- Expedition: Sep 10-15, 2000
- Chasity
- Kingsburg, Merced, and Tokay High Schools
- Chain Lakes
My goals...
MY GOALS ARE SIMPLE; I just want to be able to complete the hiking part with little or no complaining. When we reach the end of our journey I will hopefully have the inner sense of achievement. I've been on hiking trips, but never ones that lasted over 2 or 3 hours, so this will really be a challenge! Right now the only thing I want to do is sleep, hopefully, the feeling will pass, so that I have energy for the big one. I am so lucky to have been picked to go up here. I will definitely make every second worthwhile. Looking above me at the huge rocks hovering over us, it's hard to believe that I'm going up there in a day or so. The surroundings are unbelievable! On my way to the showers, a deer freaked me out!
Nature...
NATURE TO ME is an environment that has been touched very little by people. It's a place where creations, inspirations and dreams are captured. When you're in a place like Yosemite, you start to appreciate the little things that you couldn't stand, like how quiet and peaceful the water sounds, how the trees seem to be all shades of green and how each rock somehow creates a figure of something. In everyday life we often overlook those little things, but when you actually have a chance to sit and view these things from a different perspective, they seem all the more beautiful and it's meaning has so much value, and the silence is Golden. Being surrounded in a certain environment makes people think about all sorts of things, for me right now just sitting here has reminded me of the last time I was here,
which was 4 years ago. It also reminded me of how much I've grown up and how much I have endured in such a small time. Nature has a way [of] bringing out what you often don't say out loud.
I see, hear, feel, know...
I SEE the rocks bending together creating mountain tops that seem untouchable.
I see the giant trees, whose roots are deeper than mine.
I see the water flowing ever so slowly into forever.
I see a tiny squirrel leaping from rock to rock in search of a friend to play with.
I HEAR the wind singing an unchained melody through the leaves.
I hear the water that sounds like a hundred people off whispering in the distance.
I FEEL the needles of the pines ever so softly tickling my palms.
I feel the dirt that is softer than it looks.
I KNOW that I still get the same feeling each and every time I see a squirrel run past me.
I know there's no exact place like this anywhere on the earth.
I know that no one can capture all of nature's beauty in a single glance.