Colleen's camping trip. She's the one telling the whole story. =)

Alright, well, to start off, hello everybody! Its Colleen, I'm here to tell you a little about my wonderful camping/hiking trip. So i hope you enjoy reading this, it wont be hard to keep this interesting, trust me.

Clears throat*Hope you all really like reading abut my trip because this took me a really long time!

Day one
"Hello,Goodbye"

[The picture above is of the mountains we hiked 10 miles to get to.]

I woke up in the morning, rather early. (Cant recall the exact time, i just KNOW it was too early for me) My exact thoughts at that point in time weren't exactly excited thoughts, they were mostly thoughts like,"What if i cant do this?" "What if i don't make any friends?". After all, i had no idea how much hiking we'd be doing, and i didn't know anyone that was going, i had little to NO idea what to expect. By the time i was so scared to death i thought i might pass out, we had already arrived at the very place I was afraid to go. My stomach ached with worry and regret. Thom walked me over to the meeting area where everyone was, with Kai strapped to his chest in the baby Carrier , and Lauren's little hand clasped tightly around his index and pointer fingers. There were three groups of kids, one group was roaming around the forest are throwing miscellaneous objects around, laughing,smiling, and having a good time in general, i guessed they knew each other. The other two groups were sitting alone, besides a weal barrel, making quite conversation, and exchanging glances as they peered over there shoulders to look at the other groups, it almost seemed as though they were judging them.But it also appeared as though they knew each other too, i felt more alone now then I had before. The minutes passed like hours, sitting there staring waiting for Thom to leave with Kai and Lauren so that i could try to talk to someone without feeling embarrassed, and eventually, he did. Smiling quaintly while i walked over to one of the smaller groups, where only two girls were sitting. I said quietly said hello, told them my name, and smiled once more as i awaited their response.
"My names Teressa, and this is Michelle." The rather small girl with glasses said, she smiled back. As i got to know them i learned they'd both been friends for quite a while and that they were attending school together. After about a half an hour we Michelle, Teressa and i had become great friends, but i I thought it best to try and greet the other kids who'd I'd be spending the week with as well. The group leaders, David and Matty gathered the groups together once all the parents had left, and announced we were going to play a game to get to know each other after we went to a cabin to bring all of our stuff for camping so we wouldn't have to lug it around, after all, the real hiking didn't start till tomorrow. Throughout the day, we all got acquainted, played games to learn each others names and trust games so we all become closer and worked together better. From those games i met,Charlotte,Mikaela,Felisha,Mike,Alan,(So that defiantly expanded my friend group from just Teressa and Mitchell.) By the end of the day, all the worry and regret seemed silly now, i knew, this was going to be fun.[The picture above is of me,Charlotte's and Mikaela's feet.]

Day two

"Pack those bags right, two miles of up-hill hiking awaits us"

(The previous night we had camped out near the cabin all of our stuff was in so we could practice putting up the tents and working together.) When we awoke, the morning air was chilled and the sky was grey and clouded, no one was happy to be awake at 7:00 in the am, either so I'm sure that just made the morning seem that much colder and gloomy. David announced that we were all heading back to the cabin to start packing our hiking backs he had provided, with all of our clothing,water bottles,food,stoves,pots,pans and well, all the essentials to hike. At this point in time neither Matty, nor Dave had told us exactly how much we'd be hiking, or much about the location we'd be going, so everyone was a little restless. After we were done with our bags we were told what was going on, we were going to be split up into two different cars, one driven by Matty, the other by Dave and then they would drive us over to where we would start hiking, the only bad thing about this is that the car ride would be four hours long, and no one was looking forward to being in a small, warm car for four hours(by now the day had warmed up to a comfortable temperature of around 74 degrees.) Once the car groups were decided we all climbed into the cars and chose places to sit. Finding entertainment for four hours proved to be rather difficult task, but me and Acorn(Alan) were able to do a rather god job of keeping everyone entertained with funny comedy shows, jokes, hilarious family accident tales and keeping the atmosphere in the car happy and smiley. But once the car ride was over, and everyone had there VERY heavy packs on and we started the hike, NO amount of jokes or stories, no matter how funny, could keep everyone happy.
Two miles later we arrived at the place we would be camping that night, the area was very,very dense with trees and wild life, but there was one area that was just a patch of sand, that where we set up our tents. But as it turned out we arrived later then expected and by the time the tents and everything were ready it was getting dark, and we hadn't eaten yet. We ended up eating that night around eleven, everyone was so tired and full that we should have just passed out in our tents and slept till ten the following morning, but instead we went to bed around two and woke up at 6:30. Then it was time to hike another two and a half miles, though the wait of our bags seemed to decreased from all the food we had eaten the night before, everyone was thankful for that. We hiked up large hills,through little streams,over rather large creeks and saw some seriously amazing sights.


