I arrived in Anchorage, stopped for some chicken tenders, and met up with my leader. So far, only one other girl had arrived. He led us to the van and proceeded to drive us to the one-star motel where a Rottweiler was chained up against an old, rusted trailer near the lobby. I was a little wary, but it was all a part of the experience, right? As we walked to our room, a cleaning woman was standing outside, smoking a joint with a young boy. We awkwardly smiled and waved with our purple youth group T-shirts on. We met up with the rest of the group later that night, had a decent night of sleep, and hit the road in the morning.

Our first campsite was in Denali National Park. This campsite had bathrooms and trails, and was packed with other noisy campers. Here, the weather drastically changed at night. I went to bed in shorts and a T-shirt and woke up at 4:00 a.m., shivering in my cold sleeping bag, with the sun beaming at me. Little did I know, the sleeping conditions would only get worse.

At Denali, we went on a six-hour bus tour that was closed off to other visitor vehicles. One of my tent-mates, a photographer, took some amazing photos of the wildlife.

Our next campsite was the most remote. We stopped at a lodge on the way to take showers for the first time. These public showers were covered with hair, bugs, and other nasty stuff on the ground; however, I was in desperate need of one. After we all showered, we took a speedboat out to the campsite with a friendly guy named Zack. There were five huge tents that were set up for us to sleep in and a larger tent for us to cook and eat in. This campsite was absolutely beautiful. We sat around the campfire playing a very intense game of "Mafia" and roasting marshmallows.

The next morning, we embarked on our five-mile hike to the Maclaren Glacier. You could tell from the beginning that our group was splitting into factions based on speed. We crossed our first stream via a bridge. Our next crossing did not have a bridge, which meant we had to get our feet wet. Again, half the group was fine and the rest didn’t want to. It took almost 30 to 40 minutes to try to convince everyone to cross; we weren’t even a mile in. Even though some people didn’t want to, everyone ended up crossing, which led to awkward silence for the majority of the hike. We noticed that more streams without bridges were coming up and knew that some of the group wouldn’t want to continue. We made a pit stop to climb a pretty big hill about a mile up. It was a beautiful view of all of the land, especially the glacier. At this point it had already been about two and a half hours, and we had at least three miles to go. 

We came across another stream that some people did not want to cross, and we had to turn around. It took another 25 minutes to make that decision. I really wish we could’ve made it to that glacier, but our leader took some of us on another hike where we crossed streams triple the size and current of the other ones. We also found loads of caribou droppings and skulls. I was a little nervous, but it was really cool.

Our next campsite came with two extra guides, named Kaajh and Becca. This was the BEST campsite. It felt very secluded, and we only had our backpacks for three nights. To go to the bathroom, we had to go in a hole and cover it with dirt — it wasn’t as bad as you’d think. It definitely came in handy when I had to pee at 4:00 a.m. and the sun was still as bright as day. The tents, bear box, bathroom, and kitchen were all spread out pretty far from each other. Not having a shower for these three nights was definitely a struggle. It rained a lot and the mosquitoes were the size of my hand.

On our first full day at this campsite, we embarked on our second hike of the trip. This one had no stream crossings, but it was uphill the entire time. I was so excited for this hike and was determined to go as far as they let us. In the middle of the hike, a few people decided to turn around with one of our guides. We had a long way to go. By the end of it, we were all so happy and proud of ourselves. It was a seven-hour hike, completely uphill. We were not able to make it to the peak because of the rocks, but we went as far as we could. We went down and ordered some hot chocolate. 

The next day was also an active day full of ice climbing. This experience was insane; I didn’t even know ice climbing was a thing! When I was up there, I could hear the rest of the group cheering for me, and I just felt so genuinely happy. My adrenaline was pumping. Since the pandemic started, I haven’t felt much adrenaline, but ice climbing reminded me how much I love that feeling. It made me feel alive.

At this campsite, we played a lot of games around the campfire, shared stories, ate some of Becca’s amazing peach cobbler, and enjoyed the time together.

Our last day’s event at this site was packrafting, which I had never done before. We wore dry suits because we would be in cold water that came directly from the glacier. We blew up our own rafts and then carried them over to the lake. The rafts were very similar to a single kayak, just lighter and a little harder to control. I loved this campsite so much, but I was ready to leave. After all of the activities and all the sweat that came with them, I needed a nice, warm shower. 

Unfortunately, our next campsite did not have one. This next campsite was the loudest. We were right next to the highway, but we only stayed there for one night. It was pouring when we got there, so a few of us played a card game called "Joker" under
a tent. 

The next morning was exciting because we went whitewater rafting! In the beginning, I wasn’t super excited about it, because I’ve done it before and didn’t love it. But right when I got on the boat, I was so happy I couldn’t get the smile off my face. I was in the front row, I jumped out a few times, and sat on the edge — it was really fun.

The final campsite was in Seward. The sites were very close together. Our neighbors were basically our tent-mates. You could hear everything through the tents, or from people talking outside quietly, and there was no privacy. But, there was a beautiful view of the water, and they had showers! This shower had a time limit — I only had six minutes to clean myself after a whole week of living in the woods. This one was also a public shower, but it was dirtier than the other one. 

The next day we went on a wildlife boat tour. I was a little nervous of getting seasick so I took some Dramamine, and I was asleep for almost the entire time. Afterward, I saw some pictures of sea otters, orcas, seals, and more. 

After the boat tour, we got in the van and headed back to our beloved one-star motel with the Rottweiler chained up to the old, rusty trailer. On the way, we had some car troubles; the van had lasted so long on this trip without any problems, it was bound to happen at some point. Eventually, we got back to the motel around midnight and ordered pizza to celebrate the end to our amazing adventure.