Prompt: Describe a hike, long walk, or outdoor experience you have had and explain what it was like physically and mentally. If you have never been on a hike, describe a time when you were outside your comfort zone or had to rely on yourself in a challenging situation. Explain what you learned from the experience.

 One time in the summer before I started the 6th grade, my dad and I went hiking and camping at stone mountain. I remember everyone else in our campsite had big ol' tents and all the stuff in the world but my dad and I only had his old Eureka tent from when he was in scouts and it was really hot. The tent sleeps 2 people and has a vestibule on one side and a window on the other. We arrived that night and camped and the next day we hiked every single trail the place had to offer in one day. It was really fun. I don't even remember talking that much, we just walked and enjoyed the scenery. We started with the trail up the mountain, then the really long trail around the mountain, then we tackled some of the other random spinoff trails that go by the lake. I remember the hardest part about the hiking was when I got tired or we were going up a hill, I would naturally take steps that were less high off the ground. Consequently, I was constantly stubbing my toe/ tripping over giant tree roots. I'd say it was comparable to when you bite the inside of your cheek, but that one bite makes you 80% more likely to bite that same spot again like 2 weeks ago I was chewing gum and but my tongue THREE times. It hurt so bad. But anyways the root tripping/stubbing was really painful for little me. I remember how accomplished we felt when we were done with the last trail, and I slept in the car the whole way home. I wish me and my dad got to go camping more. 

Today we got an intro to the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It was pretty interesting and for the first time in a pretty long time I'm excited to read the dad gum book. I really am curious to see how she survived being an untrained person on a giniminosauraus trail in the middle of nowhere for literal months. That just does not make any sense to me. Like HOW? Not only did she somehow survive the trail, she lived to tell the tale! That's the coolest thing ever right there. I don't think even right now after everything I learned from scouting I could make it all that way. People don't know how long 2,000 miles is. You get like a super special award in scouts if you do a 200 mile backpacking trip, and she went like 10 times that in the name of "self discovery???" I have to learn more about this. 

I learned that I don't actually know the 10 most important things to bring on a thru hike. I thought I was super smart for listing the 10 essentials from boy scouts that they drill into our heads, basically 10 things you need to always have OUTSIDE of obvious stuff like tents and sleeping bags and toiletries. 

I would also like to point out that even though I got my eagle scout a couple months ago, I still went 10/10 on writing the correct items on my 10 essentials list. I guess they were right when they said once an Eagle Scout always an Eagle Scout. I just overthought the question. Only 2 of the things from the PowerPoint ended up being on my list. Man I just scrolled up to revise my work and I realized I really just brain-puke everything I'm thinking into my blog post into a really long stream of consciousness that somewhere along the way answers the prompt. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my posts from this week so far.