Compass story #9: Solo Day

Here's the scoop on solo day: Twenty-four hours alone in the woods under a solo tarp, fasting, generally held in silence.

I discovered around the beginning of La Vida that the idea of the solo gave some of my teammates the willies: "We'll be so hungry..." "Alone in the woods all night?" etc. etc. Or something bigger, feeling that God was going to use the time to tell him/her something important and potentially devastating.

For me, Solo Day was peaceful and relaxing. The sherpas led us out to our spots first thing in the morning, I set up my solo tarp and sleeping bag and settled down with my Bible, and that day read the first five books of the Bible, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and some of the Gospels. Hey, I had a lot of sunlit time to fill.

It was amazing not to have to worry about "what time is it?" There was no time to think about, no lunchtime or break time or anything. Just "it's too dark to read now, go to bed" time. The woods were so peaceful and beautiful, and I had all that time to devote to God. For me, as a high-school-and-college-student, that was incredible.
I also did our special assignment called "ACEs," an acronym for Appreciation, Challenge, Exhortation. For every person in the group we had to go through and say something we appreciated about that person and something that we challenged them to try or something that we exhorted them to continue with more vigor. Each of us did ACEs for everyone, including The Bush, Lynn and BK.

There was a bit of hallucinating, when you're so tired you start to dream and you see people and then you realize they can't possibly be there and wake yourself up. There was one other incident:

I was sitting there reading and heard a twig snap. I looked up and saw a huge dark shape moving towards me. What was it? It got closer and closer, dangerous-looking and menacing. It rounded the bend and -

It was The Bush. I hadn't realized I'd parked right next to the trail. It was just him, bringing us our backup water bottles.

It was even easier than I had expected to sleep alone in the woods under just a tarp. When the sun was vanishing behind a mountain, I just crawled into my sleeping bag, closed my eyes and conked off, and didn't wake up until The Bush roused me and told me to pack up and return to camp in silence to end Solo Time and break our fast. (Hence the term "breakfast.") I did so, and Solo Day was over.