Calista Signage Is Key When Hiking

 Lucy and I worked from home today. Waking up and getting to work on getting our papers done for the wrap up of senior project. But in addition to this, we also planned a lot out today. We gathered all of the things we would need to have at our booth for express fest from rope to harnesses and carabiners and even some big bouldering matt. In addition to this, we made our own certificates to have on display for getting lead certified even though we never actually get a paper showing that we got certified. We are very excited about the express fest but there is still many things to be done that are small but play a role in having a successful night tomorrow night. Sorry but we did not really take photos of us just sitting in our room.  Total Work Hours today 5 Total hours 56.5 hours 

  So Lucy and I barely got out of bed on time to meet Rosanna at 930 to make our way down to Concord where we were tested to get lead certified which was a very important part of our senior project! We got to evo and practiced doing some lead climbs beforew we had someone watch over us. Now Rosanaa told us "oh this woman is so nice and kind she will be no stress when watching you climb" Rosanna ended up coming back with an old man who was quite intimidating as he watched Lucy and I climb. Both Licy and I are officially Lead certafied in the outdoor climbing world!!! Lucy and I got back to campus and decided to get to work on our presenatation for express fest!!  Hours done Today:6 Total Hours:51.5

     To whoever may be reading my blog right now!!! This is my weekly reflection on what I learned this week while working on my wonderful adventurous senior project with my dear friend Lucy Werner!!      Starting off with what we learned this week. Lucy and I learned that we both really enjoy hiking. We put up over 12 signs this past week and had a lot of fun doing it. Except for when we got lost near Hopkins because trail forks were  not cooperating with us. We learned that we can valuably plan out our days and also have plenty of time to relax if we plan accordingly. This means waking up early before the heat of the day and getting out so we can come back for lunch and rest for a little bit.          I loved what we did this week. It was even more exciting than what we did last week. We got to go practice climbing at evo after a long week of specifically focusing on hiking and getting signs up. We had a lot of fun this ...

  Lucy and I woke up like every single other morning... then we got in her F150 and drove down to Concord blasting some throwback jams...aka old Kesha and Katy Perry however, Lucy was not having it with my music taste. We arrived at Evo and decided that it would be a big day for climbing on our bodies. We both ended up climbing 3 different routes all eventually getting harder. From a 5.7 to a 5.9 we did them all.  Lucy and I laughed a lot during our time together with Rosanna about how terrible the Aux was in Evo at the beginning of the day. We were exhausted after practicing clipping in two other tricky climbs and belays but in the end, we were okay. Back to Proctor, we went where we did some individual work and planned out our last few signs that we would end up putting up in the Proctor Woodlands.  Todays time: 3 hours  Total time 46.5 hours 

Lucy and I Woke up early to get up some signs. Just before the rain started to come down we were on our way to the library. WE THEN MET WITH ROSANNA TO FURTHER DISCUSS OUR ROCK CLIMBING PLANS FOR THE WEEK. TOMORROW WE PLANNED OUT A FULL DAY OF CLIMBING ND PRACTICING CLIMBING BRIGHT AND EARLY BEFORE I HAVE TO LEAVE FOR PLAY REHEARSAL!!! WAHOO! A FUN DAY AT EVO IS EXACTLY WHAT LUCY AND I NEED ESPECIALLY WITH OUR LEA CLIMBING CERTIFICATION TEST COMING UP ON THE 23RD!!!  I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE REST OF THESE FEW FUN DAYS BEFORE WE EMBARK ON OUR JOURNEYS AFTER PROCTOR ACADEMY.  TOTAL HOURS TOTAL HOURS TODAY: 6  TOTAL HOURS 43.5  

 Today Lucy and I awoke early and decided that today we would be up and out working on signage. We decided to head over to the Hopkins area of campus and get upper Hopkins up and Flovid-19 up. We successfully did so and even got lost along the way! This was not a fun thing to do especially when Lucy was hiking in Birkenstocks and I had no tick protection on at all. Trail forks were getting on our nerves and we were constantly searching for the nails to put into the trees. After a long morning of hiking we came back to campus exhausted and went off to do our own things from my own lacrosse game and Lucy had her own senior game! So proud of the two of us and hopefully we will be able to go rock climbing quite soon. Evo here we come!  Total hours from today:5.5 Total hours 32

 Today was quite a day for hiking. Not only was the weather perfect for hiking it wasn't humid nor was it hot. Lucy and I started the day off a little slow with both of us in a food coma we had no motivation to get up and out of bed. But we did it. We got up and out of bed and got dressed in the appropriate clothes for tick and bug season and headed over to Mac field. We hiked and hiked and saw many beautiful and cool sights. It was a big day for Lucy and I. We were able to get up a whopping 9 signs up in the Proctor Woodlands. We were proud of ourselves and we had a great time listening to some good down to earth sounds and laughed a lot. I face planted hard in the ground and lucy just sat above me laughing and yelling at me to get up... would not want any other type of relationship. 

