My camp experience,

We'll after a long week of adventuer I'm finally back! I had a lot of fun! On monday I got to camp at 9:00 am, we went geocashing. Geochasing was crazy!

Okay, so for those of you who don't know what Geocashing is, it's where you are in the middle of the woods with a set of cordaniates and a GPS and you have to find some treasure.

We'll my team was awesome, but our GPS was broken. We had a map, but that didn't help. We ended up going to the edge of two of our limits. We came across a house, an off white house, with chickens running about, dogs panting and a little old lady standing in her yard. Kara, a girl in my team, had the idea of asking the lady where we were on the map. So as Kara approched her, the lady started screaming "GO AWAY!" Kara shivered, she then bolted out " I only have A QUESTION!" "WHAT!" screamed the old lady "A QUESTION" said kara in her loud clear voice, Kara walked over to the lady and the lady grabbed the map and pointed north "Go that way." So we waited no second to leave, we hiked up the slope. The old man came out of the house kinda upset. We heard a trucks loud growl. We jolted up the hill, the sound followed us. We could hear the truck surrounding us. We hid behind a large bolder, the sound was soon lost. We came across this creepy sign

Yeah, I don't think we should go that way agian.

We heard people following us. We tip toed away to saftey. We got back with no treasure, nothing but fear. Then one of the other groups offered to help us, so we ended up only finding two treasures. Not the full 3.

We ate dinner in the park, Taco salad. We opened the small fritos bag, topped the chips with meat, cheese, lettuce, salsa, daisy, olives, and other amazing toppings. We relaxed upon the grassy hill and blew bubbles while we enjoyed our "lemonade" and brownies.

We gathered our stuff, and hopped in the vans. We were off, we arrived at our new site around 8-ish. And put on our packs each weighing 30 pounds.

The backpacks had alot of our stuff in it, and we HAD to carry it. As soon as it got dark enough we were off, we went hiking. It was dark, and we were given glow bands. And we had our head lamps, and flashlights that we used to see.

We hiked 5 miles in the dark, late at night, this part was mostly all down hill, not very many ups, just a few. There was some narrow parts, and a couple ravines that we had to look out for. This hike started very easy for me, I was in the very front for 95% of the hike. Then we stopped to rest at 1:00 am. We pitched our tents on the hard rocky ground where some tree branches formed. We slept for 2 hours, tossing and turning every now and then, right after 2 hours was up, we had to get up and change for today hike, which we started early in the morning. It was a 6 mile hike, ALL up hill. I personally was not too excited for this portion of the hike. I had a hard time keeping up. And at the end of the hike I had over 6 blisters on my feet. Our leaders kept relpying 15 more minutes after we'd ask how much longer. I ended up in the back, and I prayed for some way to catch up. It started to rain the second I said Amen. I caught up with the group and had a good little break,

I put on my bright yellow poncho, and was reminded of the beatles song "We all live in a yellow submarine" This song helped get me away from reality. We crossed the little bridge, and stuggled going up the hill agian. Grabbing tree trunks, and rocks, I was completley winded. I had to take several breathers. But some how I managed to get the engergy & strength I needed . I finally got to the top, The view was stuning,but hardly worth the work.

I scurryed down, and rested on a rock every now and then. Finnally I had to stop and put on more mole skin. I had the most blisters. Well thats what it seemed like to me. When we finnally reached the 1 mile marker, our hearts cheered. Our spirits could take more, our bodies could not. We finnished that last mile, and reached the end gate. We thought we went done. But no. We still had 100 feet to walk. I think this part was the hardest. Even though we had just done 11 miles on 2 hours of sleep. Up and down hill, for an okay view. This 100 feet was the hardest. We were done, but not done, we still had to get to the rafting bus that would take us to get changed for rafting. We dragged our feet one right in front of the other, with our packs on. When we got there it felt that we were done. We got on the old yellow bus, I closed my eyes. I was dead tired. I was holding a plate of chicken salad sandwhich and a funny looking rolled. One girl tapped my sholder, she urged me to eat, but I had lost my appetite from hiking . I nibbled on the bread, then I ate the sandwhich. It taste good. I finnally got my appetite back. I slapped on some sunscreen, and got in my ducky.

