In 2011 my family and I took a trip out West in an RV. My family consists of my parents, older brother Patrick ( now a sophomore at Madison), younger brother Declan ( now a sophomore at MUHS), and my younger sister Nora ( now in 8th grade). We were all there for this trip just younger. On our trip one of the main attractions we stopped at for a few days was at the Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole Wyoming. The Tetons are a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming.…
There are many places I hold dear to my heart such as traveling to the mountains, visiting my grandma or going down to the Russian River and swimming in the freezing green river. But one particular place that stands out in my memory is Mount Shastina. We have gone to Mount Shastina during times of snow and during times of intense heat, which has exposed me to different activities that depend upon the climate. I have been going there, to McCloud, which is North of Mt. Shasta, with my family for as long as I can remember. In the center of a desert lies our rustic cabin with 3 bedrooms and a nice fireplace to keep us warm.…
Mount Diablo Asheley Schraeder in this story is a six foot tall red head. She loves horses, volleyball, and most of all basketball. She is a middle school teacher and high school varsity basketball and volleyball coach. She loves jeans and boots and always has confidence. The setting takes place on Mount Diablo in Clayton, California.…
On December 29,2016 My friend Jack and I went snowboarding at Mt.Alyeska. During that Thursday morning we woke at at 5:45am and drove and picked up Jack. It was approximately 1hour and 45 minute ride there so about 82.6 miles. We got snacks for the ride like Airheads,doritos,and sodas.…
This question for me has a couple stories. Since this story has to be in a certain amount of time I am going to tell the one time I thought I couldn’t wake surf. Well let the story begin. A couple of summers ago my family…
Growing up in Vail, I would often ride the chair lift with strangers and they would ask, “Where are you from?” I would reply “here.” The people I shared the chairlift with would tell me how lucky I was, but I would just smile politely and nod, unaware of my fortune. I had grown up in mountains and didn’t know anything different. As I have gotten older and been fortunate enough to have traveled outside of my familiar mountain range, I have realized how intensely beautiful mountains are.…
Do you remember the first time you went to camp? During the fall of 2014, I had the most aghast time at Camp Tecumseh. At camp, everybody stayed in a cabin. The cabins were filled with the same genders.…
The Great Smoky Mountains I had never smelt the mountains before. When I was planning my trip everyone who had been there before said, “Oh, that smell! You’ll never forget it!”. I always knew it would be an unforgettable trip I just never thought I would crave the mountains afterwards. I can still feel the cool, crisp air that I inhaled when I walked to the porch to watch the sunrise.…
As we continued our drive, the day felt like any other of our typical adventures. We went to go camping at Skinny Dip Falls about 30 miles into the Parkway. Macklemore was playing from the stereo, and my head was pressed against the window, taking in everything the scenery had to offer. I was infatuated with how the layers of mountains seem to fade away perfectly the further they were. There was a fog that clung low to the valleys giving off a “smoky” appearance, which is the reasoning behind its nickname “The Great Smoky Mountains”.…
Your peripheral vision is gone—there’s complete focus, then a silence so muted that all you know is the feeling of your heart beating. Then, as you stand there motionless, you feel the adrenaline. I mean really feel it—a syrup coursing through your veins, yet not a syrup as it moves faster than blood. You know when it hits your heart because it starts beating faster, faster, faster, and then the feeling is gone. Then everything is gone—emotions, breath, sensation……
I saw only darkness, save the faint glow of lava rocks in a small hole dug in front of me. I breathe in what should be steaming hot air, but it is dry, yet so hot. Even growing up in Tucson where the summer heat can reach 110 degrees, I’ve never experienced something quite like this. I wished I was playing out in that summer heat, this felt like I was being cooked in an oven. I breathe in again, more dry air.…
One of the first things I remember about going on that trip is looking down at my feet and thinking that I would die if I fell. I was nine and very light-headed at the time. It was the winter of 2009 and one of the first times I had ever gone to Colorado. The drive there took about 6 hours from our house so you can imagine my excitement at finally getting out of the car as an inpatient nine-year-old. We were renting a small two story log cabin with a hot tub on the second- floor balcony from a family that had a winter home somewhere in Florida.…
When I was very little, walking up the trail with a pack on my back and the dog at my side, I would reach out and pull leaves from the bushes and trees. I would tear off corners, smooth the edges, and they would be turned into spaceships, flying across a lush alien world. Sometimes the trail, worn down into the ground over time by paws and hooves, would climb its way up onto the crests of ridges and meander across the moist, mossy fringes of muskegs. The rough, black and gnarled spruce branches that grew there were pirate spacecraft, pursued by the sleek birch branches from beyond the muskeg's soggy borders. As imaginary lasers and rockets exploded against the ships' hulls, I would rip off little pieces of bark and let them fall to the forest floor.…
Clomp! Clomp! Clomp! Our boots pound the rocky Colorado trail in the middle of a cold, starry night above the massive tree line with a spectacular view of the lights of Leadville, as we hiked our first 14,000 foot mountain of the summer. Clomp!…
My vision started to fail on mile four of the six-mile hike. Small white specks flickered across my field of vision. The next thing to go was my hearing, followed by my ability to walk in a straight line. My platoon sergeant saw the signs of heat stroke and forced me to stop. I should have stopped myself, but all I could think was: you will finish this, or you will die trying.…