Linville Gorge

[caption id="attachment_63" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Me, hiking"][/caption]

The second school was over, I rushed over to the Outdoor Education building. I filled my reservoir and water bottles and went outside to pack my group gear. After much reorganizing, it all was in. We laid our backpacks along the path's wall. When all of us were packed and the Brouwers had come, we placed our backpacks in the trailer. We stopped at 'Take a Hike' to pick up the Kruses, but after that we were on the highway and on our way to Linville Gorge.

When it seemed like we were almost there because the gravel road just went on and on for about five miles. Then, for some odd reason, it turned into regular pavement and that too, went on for another three miles. Finally, it turned left and ended in a parking lot. We Quickly gathered our packs and got to the trail-head because another Troop was there and we wanted the better spot.

When we arrived at the camp site, Lochlen, Denis and I set up our tarp tent. Denis and Mr. Brouwer built a fire while I finished building the tent. After that, we started to make dinner. We boiled water and put in the noodles, added the dried sauce, soy sauce and chilli pepper and ate. Let's say it wasn't the best meal I've ever eaten. After dinner was finished, and the bowls cleaned from the corner of my eye I saw some thing red. It was a blood moon!

[caption id="attachment_57" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="blood moon"][/caption]

I took pictures as we stared at it. The moon was magnificent. After the amazement of the night, I went to sleep. I woke at about 5:30 and wanted to see the sun rise. It turns out, after a blood moon there is usually a blood sun. After taking many more pictures (which were even better) I went back to the tent and packed up all of my belongings before most of the scouts had even awakened.

[caption id="attachment_58" align="alignright" width="300" caption="blood sun"][/caption]

At breakfast we ate granola with dried milk, (it actually wasn't too bad) and in exchange for some of my water, which used to make the dried milk into liquid Andrews granola I, got a bottle of his Gatorade. Then we packed up all our camp stuff we went back down to OE's truck and filled our water bottles. After that we got back on the trail and hiked about a half mile to the climbing site.

When we got to the climbing wall, I was the first to take the less difficult route and complete it. From there, you had to worm you way up because the space in the middle was quite narrow. After a little worming I got though and climbed up and touched the caribenier at the top. It was exhilarating. I was also the first to successfully climb the harder of the two routes. There was a trail that led to the top and I took it because I wanted to do the belay. At the top, the view was amazing. Honestly Linville is the Grand Canyon of NC. Finally, my turn came. After reaching the belay I was hooked up and ready to go. My body was at a 330 degree angle and I pushed off and landed on a rock 6 feet into a cravass. That was the coolest thing I did the whole trip I finished the belay, and was exhilarated. I climbed the easier of the two about 15 more times, learned to be a belayer,did the harder of the two a few more times, and repelled from the top of the harder one.


[caption id="attachment_61" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="this is hunter but you can pretend it's me :)"][/caption]

After we finished lunch, we continued climbing, followed by a hike to our second destination. We hiked about a mile pitched the tarp, took it down, because it was too close to the fire, and re-pitched it. We made rice for dinner. Unfortunately, and because our stove didn't have an adjustable flame, it got burned. Fortunately, the other group's rice was fine and I ate some of theirs. We played a game called Manhunt, which is basically tag, and hide-and-go-seek. I was on Will's team.



[caption id="attachment_62" align="alignright" width="300" caption="mountain laurel"][/caption]

It was composed of Will, Jesse, Andrew, Lochlen, Matt (Sabo) and me. We ran off running into the weeds. I first ran along the ridge of a large rock but then decided to bank left and run through the brushes and trees. (I also wasn't wearing log pants.) As I was running through the brush, Hunter (no pun intended) and Matt, (Brower) found me because of the noise the snapping sticks were generating. I ran off, again jumping over brush and grass trying to evade them. I ran past a fallen tree and jumped behind it. Though my pursuers procrastinated my capture, Matt S and Lochlen were found. Lochlen escaped and hid with Andrew, but they too were found. They were kind enough not to trivialize my alcove of safety as they walked over me to their captors. I'm still not sure if it was my imagination, or a scream, a loud laugh or someone whistling, but I thought I heard the game over bell so I ran back to camp. Matt B. found me and it became evident that game wasn't over. I ran back trying to circumvent my soon-to-be captor. Filled with adrenaline, my legs were pumping extremely fast, but the rocks slipped out from under me and I fell down in front of Matt, who arrested me. I was hauled off to jail and sat down with W

