get to the top and back to the campsite. Still we finally got to the campsite. We were all ready to sit down and eat lunch so we did.
After the hike and lunch Kent asked us, "If we could do anything at Mission:Wolf, what would it be?". Most of us just wanted to see the wolves. Cool thing is we didn't just see the wolves but we got to see the baby wolf pups they were extremely adorable.
When we got in the baby wolf pups they were being mothered basically by a dog that they had at the reservation. It was the most interesting thing. The wolf pups were very excitable and jumped and sat on your lap, but when we went in with the ambassador wolves they were calm and came over smelled us and walked away and hopefully came back. The wolves and the wolf pups had a lot of fun chewing on Ms. Chapin's ear! I got along very well with Abe, which is the wolf that is half wolf and half dog.
Also after supper we spent a nice hour or two by the fire roasting marshmallows, and just enjoying the conversation about how much fun our day was. Then we came back to our tents were we are writing the journal you are reading at this moment. So far this is the longest one I've written but maybe its the best. I like to be detailed and I think this is a good showing of exactly how much fun I had!
Dear Journal,
Today is our second day at Mission:Wolf. This morning I got to help one of the volunteers gather the daily pills for the wolves. First I took out each bottle of pills that went to the dogs (all things they need to stay healthy), then I placed them into the small boxes labeled with there names. After that we brought the medicine to the kitchen where they were preparing the meat. You had to cut a certain amount of meat for each dog. We had some of us crushing the pills (some dogs were picky), slit some pills, and popping holes in some to squirt the juice out in to the bowls. Also there was someone in charge of putting a ladle of meat juice in each bowl. Then they were done and we packed them into a big container and watched their techniques of putting the food in different places. We helped clean up.
The next part of our fun-filled day was A hiking trip up to Hota Hill. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the top and about 40 to come down. I'm going to tell you a little bit about this tough hike. First off, let me say it was only our second day at about 9:00 am and we still weren't fully adjusted to the altitude and we were just about to climb 2,000 more feet! We started off by making sure we had all the things we needed just in case anything happened. We each had a backpack. In my backpack I had sunscreen, bug spray (even thought there was none because there was no moisture), a first aid kit, extra pair of socks and 2 litters of Water. We needed lots and lots of water. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the top of Hota Hill. As we were walking we started at our camp and walked down to the valley into the alpines. once we passed the alpines we got to this area before the road were we found some kind of animal bones. We could almost put it together and figure out what it was. Once we passed that we came to a small steep hill that led us to the road that led to Westcliffe CO. Once we got to the top of that we sat on the side of the road and drank, and drank, and drank. While we were drinking, Ms.Chapin went down the road a little to look for a trail we chose a trail not one that most people walked on, but one that we could make a path on. We were now at about 9,000 ft, we have about 1,000 feet to go. We went up but this time it was a lot steeper, so this time we took about two more stops. We got to our next stop and we were now in an open field, all you could see was trees, grass, one tiny tiny tiny house in the distance and steep drop back down. By this point we couldn't see our camp site anymore. The next time we stopped we were finally at the top! The view was so ridiculously beautiful! This was a once in a lifetime site, so we sat at the top for about 10 minutes and just enjoyed the view. When we were done soaking in the view we each added a rock to the rock pile that was at the top of Hota Hill. On our way down we stumbled upon an ant hill where little ants with red heads and black bodies were scrambling in and out in several different places! Walking down got a little hard because of the steepness so I grabbed a stick and used it as a walking stick, then I was a true hiker. It only took us about 30 minutes to walk back to the valley were then it took me 10 minutes just to climb up the large hill to our camp site, but I didn't give up. But when I got to the top, guess what... I sat on a small cactus which isn't that a great reward for pushing myself to get to the top and back to the campsite. Still we finally got to the campsite. We were all ready to sit down and eat lunch so we did.
After the hike and lunch Kent asked us, "If we could do anything at Mission:Wolf, what would it be?". Most of us just wanted to see the wolves. Cool thing is we didn't just see the wolves but we got to see the baby wolf pups they were extremely adorable.
When we got in the baby wolf pups they were being mothered basically by a dog that they had at the reservation. It was the most interesting thing. The wolf pups were very excitable and jumped and sat on your lap, but when we went in with the ambassador wolves they were calm and came over smelled us and walked away and hopefully came back. The wolves and the wolf pups had a lot of fun chewing on Ms. Chapin's ear! I got along very well with Abe, which is the wolf that is half wolf and half dog.
Also after supper we spent a nice hour or two by the fire roasting marshmallows, and just enjoying the conversation about how much fun our day was. Then we came back to our tents were we are writing the journal you are reading at this moment. So far this is the longest one I've written but maybe its the best. I like to be detailed and I think this is a good showing of exactly how much fun I had!
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