Wet Shoes By Owen

Wet Shoes

By Owen

“Hey guys,” I said as I walked into my dorm. “How was it?” asked Guillaume. “Tiring,” I replied.

It all started when we got to the trailhead of Mummy Pass. Mummy Pass is a hike that we get to do at Eco Week. Eco week is at Pingree park this year. The first thing you should know is that everything is covered in snow. Ever since I got on the bus to go the Pingree Park, it has been snowing. The factor of snow plus altitude means snow, snow, and more snow. Another thing you should know is that the hike Mummy Pass is already hard. With snow Mummy would be well…… a thousand times harder. Not really, but it felt like that.

The first part of Mummy wasn’t as covered in snow as the rest of it because the trail to the trailhead was tromped down by the CSU staff because they were going to their cabins using that trail.

Once we got to the the actual trailhead, the snow was about a foot deep. Alex H. was in the front followed by Ricky, who I was behind. It wasn’t as hard as I expected until out of the blue Ricky tripped and fell. His water bottle hit my leg and bruised it. “Ow!” well half yelled at the same time. I picked up his water bottle which chilled me to the bone. “Here,” I said, holding out to him. He got up and took it.

A few minutes later, he tripped again. His water bottle hit my leg again. My leg got bruised, again. I helped him get up while he got his water bottle. We had to catch up because we had lost a little ground.

Then, (you guessed it) Ricky Pietrip… ahem…. Ricky Pietras tripped again. His water bottle hit and bruised my leg, AGAIN. By then my leg hurt a lot. In my head I thought that I wouldn’t make it, but if you say it in your brain, your brain will make sure that it will happen. So, I pushed that thought away.

As the hike kept going, the snow gradually got deeper and deeper. People's shoes were starting to let water in. My feet were getting cold, but they weren’t wet, which made them hurt a lot.

When we finally got to the top, almost everybody’s feet were either wet or cold. While we were sitting eating lunch, my feet didn’t stop hurting or warm up. I tried walking around, but that did not work.

“Okay,” said Alex the Adventurer, “Our plan is to keep hiking until about 1:30, then go back down the mountain. Right now it is 1:16, so when you’re all done, we will start.”

A few minutes later, Alex said, “Hey guys, we have a new plan. We’re going to go back in a few minutes because the snow is this high on you,” he said holding up his hand to his thigh. Woah, I thought, that is really deep. “So, go ahead and finish up,” he finished.

The lower we got the warmer and wetter it got. People started complaining that their feet were wet once there were puddles on the ground. My shoes were waterproof, until I stepped into a ankle-deep puddle. Water poured into my shoes, and instantly my feet were cold. Now I saw why people were complaining, but I didn’t complain.

We got down the mountain to the dining hall, and a few minutes later we got to the dorms. As I was about to open my door, I thought, I may have been cold and wet, but it was still cool to hike in a foot of snow.

THE RESCUE by Sophia

THE RESCUE

by Sophia

COME ON GUYS! We are going to be late for the family hiking trip.  Sophia go back to sleep it is only 5…. , it's 9:00!  Sophia why didn't wake us up earlier!  I didn’t know it was 9:00 eather mom!  Get up,get up mom yelled! I thought I set the alarm for 6:00 in the morning but no instead I woke up at 9:00 in the morning when will I ever get anything right, mom said.  You can to get stuff right!  Come on everyone time to get up and drest, Sophia…. You, you are all ready drest Did you brush your teeth?  Yes mom I brush my teeth.

Mom I am going outside. Ok, stay close.  Take Fred and Dakota with you.  

Eart, stop the story hold on stop, fred and Dakota are my incredibly cute dogs.  Fred is an australian shepherd and Dakota is a nofendland. Anyway Fred and Dakota are coming with me outside with me.  Ok, now on with the story.  Fred come back here, Fred come.  Fred what do you smell. I will just follow you to find out. Mh,mh,mh,mh,mh,mh,mh.mh.  Why did you take me to this log fred.

The log is big and burnt it had sticks wedged into the log.  It had huge holes in it.

Ruff!  Ruff!  Ruff!

Dacota go find out what fred is barking at.

Wolf!  Wolf!

Dakota you stop barking to!

