greener, more beautiful places. I imagine that I am hiking in North Carolina or Austria, where nature needs no sprinklers to remain green. Why am I awake now? How can I find beauty on this hike? How can I possibly write an essay about this? Despite my negative thoughts, I force myself to focus on the hike. Birds soar through the crisp air, singing their morning melodies and landing on trees and telephone wires. I hear cows in the pasture and feel nice, cool breezes. The road curves, and the
Personal Narrative- Mountain Hike In hiking, as in life, there are choices between success and pain, pride and safety; this is the story of one such choice. Last summer I participated in the Rayado program at Philmont Scout Ranch. The eighth day of the trek was my crew’s greatest challenge: Super Black Death, a hike of seven peaks in one day. By 4 PM we had conquered most of the peaks. As we were climbing what we thought was our sixth peak, Big Red, a storm struck. It was a cold driving
The Hike Up Poly Mountain Our journey begins on a foggy and cool Monday morning in late September. The group of freshman English students wait eagerly at the gate to Poly Canyon anticipating the adventures to come. Once Professor has taken roll and explained what is in store for the impending hike, we start walking up a rocky path. Immediately I feel like I am in nature. I am reminded of all the camping and hiking trips I went on as a child and I feel at peace. But something in the sky
My First and Last hike in Poly Canyon I knew it was coming. A couple weeks before, I received an introductory email from my instructor explaining the textbook we needed and providing a link to the class website. I selected the link and navigated curiously around the site, arriving at last at the class itinerary. To my horror, I saw planned on the third class day a “moderately strenuous hike over steep, rough ground.” Subsequent readings of this statement produced the same result, and so
looked over at me with a smile. As he stroked the side of my face with his gentle hand, I felt this chocolate colored skin melt over me. After laying there holding each other in perfect silence, we decided to put our clothes on and go for a morning hike. We took off down a path covered softly with moss and tiny pink flowers. Off to the side of the path were endless green trees and pants all nestled together to make one beautiful piece of art. After a while, we reached a sparkling, clear brook.
Gookin, the local minister and his wife Faith – all of whom have been on a journey into the deepest part of the woods to attend the annual coven or witch-meeting. After considerable misgiving regarding the journey, Goodman arrives at the end of the hike in the most remote and isolated part of the forest where he and Faith are to be baptized into the devil-worshipping group and thereby learn the evil secrets hidden in the hearts of everyone: Herein did the Shape of Evil dip his hand, and prepare
City all my life, in my opinion, the fall season is the best time to go. The trees all around are full of color. This time of year is a perfect time to hike on one of the various trails, which will lead you deep into the Appalachian Mountains. Some of the trails lead to spectacular views of the town. The Deer Run Trail is a wonderful trail to hike in order to view the small town. The trail is about a mile long and very challenging. During the fall season, the weather seems warm during the day and
living. I decided that a good diversion might be to hike the Appalachian Trail for a weekend. After class on Friday, I ran to my car so that I could begin this wonderful divergence from daily life. The parking lot at Carver’s Gap, my destination, finally came into view as I drove up US 19E. Across the road, a short wooden fence separated me from my wonderful weekend of adventure. From the second I reached the parking lot, I realized that this hike, a great way to escape from reality for a weekend,
We will climb this mountain this weekend, and many times in the future. My dad will take us up this mountain more than a dozen times in our child and adolescent hoods, once every summer. Unforeseen to him (or was it?) were the effects that these hikes, these lessons in nature and life, would have on me. We arrive at the trailhead in the mid morning and we start to walk. I have my plastic book bag from school on my back. Inside are the dire essentials, Blankie, clean underwear, socks, toothbrush
well groomed candidate shouted to his audience. The crowd erupted in cheers and for many Americans, this was their first long lasting impression of soon to be, President George Bush. He later went on to sign a bill implementing the second largest tax hike in history. The statement that won him one election lost him the next. The American public made a long term judgment based on the first impression of this presidential candidate. After the speech, the media took over, promoting Bush, and giving those
