Day 2

Our bunk room lazily got into our clothes before shrinking down the stairs into the chaos of the dining room. We were seated at our tables, and served a delicious breakfast of eggs and muffins. We learned after the meal was over that our "ORT" had gone down to .7 lbs. The staff set up a buffet table of lunch food after breakfast, so that we could make our lunch fir the hike. Bea and I wound up making each other lunches, since I like her sandwich more than mine, and she liked mine more than hers.

Afterwards, everybody was dismissed to head back to their rooms and get their stuff together for the big hike. We all put on our warmest clothes and stuffed our bags until they couldn"t hold any more.

Later, in our meeting spots, we discussed some of the things we would be doing during the hike. Hope, our leader, made sure that we had all the stuff we needed, and then we finally headed out. We played some silly games on the field next to the lodge, and then started on the trail. The trails all over the mountain are an example of human environment interaction, which is a theme of geography. We walked for a while, stopping to take sketches every few minutes. The trail was very worn down, so it wasn't hard to hike on, but at some points it was a little bit steep. We told jokes and solved riddles as we hiked, and at some points even sang songs. Every once and awhile, someone would complain that they were hungry, so we would stop and take a snack break.

Slowly, the trees began to get shorter and shorter, and certain species of plants began to disappear. We came to a slow stop a a large mossy rock on a turn in the path. Hope told us to sit down, and stay as quiet as we could. She started making crazy bird calls, and we watched as slowly, dozens of birds came and hovered over us. She did tons of different bird calls, each new one bringing in more birds. She later explained that the calls she was doing were supposed to be an owl, and the birds were afraid of her so they had swarmed us to try and scare her off. But when she didn't leave the birds had realized she wasn't a threat and they left. We began hiking again, but now we were much closer to the summit of Firescrew. We hiked in silence, until one of the kids in the front of my group yelled "I think this is the summit!" We all sprinted up to where he was standing looking out.

The view from here was great, we could see almost 360 degrees around- until we looked back, only to realize that there was more to go.

We kept hiking, reaching probably five false summits before the real one. We ran to the summit of Firescrew, while another group, already at the top, waved down on us. We only stayed at the summit a little while before moving on, heading over to Cardigan summit. The boys in our group spent the entire time screaming "PARKOUR!" as they jumped over puddles.

The summit of Cardigan was freezing, and the wind was whipping our hair in our faces. Most of our group had gotten hot as we walked, but now we were all layering our clothes on once again. Mr. O.D., our chaperone, had only stayed with us for half of the hike, and Mr. Woolner had taken his spot. Kids set up to sketch the veiw from the summit, but I ran over to a pile of rocks to make a heart with an "HB" in the middle. Mr. O.D. had asked us to do that for him, and take a picture, for his wife.

The hike down was slow and boring, full of more songs and riddles. It seemed as though the hike down only took half the time as it did to get up, and we were all happy about that. When we got back to the lodge, we were given some time to get into comfier clothes, and then we had an hour of free time. Most of the time, I spent watching a football game in the field.

Later, at night, we had dinner and a big campfire, and the group leaders told stories. Each hiking group also had to come up with a skit. After the campfire, Mr. Woolner told stories, like the night before. Everything that night was a blur because we were all so tired from the hike earlier that day.