Camp Cheley. Not just any other summer camp. Survival camp. It tests your skills and pushes them to the limit. It sharpens you physically, mentally and spiritually.
    Backpacking was something I had never tried. Alex, one of my wagon mates (yes, we slept on the wild west wagons), had already gone to three backpacking trips and one of them was a five-day backpack trip. It was the last week, and from the beginning of camp I had promised Sam, my wagon papa that I would go on a backpacking trip with him. I did not know what to choose. There were so many options to do. It was the last week, and I was incredibly tempted to erase the circle from the three-day backpack trip. I turned the pencil upside-down and just before the eraser made contact with the piece of paper that showed my schedule. I remembered a quote that I have heard an immensely vast amount of times: “A man is only as good as his word." I had promised to go there, and I was going to fulfill it.
    After our campfire song, all campers who had decided to go on a backpacking trip needed to meet on the upper-left corner of the wagon yard. I was trembling. The night was cold, as if it was a warning for something. I was as tired as a sloth because I had not slept for a day. However, I did not hesitate. I walked to the upper-left corner of the wagon yard and saw the campers that were going with me. There was Joe, a friend of mine that lived in China and it was his first time in America and had decided to come to camp. I was amazed at him. He always lent a hand; he was an amazing friend and most of all; he always had a smile on his face. His real name was Haochung Fung, however, since his Chinese name was very hard to say he preferred to be called Joe. Next was Alex; he was, in fact, the cabin mate who had already gone several times to backpacking trips. There were other campers. However, none of them was as close to me as Joe and Alex.
    While the counselors were telling us what we had to bring, I drifted off. My mind was taking off. I was in the airplane of imagination. I felt like I was solving a math problem that never ended. I thought of what would happen tomorrow, what had happened yesterday, but not what was happening right now. I needed to meditate.
    I got to my cabin and without a sound I took off my sandals, put on a sweater and tried to sleep. It was uncomfortably cold. The frosty air came in the wagon flaps, and it made a creepy noise. I felt like I was about to freeze. It was hard to sleep. But after some peaceful meditation, and clearing of mind, I was able to concentrate enough to warm myself. I fell fast asleep.
    In the morning, I was incredibly stressed. I had completely forgot to put the things that I had to bring to the backpacking trip in my backpack. Worst of all, I didn’t know what I had to bring. My mind was driving me crazy.
“Alex! What did we have to bring to the backpacking trip?” I asked Alex just after he woke up.
“Wha-, What?” he answered completely clueless of what I had said.
    After a minute or so he put on his glasses. “What did you say before?” he asked.
    “I asked you about the backpacking trip. You know, what we had to bring?”
    “Oh! Yeah! Sure!” Alex replied. “So you have to get a change of clothes, sandals, your sleeping bag and two full Nalgene water bottles. If you want, you could also take your toothbrush and toothpaste. However, it’s not necessary. Oh, one more thing, you need to make a lot of space in your backpack for tents and food,”
    I packed up and headed directly to the boathouse. I brushed my teeth exceptionally good, because I had decided not to bring my toothbrush and my toothpaste.
    Once we were in the car we headed directly at the park. I don’t remember much of the ride except it was quite bumpy. I slept all through the car ride because I hadn’t slept very well through the night.
    Once on the trail everyone put on their backpacks. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stand up with my backpack on. Joe got a hold of my hand and pulled it. Although I had stood up I was about to fall in a face plant, if it wasn't for Joe.
    “So, you guys ready?” asked Sam.
    “Yeah!” all the campers replied.
    So we walked following the path. After some while my feet were starting to hurt. All of a sudden a moose was on top of a hill about twenty to thirty feet from us. Sam made the signal to stop talking. He took out a knife and started waving it towards the moose. He then signaled us to keep walking. I had never encountered a moose before, and I was scared about it.
