The last soar blog

The last Soar x was a lot of fun. We got to go to the hot springs there was a slide there and it was a lot of fun going down it. It was not a sucky slide. It was a big one that had a drop in the middle it was cool. It was a lot of fun. The weather was warm too so it was not too cold when you’re getting out of the water the water was 104 degrees. It was it was lot of fun. We went rock-climbing at Lander- It was a fun and hard climbs I was tired when I Finnish. We went to the dinosaur museum to it was cool and also lot of fun. Over all this was a got semester

miles 5th expedition wyoming

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We started our last ex by landing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then we headed to Wyoming to go to a really cool campsite outside of Lander, Wyoming. Then we went to an absolutely huge mostly natural hot springs, and there was an awesome slide and a really cool basketball hoop in the center of the pool, there were also lots of hot tubs that were considerably warmer than the rest of the pool.

Afterwards, we went to a dinosaur museum and it had lots of huge dinosaurs. I couldn’t tell you any of their names, but they were really cool.

Then we left for our next campsite which was at EVR (Eagle View Ranch) which is SOAR’s western base in Wyoming. There we really buckled down on bear protocol. We had to take all trash and smelly items out of our pockets, and learn how to handle a grizzly by walking away and not looking it in the eye. After that we went to our “backcountry” out in the National Forest behind EVR that led to a big canyon. We forgot our pump for the small stove, so we had to cook rice over a really hot fire which burnt the pot. Unluckily, it was my job to clean the pot and that was no fun. But we had lots of good laughs by telling lots of stories and being warm by a sweet fire.

 After we left the backcountry we had to skip our plan to do shoot rifles until the next day because the police had to practice their shooting at the range; therefore we had picked up trash on the side of the road instead. It was my sister’s birthday that day. After that we went to the rifle range and every one had fun and made pretty good shots.

That’s pretty much all that happened on that expedition, bye.

Expedition 5: Wyoming By Evan Harr

We started out the Wyoming expedition at a very cold campsite full of snow. We only stayed there for a night and then we moved on to the Wind River Campsite. While we were there, we drove into Thermopolis and went to Star Plunge and the dinosaur museum. Star plunge is a big hot spring with a couple slides and an indoor and outdoor pool. The really long slide goes really fast and it makes all sorts of turns. The indoor pool was pretty cool but it smelled really bad. The outdoor pool had a little slide, a high dive and a basketball hoop to shoot in the water.

After we were done having fun in Thermopolis, we headed on over to Lander. We had a lot of fun rock climbing there, and I climbed just about every route. After that was done, we headed up to Eagle View Ranch, and it was very cold the first night we got there. It was getting down to -10, so we had to sleep inside in one of the cabins. Most of the time in Wyoming we stayed at EVR and used the facilities, but we did most of the other things backcountry style. We did a few things nearby like cleaning up our highway, and we found some really cool things on the side of our road like an arrow. We also went to Jeremy’s house, went on a hike, and did riflery. The hobo dinners at Jeremy’s house were delicious, and we did a much more extended version of riflery. It was a really cool and fun expedition overall!

Wyoming Expedition Andrew Sanchez

Andrew Sanchez

Our final expedition started out as all of the other ones have for the past four months, with a long car, and plane ride. The first thing we did after landing was eat at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate one of our counselors birthday.

          We then spent the rest of the night driving to our campsite, and then setting up our sleeping gear at said campsite.

The next day we drove to a nice little campsite called The Wind River campground.  After a good night’s sleep, we relaxed in the Star Plunge hot springs. This hot springs also happened to have a “diving”(I put this in quotations because diving wasn’t allowed) board and two slides, though only one of the two was open.

          Our next sleeping ground that I remember was Eagle View Ranch. Unfortunately, our first backcountry experience was cancelled, so we instead camped in a canyon only a few miles from EVR (Eagle View Ranch). Our next activity was the Adopt a highway program where we cleaned up a section of highway. We then participated in Riflery. Our next activity was sledding, but unfortunately this too we were unable to do, so we instead sat around the fire and played games.

          Our next night was spent at a KOA located in Salt Lake City. This was the last night of our last Expedition out in the west. We then took a plane back to Atlanta, and arrived in North Carolina at about 3:00 Am. 

TK Experience at Soar

There have been many good experiences that have come out of being and taking part in the program at Soar. I have been able to travel to places and do things, which I would not have been able to do otherwise.  But if I were asked what the benefits of soar in comparison to my former school, there are not many benefits that come to mind. My former school was a small school with a ratio of about four to five students per class. Soar is also relatively small in the aspect that it has 8 students in the class. However not every one is in the same grade or studying the same subject or class, so this tends to be confusing. At my previous school the teachers where able to give each student more attention one on one and were slightly more efficient with presenting the material, more over, the level of education which I received was higher than at Soar. While Soar is a great program and works hard to meet the needs of its students, the level of the academics strikes me sometimes as somewhat of a joke. The reason for which, is that when I came to Soar I found myself repeating some courses, which I had already completed.

