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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.