We asked some Grade 6 and 7 students to write about their experience hiking up Mt. Baldy in the rain.
Jake’s write up, Grade 6
My experience on mount badly was enjoyable and fun. We madeit up the mountain in about one half the time of the last hike at the start of the year. Along the way we started the hike with a
game called name the country. Basically, one person would start off with a country of their choice, for example I would say Edmonton. Then, the next person in our single file line would
have to say a country with a name that starts with the letter at the end of the previous country the other person said. So, I could say Nova Scotia. You could not repeat a country and you
would have to think of a brand new one. You can say a country, city, state, province, etc. When we got to the steepest part of going up the mountain, everyone had great enthusiasm. I once
looked back at a student that was having a harder time on the steeper part then me, and I said encouraging things like “You got this!”, “Its just a small hill youll make it up” and kind words
like that.
When we got to the top we all earned a well-deserved lunch. We ate for about 15 minutes overlooking the view of nothingness because it was so cloudy, but still enjoyable. It was raining the
whole hike up, but luckily, we had a bit of a canopy to protect us as we trekked up the mountain. The whole time I tried to be encouraging towards people that were having a harder time than me. At the top it wasn’t raining, but it was misty. A nice cool-off for just hiking up a steep part. When we were heading down the mountain it wasn’t raining, but it was still misty. We made a quick stop at the swing and took a couple swings over the mountain edge. Coming down was very steep down because you must go the same way you have to go up. We were also slipping and sliding all over the place. When we got to the final stretch, we all were slipping down the hill. I had to grab onto ferns, and trees to keep me from slipping. When we got back to the classroom, we had only 20 minutes left of math class. It was definitely nice to change out of my wet socks, and cloths, and change into some nice warm cotton clothes.
Josiah’s write up, Grade 7
Starting to get ready: We got all our stuff ready and then Mr.Travis talked to us about how to be safe and stay warm and what to wear and that next year things like rain jacket and rain pants
will be very necessary. When we started going up the trail, we played some games like the name game and then walked and talked. When we got off our trail and onto Mt. Baldy trail we stopped to check if we were too hot or too cold. If we wanted to, we could take off our middle layer if we had one. Then Mr. Travis showed us a bear banger and what he would do with it if we met with a bear. Then we made a muster count to keep track of each other just in case. Then when everyone was ready, we kept on going. We talked about how the last group did and Mr. Travis said we did much better. We just kept on walking in the rain until we got pretty high up the mountain.