This was a school sponsored trip for the grade to bond.

August 21, 2018, Tuesday

My alarm rang at 4 in the morning, a time that is really too early for any sane person. I got up, but instead of getting ready I went to wake up my dad. He was already awake, so I went and put on my clothes. Due to bad and rushed packing my yours truly, I had to dig through my suitcase for clothes at the last minute.

We got in the car, me in the front, and drove to IHOP. It took a really long time and I was super tired by then, but we got to IHOP and seated ourselves. We ordered 3 identical omelette dishes, but after a delicious meal where we were all stuffed we realized that two dishes would have been enough since they all came with sides.

From IHOP it was a short drive to the school, where I met up with my friends in the chaos that was the school lobby. I found my advisory group near the back of the cafe and my teacher. After the usual cliche name game that is overused and we pretend to hate even though they can actually be fun, we boarded the bus.

After a short safety announcement we were on our way. I talked a lot at the beginning, but got tired after a while and slept on my friend’s shoulders. After, I talked with my friends some more. Since the trip was no technology it was harder to think of things to do and was easier to get bored. It did let me see how reliant I am on technology though.

Finally, after a stop at McDonalds for the bathroom (the line was really long), we reached Donner’s Pass. I found my room with the five other girls in my advisory, a group of ten people with one or two teachers, and put my bag down on my bunk. The room was pretty small, but we all fit with some space. The lodge we stayed at was called the Claire Tapaan Lodge.

After putting our stuff away we went back out to start the hike of the day. We still had some time for the cars to come and take us to the beginning of the hike, so we played around and put more than six pairs of sunglasses on someone’s head, another girl taking pictures of him with her Polaroid. I’ve always wanted to try a polaroid out – they seem really cool and vintage in a good way.

The cars came and we took the short drive to the start of the Donner Peak Trail that would take us to the top of Donner’s Peak. Other than a water break where we pet some really cute dogs from other hikers, and another break were we played a hiding game called camouflage with another hiking group, we got to the top quickly. 

It was tiring, hiking uphill constantly on a slippery rocky slope, but the view at the top was worth it. There were mountains with roads winding through them, tall trees, and a chipmunk that scurried around looking for food. I would recommend the hike to anyone and everyone. It was peaceful and slightly windy, and we ate snacks of oreos, pretzels, and jolly ranchers that our guides brought while playing a music trivia game from a deck of cards that someone brought.

I got to dangle my feet off the edge of the cliff, and it was amazingly fun. I’ve always wanted to fly, and being so high was exhilarating. After a while we ran out of time and took the hike down. It took way less time going down than up, and we passed time by answering riddles for fun.

At the campsite we went back inside, but the showers in the bathrooms were full so we went to a main lodge room to play games. People were playing Clue, Bananagrams, and someone was playing the piano. Dinner came, and we learned that we would have chores to do.

The food was good – chili and rice with salad and bread. I was also starving. After a short break where one of the other groups cleaned up from dinner, the night activities started. We combined with two other advisories, and I met a counsellor from my ski team who works at Donner Pass over summer.

Most of our activities involved loss of sight and blindfolds, making us rely on our hearing to find people. I wasn’t picked to be blindfolded, but I still I had a lot of fun. Being quiet and relying on my hearing shows how much our sight compensates for.

Night activities over, I took my shower. I was the first girl there, so I thankfully didn’t have to worry about a line. After showering I brushed and did the rest of my nightly stuff. After, I set up my sleeping bag with the other girls and after a little talking we went to bed.

August 22, 2018, Wednesday

I didn’t sleep to well and there was no alarm clock, making me stressed that I would wake up late. As a result, after getting dressed and going outside to the freezing cold, I was barely awake and super crabby. Since caffeine is bad for me I resisted the urge to grab a cup of tea, and during breakfast had a classic pancake meal.

We had a lot of time after that, because our group guide said that today was the off day with the easiest activities. We ended up basking in the warm sun (I am like a heat hog and will soak up the sun like oxygen) while playing Mafia, introducing a lot of new characters like vigilante, cupid, and detective.

I also worked on a mini number puzzle with my friend, and we solved it, to my delight. Finally we took off on a short nature hike to a nice clearing where we played Camouflage again. It was uphill to get there, but worth it since we also played mafia there and ate our lunch – sandwiches from the sandwich bar.

After that, we walked to another clearing where we sat and discussed our summer reading – Ender’s Game. The debate was lively and interesting. We talked about morals in the books and the child manipulation, and whether Ender did the right thing or not. The book is a riveting read.

After that we took part in a carbon activity, where we carbon dated trees and figured how much oxygen they would have to produce to combat our fossil fuel usage. Frankly, it was astounding at how uphill the battle is for trees to keep the earth alive, and I think that clean vehicles need to be put more in use.

