The 50 mile trek across the length of Isle Royale, which is just south of Canada in Lake
Superior, was a big accomplishment for me. It allowed me the chance to prove to myself and
everyone else that I can dedicate to something and work hard for it. Everyone was very surprised
that I had signed up to come on this trip. It had, in the past, been mostly the older scouts in the
group who were in much better condition for hiking than I was. I was very nervous about signing
up to go because of a few of the reactions I got from my friends. My mother, being very
concerned, did not want me to go and at first was not going to allow me to attend since we knew
it would be a long and rough trip. After some convincing by the adult leaders in the group, she
reluctantly gave me the O.K. to go.

I was so happy to be going on the trip, but about a week later I realized that I was
nowhere near prepared for this trip. Not sure what else there was to do, I decided to just get to it.
I conditioned hard for the entire summer because I really wanted to push myself for this trip,
otherwise I knew that I would have a hard time when I got on the trail. At least four to five times
a week during the summer I would walk about a mile to train myself for the 10 miles a day I
would have to do on the island. Since i had to carry all of my supplies on my back, i slowly
increased my packs weight up to the 35 pounds i would be carrying on the trip. I went on
multiple ten and twenty mile hikes on the weekends with my troop so that I could be completely
prepared for what I would have to endure once I got to the island.

After I figured out how I would get myself into shape for the hike, I had another
realization; I had never been backpacking in the wilderness before and knew almost nothing
about it. Since I was also behind the others in mental knowledge I would need for the trip I
researched as much as I could about the equipment that I would need to take on the trip and how
to use it. I went to a multitude of stores and searched what I felt like was the entire internet
figuring out what kind of gear I would need for the rip. At REI, we came in often enough to shop
and learn about backpacking equipment that the employees there began to recognize us. I got a
lot of help and advice and eventually after a ton of shopping and searching I was able to find a
good set of equipment for the trip. After I prepared my body and mind as much as I could for the
trip, there was nothing left to do but get out there into the wilderness and see if what I had been
doing all summer could pay off.

We started off the trip with a ten hour car ride. This was ‘entertaining’ to say the least,
and after a stop at Mackinaw City where we bought pounds of fudge and got lost searching for
the Dubstep Store - we never did find it – we took a seaplane over to the island from Houghton,
Michigan. When we started hiking, I was at the front of the line. My friend Chris and I were far
ahead of everyone else. Multiple times the adult leaders yelled out to us, “Slow down and wait
up for the rest of us!” we listened most of the time. I was so pleasantly surprised by this but
wasn’t sure if it would last. After the first hard day, our biggest hike of the trip, I got a good night
sleep and continued doing well all the way through the trip. We saw the most amazing views,
met a few interesting people and animals and were able to fully experience the world in its
natural state in the way that you only could by going to such a place. I learned that through
committing myself to something, I had the ability to put in the effort needed to succeed. With this
great experience past me, I was able to come home satisfied with my performance, knowing that
everything I did had paid off and allowed me to have an amazing experience that not many
people are able to witness for themselves.