TNC training

I just returned from a three day training exercise in Boulder. Boulder is by far one of the cleanest, healthiest cities in America. Everyone bikes to work and the buildings are all anti-neon and earthy. The CU campus there is amazing. The people we met at TNC headquarters were also very interesting. For instance, the deputy state director was a top ranking military advisor for President Clinton. His assistant? Monica Lewinsky. No kidding. The state director was a commercial lawyer and the head of eternal affairs has a degree in English. Apparently I graduated with the wrong degree! They all preach that the future of the conservation field is for profit and thus we should all go back and get MBA's. None of the interns, 12 in all, were too happy to hear that. Julie and I stayed at the Boulder Outlook hotel. Pretty nice pool, huh Melissa? It is a zero waste hotel, complete with recycling and reduced waste facts all over the walls and tables.
Then we all headed to Phantom Canyon, a TNC nature preserve about 2 hours north of Boulder along the Front Range to bond and... drink. TNC knows how to party. The outreach coordinator rode up with us and among her supplies was 8 bottles of wine and three cases of beer. None of the alcohol made it back down to Boulder, which made for an interesting camping experience. We hiked down to the river in the dead of night to play a little frisbee and attempt to gain immortality by spelling TNC in the river with our bodies, an event we hoped would land us in the TNC magazine. The next morning, we all had to go hiking at 8 am. In the picture above, Julie (my partner in crime at the ranch) is the 5th from the left. She looks pretty hung over..... I of course, did not drink. I swear mom.