Hiking

 May 22, 2023 — 2:35 P.M.  Total Hours: 110 This week has been a rollercoaster, emotionally and physically, if you count our changes in elevation. It started very fast, and I felt like I was being bounced around between a million different things, but once we got out there and began our trip, I finally caught up. We started with a curveball, being dropped off a day into our trip–we got dropped off just before our second campsite–and then having to cross a river that we almost fell in multiple times. But we kept going because there was nothing else to do until we got cell service. Then, it started snowing on us, and we got our second curveball; we couldn't stay on the top of a mountain if it was gonna be -2ºF, so we adjusted our route. Instead of going up and over Moosilauke, we stayed at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, run by the Dartmouth Outing Club, and escaped the freezing night. And it was still not smooth sailing from there; the next day, we met a through-hiker who told us that

May 22, 2023 — 1:56 P.M. Work Period: 10:00 A.M. - 12:00 A.M. Work Hours: 2 Total Hours: 110 After I woke up this morning and showered, ate breakfast, etc.; I began the deissuing process. I was recently informed that deissue is not a word, but I've always used it for what I did this morning–it's basically just unpacking and returning whatever gear was borrowed/used. So I emptied my bag onto my bedroom floor and separated stuff into piles. One pile was things that needed to be washed, like clothes and dishes, the second was group gear, and the third was personal items. Later today, I will head over to Kailee's, and we will return the stuff we borrowed and maybe meet with Lynne. I've also been writing the blogs and my reflection paper, so that is what I've been doing the rest of my day, but that doesn't count toward working hours. My other activity has been grappling with the somewhat horrifying reality that I am graduating in just 6 days when I feel like it shoul

May 22, 2023 — 1:36 P.M. (For May 20, 2023) Work Period: 12:00 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. Work Hours: 13 Total Hours: 108 This day was our descent/last day, we came down the Reel Brook Trail and got picked up around 1 P.M. by Kailee's parents. After doing the hike the day before, we decided to reevaluate our trip to best fit the needs of our group. We were supposed to hike over the Kinsmans and stay at the Lonesome Lake hut, but due to a couple of medical issues and an impending rain storm, we decided it would be safer and smarter to come down a day early. So, we hiked a mile back what we had hiked the day before and did the roughly 4 miles down to the trailhead. Because of our struggle the day before, we gave ourselves a lot of extra time to get down–because we all have various joint problems, and going down was the most impactful on our bodies–but we overestimated, so we had some time at the trailhead waiting for the Skinners to arrive. We walked around a bit and finished some of our snack

May 22, 2023 — 12:56 P.M. (For May 19, 2023) Work Period: 12:00 A.M. - 12:00 A.M. Work Hours: 24 Total Hours: 95 So, we don't have a video for this day because it was one of the most exhausting days ever, and we barely made ourselves dinner let alone a vlog. We hoped to do it in the morning but ran a bit late, so we decided to type this day out instead.  We hiked a total of 9 miles and summited what felt like 25 mountains, and it took us around 10 hours from when we left our campsite in the morning to when we got to our camp at night. We started with a 1.6-mile descent that took us two hours due to snow, ice, and steepness–some of the parts on this descent were literally rock faces with pieces of wood stuck into the rock as steps. After that, it was .6 miles straight up; it was something like 600 feet of elevation and triple that for the descent we did right before it. Then it flattened out a bit, and our trail landed on a ridge, which is why it felt like we climbed a billion diffe

May 22, 2023 — 12:18 P.M. (For May 16, 2023) Work Period: 11:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M., 1:30 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. Work Hours: 11.5 Total Hours: 23

May 22, 2023 — 12:30 P.M. (For May 17, 2023) Work Period: 12:00 A.M. - 12:00 A.M. Work Hours: 24 Total Hours: 47

May 22, 2023 — 12:42 P.M. (For May 18, 2023) Work Period: 12:00 A.M. - 12:00 A.M. Work Hours: 24 Total Hours: 71

May 22, 2023 — 11:39 A.M. (For May 15, 2023) Work Period: 7:30 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.  Work Hours: .5 Total Hours: 11.5 I flew back from Tennessee this day, so I had little time to do any work. I spent most of the day caring for Edie while everyone was packing the house up, and then we left around noon. However, on my first flight home, I did a little bit of sketching from the photos I had on my camera roll. Since I forgot most of my art supplies at home, earlier in the week, my mom and I bought some notecards and pens for me to draw on. So, my art from this trip is all on note cards, and my art from the hike will also be. In my typical fashion, I drew some flowers, and the flight attendant thought they were really cool, so I got some nice compliments and a couple of questions. She asked how long I'd been drawing, and she was somewhat surprised to find out I was in highschool still. That has been happening more frequently, and it incites a little existential crisis each time because it m

