Despite my extraordinarily long and bleak title, the last few days have been some of the funnest I've had this year.
Thursday morning, I boarded a bus along with another 80 or so grade nines on the way to Drumheller. There we were to spend two days, hiking, touring museums, going wild. Although the bus was permeated with yawns, the excitement was palpable.
Indeed, it looked to be a great trip. The majority of my friends traveled with me, the weather looked to be beautiful, and there wasn't a single ounce of work to be done. Time passed quickly until we hit the Royal Tyrrell museum.
Many of you may have heard of the Tyrrell museum. Supposedly well known or it's collections of fossils and bones, it looked to be a good museum to start our trip off with. Unfortunately, the teachers made their one big mistake of the trip then, one which ruined the whole museum for the students. They gave us a worksheet to complete.
Listen. I know that the teachers wanted us to learn, and have a focus in our learning. But by giving us a five page worksheet to complete, one which had answers that had to be found in obscure sections of the museum, my teachers essentially replaced the fun of the museum with frantic work. Me and two friends worked frantically for the short hour and a half we had in the museum to complete the worksheet, before eventually calling it quits with only half of the worksheet done. The sad thing is we won a prize for most completed worksheet even with that pitiful amount finished.
After the museum came a short hiking trip. Three friends of mine and myself formed a impromptu hiking group and scaled a hill, joking and laughing the whole way. Soon after we went on a trip to some old mine, before hiking among the hoodoos.
By the time our adventure at the hoodoos had finished, the original hiking group had grown by three or four members, and we were hiking more and more difficult terrain. Our teachers had warned us never to climb straight up one of the hills, as they were steep enough and with loose enough soil that an accident would be bound to happen if we did hike straight up. Naturally, we made sure to do so at the first opportunity, and so quickly had a twisted ankle and had a hand pierced with a cactus. It was great.
Back at the hotel later that night, we were given the opportunity to swim before being sent off to bed. By grade nine, he opportunity to swim around with your crush in revealing outfits is admittedly an attractive one. Unfortunately, I had a much diminished experience in that regard. You may not know that I wear glasses, and rely on them quite heavily to see. Therefore when I am forced to take them off, my world becomes blurry and unfocused. Darn it, eyes.
Still the swimming was enjoyable. Afterwards it was back to our hotel rooms, where me and three friends laughed and joked well into the night.
The next day we woke bright and early to go on one final hiking trip to a place known as horse-thief canyon. This was much more intimidating then the places we'd hiked before. Steep canyon walls, cliffs, rubble strewn all around. To hike in that place may well be considered dangerous, but our teachers let us run loose with the same warning as the day before. No flat-faced hiking.
The same hiking group as the day before with the added addition of three members set out towards a river we saw in the distance. It was all going wonderfully. The sun shone out, I was able to talk to a girl I like, and we explored every nook and cranny of the canyon. Naturally, then, we had to add some danger to our day.
At one point my hiking group and I found ourselves on a hill 100 meters above the canyon floor, Down below we knew was a cave that we'd explored earlier, and the general consensus was that we wanted to revisit the place. The only problem? The quickest way down was practically a cliff.
We looked over the edge to see a steep drop. There were some ledges and slopes which we though we could travel on, but these were still daunting trails to blaze. Cacti and dead bushes missed with the loose soil.
We knew that it would be foolhardy to travel down such a steep slope, and so naturally we started the descent.
One friend zipped ahead of the group, practically running down the mountain. The rest of us labeled him as insane, and went don at a more reasonable pace.
Every step we took had to be carefully chosen. People constantly held out hands to steady each other. We started to slip and slide.
Soon, everyone started to realize how wonderfully stupid we'd been to attempt such a descent. Everyone soon had scratches and cactus spines all up their legs- especially some of the females, who'd made the mistake of wearing shorter pants. Swears started to emanate from the group.
At one point, I found myself going down a slightly different path then the person ahead of me. I found myself on an extremely steep patch of scree which ended a foot from my leg in a five-meter drop which would undoubtably break my leg should I fall it. Trying to go to the right or left would be futile, as I'd simply slip off the edge. The only support I had was an old, half-dead plant clinging for life as I was to the slippery slope.
Had that plant not been there, I don't believe that I could have escaped from the scree slope without taking the fall ahead of me. As it was, I managed to grab the plant and drag myself to safety. That plant may have saved my life.
Back on the route we scrambled down in a ragged line, it was smoth-ish going asides from me accidentally kicking a rock down the slope at my crush. An interesting way to get someone to like you, to be sure, but no permanent damage was done. We slid down to the bottom.
Now, my language us usually clean. But on the mountain, struggling down it, everyone just let loose. A friend of mine who made it down before me captured my reaction upon getting to the bottom on video, and it was something like this;
Me; F___ you, mountain! (Gives two middle fingers to the mountain).
Friend; Mark! Say something to the camera!
Me; (Walks over with an exasperated expression) Hey, camera. We just climbed down that motherf______ mountain. But we beat the damn f_____. (Starts walking away)
Friend; And this is coming from someone who doesn't usually swear.
Me; (Whirls around) I don't f______ swear!
Yeah. Emotions ran high.
I'd love to show you the videos I took, but to protect the identity of all involved I'll refrain. Just know that the experience was epic.
After that insane hiking experience, the trip was more or less over. We made it out alive, and guzzled water. Everyone thanked everyone else for saving their lives countless times.
Another part of the trip I'm happy about? I got my crush's number. ;)
Honestly, that trip was so much fun, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I feel that I do not yet have the literary skill to communicate to you have joyful I was on that trip, and even now thinking about it. From the conversations late at night to the near-death experiences, I had a blast.
Thanks for reading this long, unedited post.
-Mark
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