Wilderness Survival


“Don’t give up! Try your hardest! Believe in yourself!” Those were the words that I continually said to myself as I hiked sixty miles out in the wilderness. This past summer I went to Buffalo Trails Scout Ranch, a summer boy scout camp near El Paso. This year I traveled out into the wilderness with a group of my friends and our tour guide on the high adventure trails. I traveled with everything I would need for the five days in my backpack, which weighed about thirty-five pounds. Our goal was to hike fifty miles in five days. Before our hike I felt very nervous and I was worried that I might not finish or complete the hike. I was worried that I might let my whole group down just because I might not be able to finish the hike. I had never been on a high adventure hike before and I knew it was going to be a tough hike in the mountains, which had me worried. The day we started out hiking, I remember our tour guide saying to us, “Hey guys I believe in every single one of you and I know you can finish the fifty mile hike.” Those words motivated the whole group and myself throughout the hike and that made us feel confident that we could finish the fifty miles. While hiking I realize that things were starting to look bad, but at the same time I remember my tour guide telling us, “Don’t ever give up, push yourself towards your goal and you will soon achieve your goal!”

As the sun rose over the mountains that Monday morning, I slowly got out of my sleeping bag and tent. Today was going to be the day that we started our hike. I felt very nervous, as if there were butterflies in my stomach, but at the same time I was very excited for the adventure. We started our hike as soon as everyone had their backpacks on and we hiked ten miles the first day. While we were hiking, the landscape and mountains were beautiful. I was speechless and so amazed because everywhere I looked there were more and more mountains to be seen. During the first five miles, time flew by fast. It felt like I had only walked about a mile and I wasn’t tired at all. As soon as we finished hiking our ten miles we arrived at our campground, where we were going to stay for the night. Our second day of hiking was similar to our first day, but Wednesday was our hardest and longest hike yet.
On Wednesday we hiked over twenty-five miles and I felt like I was going to die. The hike took us about five hours to get to our next campground and we hiked over a mountain. During the hike, everyone was very tired and wanted to give up, but once more our tour guide told us, “Hey guys I believe every single one of you will finish this hike. Come on we are almost there, try your hardest and don’t give up!” I was very tired at that moment, but I kept on walking. The trail we hiked was very narrow and rocky. We hiked in a single fine line while I hiked up the mountain, and it was hard for we to stay with the group. While hiking I have never felt this much pain in my life. My legs felt as if they had been beaten with a stick and my feet were so sore it felt like I had been stabbed with a knife. As soon as I reached the top of the mountain I was exhausted. I was starting to think that I couldn’t finish or maybe we should give up, but then at that second our tour guide shouted, “Hey everyone look at that!” We could see our campground from twelve miles away. It looked very far, but it wasn’t going to be hard because all we had to do now was walk down the mountain and that’s the easy part. We all immediately started cheering and we were so glad that we were almost finished. Before we all even knew it we were at our campsite. As soon as we got there everyone fell to the ground with their legs throbbing and feeling weightless. That hike was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced in my life. While I was lying down I started thinking saying to myself, “Wow! I can’t believe I hiked twenty-five miles today, I finished!” I felt so happy, but at the same time so worn out and tired the rest of the day. That night we had dinner and I remember our tour guide congratulating each and every one of us saying, “Congratulations everyone, you have completed the hardest part of the whole high adventure hike.” Everyone learned that day not to give up and to try your hardest to complete your goal. That night I was in pain, my legs were very soar and my back had sharp pains as if someone was walking all over my body. Although I was in pain the whole time during my hike, I still didn’t want to give up and I wanted to achieve my goal.

The rest of our hiking trip was very easy for all of us. On our last day of hiking we were all talking to each other and we were so amazed and shocked that we had hiked fifty miles. While we were talking our instructor overheard our conversation and interrupted saying to us, “Everyone did a fantastic job this week and I want to tell you that you have completed your goal of hiking fifty miles by far. During these five days we have hiked together a total of sixty-one miles.” When I heard him say that I couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth. He told us that we hiked over sixty miles! That moment I froze and started screaming and shouting as load as I could saying, “Wooo Yeah! I hiked over sixty miles!” I was so proud of myself and as everyone continued to hike back to camp we all celebrated.
In the begging of the hike I was very nervous, and wasn’t quite sure if I could finish the hike, but through the whole week at high adventure camp I learned a very important lesson. I learned that you should never give up when it looks impossible to complete your goal. You should always keep on going and work your hardest until you complete your goal.