Will ran off illegally but Joe, the jailer didn’t run after him because he knew he couldn’t catch him, and there was a plausibility of Andrew, Lochlen and I, would also escape. So, out of his heart, Joe called a jail-break. We ran past the camp site, and down the hill I hid beneath another tree. After waiting and waiting I become bored sitting on a random mountain in the middle of a gorge, so I slowly walked up the hill and stumbled upon Matt S. We decided to stick together but when rough times came we split up. This happened when Casey was upon us (Casey and Jesse are the team from OE who took us on the trip). I scrambled up the hill and Matt S. went down. Casey said he saw a glimpse of me but naturally you go down hill Casey caught Matt but then, the whistle blew. And I, had not been caught

[caption id="attachment_64" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="boldering rock"][/caption]

We played another game were where turned the tables and this time I was the pursuer. We waited for one minute and then went off in hot pursuit. Many times I thought I saw Casey or Matt, and sometimes they really were there, but running through all that brush with nothing to cover your shins really hurts. The most epic part of the game for me was when I was running after Joe and he jumped over a log but didn't land correctly and rolled down the hill. But before he rolled down I jumped head first towards him. While I was in the air it felt like flying. I almost landed on him, but I still caught him.

[caption id="attachment_65" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The skyline"][/caption]

When the game ended, Casey told us a really cool story. He took a head lamp and shown it in our eyes (It wasn't overly bright) but we had one of our eyes covered. It wasn't the story itself, but after he finished it, we couldn't see much in one eye and we saw a lot more in the other because the size of the pupils was different. We told each other funny story's about scaring our siblings and friends and had a great time. After we got in bed, about eleven pm it started raining. Almost nobody slept through it; but fortunately, I did. The only thing I remember is waking up and pulling my pack and sleeping bag up a bit.

In the morning, many scouts told me they hadn't slept for the three-hour stretch of rain, and the lay in their sleeping bags, wide awake. I am very happy I did not have to tell that tale. For breakfast we ate oatmeal. This as the third hot meal I prepared. We had a little worship service and read about the woman at the well because we were so low on water too. We sang a few songs but then we went on our way. We filled up our water bottles at the spring which the Casey and the dad's found the night before. We walked four and a half miles hiking up and down five mountains and climbing over a hundred fallen trees. On the way down we got a wonderful view of Lake James, but when we got to the van I was kind of glad it was over. I had an amazing time..



It was composed of Will, Jesse, Andrew, Lochlen, Matt (Sabo) and me. We ran off running into the weeds. I first ran along the ridge of a large rock but then decided to bank left and run through the brushes and trees. (I also wasn't wearing log pants.) As I was running through the brush, Hunter (no pun intended) and Matt, (Brower) found me because of the noise the snapping sticks were generating. I ran off, again jumping over brush and grass trying to evade them. I ran past a fallen tree and jumped behind it. Though my pursuers procrastinated my capture, Matt S and Lochlen were found. Lochlen escaped and hid with Andrew, but they too were found. They were kind enough not to trivialize my alcove of safety as they walked over me to their captors. I'm still not sure if it was my imagination, or a scream, a loud laugh or someone whistling, but I thought I heard the game over bell so I ran back to camp. Matt B. found me and it became evident that game wasn't over. I ran back trying to circumvent my soon-to-be captor. Filled with adrenaline, my legs were pumping extremely fast, but the rocks slipped out from under me and I fell down in front of Matt, who arrested me. I was hauled off to jail and sat down with Will, Andrew, and Lochlen.