Camp Hanes Trip

The day had started out like normal on the surface, but really? It definitely wasn’t.  When I hopped off the bus at the middle school, I saw the whole sixth grade on the front lawn. The ground was scattered with duffel bags,  pillows, and sleeping bags. I grabbed my duffel and my pillow, which is shaped like Tigger from Winnie The Pooh. I wandered around a bit, then finally put my stuff down. 

A couple minutes later, we got organized by advisory,and put in two lines, one for each bus. One kid offered to trade their Crocs for Tigger. I said no and went to load my stuff on the bus. There was a lot of shoving, but eventually everything got sorted out. I sat down next to Emily, in prime movie-watching locale because the bus had TVs. This bus had seatbelts, but I was too short and the seatbelt hurt. To solve this, I sat on Tigger! I won’t go into too much detail, but the trip was fun. About a fourth of the way through, we started watching Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.  

Right before we got to my favorite part, near the end, the bus slowly stopped and a voice came over the loudspeakers. They told us where to go and how to grab our stuff. We were supposed to grab the first thing we saw, even if it wasn’t ours, and take it inside the gymnasium. I got lucky. By the time I got off, my stuff was one of the last things there, and I got to snag it. I’m glad nobody grabbed Tigger!

Once we got inside, we put girl stuff on one side, and boy stuff on the other. We all gathered up in the middle of the gym in front of the councilors.they did a little introduction, you know, “My name is so-and-so,” and then we said, “Hi, so-and-so.” That went on for a bit.

Then, we were told where our cabins were. My cabin was one of the last to be called. It was the girls from the Salas  and Lovett advisories, with Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. Salas as chaperones. Cabin Eight was at the top of the hill, and my duffel was heavy. Halfway up I was barely able to hold all my stuff! I made it though, and once we were inside, I chose a bunk. I bunked with Maddie.

After all that I was ready for bed, but it was only the afternoon! We got assigned groups. I was in group six with Maddie. We went down the hill with supplies for the next activity. First, the grade just hung out and played until lunch. When the lunch bell rang, we all got herded into lines and the councilors did this thing where they said, “I’m looking for the straitest and quietest line that…” and then we had to do that. The group that did it best first got to go into eat first.

At lunch there was a bunch of really awesome food to eat, and there was even a salad bar! After that we went to our first activity with our group. For Group Six, that was archery. At archery, you get in groups, then one person in your group goes first. While you wait, there is this cool ring game you can play, but everyone else crowded it so me and my friends just played around until  our turn. The bow at our station was semi-broken, so it was hard, but it was still really fun. 

 After that, we went up to the Airnasium to rest until it was time for our next activity. I caught up with some friends that weren’t in my group, then got ready for canoeing. Canoeing was fun. I was in a canoe with Maddie. We joked around with the other kids, raced, and banged into each other. When one of us got tired, the other took over. It was awesome. After that we went back to the Airnasium. Next we would be joining another group to go on… the hike.

The hike was 1.5 miles to the top, and 1.5 on the way down. That by itself wasn’t a big deal, but some parts of the hike went basically straight up, so, yeah, for a kid that hates heights? I broke into a cold sweat just thinking about it. I still do. I’m not a fast walker, so I fell to the back with my friend Cabel. We joked around and hiked, until I felt a bit better. By the time we reached the first straight-up part, I felt better. And it wasn’t as bad as I was led to believe. It was steep, though, but it wasn’t impossible. 

A mile or two later, we came to the last difficult part. This one was as difficult as I had originally thought. It was vertical, with twists and turns in the rope where you had to duck and switch sides while still holding on. When I got to the top, I could hear my heart beating.

There was a slab of rock you could climb onto to see the view from, and a small bit of dirt where you couldn’t see the view. Me, Señora Salas, and Arielle stayed on the dirt. After a minute or two of admiring the scenery, Maddie and Cabel convinced me to come up. Every time I tried to leave, they told me to stay. Eventually, I relaxed, and was able to look at the horizon instead of the ground far, far below. I was still scared, but the view was beautiful.

When it was time to take the picture, I convinced Señora Salas and Arielle to come up. They managed but I couldn’t keep them up there long enough to relax. In some parts, the way down was scarier, but in some parts it was easier.

After that, we went to do this thing called Survival. I had worn my old shoes to hike, but now my feet were killing me because they had no support. I was ready to eat and fall asleep, but I changed my mind once I saw what we were doing.

We were given a bunch of sticks and stuff to make two forts and two fires, boys vs. girls. While some girls worked on the fort, I tried to set up and start the fire. It was really hard, but then Mr. Robbins showed us how to do it. Soon we had the setup, but we couldn’t generate sparks. Then the councilor came around with a lighter and started our fire, then went to start theirs. In a minute, we had an awesome controlled flame. It was fun.

After that we had dinner. It was spaghetti and sauce. For dessert we had these really good brownies. I got 1 ½ brownies because we had 1 extra, and Maddie won it in a game, but she couldn’t finish it so I got half. 

The councilors announced that we would be having a bonfire and that we had 30 minutes to get ready. Back at the cabin, I got organized and changed into warmer clothes. When we got to the bonfire, it was awesome. It wasn’t really a bonfire, just a metal fire pit, a stage, and some wooden bleachers. The awesome part was what they did. The councilors sang songs, did skits with teachers, and were really funny. 

Then they called 1 cabin up at a time for s’mores. Cabin 8  got called last. I chose to just have an untoasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate because I don’t like s’mores. Because we got called last, we got to leave first. On the way back to the cabin, me and some friends howled like wolves at the moon. 

At the cabin, I took a shower, though the other kids said that I shouldn’t. The shower felt good and then I got into my PJs. Some other kids and I played Uno. Jennifer had this cool flashlight that let you see dust and other cool stuff. After a bit, we settled down and got in bed.

Unfortunately, not many kids slep well that night. Some kids were whispering for a while, but that settled down. After that at about 1 o’clock, the door creaked loudly and woke everybody up. Then at 3 o’clock, the bathroom door slammed, and everybody but Coach Ellis woke up. Then Mrs. Ellis started to snore. Loudly. We woke up and fell back asleep so much that right before I woke up I dreamed about going to bed!

It was hard to get moving in the morning because I’m most definitely NOT a morning person. Once I did, I packed up and got dressed. Later, we went to breakfast which was AMAZING. There were eggs, bacon, cereal, fruit, orange juice, and more! It was delicious! After breakfast, we had time to pack up. Because my cabin already had, we had extra time to hang out. Because of Hurricane Ian, we had to leave about an hour after breakfast instead of after lunch. 

In that hour, we played fun, (but slightly cheesy) games with the councilors. When we loaded our stuff onto the bus, it was raining. On the bus, we watched Madagascar. When we got back to DA, it was hard to believe we had been there just the day before. Camp Hanes had packed lunches for everyone, and they were yummy. My advisory goofed around a bit, and then we got to choose if we wanted to go see a movie, play games, or read.

Maddie and I were the only two people that chose reading, so we got the whole place to ourselves. At the end of the day, we went to the gym for dismissal because it was raining. And that’s it. That’s what my Camp Hanes experience was.