Wyoming expedition blog by PJ Perlitz

There were many times this expedition where I had to advocate for something. There was actually one main reason for advocating all the times that I did. I have been under a lot of stress this expedition and I needed some help getting through it. First, I had a lot of math and I knew I was not going to be able to finish all of it. Also, I have been stressed out about my situation for after this semester. I will need to do summer school if I chose to go to school next year. Also, I am stressed about how things will go with my mom when I get home.

To take care of all these problems I needed to advocate to talk to a counselor. Talking things over and getting things off my chest really helped this expedition. I was able to release my frustrations and even solve some of my problems. This made doing daily activities a lot easier because I did not have as much stuff on my mind.

First, talking about my math really helped me break it down and understand what I need to get done. I realized that I can do some of the work on base and I can do some on the next expedition. It was really stressful but talking about it helped me get over it and work my hardest.

Next, I was able to talk about a plan for the summer. I talked about how my schedule seemed to be full. I thought it over and realized that looking over my schedule could open up some time for activities. I was also able to pick some priorities for the summer. All of these actions seemed to relieve some stress.

Finally, I talked a lot about my relationship with my mom. I realized that it may be hard to rebuild a good relationship with her and that caused a good amount of stress. I talked it over and I came to the conclusion that I should stay positive when talking to my mom instead of continuing to talk about my frustrations. I think talking about this frustration really helped on this expedition.

This expedition has been the most important when it comes to advocating. I have found that advocating can help you with almost any situation or problem.

Mitchell Harrison Expedition 5

The Shadow People went to Wyoming for two weeks. On the first night of the expedition, we stayed in Theorphills, Wyoming for a few nights. One day on the expedition, we went to hot springs to go swimming. There was a diving board, a small slide, and a big slide inside of the building. They also had a lot of hot tubes there. Then on other day, we went to a Dinosaurs museum for the most of the day. Then we drove to Eagle View Ranch, which is the base out west. One of the days there, we went shooting with Jeremy and to Jeremy’s house to have hobbles dinners and got to play with Jeremy’s dogs. Then one of the days, we went on a 3 miles to hike to a lake. One another day, we did some yoga and went to the cowboy café have some very good pie in Dubious, Wyoming. After we were done eating our slice of pie, we went to thrift store. I got a shirt and a new water bottle. Next, we drove to Salt lake City where we flew back to North Carolina. On the last day of the expedition, we went out to dinner at Golden Cereal Buffet for dinner. I had fun on this expedition because this was going to my last chance to go to Wyoming. I hope I’m can take my parents and Violet to Wyoming so that they can see all of the places that I was able to see for four years. 

Hometown Boogy tune~ Sherman

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Well! Last California Expedition is OVER!

…Yay?

Yes, …Yay? Indeed, why: …Yay? Indeed? Well I’ll tell you why!

BECAUSE THIS EX FREAKING SUUUCKKKED.

Why, because it-never-stopped-raining.

The back-country in Big Sur was ok though I was a little turd-face and kept getting into arguments with staff, mainly ANN. A-N-N, WITHOUT an E, NO E. JUST A. N. N. NO. E.

J

Kind of felt bad on how I treated staff this ex, and I’m surprised they haven’t skinned me alive and used my hide as a rain tarp, but that may come later.

On the last day we built a fort!

THEN BURNED IT DOWN.

J

I won’t BS, This EX was not as good as I wanted it to be, and yes, I did sort of feel entitled since I was back in my hometown, but still, it really freaking sucked when we went to San-Fran, it was like we were in a 3D real-Life-Demo:

‘Here at soar we can show you the amazing things you could be doing if you were not in Soar!’

Yeah, something like that.

So all in all, this Ex hasn’t been the worst, or the greatest. But I take heart in the fact that I only have less than five weeks left in this TRIANGLE OF NOT-FUN-NESS.

All’s well, that ends well.

-Sherman.

miles

Blog                soar spring  Sw       3/26/12

We arrived in San Francisco and went to Wal-Mart to go grab some food, then went to our camp to start packing for the backcountry. The next day we arrive at the trailhead, not too excited about the coming three days. But we find that all the Red Wood trees and banana slugs are pretty cool.

 We went searching for wood, and so I went searching up this hill. I found a lot of it, then I slid down the hill on my butt and it hurt. After a vigorous hike out we made it back to the van absolutely thrilled to be back.

 We went to our campsite and did school and had fun just hanging out, then we went to the aquarium and saw lots of cool fish and penguins and what not. Afterwards we went to a kayaking place and kayaked. We saw lots of birds, seals, sea lions, and my favorite otters.

