STORIES OF IMPACT | Ixza G.
My CatRock Trip to Montana — Falling in Love with the Wilderness
“I never understood the term culture shock until I went to Montana,” explains South Bronx native Ixza. “I was so used to the way life is here. I didn't even think about Montana as a place people went. When we got off the plane, the airport didn't look like anything I was used to. Everything was made of wood and they had a big bear on display. I thought, what is this? Then we left the airport and all I could see were these vast mountains. The sky looked so huge. And I felt so small.”
Each summer, a group of CatRock Ventures’ students get the opportunity to take part in a week-long service learning and wilderness immersion program in partnership with the Selway-Bitterroot Franck Church Foundation and Sierra Club NYC Inspiring Connections Outdoors.
Students leave the Bronx and backpack, repair trails, cook and camp in the woods outside of Missoula, Montana. Through this program students strengthen their leadership skills and gain a deeper understanding of their role as environmental stewards.
“We all just sat there in silence. We’d had a really good time in Montana. It was probably the best time of my life.”
“Basically, we were not going to be anywhere near civilization for the next week. I thought, okay, I know I signed up. But I don't know how prepared I actually am!” Ixza declares.
“I was the slowest one going up the trail. I felt like I was dying. It was like we had our whole lives on our backs,” Ixza remembers. “They said pack lightly, and I was thinking, we're going to be there awhile. I'm gonna need more. But they were right. Just with clothes, food, tents, and water bottles, that bag had to weigh 20 pounds!”
Repairing the trail was challenging, but fun. “We chopped up these huge logs that had to be at least two to three stories long and high when they fell down,” Ixza recalls. “When we found one on the path, someone would have to climb over it, then we'd use tools to cut it in half. Then as a team we had to pick it up and push it out of the way because travelers would come by and they would want to see these amazing views but they wouldn't be able to because the log would be in the way.”
Ixza clearing a trail in Montana on a Community Service Learning trip.
Ixza was amazed how quickly she developed a camaraderie with the group. “The only thing we had was each other. The only people who would come up the trail were on horses and they would bring us food that we had to make. So, it was sort of isolating,” she explains. “At times, I missed my family and my dog. But then other times, I loved being here around the bonfire with these people.” Ixza reveals, “you [normally] wouldn't tell something personal to someone you met two days ago, right? But up there, it didn't feel like two days. It felt like a lifetime.”
Besides making new friends and learning new skills, Ixza discovered a new food. “As we hiked and cut up the logs, we picked berries,” she says. “I’d never heard of huckleberries before. My friend and I became infatuated with them! Every time someone saw a huckleberry bush, we would grab a whole bunch and eat them.”
The most difficult thing to deal with was not having access to running water. “There was a lake,” Ixza recalls. “That's where I ‘showered.’ I just went in and wet my body and scrubbed as best as I could with my hands. That was it. That was all I got. I thought it was okay. I thought I could handle it. But around the sixth day I thought, I really need a shower! I can't do this anymore! It was so hard. I loved being there. But I needed to be able to wash my head with some shampoo and scrub it. We couldn’t bring shampoo or anything that would damage the trees or contaminate the water. Everything had to be natural and decompose. So, sleeping or sitting on the ground in the dirt and having all this water from the plants lapping right onto my skin was a lot to handle. It was a really good experience. But I was really debating just leaving and going for a shower.”
Ixza G. (yellow shirt) and fellow CatRock Students in Montana on a Community Service Learning trip.
When it was time to leave Montana, Ixza was surprised by how close she’d become to her groupmates. “When we came back home and were on the subway, we all almost had a moment where we were gonna cry because Matthew was going off to college and he was going to be so many miles away. It was going to be the last time we saw him for a while. We all just sat there in silence. We’d had a really good time in Montana. It was probably the best time of my life,” she confesses.
Ixza wishes everybody could have the same experience she did. “I was happy to be back home, but I automatically missed being outdoors,” Ixza explains. “I told my sister I wish she could have been there to see it in person because being on top of the Grand Canyon, for example, is not the same thing as looking at a picture of the Grand Canyon. They’re two different things. You don't get the same wind in your hair or same sandy feeling. There's no way that you can experience the same thing through a photo or through someone's words, you know?”