We're excited to share with you a short essay one of our fantastic ICO participants wrote about a recent outdoor service trip. Many thanks to Aaron Rivera--both for helping to make the Aspen area a better place with your service, and for the essay!
Aspen, Colorado service trip
Aspen, Colorado is such a beautiful place, with amazing views, great weather, and friendly neighbors. This was my first time going to Colorado, and my first Sierra Club trip. I LOVED this trip! This trip brought me so much information about the wildlife, and gave me a greater view of what nature is. I was honored to be a part of this trip and help restore some trails in Aspen.
Being with my ICO leader, Sean Shideler, was really amazing. He was perfect for this trip. He is a really nice guy, and is trained in many areas to help us learn a lot of safety material, basic camping materials, and even how to be a better person by treating our environment with respect. Sean had such a great impact on me; I would LOVE to do more Service trips with him. All the way from Chicago to Aspen and back home, Sean has taught me so much on survival in the wilderness and has prepared really well for this trip.
On the trip we did lots of trail work, and restoration. My favorite trail was on the Iowa Shaft. We were on the side on a mountain working on trails. This was so fun. The group leaders gave us amazing tool breakdowns and safety tips. I learned how to correctly build a trail and how to test if it is built correctly. This trip has also taught me that you need to be ready for anything. It rained every single day in Aspen. I unfortunately, was unprepared for this type of rain. Although I was warned many times, I failed on getting waterproof material. Sean and the other leaders showed the importance of being prepared. Now I will never be underprepared.
This trip was amazing. I loved this trip from start to finish. I really do hope to be apart of more trips like this in the following years.
Many thanks to Linda Gerdenich & Patricia Maurides for organizing the photos of this trip which are used here!