To read part eleven of day seven, click here.

No one else said anything, but we were all thinking it. “This would be a really lousy spot to sleep in. There’s no trees to hang a tarp from, it’s gravel so it won’t be comfortable…”

“Nope, this isn’t where we are sleeping. This is just where we are parking the van and trailer. Everyone has to grab their gear, because we don’t want to have to come back for anything. It’s a bit of a trek.”

I grabbed my backpack, struggling to get it on while standing up. I gave up and sat down, a couple of seconds before realizing that there was nothing to help me stand back up.

“Hey guys, can anyone help me up? I’m stuck.”

I could see Kayce trying not to laugh as he grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. He already had his pack on and I wondered how he did it. How he was able to get that pack on his back without falling over – I had tried to lift his pack earlier, and I hadn’t been able to make it move, at all.

The weight on my shoulders was heavy, and at first I thought it was because I hadn’t carried my pack for a while. But then I remembered that I hadn’t clipped my straps, which would make it a lot easier to carry. If I clipped my hip strap, most of the weight would be carried by my hips. So it wasn’t weighing down my shoulders, so I could actually walk.

I clipped the straps and immediately felt better. It’s amazing how the weight could change if you did even the tiniest thing, whether it was simply using the hip straps, or adjusting the straps that held the brain of the pack.

When everyone was ready, we started walking. We went around the old, rusted gate, walking along a gravel driveway. At least, it looked like it had been a gravel driveway. After a couple of feet the gravel completely disappeared, leaving us on a strip of grass that was slightly shorter than the grass around it.

The “trail” split, and those of us who were in the front had no idea where to go. Katie yelled from the back of the line that we were supposed to go left, so we started off again.

Click here to read the next part of Day Seven.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*