 After that we headed to our last campsite right on the beach. We stayed there for four days and on day 3 we went to go exploring around San Francisco and saw lots of cool people and places. Then we headed back to North Carolina.

Mitchell Harrison Expedition 4 :)

On this expedition we went to California for two weeks. One of the days we went in the backcountry for a few days. One of the days we got to go kayaking and saw a lot of different kinds of animals that were living in the ocean. On different day of the expedition we got to the aquarium that they had there. One a different day we got to walk around San Francisco and we got some treats that the staff got us. On a different day on the expedition it was raining a lot and it wasn’t fun to sleep in a tent when it is raining outside. One of the days, we got to clean the black box and the trailer. On another day we got to play on the beach. One day on the expedition we got to eat out that a Chinese Buffet. One of the days we got to do school in the library because it was too windy to work outside. Once on the expedition my sleeping bag got so wet that I couldn’t sleep at all at night. I had a fun time on this expedition because this is one of my favorites that I want to visit again very soon.

Andrew Sanchez 4th expedition

This expedition was a mix of fun and misery. The fun happened when we were out, and there were sunny skies. The misery happened when it rained. As always, we woke up at about 2:00 AM and, as always, we took a sleepless (at least for me) 4 hour ride to the Atlanta airport. 

When the plane landed in “NorCal” we got off the Plane, bought the food, and drove. We then arrived at our campsite (A State Redwood Forest) and packed our bags. The next day, we were hiking with our homes on our backs into the “Ventana Wilderness”.

After the 6 mile trek to our campsite, we set up 3 tents, and our “sleeping stuff” (sleeping bag, Thermarest, stuff sacs, and electronics like iPods that we wanted to keep dry). The next day, we hiked to the natural sulfur hot spring and obviously, went in them.

The next day, our group decided that it wanted to build a fort, so we did. The fort ended up looking more like a tepee than a cabin, but that doesn’t matter. After the fort was finished, we all played UNO inside of it. The next day, was the day we left, and we set up camp at the same campsite as the one we were at before.

The next night was the worst night so far. Drenched and depressed, we all gathered our belongings and went to a local laundro-mat. The dryers were all used while we were there, filled with jackets, and sleeping bags. They came out looking good as new, neigh better than when they were new.

After this glorious redemption of gear, we drove to Half moon bay. Our second day there, we went kayaking. Then on Thursday, we went to San Francisco and walked around for about 2 hours. Saturday at 4 am, we woke up and took down camp. We then drove to the airport, and went back to NC.

Expedition 4: Northern California By Evan Harr

This expedition was pretty cool. We started out with hiking in a pretty cool area near Big Sur, and right next to Pfeiffer State Park called the Ventana Wilderness. It was a really cool place to hike in. There were so many banana slugs and a few hot springs. There were also people that seemed like they live there, and that was very interesting. It was a very cool place to be, and I haven’t really been to an actual wilderness before, so that was cool, and I really enjoyed hiking there.

            After we got out and had a lot more rain, we headed down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a really big aquarium with a lot of cool exhibits like the sea horse exhibit, the kelp exhibit, and more. We even got to see them feeding the penguins and there was a giant tank full of large fish and two really awesome sea turtles. I really enjoyed the aquarium a lot, and I learned a lot there.

            In that area, there was also a really fun playground that we got to mess around on and a lot of shops that we looked around in. After we were done with having fun and hanging out, we went to a campsite in Half Moon Bay. It was a nice little place to hang out in and enjoy the other people that mainly camped in trailers or RV’s. While we were there, we got to go kayaking up in Greenhorn Slue. We got to see some really cool animals like sea otters and seals enjoying themselves while we kayaked by them. There was also a part where we saw a really big sea anemone and a starfish. We even raced in the water.

            After that was all done, we got to cruise around the city of San Francisco, and we had a lot of fun there. We enjoyed some ice cream, sight seeing, street performers, and the City Lights Bookstore. We also went to fisherman’s wharf and saw some seals on pear 31.
            Overall, it was a great expedition, and I enjoyed it a lot. I have never really ventured as much in Northern California, and it was a cool experience!

Nor-Cal. TK

Experiences

When I return home I will have so many experiences that I have taken from Soar to share with my friends and family.  I have done so many amazing things like surfing, hiking, backpacking, kayaking, and living in the wilderness, flying all around the US, rock climbing, swimming, and learning to live minimally.

With hiking and backpacking, I have hiked the Grand Canyon, Big Bend, mountains in Northern California, parts of the Channel Islands, and to the highest point of Texas.

I have rock climbed in Red Rocks in Vegas and in Southern California. I have swam to Mexico and relaxed in natural hot springs in Texas and Northern California. I have flown to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and El Paso.

