The terrain was much more rocky than at home. I'm used to dirt trails and lots of trees, but Mt. Snowdon was rocks and field. A portion of the hike I would deem climbing even. There were lots of sheep as well - all over Wales actually- just roaming about, grazing on the grass.
The retreat was wonderful. Our days were spent hiking, biking, and exploring some of the cute towns in Wales, and our evenings were filled with discussion of what it means to live in community with one another as well as some fun and games :)
I have really enjoyed our talks about community. In my years at school, at camp, in theatre, the topic of community hasn't been truly taken on as a subject. That's a lie - I have a vague memory of singing a song about community at Deming elementary - anyone out there know what I'm talking about? Anyway - there were 7 main elements of community we talked about, but the one that got me most excited (surprisingly) was 'celebrate'. It was suggested that we have an events calendar that housed our favorite holidays, birthdays, etc. My mind started spinning about planning events and doing special things for special people. I can't wait to get started!
Some highlights from our Snowdonia Trip:
Day one was probably the muddiest for our entire group. Half of the group chose to mountain bike the trails around our hill of the day. The rest of us decided to walk to our picnic destination. As we began to walk, Simon suggested that we plunge straight through the woods because 'it's a shortcut'. Well, only 2 people took that challenge while the rest of us continued up the main dirt road. It was a bit rainy, but other than that we were please with our choice. As we continued to study the map, we found the trail that we deemed the quickest, and took that turn. Our main leadership continued on the main road, but the rest of us were confident in our decision. Somewhere, though, we took a turn to what we thought was a small trail, but ended up being a small stream. Definitely NOT a trail. We plunged through anyway, walking through the stream and pushing our way through thick branches. I had a blast! Never in my life have I thought "hey, I think it would be fun to go create a trail!" But I really enjoyed myself. Here's a glimpse at our challenge.
Day 2 was the big hike up Mt. Snowdon. I was in the slow group, and boy was I thankful! That thing was pretty steep. I had a really good time, though, and was proud of myself for summiting a mountain - the highest in England and Wales too! It was really really windy, hence the superman picture to the right - we couldn't resist!Day 3 I didn't take any pictures, but it's worth mentioning that we did a high ropes course that at it's highest was 52 feet, and the final element was 40 feet, which is significant when you know that the last element was basically a free fall for 30 feet until the thing we were hooked into slowed us down- it was awesome!
For more Pictures of Snowdonia, click here
For even more, click on this one
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