May 14, 2023 — 11:23 A.M.  Total Hours: 11 This week has been really productive as far as I'm aware, I talked to Romy and Kailee earlier in the day, and they gave me the rundown on everything they've been doing. This week has been a busy and productive one for Romy and Kailee as they prepare everything for our upcoming hike. They spent a lot of time packing, organizing, and gathering all necessary items, along with replanning the route. They managed to successfully re-waterproof our tent, fix the pump on our whisper lite stove, and complete our first-aid kit. With the help of friends and family, they were able to get everything we needed to ensure we have a safe and successful hike.   Having finished the first week of Senior Project, where I did pretty much nothing, the anticipation for the actual 'project' we are doing is building. I am beyond excited to actually get out there and hike and be together with my best friends for probably one of the last times ever. We hav

 May 11, 2023 — 10:10 P.M.  Work Period: 2:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.  Work Hours: .5 Total Hours: 11 I went into today hoping to spend the afternoon sketching and drawing, just trying to focus on quantity over quality, and after about half an hour, my aunts arrived with their 3-year-old. Edie (the 3-year-old) put quite the damper on my afternoon of arts after declaring immediately that she had to feed the donkeys. So, off we went to feed the donkeys because what the 3-year-old wants, the 3-year-old gets–within reason. However, what little sketching I got done went well; I sketched some little plants and tried drawing one of the geese. That did not go well, though. The goose honked and came running after me, so I decided that the goose was not my ideal subject and, once again, reaffirmed my hatred for geese. I think next time, I will try sketching literally anything else because at least those sketches have been going well. These are the geese. Their names are Dumb and Dumber. I'm not kid

 May 10, 2023 — 9:27 P.M.  Work Period: 8:00 A.M. - 9:00 A.M.  Work Hours: 1 Total Hours: 9.5 Before leaving for the airport this morning, I packed all my clothes for the hike and put them, along with a bag, in my garage for Romy and Kailee to pick up. I used the orientation packing list and adapted it to fit our trip better, so I added things like extra layers and deodorant and actually packed the hat and gloves they suggested. Since I will be gone for the next six days of the senior project, I have to entrust much of the work to Romy and Kailee, including packing my bag and divvying up group gear. I like to be in control of whatever I am doing, so this makes me really nervous. However, it will probably be a good thing for me. It will force me to go with the flow more often than I am used to or comfortable with. I am 100% confident that Romy and Kailee will pull it all together beautifully, but not being there and being unable to know everything they are doing takes me far outside of

 May 11, 2023 — 8:29 P.M.  Work Period: 10:00 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.  Work Hours: 1 Total Hours: 10.5 My brother’s graduation party was today, so I did some work earlier in the day. I went into the yard and sketched the views of the house we’re staying at. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures and am away from my sketchbook, but I will put the photos in later. The place we are staying at is sort of a farm, so there’s a bunch of land, some donkeys, and some really mean geese. The geese chased me and further affirmed my hate for geese. Though, my sketches worked out really well. I am pretty proud of them and will display some of them at Express Fest. I hope to do more detailed drawings or ‘smaller’ ones tomorrow, like singular plants or a little pond corner. I might also research our planned route because Romy and Kailee did that today. Flick from today: 

 May 9, 2023 — 7:31 P.M.  Work Period: 12:30 P.M. - 1:00 P.M., 2:30 P.M. - 5:30 P.M.  Work Hours: 3.5 Total Hours: 8.5 Today we met with Rosanna over lunch to discuss our route, as she has a lot of experience hiking in this region and offered to help us. She gave us a few possible routes as well as a bunch of resources to help us plan and gather information. While we haven't quite nailed down our route, we plan to be somewhere on or near the portion of the Appalachian trail near Hanover, NH, just so we can still sort of be where we originally planned to be. After lunch, we headed to Bedford, where we browsed a couple of stores to fill the gaps in our grocery list. Whole Foods had the non-refrigerated tofu we needed, Trader Joe’s had nothing we absolutely needed but we still hoped it would, and Sierra pretty much only had fuel cans, so off we went to the Manchester Mall. There, we found EMS. EMS had hiking pants, water purification, and recommendations for where we could find dehydr

May 8, 2023 — 9:06 P.M.  Work Period: 1:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. Today’s Hours: 5 Total Hours: 5  Kailee Skinner, Romy Smith, and myself will be spending our senior project planning and executing a 5-day and 6-night camping trip by ourselves. Originally, we hoped to hike in the Presidential range of the White Mountains on the Appalachian trail, however, for all the rain we've been receiving in Andover, the Whites have been getting snow. So, we are rerouting and hoping to get that nailed down tomorrow after meeting with Rosanna for lunch. Today, we decided to work at my house because I had most of our pre-collected food. So, once we arrived, we collected all the food and materials we had and took inventory. Then, we wrote out our meal plan and got to work on creating a shopping list, all while jamming out to banging tunes courtesy of a speaker I stole from my brother. After we finished the list, we hopped in Kailee's car and made the long (5-minute) arduous (incredibly easy) journey