I AM GOING TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE UP TO!

Oh, god you are barking at a baby bunny!  Fred, Dakota you two get away from that baby bunny right now!  Get out of there bunny! God I am talking to a bunny it can’t understand me.  I am so stupid. Dakota, Fred stop!  Get away from that baby bunny.

I need to get that bunny out of there.

I know I can use my hat.

      I will put my hand behind the bunny and the hat in front of the bunny.  

Gotch ya!  

Sophia what are you doing out here. I saved a baby bunny from Fred and Dacota!  That’s why the dogs were barking, said mom.  Yes, that’s why they were barking.  How good you saved the baby bunny. You should let it go now.

No, because then Fred and Dakota will get it. I know that but I will holed Fred and Dacota back while you do it. No fred and dakota are too strong for you to hold back mom.  Mom I think you should just put fred and dakota in the camper. Ya I do think that would be a better idea than me holding them back. I will be right back sophia.  TELL ME WHEN THE DOGS ARE IN THE CAMPER MOM! OK I WILL! THEY ARE IN THE CAMPER NAW SOPHIA! K, I am back sophia naw you can let the baby bunny out of…...what, what did you put that baby bunny in sophia? My hat! What you put it in your hat! Yes? Ok you can let the baby bunny GO NAW SOPHIA!

In the end every one,evan the bunny had the best day ever! Well for one i had the best day ever!

Where Is My Money by Rayshawn

Where!!!!!!!!! Is!!!!!!!!!My!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  An accurate story by Rayshawn

I was eating my favorite breakfast, bread with chocolate syrup on top, when I heard a very familiar voice screaming,” WHERE THE @@#!!#$!@$%#!#&* IS IT!!!!!!!!!!”

Hurrying upstairs, I saw my sister just throwing things around, mainly dolls, clothes and rocks. I went downstairs and taped a bunch of pillows together to make a makeshift shield so that she couldn’t hurt me, and with the shield in front of me, I approached the beast herself.

She began throwing things just at me because she thought she was dreaming and I was a walking cow (she has weird dreams). In the most calming voice I can make, I say,” rayna, what’s going on???!??!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!!??!??!

She said almost inaudibly, ”Da ’hic’ toof ‘hic’ fairy  ‘hic’ didn’t ‘hic’ give ‘hic’ my ‘hic’ money!!!!!!!!!”

Then she burst into tears and continued throwing stuff, although this time, she specifically used rocks to throw around. I was not surprised that this big of a fuss was made for her getting no money from her tooth.  Her hissy fits can get really ugly.

Literally, one time she wanted a face paint of a pink fairy (or like 2 billion of them) on her cheek, but the person running the face painting place ran out of pink, so they used black and white. When she saw it, she went straight home to wash it off, but it wouldn’t come off, she she just got a bottle of soap, and poured it all over her face. 99.99999999999999999999% of it got into her eyes, so she started screaming and running around the house to get the bubbles out of the eyes. She photobombed a picture of me getting an A+ on a geography test, so when my parents showed me the picture, I saw something that looked like a cross between a nude grim reaper and a bubble monster with long hair.

Wo don’t ask how she is that loud. I said,” Rayna, quiet down, I can tell you why the tooth fairy didn’t give you any money.”

I continued talking,” number one, the tooth fairy is our dad, and he’s in Texas.” “WRONG!

The tooth fairy is a fairy, not the hairy 🐵 that is my father! ”My sister yelled.  

I then said, ”number 2, the tooth fairy can’t open the case.”

Than she screeched,” WRONG, the tooth fairy is as strong as the hulk!”

Then flexed her completely nonexistent muscles and started making funky poses. I then told her,” number 3, your teeth are really ugly. Also, what’s with the funky poses?”

Then she than she muttered, ”you know, he’s right. I should make it look better.” Then ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

About an hour later, she came out beaming and holding something like a ball of hardened glitter glue on it. “Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” She screamed, then she said then put it under her pillow and fell asleep.

