Camping

For the seventh straight year, 80 of my Iranian family members and I made plans to stay at the Catoctin Mountains for a weekend camping trip. Every year, camp is filled with laughter, excitement, music, and dance. The setting is beautiful and stress free. I expected camp to be even better this past year because I had finally reached the age where I would be allowed to bunk with my older cousins. Turns out I was completely wrong. A searing pain in my abdomen woke me up at five in the morning. I…

so.” We are walking and walking. “Is this the place that we camp at, Alex.” “No, this shouldn’t have happened, we never turn around.” “To be honest the day before yesterday, I was sleeping on my hammock, but when I decide to get back to our camping spot, I did not know how to get back,” said Josh in a depressing voice. “ We might be stuck in this forest for the rest of our life.” “What Josh, you mean we had to stay here forever.” “No,No, I do not want to stay here forever.” Suddenly,…

your friends, or descending deep into a cool and dark cave. These are the experiences that State High’s Outing Club gives to its members. The club plans several trips a year for members to go backpacking, day-hiking, orienteering, rock-climbing, camping, caving, and more. Along the way, members also learn essential outdoor survival skills like fire-starting. Every school year wraps up with a culminating three-day expedition to the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. John Donoughe has…

Camp Manitou is a safe haven for those not usually accepted by the norm of societies standards. With open arms campers and counselors welcome all people of all backgrounds and walks of life. From skit night to the mud hike or cabin time to field games, campers are allowed to express themselves however they feel is needed. If that means wearing a pink tutu or metallic gogo pants around their head, it is highly encouraged. Having been a camper for seven years, being able to work there was a dream…

It was a beautiful morning, and I was about to have a big week ahead of me. I was thirteen years old when I embarked on a journey to go camping with my church friends at a place called the Wilds. I have been to a Christian camp before, but I had never been without my parents. It felt substantially odd that I was going to a Christian camp without my family for one whole week. I was tragically confused with several emotions such as excitement, fear of the unknown, and worry. As the bus left the…

Girl scouts When i was about 8, i'd been forced to join the girl scouts against my many misgivings to have something to do for the summer. I'm not much of a people person and i don’t like working in groups especially because i felt that the older girls were mean and the girls my age or younger were annoying. But i stayed for two years and it wasn't all bad on occasion we’d have fun and i didn't have to try too hard with cookies sales because my mother and grandma always took it upon themselves…

Being a teenager is said to be the best time of anyone’s life. Some people wish for their life to be memorable and other make their life memorable. Six boys plan to make their own memories and not to wait for something to happen. Nick, Keith, Kurt, Joey, Charlie, and James aren’t only friends in school, but also in Boy Scouts. At the ripe age of sixteen, they all sign up for a canoeing trip to Upper Saranac Lake in New York. Boy Scouts has already created so many memorable moments for these…

6 Tips for First Time Safari Traveler Traveling changes our lives in a huge way. Once you get the taste for traveling to far off lands and unknown places, there is no going back or stopping, even if you wanted to. Almost every person these days lives by a wish list or as we travelers like to call it - the ‘bucket list’, and going on an adventurous and once-in-lifetime African safari happens to unfailingly be a part of most bucket lists. Planning a safari isn’t like planning to backpack the…

plan for our next day when I first heard it. It was not just crying but a full belly-grabbing scream. “Hey um, I don’t um feel good. I think I’m sick.” I was a Sophomore, and it was my first year being a camp counselor for the 6th grade class camping trip. The camp leaders had all of the high school volunteer counselors sit through a required training. This training went over everything. Topics ranging from kids being homesick to just being sick and needing medical attention. I was…

Alta Lake State Park is a 181-acre Washington state park located in the mountainous northwest interior of the state. The park and adjacent lake lie beneath towering stone cliffs, formed by glaciation, that rise 1000 feet above the valley floor, and carry on up to the top of Old Goat Mountain which sits 4200 ft above the park. Alta Lake campground is a five minute drive from the small town of Pateros, which is 20 minutes away from Chelan. The drive up to the campsite is breathtaking. As we pass…