Gabrielle Buffaloe
Ms. Asuncion
English 9H, Block 3
9 December 2015
The Five Day
Every
year, I go to a summer camp in Vermont. There are no electronics allowed there
and you sleep in platform tents, which have a wooden frame and platform. There
is a large tarp over the top of the frame. There are many things to do there
including canoeing, swimming, sailing, archery, sports, arts and hiking.
This past summer I was
chosen to go on the five-day backpacking trip. Backpacking trips at the camp
are normally two to three days long. There is only one five day each summer and
there were only three campers chosen to go on it this summer. Those three
campers were my best friend Amalia Dorion, another friend named Elizabeth
Mullgrew, and me. Amalia and Elizabeth both took a while to decide whether or
not to go because if they chose to go, then Elizabeth would miss the big biking
trip that she wanted to go on. There’s only one each summer and she’s trying to
get her ranks in biking, and Amalia would miss the big sailing regatta. I
wanted to go to the regatta too, but I don’t get to go hiking during the year
and Amalia does. My other best friend Eliza didn’t want us to go because we had
already gone on many other trips that summer and she missed us while we were
gone. Eventually all three of us decided to go. In total there were eight
people that went on the trip: three counselors, Jamie, Amelia, and Bri, two
clubbers or counselors in training, Kubz and Eleana and three campers, Amalia
Elizabeth and I.
In
our packs we were each carrying our clothes, tent parts, sleeping bag, sleeping
pads, and a fair amount of food and water. First we had to drive to the White
Mountains in New Hampshire. We were going to hike the Presidentals, a mountain
range named so because all the mountains are named after different presidents.
After we arrived, we only had a short hike, just 2.7 mi because our other route
was rained out, up to Mitzpa Hut. There are a series of huts in the White
Mountains. Huts are like mini hotels for hikers. The only differences are that
they are on top of mountains and they are not as fancy. We set up out tents at
the campsite, and Amalia and I spent the evening looking through the logbooks
from when we had been there in past years.
The next morning we woke up at 6:30, ate some
instant oatmeal for breakfast, and started hiking. We summited Mt. Pierce, Mt.
Eisenhower, Mt. Franklin and Mt. Monroe that day. We also passed a place called
Lake of the Clouds. There’s actually a lake on the mountain! There were even
tadpoles in the lake! Towards the end of the hike we had to descend a very
steep and very rocky part of the trail into a ravine. Going downhill was
absolutely terrible because both our own weight and the weight of our packs was
slamming against our joints and feet.
The
next morning we woke up at 5:30. We hiked up a very steep, but beautiful trail
called Tuckerman’s Ravine. We saw a huge chunk of snow and a waterfall was
running down the side of the ravine. Next, we ascended Mt. Washington, the
tallest point east of the Mississippi River. Some of the worst weather in
history has been recorded there. Mt. Washington is 6,288ft tall and very windy.
There is a weather station on top and it is very rocky. After we climbed back
down Washington, we then climbed MT. Clay and Mt. Jefferson. When we reached
our campsite it started raining. That night we stayed at a campsite called the
perch, named so because it is on the side of the mountain.
The
next day we encountered some thunderstorms, so we had to stop hiking and set up
a tarp in the middle of the trail. We then had to divert to some of the backup
trails, therefore we couldn’t summit any more mountains. That didn’t stop us
from seeing some pretty amazing things, though. There were many waterfalls along
the trail and the tops of the mountains looked absolutely amazing. Sometimes
you would see a forest where the ground is so covered with moss that it looks
like you are staring into a sea that’s colored bright green and other times you
are surrounded by rocks covered by lichen and little white flowers are popping
up everywhere.
The
following morning we woke up at about 4:00, and sprinted up part of the trail
we had hiked the day before to a spot where we could see the sun rise. It was
absolutely beautiful, slowly rising from behind the mountain peaks, turning the
clouds and shy bright shades of pink and orange. That is one sight I don’t
think I’ll ever forget.
We then went back to our
campsite, ate breakfast and packed up. That was our last day on the trail. We
returned back to camp, but it was hard to explain all that had happened to
everyone back at camp. We all became so close on that trip, we shared an
experience that none of us will ever forget.
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