against our better judgment. The trail up was steep; about two feet wide surrounded, with scrub brush. On the way up I was thinking both about how bad my legs were getting cut from the brush, and about not slipping on the sandy trail. The half-mile long hike was nothing but a warm up for my best friend and I, who are avid backpackers and trail hikers. We reached the top and headed to the intermediate climbs off to the left. My best friend is an experienced rock climber so this was nothing to him. However
piece. Before I knew it, we were pulling up to the cabin. When we stopped, the first thing I did when I got out was take a deep breath. Then I said, "What do you guys want to do?" Chase just shrugged his shoulder. Tyler suggested, "Let's take a hike." We all agreed to that, because it sounded fun. As we were walking away from the cabin, I remembered that I brought a slingshot. I thought it would be fun to shoot rocks at stuff, so I suddenly said, "Wait for me. I have to get something." I ran
brushed my teeth--all my other normal morning routines. But that day was not normal at all. I was going to do something with my English class that I never thought I would do. I was going to hike up Poly Canyon. With a horrible night’s sleep and a sore throat, I was not in the mood to undergo a “moderately strenuous” hike, but I pushed myself to get ready. Once the entire class had assembled, we made our way to the Poly Canyon gate where we would meet Professor Marx. The overcast sky and moist air were
One of the scout leaders caught us falling down drunk - I was scared shitless. He gave us a choice between him telling our parents what happened or accepting his punishment. We chose not telling our parents, and in the middle of the night we had to hike up and down a hill next to camp until we were sober again. The next morning we were sick as dogs, and the leader that caught us gave us each large stones, practically boulders, to pack back out. They weighed over 5 pounds, which was a significant addition
breeze of ten miles per-hour-- for the fifth day in a row and second consecutive month, it is time for me to wake up, make the face-numbing, core-hardening walk through the snow to the Mildred and Louis Lasch Football Building. After the half-mile hike, a swipe of my student identification card opens the door. A quick walk to the locker room takes the prisoners of pain into line for their uniform. We pull on stale, manila shirts; manila, of course, from previous uses. Each resembles an old Mexican
three days ago for our annual hike. On our second day, two days ago, we had had a long, but good, day. We had made it most of the way up Mount Lafayette on the edge of the beautiful Pemigwaset wilderness, and we pulled into the Appalachian Mountain Club hut there for a meal. We were enjoying our dinner together, and he was looked comfortable and content. Just before dessert was to be served, my father suddenly slumped forward in his seat and died. Halfway through our hike on the day that he died, I
Comparing the Mountains and the Beach I do not like the beach very much personally. I can vacation anywhere I choose to, and I choose the mountains. I prefer the mountains to the beach because the mountains have better weather and are so much prettier than the beach, and because I feel more comfortable and at home in the mountains. The beach is hot. It is not just your average "Oh no, I'm sweating" kind of hot, but unbelievably, unbearably hot. The mountains, however, are temperate,
to the removal of our wild experience with nature. It is the difference between visiting the Grand Canyon after you have seen it on TV and read about it in magazines, or never having heard of the place and stumbling across it on your own during a hike. Unfortunately, almost every wild experience between nature and the public has been ruined by the media. Through Turner's story he begins to explain the idea of the wild and its importance and necessity of human interaction with the wild. The second
The trip began when I took a small green pencil and signed by name on the release forms needed to hike in Yosemite National Park. I and nine of my friends left the ranger station that night with a neatly folded map and a felling of excitement to what lay ahead. The long drive to the park left us tired and in need of a good night’s sleep. We decided to stay in tent city like most hikers do before they set out for their trek. Tent city was a large subdivision of tents that resembled a community of
After we reserve energy, we began to start our journey. Before we start the hike, we had to go to the meeting point where we should ask permission to the locals. It is required in order for safety of the hikers. Many foreigners were arriving there so ask for permission too. Turns out there were very foreigners that wanted to start hiking to Mt.