Well I got a job! As a successful college graduate I feel blessed and I have pretty much the sweetest jobs in the world. I am the Quest Director at Badger Creek, BYU-Idaho's Outdoor Learning Center. This lovely ranch is located near the town of Tetonia and Driggs Idaho. If you haven't heard of them, I'm not surprised and all I can tell you is Google Map it. Here is my cabin, the school provides it for me, it has all the amenities, I also get fed three meals a day. Mom, I'm eating, and its free! I call it thrifty, not cheap!
My job consists of teaching Recreation Management 123 Basic Outdoor Skills to BYU-Idaho freshman students, taking them hiking on mountains of my choice, rafting down the Snake River near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and their final exam is a three day backpacking trip. Tough life I know, but someone has to teach these little kids how to go to the bathroom in the woods.
The job really was a blessing thoughh , after applying for 62 ( I looked up all the jobs I'd applied for) jobs this summer Josh Benson called me and offered me this dream set-up. The way the program works is with two groups of 30 students each, Quest A and Quest B. Quest A came to the ranch for two weeks and took only my class in outdoor skills, then returned to Rexburg for 6 weeks of on campus classes. Upon their departure Quest B came to the ranch and will stay for 6 weeks straight. They are taking my class as well as 4 other classes, with BYU-I professors coming to the ranch to teach. The ranch is 40 minutes from Rexburg straight to the east. After Quest B is finished Quest A returns for 4 more weeks of my class and others. I take each group on one backpacking trip each somewhere around the Tetons and Targhee National Forest. Last week I lead my group up Big Elk Creek near the Palisades in Idaho for a beautiful 3 day backpack trip.
Many of them have never been backpacking and its quite humorous to watch them learn. One example for I do not want to mock too much. Big family size cans of Ravioli are not the best backpacking food, both in taste after 3 days and in weight! I could go on but won't. I obviously didn't teach them very well. So yeah, that is the update on my job, we've been canoeing down Teton Creek, hiked to a lake called Pack Saddle Lake with a sweet rope swing, I cringed each time the kids went off because I'd be the one carrying them out if something tragic were to happen, luckily we escaped injury free! Quest B got here on Monday and we've been having a grand ol time. Tomorrow is the Hoback Junction Float of the Snake River, this will be my first guiding experience, I'm not going to tell my students that though! Should be an adventure!
To rewind, this summer I had the opportunity to go to Rwanda in the heart of Africa right after my USU graduation. It was another incredible blessing which has blossomed into another amazing opportunity to be part of the creation of a non-profit foundation,the Ungana Foundation, that will be making frequent trips to Rwanda and hopefully beyond to create better opportunities for farmers in rural areas, university students here and there, truly the sky is the limit in terms of this foundation. A record of our May research trip can be found at www.unganaproject.blogspot.com. After the Africa trip I stayed in Logan for one last summer hurrah, and what a summer it was. Very relaxing, not much productivity, but that's what summer is for right? I figured it would be my last chance to be carefree before the "real world" hit me. I went wakeboarding alot, did another week as an EFY counselor, went to many weddings and actually got the ground work set for my own photography business. So some productivity! I'll post some of the pictures of the wedding that I did in a bit! I have alot more free time on my hands so we'll see if I'm better at updating this blog.
So yesterday, Thursday, whilst my kiddies were in Anthropology I went skiing. Its true, on November 6th, its a little early you might be saying, but you forgot I live in the arctic tundra of Idaho. 
The resort Grand Targhee, the locals mountain, won't be open for business till the day of Thanksgiving, but there is snow on the mountains and plenty of it. I drove to Targhee, about 20 minutes from my cabin, packed the skis on my back, donned my ski boots, walked right in front of all the employees preparing the resort for opening day and hiked up the mountain. 
I'd say "ok, when I get to the top of this little hill, I'll ski down" then I would get to the top of that little hill and see another little hill, so I'd climb to the top of that one. Come to find, I went all the way to the top of the mountain. It took about an hour and a half to get to the top, a 7 minute chair lift ride. Who needs chair lifts when you have legs? 
Well the ride down was about 14 minutes, but man was it worth it. The powder was up to my knees, not much base, which means I scraped quite a few rocks, but nothing too damaging. I got back to the ranch after my euphoric experience, and the kids were still in class. Poor saps! Its just the first of many good powder days to come this winter.