I went to bed, and took a quick nap, then woke up. Few hours later, I was woken up by a very familiar voice yelling,”WHY IS THERE NO MONEY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I rushed downstairs and asked what was going one and my reply was, ”THE TOOTH FELL BEHIND THE BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Hill of Poison by DeLorey

Hill of Poison

By: DeLorey

One weekend I was visiting my friend lila’s house in Los Angeles, california for my birthday. She has a very large hill in her backyard that is almost straight up. It is so tall,  it goes beyond their property, and you can’t see where it ends because the house behind them blocks where it stops/where it slants down.  It has a wooden staircase leading to a deck sticking out the side of the hill. There is no grass on the hill. Instead,there are little leaves  that people assumed to be Ivy hiding the dirt coated ground.

One day Lila suggested that we climb the hill instead of taking the staircase. I thought this was a great idea. However, her mom didn’t think this was a good idea.”I don’t know about this…” she hesitated, but we did it anyway. We got on our old, dirty vans and Lila grabbed a rope, then started climbing to the top. Whenever I slipped, she would throw the other end of the rope down to me just in time. plus, I screamed alot because of the black widows (they are extremely popular in L.A). Obviously, she had done this before. Eventually, we reached the top, and started hoisting ourselves over the deck’s gate. We lay there on the new wood, exhausted and dirty, letting a wave of accomplishment wash over us.

On the way down, I heard a scream, followed by a large thud!. I looked down and saw Lila lying at the bottom of the hill. I screamed (and not because of the spider crawling up my arm) and scrambled down the hill as fast as I could. Thankfully, Lila didn’t have any serious injuries. She had slipped and hit her head on an oak tree, and only had a small bruise. But that wasn’t the end of our problems, or at least mine.

The next morning I woke up covered in itchy welts and bumps,. All the leaves on the hill turned out to be poison oak, and I was allergic. Lila wasn’t allergic, so the poison didn’t even have an effect on her. But because of the black widows and poison oak, the hill in her backyard is known as The Hill of Poison.

Eco Week - Stormy by Melody

Oct 5,2017

Eco Week-Stormy Peak

By: Melody

            Slip, fall, ow! So far, super far, I need water.

Ow my feet, I thought, ow ow ow. Wait... can you hear my thoughts, well I bet want a story, then let me tell you my story so I don’t keep embarrass myself by saying ow a few hundred times without telling you why I am. It all started when....

            “I am so gonna beat that mountain, it will have to do better than that to beat me,” I said proudly grinning up at the mountains snowy white hat and its green green coat. When everyone got here we set off on the trail to Stormy Peak, the peak hit most with raging storm’s starting point. I jogged up to the fifth spot in line and hiked I felt good about myself for getting myself on the hardest hike you could get on. One minute later this is what I felt like. Uohhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuu, uohhhhh fuuuuuuuuuu deep breath deep breath, I thought, this is not goanna end well I can already feel it. One-minute hiking, we’re not even at the starting point, and I am already out of breath how am I supposed to make it to the top. “I give u...,” I was ready to say pouting a whole lot. No, I WON’T give up, I thought, I can’t It just started anyways it can’t be that bad hiking up Mr. Tall Guy. That is how it started going up up up 30 degrees at a time.

            The tall gray shrubs towered over us as we meet up with our starting point.... the sign.

We started walking again. The towering gray shrubs that towered over us soon broke out into tall green pine that grew thicker and thicker as we went higher and higher. I went on positive on and off because I kept falling and getting my hands frozen once again after I just got my hands warm again in a foot of snow for one hour ten minutes I believe till . . . I fell. I fell of a one-foot rock that was covered in white and fluffy but slippery and deadly snow with my feet on the rock and my hands on the snowy ground below. My hands were about to burst because of the snow, my head tingled and died, and my heart bammed like a jackhammer cracking my chest with each blow. I didn’t know if I should scream of the shearing pain in my freezing hands or cry of defeat. The snow mocked my clumsiness, the trees danced their laughter, and the rock barked out with a low low voice, “You're not fit for this, go back to whom you came from hahaha!” stayed there for a sec breathing deeply hands frozen ready to give up. But....  wait the hike isn’t over and I am not finished with this mountain yet. With the help of MY courage and the warm voice that asked if I was ok I squirmed back onto the rock and wobbled pass a few people regaining my spot as fifth in line. At that time, I felt golden and very proud of myself for being able to keep going.

