Camp Hanes

On a cold September morning, I got on a charter bus to head to Camp Hanes. The entire 6th was going to have our first field trip in more than two years. Covid-19 had stopped all the fun since 2020. Now, we were finally getting to go to school, to not go to school! Camp Hanes is a YMCA sleep away camp, and because I love camp, I was pretty excited. When we finally arrived, I was very happy about my cabin. I had gotten a very good teacher, Mr. Harris, as my counselor, and my entire cabin consisted of super nice kids. The camp looked like it would turn out better than I ever hoped for.

After we had lunch in the mess hall, we went out on activities. The first thing we did was rock climbing. I was pretty nervous about that, because I am extremely afraid of heights. When I got there, it was even taller than I imagined. The climbing wall had two parts, your basic climbing wall, and the sky hammock. The sky hammock was a giant cargo net in the sky. To get up, a person would have to climb tilted climbing walls back and forth, but that was the easy part. At the top was the cargo net, hanging over nothing. Once you got to the other side of the cargo net, you could see the pixie sticks. The pixie sticks were a series of sticks placed at seemingly random angles all the way down to the ground. The first group of people went, and I stayed at the ground with a few others that were scared to go. After some people got back, we traded helmets. I started my climb. It wasn’t hard to go up, but once I got really close to the top I started freaking out. I told myself there was no turning back now, so I pushed my way through to the top. At the top, I saw the huge sky hammock. Luckily, it wasn’t hard for me to get across to the cargo net. The pixie sticks were next. This would be the hardest part, because I was heading toward the ground. Thankfully, a student named Jackson was helping kids get down the pixie sticks. In a matter of minutes, I was down. I really enjoyed doing activities that day, but really, rock climbing was my favorite.

Overall, this field trip was amazing. I loved having lunches in the mess hall, I loved my cabin, and I especially loved the activities. I am very thankful that I was able to go to Camp Hanes, and I’m happy that I overcame some challenges along the way. I’m very proud that I was able to overcome the climbing wall, and my fear of heights. I also made some new friends in my cabin. I feel like this field trip was fun and productive.