To read part twelve of day seven, click here.

When Katie had said it was a bit of a trek, I thought she meant it was maybe five minutes from the trail head. I wasn’t expecting a shallow creek that I was barely able to jump across, piles of old junk everywhere, and a breeze that made me shiver. It was pretty cool junk though – the place had been used as a illegal dumping ground for a while, and there was some cool stuff in there. There was a whole truck sitting there, completely rusted and without any tires. But it was obviously a truck! There were a couple of other things that were rather cool, but I don’t remember them at the moment.

Ten minutes or so later, the trees thinned out. We could see two little clearings, one of them by the trail and another one down the hill. I could hear a creek in the distance, but I had no idea where it was. I prayed there would be time to rinse off my arms and legs, but told myself to not get my hopes up.

Jen told us to stop and she pointed down the hill.

“See that clearing there, girls? That’s where you are sleeping tonight. Katie and I are going to sleep in this clearing here, and the boys are going to sleep over that way.” She gestured further down the trail, so we all looked that way. I couldn’t see a clearing at all.

“Katie is going to start setting up our tarp, I’m going to take the guys to their campsite, and then I’ll be available to supervise dinner. Whoever is on cooking tonight, take care of your gear and then come with me. Sarah Margaret, I believe you are on dinner?”

Sarah Margaret nodded, glancing down at the clearing where we were sleeping. “I’ll be right there, Jen.” She started walking down towards our clearing and I followed, being careful not to slip. There wasn’t really a good way to get down there, and it was pretty steep. But soon enough we got down there.

The creek was close by – I could hear it rushing along somewhere near our clearing. It sounded like a pretty big creek too!

I set my pack down and looked around me, trying to find the best spot to set up our tarp. The other girls decided that they were going to set it up in a spot that I wouldn’t have chosen, but it wasn’t worth making a fuss. So what if it was going to be a little more uncomfortable for the girls on the edge. (AKA me and the other girl who got stuck on the outside that night. :D)

There weren’t that many sticks we could use for the tarp in the clearing, so I headed into the woods nearby to look for some. I walked a little ways, and it wasn’t long before I saw the creek.

It was pretty wide, with lots of big rocks in it. I really wanted to step out into it and wash off, but I knew that I needed to get back to the clearing with the stakes (decent sized branches) that I had found.

I told myself that I was going to come back, and headed back to the clearing. We didn’t have the tarp up as quickly as I would have liked, but we got it set up before dinner. Everyone started trying to get their packs into the middle, and I knew Sarah Margaret was going to be on the other edge that night. She wasn’t there to claim a good spot, so she was going to get the one that no one else wanted.

Putting my stuff down didn’t take me long – I was right on the edge, the same place I had been every night. Because I was on the edge I had room to maneuver, something that the girls in the middle didn’t get. So I had my stuff set up in about half the time the others did.

I pulled out my postcards, writing one to my family. On the bottom I put this.

“tuckshot.com aug 2nd red canoe orange PFD.”

I prayed that they would understand it, and put my writing materials away. Sarah Margaret had just come to tell us that dinner was ready, and I was hungry! I had no idea what we were having for dinner, but I was ready to eat anything.

Ok, so I probably wouldn’t have eaten Grape Nuts 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.*