I stumbled around for another one hour and ten minutes later sweating and burning frozen and I especially wanting to give up. My legs were sore and we had like another hour till we got pass timberline or otherwise called the tree line, my ankles and neck was hurting from the weight of my 2 feet tall and one-foot fat backpack and myself, and my lungs were working ten times usual. Weird fact the longest hike I have ever been on was only five-mile hike. I bent over ready to admit defeat. But when I looked up our guide us standing there in his purple shirt like he wasn’t hiking a 14 or 12 mile Stormy Peak. I stood up my fuel of hope tripled to fill half of my tank probably enough to get me to the top I thought. Walking again with my head up high thinking of defeating this mountain once and for all again since the beginning of the hike.

We were nearly pass the timberline, my tank of was hope also nearly empty. I wobbled behind the fourth person my feets ready to give out begging for my tank of hope runs out. No, no, no, no what am I thinking, I won’t let my tank of hope run out. I shoved a bit more of hope into that tank and continued. On and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on an. . . . you get the idea it was only like ten more minutes but to me, my feet, and my lungs it feels like eternity. Finally, like the sun has finally began to shine on my freezing toes I saw ours . . . half way point. Sadly, it isn’t our finishing point, but I was too happy and proud to even care it was only half way. Now the sun is burning hot and we still have to go down the hike, down the miny trail, and back to the campus, and into my dorm where I am telling you this unfortunate event. The mid-point wasn’t as welcoming as I thought it would have been . . . iiiiitt happens to be snow, rock, and a couple of branches where I unfortunately had to bonk my head against one. Later I found that I had a red-brown circle right on the top of my forehead where I bonked my head. I ate my turkey and cheese sandwich that got squashed into a misshaped sphere, my apple, and half of my chips. We had to get up and go in like what... 15 minutes 20? I got really annoyed that we only had that much eating time! Never mind. Anyways going downhill was a lot easier.... only to my legs, but what didn’t help was my sad and aching ankle. Each time I took a step my ankle whined, each time I just stood my ankle whimpered, each time I sit down and get up again my ankles creaked and groaned. The ground was now water because on the white-hot sun burning us on fire. My mouth was becoming the first desert in someone’s mouth (because my water bottle is super deep inside my backpack and I couldn’t stop or I’ll lag), my feet were wet from the slush all over the ground, and my neck almost couldn’t take the weight of my gigantic backpack. I had to use all my power to keep from collapsing on the spot. Finally, after my feet was all wet without an atom dry, my backpack was killing my neck down to a serious ache, and my parched mouth was becoming the driest desert in the world (newspaper headlines-The driest desert was found in the mouth of an unfortunate person). Finally, the trees broke and I could see road to the girl’s dorm. I raced as fast as I could which would beat my normal walking speed to the dorms. I basically flattened the door and swiveled up on my bed where I am right now after the story. “Ow, ow, ouch,” I just happen to blurt out, “sorry.”

Water World Wonders by Elsa

9-20-17

Water World Wonders!!!

By: Elsa

I woke up in a flash. I just couldn’t wait for the big day ahead of me! I jumped out of my bed to go get dressed and to brush my teeth. Then, I started walking over to get some towels.

“We're going to Water World!” “We’re going to Water World!” I said out loud.

I was so excited for my 1st time going to Water World! I walked closer to the closet where the towels were.

In the background of my big thoughts, I could hear the sound of pancakes sizzling on the pan. Then Suddenly, I paused. I smelled the air.

“What’s that smell?” I said to myself.

Truly, I think I knew what the smell was. “Bacon!” “Bacon!” “Bacon!” I said excitedly.

I ran down stairs like a cheetah was chasing it’s prey. I quickly, grabbed a plate of pancakes and shoved them into my mouth. After, the amazing meal, I was standing over by the sink washing my hands, scrub after scrub. I quickly dried off my hands and ran towards the garage door.   

Me and my friends Anna and Kate, hopped into the car, excited for the big day. Finally, we started to drive off to Denver to go to Water World.

We all ran out of the car as fast as lightning can strike the ground. I ran towards the line, which was longer than I expected. Since Water World was not opened my friends and I decided to fight the boredom by talking. I was ecstatic to run and go enjoy the wonderful time at Water World with my family and friends.

