Thursday, June 4, 2015

PAD2O Hiking Trip Reflection

Hiking Trip Reflection
By: Devan Larkin 

To start off a summary of my very memorable hiking trip, I'll begin by talking about my preparation.
Approximately four days before the hiking trip, I had packed my bag. Reason was that I was gone for the weekend and did not come back till midnight on the Sunday that I had came back. I packed my clothes in a big garbage bag to prevent water and dirt from entering or ruining my clothes. Then when I put my clothes in my bag, I rolled them up to create more space for my pack. Once I was done putting all my clothes in, I packed some food: granola bars, cliff energy bars, protein bars, and big bag of original trail mix + some oatmeal packets. My food had lasted me the whole entire trip. I had even shared the food with my fellow classmates (mainly the ones from my group). Lastly, I packed the top of my bag. I put my sleeping bag at the top and ensured that the pockets of my bag were empty (which they were). Because they were empty, I packed most of the small stuff that I had brought. For example; the map, compass, flashlight, and much more! In my opinion, I felt that I was very well packed for the hiking trip.

Monday: The first day of the trip had me very shocked! I did not realize that we were going to hike 16 km nevertheless, I had never felt ever so much prepared for something in my life. I felt great by the end of this hike where I used certain techniques that I had learned from outdoor ed in the past. I had carried multiple parts of our tent, my mat and a bit of my other groups stuff. When we got to the first camp everyone wanted to stay at this one then hike to the next one the next day but I personally wanted to stay at the next one over. In the end, we ended up staying there and having a great time that night by making a fire, cooking our own burgers, and just having a great social bonding time.

Tuesday: Waking up early is not my thing. Either way, we had to wake up early and hike to the other camp where we would meet up with the other group and then continue hiking for that day. The highlight of that day was looking at the beautiful outlook. Once we had arrived to our next campsite, we had the decision of staying there or going to the next camp. I personally wanted to stay at the first one, but everyone else in my group wanted to go to the second one. So I did as they said and continued to carry the tent then hike there. Once we got there, the mosquitoes weren't too bad but once the sun had set, they came out and were seeking blood. Overall that night was very fun but we had one of the worst dinners I had ever had. We ended up forgetting to take the plastic wrap off of our noodles and ended up melting it on our noodles. Because of that I decided to eat trail mix and my oatmeal packs.

Wednesday: This last day went by the quickest. We slept in today and my group and I waited for the others to meet at our camp. From there, we had around 3 km to hike which past by very quickly! For breakfast we had sausage and waffles over a fire (which were amazing!). My food had pretty much been all done and my pack had felt the lightest that it had felt the whole trip. When we arrived to our destination, I had a long sleep on the bus ride home.





In conclusion, I had the time of my life this trip. I bonded very well with my group and personally couldn't have asked for a better group. I learnt lots during this trip and had an amazing first hiking trip experience! 

Devan Larkin





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