Day 1: At the night everyone discussed their feelings and how everyone was nervous. Throughout the night no one could sleep, but in the morning we woke to a blanket of the whitest snow. Everyone was excited for the day. There were people who made snowmen for the first time. The morning meal had to be one of the best meals because we know we wouldn't be eating for a while. The way over to our beginning hike was scary because we were starting our adventure and wouldn't be coming back out for a while. Wow! The first five minutes of our trip were probably worse than carrying 50 pounds on each leg. It was pretty tiring. On the way I thought, "Why am I doing this? What have I gotten myself into?" But surprisingly I continued on. Lunch time was the best thing ever because we had an awesome meal and an even more awesome view across the huge mountain spaces of Yosemite Valley. It was so amazing until the clouds seemed to fall all around us and we couldn't see anything. After lunch was more difficult because we knew that we still had a few more hours to go. Those last hours took forever! But finally we found our camping spot and it was such a relief to know we were done for the day. We set up camp and ate and finally crawled into our palace and slept. -Tamara

Day 2: Today was a fairly difficult hike, for the most part. Well, first I should start off with breakfast, which was good and warm, perfect for the freezing cold morning. We filled our water bottles and left camp without a hitch. David filled most of the bottles in the ice cold water. The beginning of the hike was fairly mild, as it was downhill. However, the uphill climb was rough because it was close to a 1,700 foot uphill climb after the initial downhill. We began to hike consistently in snow just around halfway to our destination. We found a nice snow-free place off trail to eat lunch. Then we continued our grind uphill. The last mile and a half to two miles of the five mile hike to Ribbon Creek was leisurely and downhill. But, once we took on water for the night, the climb uphill to our campsite was hellacious to say the least. We then set up camp. Two nice flat spots for tents were found fairly close together. The site the girls picked was clear of snow, but the three of us guys had to clear our spot. The tents went up a lot quicker than the first day. We then put our gear in its proper places, and Zephyr taught us how to play "Four-shifter gearbox" while Cynthia, Karina, and Tamara cooked dinner. Dinner was rice and bean burritos, which were delicious. We ended our evening with "Leave No Trace" skits, the boot dance, and a few rounds of "four-shifter gearbox." Then we hit the sack to rest up for the next day's adventures. -Aaron

Day 3: Today as I woke up I found that our tents were covered with icy cold snow. For breakfast we ate oatmeal with hot cocoa...yummy. Then we began our six mile hike. Our first stop was at the tallest single rock in the world! Wow, I was amazed at the spectacular view we got to see from the summit of El Capitan. I've never seen such an incredible view! After having our picnic lunch, we headed toward our next stop. Eagle Peak was even better! It took us a while to get to the top of Eagle Peak, but all was worth it. We got to see all the little houses and cars down below us in Yosemite Valley. Everything looked so small because we were at 7,779 feet on Eagle Peak. It was a hard day today. We got to have lunch at El Capitan and we went up to the summit of Eagle Peak. Afterwards we set up camp and had dinner. But the best part of our last night camping in the forest was sitting next to the campfire. I have to say that I didn't enjoy hiking up to get to El Capitan and Eagle Peak, but all was worth it. We got to see the most beautiful views of Yosemite's high country and Yosemite Valley. I am so happy I got to be part of this journey. I know I'll miss these spectacular views but everything will always stick in my head forever. Now I am so eager to tell my parents of my whole adventure and show them all my pictures. I'm glad I went on this trip. Thanks a lot Cynthia and Zephyr. I'll miss you. -Karina

Day 4: Today we started by waking up really early. It wasn't that great. Then we had to get out of our tents to go eat breakfast. It was so delicious. We had granola cereal and hot chocolate. So after eating we had to finish packing our gear so we could hit the trail. After everybody was done we "clapped in" to start our new and final day hiking. Then we started our final journey down the Yosemite Falls trail. On our way down we stopped at Yosemite Falls. While we were there we enjoyed the view and we did our last reflection on things we had learned. After, we continued our journey until we reached our destination, Yosemite Valley! We unpacked and turned in all our gear that we had borrowed, ate a quick lunch, said our sad goodbyes and headed home. –David and Carol