I have surfed in Southern California. I have kayaked around the Channel Islands and in a harbor of Northern California.

I have survived through the elements. I have survived and conquered wind, rain, sand, heat, and soon I will add snow. I have explored much of the southwest in a van called the Big Black Beast; this of course is a 4X4 van, which has been set up on extremely high suspension. But the most impressive of all is the accomplishment of learning to live with 9 other people who do not exactly share the same views on topics as I do. I have traveled and I have grown.

This expedition was an ok one

This expedition we went to Northern California.

It rained a lot so that sucked and it was cold there a lot which was not good because all of us wanted hot weather. It rained the whole backpacking trip and all of our stuff got all wet and smelly, so we got to clean our sleeping bags and clothes. It was great to have clean clothes and smell good for once.

 We got to go to San Francisco for a day and do some cool things like go the Fisherman’s Wharf and try some good food and good sites.  We also went to the aquarium. It was the best and the coolest one I have ever seen. It had penguins and seahorses and lots of cool things like them.

So overall, it was a very good time.

2nd california expedition blog by PJ Perlitz

Both the team and myself as an individual learned a lot this expedition.

I learned a lot of lessons during this expedition that will help better myself as an individual. This expedition I had a lot of school work and I was overwhelmed with it. I learned that it is best to take things one step at a time so that you don't get as overwhelmed. I also wanted to buy a rhyming dictionary and I did not have enough money. We had worked on an initiative as a group and I did really well, so staff staff said I would be rewarded. I decided not to get the dictionary and staff bought it for me because of my hard work. I learned that hard work pays off and that you should trust your instincts.

There is one major thing that comes to mind when talking about group lessons. We had planned on a day split up in the city and there ended up being a change of plans. A lot of people decided to have a bad attitude about the day because of the change. The lesson learned was to make the best out of situations and in the end everyone had a good day.

It is easy to say that some major lessons were learned this expedition.

impartial musings from a timid observer~ Sherman

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                ~ Just got back from the first California Expedition, and what a surprise! It was painful!

We spent the majority of the time there in a half-arsed-camp-ground next to a busy railway and car-route with rowdy neighbors and dogs. I was lucky to even get a chance to close my eyes before a train came by, so, naturally, I got almost no sleep whatsoever. Ontop of that, we of course ran every morning, so I resembled some malformed idiot Zombie kid from the night of the living dead, but instead of shooting this Zombie in the head with a 12-Gauge you had to have a feelings  circle with me as I tore off your arm in enraged undead hunger.

A few days later after some ‘school’ and ‘life-skills’ crap we hopped on a ferry to run-amok on the channel islands. About a 1 hour trip there, I enjoyed the ride, a nice, calm, early –morning, foggy, ride over the open ocean.

Channel Islands! We arrived! Not much really happened while we were there, we did a very painful 14/15 mile long day hike all over the island, before we got back to camp wondering what it was like to not feel agonizing pain, we had some nice photo opportunities.

Ann was very sick during the entire escapade on the Channel Islands; (no surprises there.) so she was a bit testy during the trip, easily angered, you know, the usual.

We did some kayaking off the coast of the CI’s, (I WAS HORRIFIED.) It was nice, (A SEAL TRIED TO JUMP INTO MY KAYAK.) a very pleasant experience, (I NEVER WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN.)

Unfortunately we had to leave the Channel Islands early, due to a storm front blowing in, in record time we packed up in 9-minutes, but before we left, we made a new unit of measurement!

To travel 14 miles was to us: 8-lectures from staff. 4 miles was to travel: 2-lectures from staff.

Of course, F-staff wasn’t too happy about this, but what are they goanna do? Take away our vocal cords?  ;)

It was an hour ride back to the mainland and we got to see whales on the way, I was to depressed to care after getting thoroughly screamed at, so I didn’t get a chance to see them much, that, and I was murderously homesick.

So, we got back to camp, same spot in the same crappy camp, with the same crappy train being crappy.

Yeah, I didn’t sleep at all last night.

That and we had to sleep in tents, four to a tent.

Well, you see, I shift when I sleep, so I woke up bruised everywhere on my arms and legs from my tent-mates viciously elbowing me away from them, at one point I woke up I think and slammed my elbow into Even after he hit me a bit too hard.

I can only remember good dreams after that point J

As it turned out we were assigned to tents because our team was lacking something stupid, like: Group-compassion, and, empathy.

So making us sleep in tents, effectively making us spend MORE time with the people we already have to spend time with TWENTYFOUR HOURS A DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

(If that’s even possible.)

I honestly think the problem is that field staff are way too uptight and strict, I swear- their freaking drill sergeants. They push us too freaking hard, for too-freaking-long~!

I swear, man, if I have to listen to those two one-more-time I think I’ll snap.