Hiking boot

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Although I am not very philosophical and certainly not a poet, as he was, I agree with him in that there is something to be said about being alone in nature. When I want to be alone, I air up my bike tires and head off to the trails. My house is about two blocks from the Missouri Pacific Recreational Trail. Riding west on this trail is just a means to get to where I want to…

Today Kit and i led the group to Izaak Walton lake. I was nervous this morning for taking such a big role. I didn’t want the power to get to my head and end up being mean or over demanding. In the early morning i went around telling people to get water and start undoing their tents.Surprisingly we ate, broke down our gear, and began our stretch circle forty minutes before the usual. We were off and it was a chilly morning. A mile and a half into the trail it was all flat land. Then we made it to…

they are treated as such by staff. Adding to the gravity of my responsibility, a youth lost his life in a flash flood several weeks prior which made me realize the obligation I had to make good decisions. Among our crew, we had people of different hiking ability, which created a rift between swift hikers who wanted to arrive sooner, and the slower backpackers who became self-conscious about their speed. This tension culminated on our 10th day, when the slower hikers left before the rest of…

We have no water, it is the middle of summer in Arizona and we have no water! The adventure begins after spending a few relaxing days on Lake Powell with my Dad, brother, and a few friends, then heading to Utah to hike Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon. Buckskin Gulch is an unusually long and narrow slot canyon within Paria Canyon, which joins the Paria River at the confluence. The slot canyon extends for twenty-one miles in length, with cliffs that reach heights of five hundred feet and walls…

We left Courthouse Rock one day later and we traveled fourteen miles to Chimney Rock. We didn't stop there. We just drove right by. This formation was named Chimney Rock because it looks like a chimney stack for a factory or a chimney from a burned down house. When we left to go to Fort Laramie a bolder fell on one of the wheels of our wagon. I was so lucky that it didn't fall on the wagon or we would have to spend days fixing it. It only took us an hour to put the new wheel. Glad we had a…

Generally, a wrong turn is a bad thing. There are many possible consequences, almost always resulting in a struggle to overcome a metaphorical cliff. Or in my case, a literal cliff. A wrong turn resulted in two thousand feet of seventy degree incline. However, sometimes the alternative results in a much better experience than what had been planned. After five days and fifty miles of backpacking with eleven other boy scouts through a rough New Mexican landscape, we were finally on the last…

Lost at Berry College Many people how beautiful the grounds of Berry College are, but what they don’t know is there are 26,000 acres of them. The length of the hiking, biking trails is stated at 40 miles, but that is just the service roads and main trails. If you get off the main trails at Berry you can get lost, and end up in a different county; that is what I did. It was a beautiful autumn day, a day that only November in Northwest Georgia could provide. You could see your breath in the…

As to advertise their work boots, the company Justin Boots, produced a commercial that shows a construction worker “on his feet all day…building [the] country brick by brick”, who wears his Justin Boots in order to feel comfortable and protected, whether he’s working or hanging out with friends. The Justin Work Boots commercial “construction” encompasses the narrative of an average man who wears Justin Work Boots to carry him through out varied conditions of his day, as well as provide him with…

“Alright kids, we’re here!” Mom shouted happily as we drove into the extremely tight parking space. As soon as we stopped, everyone in the car rushed outside to stretch their legs and get some fresh air. I was here at Pololu valley with my mom, my dad, my brother, and my best friend, Christianne. I turned away from mom energetically taking pictures of everything and everyone to observe my not-so-new surroundings and to think about our reason for coming here. We had actually visited this…

Beauty on a Mountain The sun had not yet risen, but it was light just enough for us to see where we were going. My sister and I were taking a walk in a forest during a family camping trip. The spring air was cooler than usual even at that hour. The forest was quiet except for our footsteps and the sound of the soft breeze moving through the branches of the trees that surrounded the two of us. We wandered aimlessly at first, climbing on large boulders like young children and weaving our way…