October 8, 2012 - Jon Manuell

Today started quite hectic to say the least... Cody the chef of the day decided to sleep through his alarm like usual and the entire group as well were late to rise. With a professional visit quite early in the morning we had to abort the original and settle with cereal instead. Also with such time restrictions Cody did his best to throw together a canned ham salad sandwich for most and a mayonese, onion, and celery sandwich for Kelly. After a great quick scat lesson by Sarah we piled into the van. We headed into the tiny town of Enterprise to check out what Red Cliff Ascent had to offer. We were greeted by a recent WIU alum and we jumped right into a drum activity that was extremely interesting. I must say Jeff and Dalton were very enthusiastic. After that we were lucky enough to be driven out into the back country where the wilderness therapy took place. We broke into two groups and went our separate ways. My group was first introduced to the antelopes which were mostly girls and introduced ourselves and our program followed by a demo of setting up a tarp that would withstand snow fall. We said our goodbyes and headed to the eagle camp consisting of the boys. There, my group was able to make fire by hand using a bow and spindle; i think it was a first for all of us starting fire by friction. Lastly at the end of the visit we were shown the beauty of a keva, which is a underground ceremonial chamber. It was a truly unique experience and i loved every second of it. Back on the road towards the Red Cliff headquarters Jeff and "Medicine Bull" shared old troubled youth stories and before we knew it were back to our van and continue down the towards Death Valley. On our way we stopped at an In and Out Burger just outside sin city. Never been to Las Vegas, it was very cool seeing to lights in the night sky. We stopped our journey that night slightly early just outside the city. Well its late and time for a much needed shower and another nights sleep under the stars.