    However, we went on; the trail was muddy, and we had crossed a lot of rivers. On one particular small river, instead of stepping on the stones I accidentally stepped on the water, leaving my hiking boot and my sock all wet. But without stopping we went on.
    The temperature lowered, and so did the sun. With the fear of losing light, we went in a faster pace. Most of us were groggy and, mostly tired. After a while mosquitoes tried to attack us, and I had brought my ‘Deep Wood Off’ (mosquitoes repellent). Joe asked me if he could use it. He was spraying it all over his body. All of a sudden he sprayed it on his face. Although he had red sunglasses, he had kept his mouth wide open.
    “Oh my god! Oh my god!” He kept saying while sticking his tongue out. Although we were very tired, we laughed extremely hard. I couldn’t contain my laughter. I felt pity for him, however I just couldn’t stop laughing.
    After three hours of silent, non-stop hiking, we reached a muddy place. It was like grassland except it was overflown with water. We kept walking and passed a tiny forest. Then I saw a breathtaking view. It was a mountain filled with snow. The snow was so bright it looked like silver. If you looked at the meadow, it had beautiful flowers with all types of colors. We walked a bit more to find a great big stone. Once we were in the stone, we un-packed all of our supplies from our massive backpacks.
    After we had put everything we had on the floor, Joe saw a person approaching in the distance. He quickly notified the counselors and us.
    “Howdy y’all, watch a doing all the way here?” a woman dressed in green asked.
    “Hello, well you see, we come from Cheley Camp, and we were trying to find our camping site,” Sam replied.
    “Well, you can’t stay here, but I’ll guide you to your camp,” the woman said.    
    After we had walked an hour with her I noticed, she was a park ranger. She was wearing a green uniform full of patches, and she even mentioned it while we hiked to our camp.
    When we got to our camp, the sun was just about to fall below the mountains.  The counselors told us to set up our tents. Alex and I had to set up our tents. For some unknown reason, I felt like I was about to hatch an enormous egg through my mouth.
    When I came back, Alex said that I shouldn’t worry, he was going to set up the tent alone. I sat on a tree stump and asked myself why I had thrown up.
    After Alex setup the tent, the counselors told me to rest. I got into my sleeping bag and fell deeply asleep. It was quite an amazing sleep. I was very warm and comfortable. However as everything works, it had to end.
    Sam woke me up in order to have dinner. I slipped out of my sleeping bag. Got out of the tent and headed towards the campfire. All of the campers were already eating food, and some of them were even in their seconds. I asked for a plate of noodles with pieces of chicken. They served it right up. After I had only eaten half of the plate, and I was already full. I quickly went to bed and slept fast and efficiently.
    At midnight, I woke up. I felt the same sensation in my stomach and throat again. I ran out of the tent and before I could slip on my slippers I had already thrown up just outside of the tent. After that, I went to sleep. I threw up about 15 times. At that point I decided to stay awake the whole night, that way when I threw up I would throw up on far away tree and not on the tent.
    After two hours or so I was very sleepy. Although it pained me, I woke up Sam and told him what had happened. He told me to sleep next to the almost dead fire, and try not to think about it.    
Once I woke up, I saw everyone eating oatmeal in front of me. The counselors offer me some, and I ate a lot of it. While in my sleep, Sam had made a sports drink (Gatorade) in my Nalgene bottle, although I never knew how he did it, because I didn’t ask him.
After a while, Sam filled me up on what we were going to do today. We were going to go up and reach the peak of a mountain called Kia. My skin trembled, and I didn’t know what to expect. I was sick and throwing up every ten minutes or so, and I was expected to climb the stairway to heaven. It was insane. But my heart said I had to do it. For my friends, and for myself. I couldn’t just tell the counselors that I was ‘too weak’ to go up the mountain and ruin all of my camp-friend’s trip.
“Let’s do it!” I exclaimed. I looked ready and joyful on the outside, but I was miserable and sick on the inside.