Finally, Water World opened, but still we had to wait in line. When it was our turn we gave them the tickets and walked over to our cabana that  we rented. My friends and I looked around and saw the scenery. There in the scenery we saw the little wave pool and shops that you can buy treats at.

A few minutes later, we were walking over to the first few rides that were open at the time. My family, friends, and I rode the gondola to the other side of Water World. There we saw huge slides some steep, fast, and scary looking. We kept walking until, we walked upon a big slide colored yellow and orange. I could not believe my eyes. This was seriously one of the first rides that were open at the time.

“The Mile High Flyer here we come!” I said excitedly mouth wide open.

Like a lot of the rides there was a line which seemed to take long at the time. Finally, it was our turn. As we sat in the tube I could already sense the fun.

“Wahoo!” we all yelled.

When we ended the ride I couldn’t stop saying, “My favorite part was when it went pitch black.” The first ride of the day was so fun in fact, the slide had all kinds of water gadgets. It was awesome! So far I could tell that this trip is going to be one of the best!

I was pumped when I heard that the next slide was going to be about one of my favorite units of all, Ancient Egypt and Egyptian Mythology!

As we walked over to the next ride I enjoyed talking to my family and enjoying the view of the tall water slides! Now, we were at the top of the slide hopping into the tube. We started to ride the slide from top to bottom.

“We’re riding a wave!” “We’re riding a wave!” I proclaimed, making the words sound like a song.

Me and my family kept traveling across the rocks until we approached a big cave. Me and my family headed into the dark and mysterious cave.

Then, we saw them. There was these big sculptures of mummies and rulers of Ancient Egypt. I enjoyed the ride but, it wasn’t one of my favorites.

Clomp! Clomp! Me and my family walked across the sidewalk, and saw a tall slide that was in the shape of a toilet, colored yellow and blue. We walked up the stairs, one step at a time until we got at the top of the tall toilet slide.

“Wahoo!” everyone proclaimed in a delightful way heading down the big slide.

“Here comes the circle!” I blurted out.

In no time we were inside the toilet about to go down a hole. Splat! We landed in pool of water.

“That was so fun!” I yelled.

“Let’s do that again!” I said, looking back at the slide.

In a way sweet as honey my Mom answered back. “We’re going back to our cabana to have lunch.”

“Okay!” I responded back to my Mom.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

“The big wave pool!” “Let’s go!” “Let’s go!” my friends and I shouted.

Our parents said “yes!” We ran down the hot sidewalk with a big smile on our faces. I looked at the crystal blue water as I ran towards my friends. The waves were huge. I felt like I could relax on a float, feeling the water drip down my face.

As I walked over to the shore my head turned the direction of our cabana. My family and I started to walk towards our cabana on the hot sidewalk.

I stared at the little shops and restaurants until we got to our cabana. “Who wants lunch?” “We do!” everyone cheered.

Everyone ordered, and they said it would be about 30min. until the food would be here.

My friends and I were allowed to go in the tiny wave pool, so we did. We walked into the sparkling water. Waves were coming straight towards us. We all hopped over them with delight. “Anna, Elsa, and Kate the food is here.” We all ran to shore and over to the cabana.

We gobbled up the food and paused. Out of the corner of our eyes we saw a squirrel! We just couldn’t help it. We just had to feed it french fries.

After, our lunch we walked over to a ride called The Voyage to the Center of the Earth. We got an inner tube and waited and waited and waited until we were the next people in line. The people in charge of the ride gave us one big push and in the next minute we were riding down the slide.

When the ride ended I kept thinking that we were in a big cave with all these kinds of dinosaurs in our way! The next ride was a gray slide that was covered. When we walked up to the ride I was shivering with fear.

As we got up to the front of the line I was still shivering.

“I can do this, I did the other rides before.” “I’m sure I am capable of this, I’m just sure of it.” I thought in my head constantly.

“Are you ready?” my Mom called out. “Ya!?” I announced in a weird way.

