A Day In the Summer of Me

Ok, it’s 8 in the morning 2 weeks before high schools start. Normally, I’d be sleeping. But instead, I’m at the church.

Yes, it was time for the backpack trip. There were a lot of people going. Me, Andria, Em, Becky, Bekah, Micah, Loren, Leah, Jordan, Jimmy, Titus, Brandy, Craig, Emily, Craig, and Justin. And also, Colin, Lori, Mark, and Palma. A weird combination of people.

It started out with a long drive to Ollallie Lake. From there, we hiked about 3 miles (behind Loogie, I mean Micah). We finally got to Upper Lake. There wasn’t much room to put tents and stuff, but we made do. Me and Andria shared my tiny tent, and we made fun of how Jimmy, Titus, Micah, and Loren had a tent not much bigger than ours that they all 4 had to fit in!

We tested the lake water, and found it to be a little bit warm, so some of us girls and Justin took a swim in our clothes. Then we made dinner (after changing in the “dressing room” of trees on a hill next to the “girls’ bathroom”). I had ravioli soup as opposed to most peoples’ cup o’noodles. We hung around not doing much until it got dark. Then we all sat around the camp fire and talked, had a message from Colin, and sang. A lot of people went to play capture the flag. About 10:30, after NBC Nightly News, we said goodnight and hit the hay.

“The best part of wakin’ up, is Folgers in your cup!” What the heck?! Me and Andria woke up and died laughing. It was Jordan singing, with Leah egging him on. Me and Andria laughed so hard, we had to get up. There was no way we could sleep after that!

So, within about the next hour, everyone was up. I ate my fruit and some oatmeal for breakfast. The “refrigerator” (a patch of snow) was shrinking, so we had to eat everything out of it soon. After a little while, we decided to go for a hike. Mark and Craig left about a half hour before the rest of us. We talked to them on the walkies. Then as me, Andria, Lori, Colin, Em, and Becky left to follow Mark and Craig’s trail, Micah, Loren, and Jordan decided to go through the sticks to the butte where we’d all meet.

It was a steep climb up to the butte, but we made it. It was an awesome view too. After a while, we decided to go back to camp. We were SO thirsty!! (But thanks to Lori and Micah, I wasn’t as thirsty as everyone else!) But all the guys, except Colin, decided to hike over to another butte before heading back. So the rest of us decided to go down the way Micah, Loren, and Jordan had com up. I don’t know how the heck they got up that way, especially with packs on! We had to slide down half the way on our butts ‘cuz it was so steep! We finally got to what we thought was the bottom. But then, we saw a huge ravine in front of us. At the bottom was our lake. We ended up going down it. Andria and Lori almost fell down it, but we made it down more or less safely.

After lunch, the guys finally got back down. Me, Andria, and Emily went swimming again. We jumped off the rocks in the middle of the lake a lot. It was fun but cold! Soon, Mark, Loren, and Jordan joined us. After a while, we all ended up sitting on the dry rock on the island in the lake. About half and hour later, we decided to go back. But, the only way to get back to shore was to swim in the freezing cold water. Yes, it was definitely cold.

We dried off and sat around the camp fire, talking, laughing, and sleeping. Sometime during that time, Loren and Jordan disappeared in the direction of the “guys’ bathroom.” When they came back Jordan goes, “Hey mom, we wrote our names in the snow!!” That was about the time me and Andria decided that we need an 11 year old boy hanging around our houses.

Well, by this time I was pretty hungry, so I ate my can of chili, with Leah finishing off what I couldn’t gag down. We all shared water bottles, utensils, and dishes so much, I’m surprised we didn’t all get sick. Especially because me and Micah had pretty bad colds. The sun was setting, and the mosquitoes were eating random body parts off us, so several of us went down by the lake, where they surprisingly weren’t so bad. After only a few minutes, I’d had about enough of Jimmy’s stupid remarks and Palma’s rudeness, so I went back to camp.

When it was dark, we had another mini-sermon and songs. Then, Em cracked out the hobo pies. Oh yeah! Those were great! We also made campfire popcorn. Well, only Lori’s batch was successful. Micah’s caught on fire and got stuck all over the pan, which also burnt. Soon we were all covered with marshmallow, pie filling, and charred popcorn. About half of us, including me, decided to go to bed. I fell asleep to Jimmy’s voice yelling, “Everybody stand back, this thing’s gonna blow!!” Now there’s a comforting thought.

The next morning, I awoke to birds divebombing out tent. Some genius dumped food by it. It took a few hours to get everyone awake and packed. After the group pictures, we headed back to Ollallie. I hiked with Bekah, Becky, and Jimmy for most of the time. We were way ahead of everyone else, except Justin, Micah, and Loren, who we couldn’t keep up with. The seven of us made it back to the van about 20 minutes before everyone else. Everyone came back tired, dirty, and hungry. But it was the most fun I’d had in a long time! Long live youth group backpacking trips!



(Originally written by Jessica 29 September, 1999, about 26-28 August 1999)