All of us got our backpacks and started to hike the trail that led to the mountain that looked like silver. Everyone was awfully quiet. We could hear each other’s footsteps.
“Guys! Wait, a second, I have to-” I stopped in mid-sentence, I felt an overflowing amount of liquid through my throat. I bent over towards a bush and made all of the liquid I had flow over, fall into the forest and out of my throat.
“We can keep going now,” I mentioned while I kept walking with my eyes staring at the ground.
I looked up and saw a scarring view that will be on my mind forever. I saw ashes. Everything was lifeless, colorless, and joyless. All was either black or grey. We walked on the ash of a great forest that was now destroyed by flames. The logs were as black as the night with no moon nor stars.
“Let's take a break here,” Sam ordered, “do you guys know how this forest was burned down?” Sam asked. All of us raised our shoulders and made a somewhat wacky face. “Okay, not so long ago this used to be great and vast forest. We even passed through here while it was still forest about three maybe four years ago. This forest got burned p by inexperienced teenagers that wanted to go camping; they made a fire and went to sleep without putting the fire off. The whole forest burned and also their supplies, luckily they survived.” Sam explained. “Now, let’s get starting to move again.” He told everyone.
“Wait! I need to-” I stopped in mid sentence and threw up, again. I was feeling incredibly weak. I asked myself if I should just tell the counselors that I couldn’t do it that I was weak. But I couldn’t, I had to be strong enough to go to the summit of Mount Kia. I had to reach the peak.
After I threw up we all walked upon the mountain silently. We hiked and hiked and hiked. There wasn’t much to talk about; however the sight was astounding. I was very bored, and that’s when I decided to sing, with my inside voice, the song of ‘Wonderful World’ but with different lyrics. “I see big and small rocks and yellow flowers, I also see some sturdy trees and I say to myself, what a wonderful world.” I hummed to myself. I kept doing that and changed the words depending on what I saw. It indeed is a wonderful world.
All of a sudden the thing that I less expected happened. I threw up again. But this time it was different. There was no more food, no more drink other than water and a few Gatorade. It was based on yellow and brownish acid. It burned my throat.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” I tried to explain to the counselors “It’s just that I feel so weak.”
“You’re body isn’t weak, but your mind is. You must learn to understand that hiking is only 20% physical and 80% mental. You need to keep going.” Sam talked trying to be on my shoes.
“How do I do it? I mean I really want to keep going, but my body is just too tired and weak.” I asked.
“I can help you with moral support, but the only one who can conquer your mind to gain control of your body and strengthen your mind is you.” Sam justified.
I made a sign keep going, and we all kept going through the trail. The words that Sam had just said had made it through my thick skull and were now being processed in my brain. I had to be strong enough to keep going.
After a while, we were way up in the mountain range of the Colorado Rockies. We passed through this vast snowfield. I felt weird with my shorts and t-shirt on snow. It was warm; however my feet were freezing.
Although everyone had already gone up and got to the peak, I was held back because of my ‘weak mind’. I felt as though I couldn’t take another step. Like a mountain, no matter how hard a mountain tries to move, it won’t. But I was no mountain. I was like an eagle free to move and roam the earth.
“Come on Daniel, you can do it!” Alex shouted.
I can do it; I can do it, and I can conquer this mountain. I just had to keep going. With every step, there was one less step missing.  It was like this until I got to the peak. There was a pile of rocks that you must touch I order to peak the mountain. As I extended my hand, I thought of what I had learned by this incredible experience. My hand touched the rock; this showed that I had done it. I had conquered this mountain!
There is more than you think that you can learn from mountains. They are majestic, gigantic, and they are also teachers. Think of all of the people that live in the mountain. The hermits, the monks, and the enlightened. They all learn every day because of the mountain. What I learned is something that I will never forget. Who knew that three sentences could help you do the impossible? “You’re body isn’t weak, but your mind is. You must learn to understand that hiking is only 20% physical and 80% mental. You need to keep going.”