The slide was like a tunnel as dark as a moving figure strolling across a dark and mysterious night. As we were traveling down the slide on the inner tube I could see lights that made it look like we were traveling through clouds of mist. The waves splashing against the inner tube made the inner tube feel like a ship out in the ocean smashing against waves. Up in the distance I saw a white light coming straight towards us. We came out of the big slide with a big splash!

“That was so fun!” I said with a huge smile across my face. “Can we do it again!?” “Can we do it again!?” I asked. “Hmmm.” “Let me think about that.” “Sure!” “Yayyy!” we all cheered.

We did the slide again and came back with another big splash and a huge smile on our faces. “We have to go back to the cabana now.” my Mom said. We slowly strolled back to our cabana, worn out by all of the fun.

“Do you guys want some more time?” “Yes!” we all cheered with excitement.

We walked over to the tiny wave pool, our feet touching the burning sidewalk. “They’re doing bodyboarding now!?” we all blurted out like we could read each other’s minds. “Should we go?” I said looking at my friends. “Sure, let’s go!”

We all walked over to the bodyboards. “Are you ready to ride some waves?” I said to my friends. With no hesitation they both agreed, “YES!”

I stared at the blue water looking at my reflection. “Let’s do this.” I thought to myself not looking back.

I took a few steps in, jumped, and let my body soar through the sky like a piece of paper drifting through the wind. As I came down into the water I could feel a soft breeze and I could hear birds chirping every which way my head turned.

Splash! I plopped into the water making a delightful splash. “Can we do that again?” I asked. “Ya, go ahead.” Our parents said.

We all grabbed a bodyboard and jumped into the crystal clear water ending the jump with a splash. All of us walked to the shore wet. I saw our parents walking over to us.

“Do you guys want Dippin Dots?” “Yes please!” we all said doing a little dance.

We ordered Dippin Dots and ate them. We each shared our flavors that we got.
“Do you guys want to try this?” I looked over my shoulder. “Sure.” I answered politely. “Do you like it?” our parents said. “Ya.” “It’s not one of the best though.” we all said.

We all started to walk over to the exit of Water World. I took a couple steps onto the parking lot and noticed that the big day was over. The big day where I went to Water World for the first time. I had fun though and that is the important part!

The Long Journey by Brendan

The Long Journey

By: Brendan

Made on: October 17th 2017

Everybody is getting ready for the long hike ahead of us. Everybody is trying to use the bathroom at the dining hall to prevent going to the bathroom at the hike even though they would. I walk outside with a slight headache like the one that feels fine but gets worse but this time it didn’t. “Is everybody here?” Asks almost every adult. “Yep!” Says everybody else including me. Soon, We headed up a thin trail that led us up to a steep path that cirque and mummy were both going on for awhile. Some people were regretting going on mummy when the steep part came. We were on the side of the mountain walking around the pingre territory. You could see all of the things that we had done in the last day also there were a few animals and people. It was fun, it wasn’t hard, it was pretty easy, It was just like walking, but in a foot of snow.

We had gotten to the point where cirque and mummy broke off, “It’s not as hard as it’s going get.” Says the staff member hiking up the mountain. It was at a fairly steep part with not many flat parts. The snow was getting pretty high and we had to make a path through it so it was kinda at the point where someone would make a footstep and everybody behind you would step in the same one. It looked like one person was there and then nobody else was because their would only be one place where their was a foot. “I need to use the bathroom!” I said to. I didn’t need to go like super bad, I just didn’t feel like I could keep going if it got worse. Everybody get some snow in their hand pat it down PAT...PAT...PAT..(continued) to make a perfect snowball. Some people patted it down so hard that it didn’t even break when it hit.

Everybody wants lunch so much. We only had one snack break before and I only had a granola bar. We were going at a slower pace than before because The snow kept getting higher the higher we went. We were lucky that we had all the trees around us to keep the snow above us. People were constantly firing snowballs at eachother It was constant chaos. I needed to use the bathroom so much. We had just stopped for a break and they said that you can’t use the bathroom, I was gonna explode. Everybody was starting to ask when lunch was gonna happen to the point where they said that they were just going to have lunch at the next break. When they said that lunch was in a few minutes everybody sounded excited with a bit of finallys on the hike. When we got to the rock where we were having lunch I went to the bathroom immediately, I got back with everybody eating, I got out my lunch and started eating a bit too fast but it was worth it. We were gonna go a bit further but we have ended up not and just going back. I realized that I did something that not everybody got to try.

