3-14-19

Dear Reader,
Hey! I hope you are doing well!

Wilderness camp... 1995-1996. I was 14 years old when I went and 15 years old when I graduated.

As a group/tribe and four chips (counselors), we hiked a lot! But heading on a road trip to do more hiking was still exercising because we were heading way up north to Vermont to hike over the Green Mtn. Killington's Pens was the highest of that trip as I'd never seen a ski resort. Unfortunately, that's all I got to do—is see it as a we hiked right on through.

Our trip was 16 or 19 days long. So 12 or 15 days we spent in the mountains, hiking, pitching and terrain down our tents, easing granola and dehydrated fruits, making camp fires. Drinking spring water after putting iodine tablets in them... Yuck! But it was so much fun.

Oh yeah, taking a bath in a creek. That was the turning point for me. When taking showers wasn't just about getting clean but something to enjoy! Running hot water, I'd never blessed it so much in my life before that.

One morning, we woke up. Some of us tore down the tents while others prepared breakfast. Why it took more than two, I don't know. Breakfast was a handful of granola and a pack of dehydrated fruit, and iodine water. We packed up and started hiking. My backpack weighed 25-35 pounds. I can't quite remember, but that was the average for everyone except two of us. Theirs was 10-15 pounds. I think they wanted to be light just in case we had to run for something that saw us as dinner. Eight other kids and four chiefs between them, and it would surely be enough to get "it" full! :P

We were at the bottom of a huge pile of stone boulders. At the top of it was a trail that would take us to Killington Peak. We stopped there for lunch: granola, dehydrated fruits, and Tang. The dehydrated pineapples were my favorite.

After I was done eating, I told the male chief I had to use the woods (bathroom break) and he pointed where to go. It was about 40 yards away.

The ground was soft with dead brown pine needles. The pine trees reached so high into the sky it looked as if any one of them would lead me into the could if I climbed it. It was a beautiful place!

I'm walking around trees, and I come to a really fat pine up against the stone boulders. I begin to empty my tank when I notice a thick fog coming from behind the next tree I'm standing next to. Slowly, it came into my mind that it has the rhythm of... breathing. As that thought formulated in my mind that fog rose... and rose... and rose till it was as high as my head. And out from that tree came a moose larger than any horse I'd ever saw! Its mouth was big enough to take my whole head in one bite. Its nostrils were breathing smoke from chimneys filled with coal.

I TOOK OFF—ZOOM!

I'm running with no breaks. I hadn't even tucked myself in yet. Yes, I may have peed on myself. :A Slowly, I find my voice but it wasn't my voice. At least, it didn't sound like mine. It was much higher. I was SURE that beast—yes, beast—was on my tail trying to chomp down on my head at any moment. I came running through camp screaming: RUUUUUUUUUUNNNN!!

And I zipped past everyone. I looked back... nothing? What? Nothing!?

I was confused. I felt its fire breathing on my neck. I could hear its teeth slamming together as they narrowly missed my skull...

At least I thought I did.

Half of the camp is looking terrified trying to figure out where the monster in the forest was lurking. The other half started bawling with laughter. And pointed down into the ravine.

There was the moose, running in the opposite direction.

Slowly, the humor of the situation began rolling over me and I was laughing harder than anyone, thankful to still have my head! :D

I'd never seen a moose till then. The only thing I knew about moose was Bullwinkle from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon.

As you can imagine, the other kids didn't let me live that down for awhile. Admittedly, though, their reaction would have been the same.

But I got them back a couple weeks later. I snuck out of my tent and tied a rope to the top of each tent, and started jerking the tents all at the same time, growling, stamping, hitting the tents with sticks. Eight kids screaming at once. That entire forest woke up. Ha, ha!

So we all had fun on that trip. We survived the hike with a story none of us would forget.

I hope you enjoyed that story. My next blog post will be about another experience while in wilderness camp. A more dangerous one. A river trip on the Swanee River in Florida. And my close encounter with a gator!

Until next time.

Yours truly,
Doug