After that we took another short hike to the base of a ski lift not in use, since Donner Pass is also a ski resort during the winter. Other groups were gathered there, and I went with one of my friends to one of the ski lifts that was hovering above a hill. It was higher off the ground than I previously thought without the snow beneath it.

We sat on it and took pictures, and after we went on it other people went to sit and take photos like we did. After, the groups split up. My group played games, and the other group hiked. After a short hide and seek game we sat down for cards. A friend of mine had brought a deck of Doctor Who cards for Season 3, the one with David Tennant and Captain Jack Harkness.

After the card game was over, we hiked back to the lodge, dusty and tired. I had fallen down when jumping wildly over a circle of branches that others had made, but only my knee was scraped. At the lodge we cooled down, washing up a little and going for a dinner of pasta.

Night activities that day involved stargazing, and I enjoyed looking up at the sky and playing rhyming games in a circle on the ground. I have always loved the sky, and over there more stars than usual were visible, thanks to the telescope we used to get a close up view of the moon.

We went back to the lodge after that, and toasted marshmallows to make s’mores around the fire. They were delicious, and I got into a conversation with someone else about Marvel characters. We went into the lodge, and he sat with me and some other friends, where we then played the super cliche repeat after me games that actually aren’t that bad.

After that it was time for my shower, and then for bed.

August 23, 2018, Thursday

I slept much better today, and after waking up got ready for a day of rock climbing. Our group was one of the first to leave, and we made it to the cars quickly, They dropped us off with our backpacks at a rock wall with ropes and hooks hammered into it.

I’ve only done rock climbing at summer camps before, so this was my third time climbing on actual rocks. One of the girls in my group used to compete, and two had never done it before. Nevertheless, I put my gear on, which included a helmet, harness, and shoes, and then went up to the wall.

My first climb up was exhilarating and I had gleeful fun, having not done this in a long time. I went faster than most people, and came down quickly too. I rappelled before down a waterfall in Mexico, so this was easy.

There were three climbs on the first level, and I did all three pretty easily. It is a new experience all together, to find holds and dig my feet into cracks and holes and pull myself up. After that we bouldered up to the second level, and I did one of the harder climbs.

This one took longer – there were less holes in the wall and I held onto practically nothing and just used the rope and vague indents to pull myself up. The view at the top was amazing though, and I was sad to go back down. It is hard to describe the sun on my back and tangles in my hair as I pull myself up.

One of the girls in my group had been so scared on her first climb she started crying, but she did one of the harder hikes and worked past her fear really well. After that we took our backpacks, took off the gear, and went for lunch.

I was starving after our rock climbing adventure, and we took a short hike to a beautiful shaded clearing where we discussed school with our advisor and ate our sandwiches for lunch again. After lunch we played camouflage, and after a while I found an amazing place with a friend of mine. Both of us could see the numbers the seeker was holding up and they could never see us, though he made a lot of noise for fun. One of my friends went all the way and pulled her grey sweatshirt up, lying down in a bush of leaves and rocks.

After that we started hiking up, going up boulders and on a path that technically didn’t exist, until we got to an abandoned train tunnel. According to our guide, if we walked along them we could get all the way to Truckee. The hike was called the Donner Summit Train Tunnel Hike.

We started walking along tunnel five, and it was surreal. It was cold and the walls shadowed with little light, gravel crunching loudly underneath our feet. The walls were absolutely covered in graffiti, not an inch left untouched by the art that looked so beautiful. I took lots of photos with my camera as we walked along, using flashlights to examine all of the art.

People say that graffiti is not art, but it really is. This was beautiful, and it was honestly magical to walk along the tunnels. We went out at one point and the sunlight seemed foreign and fake, even as we climbed onto graffitied rocks and took pictures with our feet dangling off of the precipice, a lake in the background.

We continued all the way to the end of tunnel five and then made our way back. We used some boulders to climb onto the roof of tunnel six, where it was windy but fun. We slid down the roof using handholds, climbing up and playing with reckless abandon on the roof. It was a day for us to be free and just be teenagers. We even played mafia, the wind in our hair.

After we got off the tunnel, where some boys had taken pictures with graffiti, and we walked through another tunnel that was jet black with another group to get to the parking lot. There, we got in the cars and took them back to the site, where our bags, packed in the morning, were waiting to be loaded into the bus. We quickly stopped by the sandwich bar to make our dinner and then loaded the buses.

The ride home was much easier than the ride there – I know everyone better and conversation flows much easier. It is decently quick, without a stop, and we reached back quick. I have to say, I really enjoyed the trip.