We headed down the mountain with excitement and with a lot of it. I just needed it to be over soon. We were coming back to the part were mummy and cirque broke off. Almost the entire group knew that it was getting close to the end. We had a very long break at the pond the FROZEN pond we threw rocks in the frozen lake hoping that we would break the ice. The snow was going away making a bad thing (slosh) the trail was soooo wet, it was like walking in a small pool. We got to the end of the trail ready for nothing but going home, it was a big day, and we had one (only half) day left of eco week. I got back to the cabin with relief that it was all over.

I had gone to the cabin realizing that I had done something that maybe other people would give up on. I realized that I didn’t give up even when the snow was getting very high. I knew that I had done it and that I did decent at it as well. It felt good, it felt like I accomplished something that was worth doing.

The First Firearm by Alexander

The First Firearm

by Alexander

“You going to come?”

My brother told me as people started going to the concrete branching trap platform.  I stood up and walked on over to the platform and a supervisor told us safety and the size of shotguns, we partnered up and got earplugs and the shotguns I got the second smallest size.  We then went up to the numbered blocks and the first person went.

“Ready?”

“Pull!”

And the neon orange disc shattered, 1 more person went and I was up.  I was starting to aim and the shotgun was as heavy as a milk jug.

“Ready?”

“Pull.”

The recoil was unbelievable and I felt like it pulled my arm out of its socket! I missed but that was fine.  I turned my shotgun in for a smaller one.  But on all the times I missed all of them.  Except for one time when I barely chipped the disc.

But I had shot my first firearm!

Later I shot 22’ rifles with less recoil (thankfully)

That day was pretty good Plus I also had cookies and no day can be bad with cookies.  

B-17 by Ben

B-17               

October 10 2017

By Ben

I walked out of the dining hall and met up with my hiking group and we waited for everyone else on the hike.

We started to hike to the B-17 trial on a wide road.

just before we went on the main B-17 trial we looked at mummy pass.I still can't make out the mummy shape yet but others can.

When we reached zig-zag hill that's what I called it at least. people started to trip and fall into the snow there but we continued to walk up hill no matter what. After that we took a small break and I drank some water, and took a picture of the trees.

At twin lakes we stopped to eat a snack I brushed the snow off a rock and sat down and started to eat my snack then spotted what I thought where deer tracks by the rock.

When we started on the trail again we saw even more animal tracks and maybe even a few bear tracks now we were trudging through snow up to are ankles or more.

About an hour later of tripping and fall and whines and complaints and brakes for water we finally sat down for lunch at a manmade river reservoir thing and I plopped one of my jackets down ands started to eat my sandwich.

We started to continue with even more whines and complaints and tripping and falling and one or to breaks. we Eventually  reached the crash site there was metal everywhere and it was old and rusted. when we were exploring the crash site we had to be very careful so we don't trip and don't get cut somewhere on the body with old rusted metal. When I was exploring the crash site I found out that the plane either had 2 engines or 1 engine that got split in half when it crashed or one wasn't an engine. I saw part of the body of the plane that looked small down the hill but we couldn’t go that far down to explore it because it was to steep and there could be more old sharp rusted metal that we could slip and get cut somewhere.

After a while of exploring we started on the why down on the why down it was more slipping and less tripping by then the snow was melting but it made my feet were wet even though I had waterproof boots my sock where cold and wet and the front of the group was  ahead of us and the back of the group was way behind the middle. “I think we're lost” someone said. “No, we’re not” I said as I spotted the front of the group just ahead. Just as the rest of the middle group was about to turn around and probably get lost.

Then we past twin lakes but didn’t take a break this time but just continued on the trail.

Later then the group continued on the trail to the dorms and the hike was over and I felt so happy to finish the hike. And it was so worth all the tripping and falling and slipping and face planting it was all worth making it to the top and getting to explore the crash site and talking with my friends while hiking and getting to see animal tracks at twin lakes, trying to slip my way down from the top and I might have learned and few things I didn’t know about before.