Washington DC expedition (By: Anna)

BLOG DRAFT

        We just got back from our Washington DC expedition. It was our last expedition of the semester! WOOHOO! It was super cool, and really fun!! I will be telling about some of the awesome things that we did, and some highlights that made everyone’s day.

        First we went backpacking on the Appalachian Trail! It was super cool. There was a shelter, and a picnic table. Graffiti filled the walls of the shelter, and made for a nice bedtime story(: We met a few hikers too! The first night we met Avalanche. He was super-duper awesome! The second night we met Jetpack Rachel, Caboose, Gramcracker, and tip and dip. It surely was amazing.

        After we hiked the AT, we moved on to Washington to a campground for about four days. It was really fun. We met a few people there too, however, I do not know exactly who they are…. ): We went to the Washington Monument, and ate lunch the first night. A few builders were fixing the Monument because it cracked during the Earth Quake. We also went to the World War II monument, and spent some time with Kilroy. Kilroy was a man with a big nose looking over a wall. Not literally of course, it was WWII graffiti drawn by soldiers. They would mark where they went so others would know whether or not it’s safe. After, we went to tour the Capital Building. It was gorgeous! Probably the best Architecture I have ever seen!

        Finally we earned our way into a hotel, with much hard work and communication we did it! YAY! We went to the Holocaust Museum, and saw some devastating stuff. But, we defiantly learned some pretty cool stuff. We had a great awesome time riding the metro too! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

JJ's Third Expedition

            This expedition was pretty awesome altogether. We started it out with a gift from my parents to pay for White Castle and ice cream from Jack The Dippers. Later that night we went to a really really scary haunted Native American village.

           After that we went out for ANOTHER backpacking trip, which are starting to get really old. I mean we have been doing them every ex for the past two months. That wouldn't be that bad except for some reason I am not very into backpacking.

The next week we spent a lot of time at the Waynesville library doing schoolwork. Although I must admit that doing schoolwork in the library helped a lot with not only the completion of work but the efficiency as well.

          On Monday we did not do too much and same with Tuesday except on Tuesday we did a service project at Manna Food Bank which was a lot of fun. While we were there we worked with packaging food which was surprisingly a lot of fun.

          On Wednesday we went to Climb Max, an indoor climbing gym in downtown Asheville, because we couldn't go mountain biking. We couldn't go mountain biking because one of the directors daughters was sick and no other directors could replace him so we finally got to go to Climb Max. Climb Max was so much fun it was absolutely absurd.

         We then proceeded to go on a two day caving session on Thursday and Friday which was awesome except for the fact that I got sick the day we got out. We actually go to sleep in Worleys cave and my parents sent me some glow sticks on Halloween which we brought into cave so that was pretty cool.

           Overall this expedition was really awesome and I wish we could do it again.

coley

 The last x was the most fun that I have had this whole semester! We got to do a lot of fun stuff like caving, backpacking, and got to see the  Green Narrow’s race. It was a lot of fun to see. We got to sleep in a cave. It was A LOT OF fun AND IT WAS MY THIRD time  AND IT WAS STILL A LOT OF FUN. WE GOT TO GO TO climbmax. It was a LOT OF FUN TO PRACTICE MY Rock CLIMBING SKILLS, AND TO SEE HOW GOOD Some OF MY FRENDS were at rock climbing. We got to go to a haunted village. It was a lot of fun. We got to scream like a baby. It was fun to see 16 year olds scream like a baby. I’m sad that it was our last ex where we get to backpack and camp. But we still get to go to my home town and hang out there and seeing the museums will be cool for like the 20^th time I have been there. It will be great to be with my family on Thanksgiving.  We got White Castle and ice cream. It was great.

Harris x3

Oh man this was a cool expedition! We went backpacking (thank God!) caving, and climbing at Climbmax. I had a lot of fun on my expedition. The caving was awesome! The things we saw in the caves were unreal. I didn’t take a lot of pictures partly because of my completely rational fear of my camera being stolen by a cave camel and because of the flash. Also thank you JJ’s parents for the money to get White Castle Hamburgers! That was awesome. I’ve been reading a lot of Bill Bryson lately and I think that it has started to influence my writing.

Backpacking: 

            First days on a hiking trip are always the hardest. First there is the realization that you have to walk everywhere (the HORROR!). Then there is the fact of your backpack. That thing that when fully packed is about as agreeably to pick up as a four hundred pound porcupine that has the sole wish to make you feel pain. But it’s not all that bad, you have a shelter to look forward to each night. Ours looked like the roof of some weird house that got ripped off right over the head of its previous owner and flung into the woods. At least it keeps you dry when it rains… and the mice that it also shelters. But hey I’m not complaining. I love backpacking and all of the little trials it throws into your face for you to McGyver your way out of. From the awesome views for the top of the multitude of mountains the trail insists that you summit to the small streams that you get all of your water from.

            We also went to Manna food bank to help package food for people in need. I got use a tape gun that allowed me to try and attack my friends with tape. I tried to stealth tape things to the backs of Chris and JJ. For some reason instructor Chris and Sophie didn’t like my idea of starting an all out game of hide-n-seek in the food bank warehouse.

           

Well I have had a ton of fun on this trip and I can’t wait for Thanksgiving!

last expedition chris

Chris Gewehr's Blog

11/12/11

The last two weeks have lasted a lot longer than two weeks. They've been filled with excellent activities, both adventurous and straight up fun. The first week of expedition we were backpacking in the Pisgah National Forest which had lots of beautiful vistas and sweet campgrounds. Some of the hikes were difficult, but all of them were worth it.

On Saturday, when we got out of Pisgah, we drove over to the Green Narrows Race and had to hike down to the river. The trail was absolutely packed with people so it took us more than an hour to get down the ravine into the actual race (although it didn't take nearly as long to get back up). We sat and watched kayakers eat it for a couple of hours on some class five rapids before heading back up the ravine the old fashioned way. After that it was back to base for a couple of nights where we had hoped to go mountain biking. Unfortunately, the mountain biking never happened, but we did get to go to a climbing gym and do some drifting around downtown Asheville.

Caving was probably the highlight of this trip for me. When you enter a cave, it's like entering another planet. In the beam of your headlamp, the world is illuminated in brown. There were a few times in the cave when everyone turned off their headlamps and no one moved. During such times there was only complete and utter darkness and silence.

P.S. Shoutout to the Jefferies for feasting us on delicious white castle burgers and Jack-the-Dippers it was delicious and much appreciated.

Alex Last Ex

Alex R

This expedition we went caving. We went to Worley’s Cave. Worley’s Cave is in Johnson City, Tennessee. We went in after dinner on Thursday and came out at 10:47 a.m. Friday and I got to see 11/11/11 11:11 11 a.m. This was the first time I went caving and I had a blast. I had to overcome a fear of mine which was going into tiny spaces and crawling into spaces that are hard for me to fit in. There were a few bad things about the cave. The bad thing was that I got a cold in the cave and I got a lot of dirt in my throat. Sleeping in the cave was really fun because when you wake up it seems like it is still night time. I really would like to go caving  again because I like how it’s warm in the cave and how it is really peaceful. This last ex has been really fun and it sucks that our exs are over but I am ready to go home too. 

P.S. Thank you JJ’s parents for the food and ice cream, and the scary haunted village thing. It was very nice of you to do that.