This past weekend the Juniors went on their class camping trip. Personally, I love camping. Some of the best memories I have are of camping with my family and friends. So of course I was excited for this trip.

We were told it was going to be cold before leaving, and so me being me, I packed my ski clothes. That was probably the one time I’ve over-packed and it’s been a good thing.

We left school Friday afternoon and drove up towards Mammoth, California. The minute we stepped out of the vans after our five-hour drive, I was glad I had stuffed my bag with extra clothes until it was bursting at the seams.

That night, we struggled to get our tent up in the dark. The tent poles would numb our hands, forcing us to take turns trying to set it up. It also didn’t help that the four of us had no clue how to set it up. But with help from our teacher, we were eventually able to get it standing.

The next day we took a trip to the local fish hatchery, which was apparently one of the largest rainbow trout hatcheries in the West. Or something like that. From there, we continued to a much needed trip to the natural hot springs.

Definitely the highlight of the trip right there.

There were two different pools – we called them the party pool and the senior pool. In the party pool they did belly-flops and covered each other in mud. My friends and I were not a part of that. We went to the senior pool (which wasn’t actually a senior pool, we just decided to relax and enjoy it) instead. It was so nice sitting in the hot water and looking at a stunning view, even if the water wasn’t exactly the cleanest.

After the hot springs we headed back to the camp and another freezing night. We attempted to make beef stroganoff for dinner, which didn’t work out too well. As soon as dinner was over we all crawled into our tents and sleeping bags and huddled for warmth.

The next two days we spent hiking. We hiked quite a ways the first day, and the second day we made the short trek to the Devil’s Postpile, and then continued on to Rainbow Falls, which was amazing.

The night after our hike to Rainbow Falls was our last, and we froze our toes off yet again. In the morning, we woke up, packed our bags, and loaded into the vans.

We took a small detour to Pie in the Sky up the road, and had some 0f the best pie I’ve ever had. The Pecan Chocolate Chip Pie was to die for.

After our detour, we loaded back into the vans for the five hour drive back to school – and some much needed showers.

Overall, the trip was fun. We may have been cold and hungry, but the things we did and saw were really cool. We also grew much closer as a class. It was definitely worth it.