For those of you aren’t outdoorsy type of people, I can assure you that it’s not that bad. I always go to the adirondacks every summer as part of a summer camp I partake in called Camp Dudley. We go into sections of this HUGE wooden landscape, on either canon trips, or hiking trips with ramsonized people. Our destinated cabin goes on a overnight trip, and once you are a senior, as a camper you go on what’s called the senior experience. You chill out in the woods, eat some barbecue, then walk up the mountain a little as night falls with your group. Then once they debrief you, you wait your turn to go on your own back to the campsite, WITHOUT a flashlight. Crazy, huh? You can only use the moonlight and a couple of sporadic beacons that act as a guide for anyone that is distraught and clueless if they are on track. But the beacons are a great asset, even though this task is very daunting, if you have faith and belief in yourself, you can do it, it teaches you a lot, but for me it gave me moral strength.

On a past cannon trip, I had a blast. We sailed, essentially across a grand stretch of adirondacks via the river, and we found a 30-feet rock cliff, that we decided was fun to jump off into the 15 feet deep lake. My group did this repeatedly, as on the side of the rock, there were interesting idents in the rock formation that equated to stairs so after we were in the lake we walked back up the cliff and jumped numerous times. It was hard to jump the first time into the lake, but once you do it once you get the hang of it.

Lastly, I remember my endearing hiking trip in which I climbed Haystack Mountain, which mind you, is the third tallest mountain in New York State in elevation, 4,969 ft. I had blisters on my achilles the whole time. It took a lot of courage and persistence, but in the end, I made it over the line of my perseverance. That was over the span of three days. Over the next three days, we began to make our way back, when our leaders threw a curveball and said we had to spend the day alone in the woods, find a space 300 yds away from the trail and from everybody else. As time passed, we eventually came across each other, as we sought out a mission to find each other's “hideouts”, or places of serenity. It was very relaxing though, to not worry about everything/everyone else, and meditate in the peace that surrounds the woods. I found it to be very revitalizing.

So to summarize, My experiences were very great in the fact that they each taught me a lesson, and it taught a lot of patience, commitment, persistence, determination, among other characteristics, that make up a noble outdoorsman/camper/explorer, whatever you prefer. If you are willing to adapt to these moral requirements, the woods will soon be your new home of admiration, or a second one at that. This, I promise you.