Spring Backpack Camping Trip

  Pete Seeger said, “Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't.” I went on a backpack camping trip with Mr. Mahon and Mr. Vail who are my teachers from OVS. I learned a lot of things that I did not know before. I believe the things I experienced during this trip are worthy and useful for me for the future. Because of these reasons, I do not agree with the decision which is to cancel the Spring Backpack Camping Trip because we will lose a great chance to experience some worthy things.
    At first, I had never been backpack camping before. This was the first time I went camping. On the first night, as soon as we got to the camp site, we started to set-up our tent. However, I totally did not know how to set up a tent. Luckily, my tent group taught me how it works. They were really patient to help me understand. Maybe I will not set up anymore tent in the rest of my life, but I still think setting up a tent was a great experience for me. It is because I will never know what is going to happen in future. I also learned how to pump the water, and start a fire without a lighter. Most people in the world do not know how to set up a tent, pump water with a pumper, and how to start the fire even they have a lighter, so at least these skills make me different from other people.
    Secondly, we had so much great time during the camping trip, and some of the places are really enjoyable. For example, the swimming pools and the beautiful views, gave us a lot of pleasant times. I really love the natural swimming pools because some of them are very deep, so you can jump in them from about five feet high. It was really cool to jump in natural swimming pool because it is totally different from the swimming pool in our campus. On the third day, we went to a camp site which is in the fog. It made us feel scary because we could not see very far, then we were not very sure what was in front of us. We slept in the fog because the fog surrounded the whole camp site. All of those things you can only experience when you go camping, you cannot feel them in the classrooms. I think all of the things that we did are very mysterious because those things are a kind of feeling, they are a kind of things you can never forget.
    At last, we also learned some survival skills. Mr. Mahon showed us about edible plant and how to get away from a bear. For example, you should put your food away from your tent when you sleep, then the bears will go to your food not you. Also, we learned how to know the direction without the tools. I think the most useful skill is how to get clean water because water is one of the most important things for a human. You should find a small bag, if you don’t have one, you can even cut your pocket, and then put some sand in the bag. Then pour the water into the bag, then you let the water come out from the bottom. Of course the water cannot be very clean, but at least it can help you to survive in emergency.
    We can see, I tried a lot of things that I cannot experiment in classroom. Let us think this way; the things we can only experience by ourselves when we go camping, or the things we can learn in class anytime we want. These two choices which one is more worthy for a person? I think most of people’s answer is the first choice. In China, we have an old saying, “Life is short for everyone, so experimenting more things is the same thing as making your life longer.”