 So per usual Lucy and I awoke and got our lives together with a good breakfast in the dining commons. After this we hoppe dinto the car and drove up to upper hopkins and flovid to see what we would be working with for later in thsi week. But while near campus we went to Cistern trail and put up signs over in that area.   `We came back to the dorm after being out for the morning and decided to work on our climbing and knotts some more along with again typing ourseoves into random things in our room and you guessed it!!! we practiced clipping in so we can nail our test at Evo. In a couple of days we will hopefully become lead certified allowing us to go climing on our own in a new way and more exciting way which is very exciting but also scary at the same time!!! Until tomorrows fun adventures!! 

       Okay... I cannot believe that we have already been on senior project for a week... it feels like a few short days have passed by. Let me just start off by saying how much I have learned in this small week not only about myself but about the world around me. In this first week, lucy and I have grown even closer than I ever thought we could. In addition to this, I have learned more about rock climbing as a sport than before which is just growing my love for it.      This week I learned how to lead climb and all about how to put up signs respectfully and carefully paying attention to specific details like what trees to nail the sign into, how to nail the signs into trees, and how far to insert the nail into a tree! With all of this new knowlege I have been able to do things I never thought I would do with Lucy.      Not only do I like doing what Lucy and I are doing but I think I have fallen in love with our senior project. I get to ...

 Today lucy and I took a more relaxed day. We met with Rosanna in the library where she gave us more videos to watch about lead climbing. In addition to this, we both worked on tying knots in the room for quite some time after watching all of this film. We also tied the rope to some things in our room and practiced clipping in correctly. We did this for a long time and had quite the laugh while doing so. The videos again seemed tp blur in our heads but since we had actually done lead climbing this time we felt like pros watching these videos. We planned the routs that we will be hiking on monday and wednesday of nect week and have abig week ahead of us for hiking!!! 

 Lucy and I woke up earlier than we have so far on a senior project to get up into the proctor woodlands to put up signs. We successfully put up 10 signs so far and after excited to put more up. Then we got into Lucy's car with sandwhiches made from the dining hall and headed over to squam. We went wrimming and had a great time jamming out to music on the ride over and in our time at squam we also enjoyed the world around us and hiked rattle snake. It was a very fun day, full of smiles and full of plenty of laughs along with just the right amount of exercise before the heat of the day kicked in and once it was hot out we got a nice tan on by the lake. We hope to continue seeking all the adventure we can possible find on our last few weeks here and we are so excited that we get to do this together. So many amazing memeories are being made! Hours done today: 4 Total hours 20 

 So Lucy and I woke up on the later side today and got up and out around 10:00 today. We drove down the road to the hardware store but we didn't end up getting anything. We just wanted to see if they had any tools we could purchase to make our senior project a little more exciting. once we got back from the store we watched videos Rosanna assigned us to watch in order to get an idea of what lead climbing would be like. We watched 4 different videos that all ended up blurring together and then we headed to the wall where we met Rosanna. She told us to put harnesses on and then she gave us an idea of what lead climbing would look like and then it was our turn to start climbing. I started first and began to understsnd how to clip in correctly it took a little bit of time to understsnd but I have it down now. Then it was lucys turn to go try to learn how to climb and clip in again. After this I waa told to go back up because we needed to focuse on how to belay when lead climbing. Lucy ...

 Before one can even put up signs they need materials... what material did we not have??? Nails!! So again lucy and I awoke early to set out on a mission to get nails. First, we tracked down some maintenance workers, and just before we got nails from them we were informed that Josh had nails for us!! So we walked across campus again to meet Josh and get the material we needed. After this, we went for a small walk-up of some trails to go put some of our first signs up. Both Lucy and I felt very proud of ourselves. Not only did we get some of our first signs up but we also successfully added to the giant trail map sign what we had worked on yesterday. Now when you go up to the tennis courts please take the time to look at the leave no trace sign we made and scan our Spotify code!! I promise the music is quite good. Then we headed down to our dorm to get plan on our next day of rock climbing to get lead certified.  Total Hours today: 3 Total overall hours :12 

 Today Lucy and I awoke early again only to be left saddened by the fact that we had just missed breakfast. No need to fret though we caught patty at the bluebird baker! After this, we headed back to our dorm to get grinding on our additions to the big trail map up by the tennis courts. Lucy worked on the leave no trace reminder sign and I worked on putting together the perfect hiking playlist and successfully made a QR code for people to scan when they stop at the trail map. After this, we headed over to Shirly to have a meeting with Laura to talk about how we could respectfully and safely put up the signs in the proctor woodlands. With our new knowledge, we then went to the woodshop to get supplies that we need to put up the signs such as hammers... then we stopped by Shirly again to get some more signs that josh printed out for us. Lastly, Lucy and I buckled up to drive into New London to get to Hannaford. We chose healthy and protein-rich snacks for our travels in the woodlands...

 Today Lucy and I awoke early ate breakfast and headed over to shirley to retrieve the signage we’ve been waiting for. Then we decided to go to the outdoor center to get supplies that we would need to go climbing on our own. We retrieved a crash pad and a pair of shoes for Lucy to use and headed over to a bouldering area down the road. We bouldered for a little bit and made sure to take plenty of photos and videos for our video we will be creating later on. Then we came back to campus and went through the photos and decided which ones would be added to our folder specific to senior project and that was what our day looked like today. We also decided to download an app that shows us all of the trails at proctor so putting up signs will become easier. Lastly, we had a lot of fun together and will continue to do so as we live along this journey!