The Catskills Trip

Over the first weekend in April, we drove up to the Catskills Mountains. This was a very positive experience because I was able to get to know some of the people going on the Northwest trip. My van was just girls: Morgan, Jessica, Holly, and myself. We had a great time chatting on the way up and getting to know each other, and I really enjoyed that.
Once we got to the Catskills, we started backpacking to our camping spot. To our surprise, there was still snow on the ground from a recent storm. We hiked for a while, and when we reached our camping spot, we noticed that there wasn't many places where we could set up tents. We started collecting firewood, and before we knew it, it was growing dark. The girls decided that we were going to just set up our sleeping bags in the lean-to because we couldn't find a dry spot to pitch our tents and it was getting dark. We cooked burgers and hot dogs over the fire, and talked about the trip. Everyone started to get ready to go to sleep, so we set up our sleeping bags in the lean-to. It sounded like a good idea in the beginning because we thought we would have enough body heat to keep us warm if we all slept next to each other. Later, this proved to be the worst idea ever. It grew very cold overnight, and the sleeping bag just wasn't enough. Even with thermal underwear underneath of our clothes, and 30 degree sleeping bags, we were all freezing. I think this was one of the worst nights of my entire life. I couldn't get comfortable, and I couldn't get warm. I tossed and turned all night and I couldn't figure out how to get my mummy sleeping bag to actually be a mummy and cover my face. Eventually, I turned the sleeping bag upside-down and put the part that was supposed to be under my head overtop of my face. This made me a little warmer, but every time the wind blew, it went under the sleeping bag and reached my neck. At one point in the night, it actually started to snow. I could feel the tiny snow particles hitting my sleeping bag like little pellets. I thought I was imagining things. Then, we heard a noise and thought it was an animal. We convinced ourselves that it was a log that had fallen in the fire. I think I probably slept for all of one hour that night. I basically waited to fall asleep, and then waited to wake up. When I started to see the sunlight, I was awake. I laid there for some time, until I heard Dr. Hossay get up and start making a fire. I instantly sprung out of my sleeping bag, and realized that the sleeping bag was actually keeping me warm. I put on some more clothes and stared helping Dr. Hossay build the fire. Worst night ever.
That morning, we got ready to go on our big hike. To my surprise, my camel back was completely frozen. The water filter pumps that Dr. Hossay brought were frozen, too. We had to fill our bottles with water from the stream, and then add iodine tablets- a little lesson in camping survival. We started our hike up the mountain, stopping along the way to talk and learn about things. One stop we made was at a giant tree that had been apparently uprooted by the wind. We learned that the roots were shallow, and they held a lot of the dirt and rocks when it was uprooted. The roots actually digested the rocks and helped turn it into soil. This is one of the biological factors of soil formation. As we were hiking, we also learned that the Catskills Mountains was actually the main source of Blue Stone that the skyscrapers in New York City were made from. During the 1900's people came to the Catskills and cut huge pieces of stone to be brought back to the city. They made quarries and little villages along the way. I found this extremely interesting because I never knew that's where they got the stone to create those buildings. Another stop we made along the way was at a very old tree that had been growing out of the side of the rock. We learned that this shows biological, physical, and chemical processes of soil formation. Once we got to the top of the mountain, we stopped and had lunch. We also learned how to belay off of the side of the mountain. I really enjoyed this and I'm excited to get better at it when we go out west. Overall, this trip taught me many things, gave me backpacking experience, and gave me a change to get to know some of the people going on the trip.