Cold Weather Camping Trip by Justin Lenhian

The morning was cold on November 1^stand we began getting prepared right after walking into school. We had packed our bags the night before and all we needed to do was distribute the cooking equipment to the students and receive our sleeping bags and tents. Once completely packed, we began loading our bags into John Webber’s, science teacher from ACE, truck and the nine students loaded into the ACE van.

We departed at about 8:30 am and headed toward Sheffield, Massachusetts. On the ride up we stopped in New Milford for breakfast and missed the time frame so we settled for lunch. After satisfying our hunger and fueling our engines for the rigorous test ahead, we approached our drop off point. John and Kyle, history teacher from ACE, unloaded our gear and had to take John’s truck to our ending point for pickup after our three day adventure ends. For the 20 minutes they were gone the students got the equipment together and strapped the 30 pound bags onto our backs.

The first hike was about six or seven miles, all up hill. Sani Nabi, a student at ACE, stated, “It was tiring for the first part but eventually it became easy.” It was strenuous but all we focused on was the splendor of reaching Camp Site #1. The trail cut through the first site that is burned into all our minds, the summit of Mount Everit. In front of us laid Massachusetts, to the right New York, and to the left Connecticut. Shane Miles, a student at ACE, remarked, “It was an amazing site and I believe we will all remember it forever.”  Once there, we unpacked in the lean-too located at the site and tuned into the World Series.

The trip down the summit was about the opposite of reaching the top. It was snowing, raining, windy and cold. And on this decline a few kids met some tragedy. Kyle sprained his finger, Dylan, a student of ACE, sprained his ankle and said, “it hurts but I can get through it.” I sprained my ankle as well, worse than anyone. This dilemma shaved four miles off the trip for the group but those capable ventured to another astonishing view which I never gotten to witness, Falcon’s Ridge.

After those expeditions, everyone returned to the campsite to enjoy the final night in the forest. A campfire was made and we bunched together to maintain warmth since the temperature was dropping to a shivering twenty degrees. Once the fire was extinguished we retreated to our tents to face the cold for our eight hours of sleep. To spice up the night nature decided to throw a hailstorm at us and we awoke to a white frost coating everything.

That morning, November 3^rd, we packed everything for a final time and hiked the last two miles back to van where we celebrated the comfort of knowing we were going home. All of our gear was loaded back into John’s truck and the students were loaded back into the van. We drove back toward Danbury making only one stop at a McDonald’s in New Milford making it back to school in time for the ending bell.