What a great day.
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UPDATE:
I had received an invitation to "shoot guns" with friends yesterday and while I've never shot a gun - and also don't really love guns... I wanted to go.
I grew up in Montana where gun shooting is just a normal thing so I felt like I just wanted to get out with friends, maybe shoot a gun just to say I had, and enjoy the day. Five of us met up and left around 9:30 for the mountains. When we got up a bit, we took a right into a camping area that also had areas for shooting. Of course, mountains being higher in elevation, colder in temperature and we saw a lot of snow remaining on the ground. We drove down the unpaved, winding roads when our driver realized his 4-wheel drive wasn't kicking into gear.
We had been sliding and enjoying the bumpy ride down this hill pretty far when he realized this and stopped to look ahead if there might be a place for us to turn around. When there wasn't one we concluded our only immediate option was to back up the hill a little bit and then turn around in a partial clearing between some trees.
As we started to back up it became very evident that we were stuck. The truck could not get through the melting pile of snow and mud below... so we all jumped out and started trying every method we could think to get this truck up the hill and onto some solid ground.
We tried sitting over the wheels, ruining the wrong tracks in the snow, placing branches and rocks on top of the tracks, putting mats underneath the wheels, and tying a rope to the truck and a tree and tightening the rope to move it.
When a man in a buggy was flying down the hill towards us, we waved him off to a stop and in seeing our dilemma he turned around to retrieve a truck for help.
Inch by inch we moved - and truly, each inch was a victory. Moving up to a foot was pure triumph and when we finally got past our nemesis of slick snow and mud, we were all celebrating.
As we drove up the hill through more obstacles like our first, we all sat in the bed of the truck not realizing we'd be in for a ride to remember. Without knowing where the bumps would be or when the truck would slide, we all clung to our positions simply hoping we would not fly out or hit a tree. At one point we hit a large bump and the giant tool box on which my friend was standing as well as all of us flew into the air. I was more focused on not being demolished by the tool box to realize that I had flown several feet into the air. My friend that was standing on top and I both came down with new bruises on arms and legs... but it was SO incredibly fun.
Although we got stuck in mud one more time, we could not contain our squeals of excitement and enjoyment and after we got to the end of our trail all of us were reminded the amount of joy that can be offered from something so ridiculous and simple. In pure contentment we all stayed in the bed of the truck as we made our way to the next potential location to go shooting.
When we started that drive we were all pretty warm but when we arrived we were all quite cold and it was starting to snow. We started with a shotgun and some skeet... I guess that's what those clay discs are that people shoot for practice and fun. Having never shot before I was re-thinking whether I really wanted to even shoot a gun but I figured I'd give it a try since I was out there.
They started with a disc in a tree just for me to get the feel of the gun - I hit the skeet immediately - so we started launching the discs. I missed all of them - no surprise. Later we were going through another round for each of us and I took my aim and actually obliterated one! There is something gratifying about hitting a moving target... so I was pretty proud.
Later we moved onto shooting a 9mm pistol. At this point my shoes were soaked, I was freezing, and we had lost the ear plugs so I was mostly focused on keeping my ears plugged. I opted not to shoot and just watch until they called me up to shoot just to try. One of my friends was even so kind as to plug my ears for me (haha). I did not hit anything and I can say I'm not afraid of guns so much as I realize the damage they can cause and still probably do not want one for myself.
When finally made our way back to the truck we'd been gone for nearly 6 hours - our adventure with the truck getting stuck paired with the shooting was really an adventure to feed the soul. We laughed, we overcame obstacles and we just had some fun in the surrounding nature. Oh how I've missed such things. Joy.
-----------------------
UPDATE:
I had received an invitation to "shoot guns" with friends yesterday and while I've never shot a gun - and also don't really love guns... I wanted to go.
I grew up in Montana where gun shooting is just a normal thing so I felt like I just wanted to get out with friends, maybe shoot a gun just to say I had, and enjoy the day. Five of us met up and left around 9:30 for the mountains. When we got up a bit, we took a right into a camping area that also had areas for shooting. Of course, mountains being higher in elevation, colder in temperature and we saw a lot of snow remaining on the ground. We drove down the unpaved, winding roads when our driver realized his 4-wheel drive wasn't kicking into gear.
We had been sliding and enjoying the bumpy ride down this hill pretty far when he realized this and stopped to look ahead if there might be a place for us to turn around. When there wasn't one we concluded our only immediate option was to back up the hill a little bit and then turn around in a partial clearing between some trees.
As we started to back up it became very evident that we were stuck. The truck could not get through the melting pile of snow and mud below... so we all jumped out and started trying every method we could think to get this truck up the hill and onto some solid ground.
We tried sitting over the wheels, ruining the wrong tracks in the snow, placing branches and rocks on top of the tracks, putting mats underneath the wheels, and tying a rope to the truck and a tree and tightening the rope to move it.
When a man in a buggy was flying down the hill towards us, we waved him off to a stop and in seeing our dilemma he turned around to retrieve a truck for help.
Inch by inch we moved - and truly, each inch was a victory. Moving up to a foot was pure triumph and when we finally got past our nemesis of slick snow and mud, we were all celebrating.
As we drove up the hill through more obstacles like our first, we all sat in the bed of the truck not realizing we'd be in for a ride to remember. Without knowing where the bumps would be or when the truck would slide, we all clung to our positions simply hoping we would not fly out or hit a tree. At one point we hit a large bump and the giant tool box on which my friend was standing as well as all of us flew into the air. I was more focused on not being demolished by the tool box to realize that I had flown several feet into the air. My friend that was standing on top and I both came down with new bruises on arms and legs... but it was SO incredibly fun.
Although we got stuck in mud one more time, we could not contain our squeals of excitement and enjoyment and after we got to the end of our trail all of us were reminded the amount of joy that can be offered from something so ridiculous and simple. In pure contentment we all stayed in the bed of the truck as we made our way to the next potential location to go shooting.
When we started that drive we were all pretty warm but when we arrived we were all quite cold and it was starting to snow. We started with a shotgun and some skeet... I guess that's what those clay discs are that people shoot for practice and fun. Having never shot before I was re-thinking whether I really wanted to even shoot a gun but I figured I'd give it a try since I was out there.
They started with a disc in a tree just for me to get the feel of the gun - I hit the skeet immediately - so we started launching the discs. I missed all of them - no surprise. Later we were going through another round for each of us and I took my aim and actually obliterated one! There is something gratifying about hitting a moving target... so I was pretty proud.
Later we moved onto shooting a 9mm pistol. At this point my shoes were soaked, I was freezing, and we had lost the ear plugs so I was mostly focused on keeping my ears plugged. I opted not to shoot and just watch until they called me up to shoot just to try. One of my friends was even so kind as to plug my ears for me (haha). I did not hit anything and I can say I'm not afraid of guns so much as I realize the damage they can cause and still probably do not want one for myself.
When finally made our way back to the truck we'd been gone for nearly 6 hours - our adventure with the truck getting stuck paired with the shooting was really an adventure to feed the soul. We laughed, we overcame obstacles and we just had some fun in the surrounding nature. Oh how I've missed such things. Joy.
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