[Picture above is Acorn(Alan) crossing water by walking on two large logs.]

Day three

"Arriving at five mile island"

When Matty and David announced that we had arrived to five mile island, everyone was extremely excited, we could not believe we had made it this far. At dinner when Matty told us tomorrow we'd be hiking five miles to get back down to the parking lot and to the cars, everyone was silent, we all exchanged worried glances and hoped she was kidding, Matty laughed at our reactions."C'mon guys! We made it all the way here! I know if we work hard we can make it down, plus our bags will be a hell of a lot lighter since without all that food. So feast on our dinner everyone! Make the

backpacks as light as possible." (That night we did eat very well, noodles and yummy veggies.)After dinner we made a fire and gathered around to talk about what we had learned while we were here and tell funny stories, but we also took turns telling our favorite parts about the trip and thanking people who took a stand and helped the group the most. "I got thanked 4 times!!! That night no one wanted to sleep because we all knew it was our second to last night here. Matty and David definitely took notice of that, but luckily, that night all the stars were out, so one by one, Matty and David came by every ones tent and told them to come out and follow them. We all did, and when we got out in the open away from the trees, we saw every single star in the sky perfectly clear. It's a lot better sight then seeing 3 in your back yard at home. We saw 4 shooting stars and a satilite, everyone laid down on these rocks pointing and and showing their favorite constellations and brightest stars. Strange enough by the time we were heading back to camp we had talked about, stars,Olympics in China,the meaning of life,the Beatles and where we go after we die, its strange what talk comes up when your sitting with friends under the stars.

Day four
"Cawing Crows&Bear Butts"

Crows, that what i remember about that morning, crows were cawing so incredibly loud i thought my brain would explode, they obviously had woken me up to much to sleep now. I looked over at my tent mates, Charlotte had one leg in her sleeping bag and the other laying across Mikaela back, while Mikaela was snoring loudly into a pillow with both her hands folded under her face. I sighed and unzipped the tent, the only thing i could think of now was,"Have to pee, must find bush, to, PEE behind." I got out of my tent and looked around the camp, it must have been early, no one else was awake, not even David and Matty. I glanced over my tent and saw a small pathway leading up a hill, all around it were a ton of....bushes. I darted for the farthest bush from camp, squatted down about to pull my pants down to pee, when out of the corner of my eye i spotted a big, brown, furry butt sticking out from behind a very tall and large bush, no more then 5 feet away from me. I stared for no more then a minute before standing up, i began backing up, very slowly,very quietly, i was so incredibly freaked out that there was a bear so close to me. Once i was close enough to my tent that i could run there without being too loud, i darted for the tent. God, thinking back, i must have really scared Charlotte and Michaela, i remember saying, "Theres a bear outside! Charlotte! Michaela! Theres a frickin' bear outside! And i almost peed next to it!" I recall Charlotte reaction crystal clear, she sat up extremely fast, turned to look at me with a shocked expression pushed her glasses up closer to her eyes and whispered quietly,"Epic Fail." After both Charlotte and Michaela got out of the tent and looked at the large brown butt in the bushes, they agreed it was time to wake up Matty and Dave. But when Matty and Dave got out of there tent, by that time the brown animal was moving around to the other side of the bush, everyone stayed quite. The brown blob turned around the bush with its head so low to the ground we could see very much below its extended neck, plus the grass was rather high as well. Finally the large brown creature raised its head, it revealed....two sets of large antlers. I stared with amazement that that large brown animal was no more then an extremely large Elk. (Still scary but not quite as scary as a bear.)

I had an amazing time and it was a wonderful learning experience.