I Strapped on my life vest, and helmet. I grabbed my paddle, and I was off! We went white water rafting. I thought It was pretty easy. However the water was a bit low, and we did get stuck on some rocks. I had to get out a few times a push my ducky away from a rock pit. We stopped at the "beach" ( a pile of rocks ) and pulled our duckys on shore, most girls napped, while Mckinney, Lyndsey and I got out and swam. I went as far in the water as I could, the required life vest made it hard to swim. But I didn't have to wear the dumb helmet. We swam to the other side of the lake, and climbed on rocks. The water felt great, even though it was a bit cold. I then found a heart shaped rock that I gave to sister Vandre. We spent the rest of the day rafting, we came back to camp and ate supper. We had our first devotional, and wrote in our journals. Some girls stayed up late and had some smores but Melissa and I were just too tired, and we pitched our tents. We all slepted very well, even though most of us were still sore. We awoke from our long sleep ( compared to two hours ) . And we ate our yummy breakfast.

Of Ham & eggs and other amazing stuff like pancakes. Today we were going rock climbing. We drove to mc.donalds, and made a rest stop. The girls bathroom had only 2 stalls, the guys 3. So all 36 of us crowded the entrance of both men and women bathrooms, we were in and out, even if you didn't have to us the bath room , we were going to stop for 3 hours. Most girls asked for a complementary water, because we had no money. My tent mom who I was riding with ran out of gas, her gage read less than empty. She told us to get out our book of mormons, and we put them on the dashboard. Her father told her if he was ever out of gas this trick would work until they got to a gas station. And it did work, we filled up, and kept driving until we reached the rock climbing area. We hiked up a little bit and ate the wonderful wraps that we had made for lunch.

I saw a giant black beetle and some of the other girls freaked out. We got to the top of the small hill and had devotional.

We learned about broken bones, hypothermea, nature, rescue carrying techniques, and spiritual gifts, while we waited to rock climb. It started to rain so we hiked back down. It stoped raining so we hiked back up. And then it rained. And we had to go back down, my group was the only ones who did not go rock climbing which was fine with me.

Here is Lyndsey rock climbing. GO Lyndsey!!

After we got back down from the hill we got in the vans and went to the pavillion , It was still raining, and our tents were still set up. My tent got wet, but not my stuff. So I shared a tent with mellissa. We had great pasta, and garlic bread, and we each took a whack at cranking the ice cream,

Then it stopped raining and we saw a beautiful double rainbow, touching the big white cross on the hill,

We drove back to camp, had devotional, and went to bed.

At 6:00 am we got up and had some ceral. Today is our last day sleeping at different camp sites , going on adventuers.

After breakfast, we put on our 'ugly' faces ( our old clothes ) and we went to

Laurelle Caverns ( click colored text to visit webiste)

out in PA, it was a long drive, but we got there fairly quick. Our tour guide gerret was really funny, and ended up with the nickname gerret the ferret. He sung along with us, and showed us through the cave

This is gerret 'making a phone call'

It's a little dark. This is basically an acurate picture of what I could see in the cave.

comming down

Just being cool!

Helping lonnie.

Small spaces = smiling faces?

All 35 of us

Caving was my favorite part because It was that hard for me, because I'm not claustrophobic, and it's cool in the cave, and you don't get very sweaty, just muddy, but getting muddy is fun!

We took a short drive back to base camp where all the other girls in the lower levels were, they didn't do as fun stuff as we did, and the only hiked 3 miles at the most. They threw a big WELCOME back party and we arrived singing

"One year older and wiser too, were the 4th years not you!" and we also shouted "TWITA!"
 

And then we had an awesome testomony metting and devotional, And I had my first soda, popsicle, and shower of the week, which felt amazing, I felt so clean! I slept like a baby, and my feet didn't hurt any more! Friday I wore a bright yellow shirt, and people said I looked too cute to be at camp. Which I was fine with. We helped clean up the camp, and had flag and breakfast. Sister Meehan gave me a cute yellow scripture holder that was made out of duck tape, she had made it because I was missed in the craft department, because I had went there everyday last year.

Then I helped clean up by scrubbing a table that had paint on it when, several others and me was attacked by water balloons, and sister V. who had a hose. We ran screaming. It was sooooo much fun! I then helped in the kitchen, and I talked to sister Scalese. Then we decorated our journals with sister Rasband , who without doubt is the best ! And we had awards, after completing my fourth year of camp this year I got my wooden box.
 

We had skits, and then my dad showed up, we shouted and cheered! We said our goodbyes, and I went home with my dad, we stopped by a fruit market and got some peaches. I LOVE peaches! We then went to friendleys for some lunch, which was good. I had a really awesome time at camp, I learned alot, I grew in faith, courrage and strength . And I can't wait till next year!