Camping...

Over the weekend I went on a camping trip with the Life Sciences Scholars Program. We left around 6:00 on Friday night and didn't arrive at the camp ground (which was in Western Maryland) until about 11:30, due to traffic and the fact that we had to stop for about an hour to eat dinner. So we didn't get to bed until about 1:00 in the morning, and they decided that 6:45 would be a good time to wake us up in the morning - with pots and pans no less :( . Even though everyone was tired, Saturday turned out to be a fun day. First we traveled to a resorvoir where we collected different insects and tried (unsucessfully) to catch some fish. After wading through the river (and almost falling into it many, many times) our group got in canoes and rowed about 45 minutes down the river. The views were amazing, and it even rained as we paddled along-which was actually quite peaceful. One of the coolest parts of the trip happened once we finished canoeing and were loading the canoes back onto the truck to return to camp. We hearn rain starting to fall, and then we saw that a wall of rain was coming toward us. It was amazing to watch the rain come towards us, then over us, and then continue on over the resorvoir. After our canoe adventure, we returned to camp and hiked for about 30 minutes up to a bog. After wading through the bog, which is essentially mud up to your knees, the sophmores on the trip started a mud fight and chaos ensued. Everybody got ridiculously dirty, and upon returning back to camp we all jumped in the lake to try and get clean (well, mostly to get less dirty). Our day ended after dinner, when we sat down by the camp fire, made s'mores and also made apple crisp up in the kitchen. We left the campgrounds Sunday morning and I think that everybody crashed once we returned to our rooms in Cumberland. It was an exhausting weekend packed with activities, but I met some new people and shared a great experience with many of the people in Life Sciences.