Leaving for our journey
July 19, 2011 2:00 p.m.
The first day of our camping trip came with some obstacles such as packing our backpacks, harvesting potatoes, and dealing with the heat. The car ride to the campsite was enjoyable, although the staff of the campsite office weren’t the most helpful people, we still managed to arrive at our first destination, Atsion Lake. The girls successfully set up their tent while Pete, Zach, and I are still waiting to put up our tents since we are swapping campsites, well Zach is coaxing me to walk this way, so now I will do that! -Ben
July 20, 2011 7:30 a.m.
It is now Wednesday. First day of sleeping in the tent down. I thought it would be a little uncomfortable, but it was very good. As I went to sleep, I listened to all of the bugs and birds. But let’s talk about dinner. Well we had hot dogs and stir fry. But it got down poured with water. There was thunder and lightening. It was bad, but Pete and Claire stayed out and finished the food. And they also cleaned up. Then after the rain which was an hour or so, we went to make smores. But all of our firewood was wet, so we got out a pan and our stove. But by mistake Claire burnt the first smore. So we just had lukewarm smores. But when we went to eat, it started to rain again. So we ate in our tent. And Claire came in and we talked until the rain stopped. And Ben and Zach came to our tent and we told scary stories and jokes. But at 10:30 we all went to bed. -Erin
July 20, 2011 8:00 a.m.
Today is Wednesday. It is the morning and last night I slept terribly. Before that we went swimming in the lake. That was really fun. So today is Wednesday and we have to hike five miles. -Zach
July 20, 2011 9:00 a.m.
This morning we had a delicious breakfast of eggs with peppers, onions, and bacon. It was some of the best I’ve ever had! We also tried to convince carnivorous Zach to try some watermelon, but of course he refused. In a few moments, we are setting off down the road to site #2. – Sarah
July 20, 2011 11:30 a.m.
We are now making our way to campsite #2. After a restless night in a tent with a snorer, I ate some breakfast, washed the dishes, cut some cantaloupe, and packed up our sandy tent. With all of that done we made our way down the road to fill up our water bottles, we then started on the five mile hike, well my shoulders are starting to hurt and I am HOT! I hope this long, hot hike is worth it and if not I still got some good exercise! -Ben
July 21, 2011 6:00 p.m.
Hello to Mr. Brian and whoever else might be reading this. So I do realize that today is Thursday, but we’ve been busy and we haven’t been able to write since Ben’s 11:30 Wednesday entry. So, the news is: we spent most of Wed. morning walking down the road to get to Atsion Lake Camping Office thingy. When we go to the office and enjoyed the nice, cold AC, we were forced out (just kidding) and Mr. Pete led us in some stretches, but in the middle of these painful movements a car pulled up to the shoulder of the road. A door opened revealing a woman, wearing the most awesome clothes ever! She had on a floor length grey robe, the garb of a Buddhist monk. So it turned out that they (this is to say that the Buddhist monks the car contained) needed a bathroom stop. So we showed them the bathroom that we had just found, and they drove off. But as we were walking along, the man who was driving stuck his head out the window and said “Release the suffering”. Now if that isn’t cool, what is? -Sarah Jane
Along the Mullica River Trail
July 21, 2011 7:00 p.m.
Hello whoever this concerns. I’m going to continue with Sarah’s story. Well the suffering wasn’t released. We “kept on chuckin” as Pete says. We took breaks often because everyone’s bag weighed 20 lbs or more. Everyone had a bad spot that hurt, for example: back, shoulders and hips. We ate our snacks and our drinks. After all of our breaks, we were so tired that we just found a shady spot and laid down and slept. We called it our “journal time”. After another hour of walking, we finally reached our campsite. I will let someone finish the story from here. -Erin
July 21, 2011 8:30 p.m.
Zach is taking over so I will hand the notepad to him. -Ben
July 22, 2011 7:00 a.m.
Today is our last day on the camping trip. Last night I slept well. I hope I didn’t annoy Ben with my snoring. Even though this is our last day I am kind of sad and happy to go home. Sad because I loved being on this trip. And the challenges we faced only made it more fun. But also happy because I miss being in my nice house with showers, baths, and sinks. I miss being in my rocking chair and playing xbox. And most of all I miss my family. My parents, my dogs, my cat, and believe it or not…my older brother. But we’re not leaving yet, so I have to make a fire. And now I will do that. -Zach
July 21, 2011 8:00 a.m.
Last night I slept terribly. It was hot, humid, and my sleeping mat wouldn’t inflate. This morning my shoulders are tight and my whole body is sore. Yesterday, I injured my knee hiking. It feels much better this morning. -Sarah
July 22, 2011 1:00 p.m.
Ben here again, being force against my will to write in this journal. Some things that the previous writers left out is that as we were approaching the Batsto Visitor’s Center, we were on the verge of collapsing. We were running low on water, hot and in need of a lot of things and just when we thought that it was time to dig our own graves, a nice man with a bandage on his nose drove up on a lawn mower and let us into the visitor’s center. There we refilled our water bottles and got a ride to the campsite. It was divine intervention. Erin and I got a lift in a paddy wagon. When we got to the campsite, Pete gave us a taste of his drumming skills, we played Uno and war and finally the kind woman from the visitor’s center gave us ice cream and ICE! The next morning (today) we had oatmeal, Zach continued to tend to his son (the fire), and we swam, ate, and made our way out. Please excuse my handwriting as we are driving down an unpaved road which means I am finally in AIR CONDITIONING!! -Ben
Mr. Pete's Drum Solo after hiking is done
July 22, 2011 1:19 p.m.
We are finally done here and some lines we will never forget: “No offense”, “Release your suffering”, OMG, BFF, FTW”, “And hot dogs”, “sucks for you in pancake land”, “what the heck, chocolate chunck, chunck chip chocolate chip”, “boundaries”. Very good times that I will never forget for my whole life. This is my last entry, hopefully this will be in Fernbrook history. Remember me as cool, funny, Erin. Good-bye. -Erin
