I woke up early and got ready as fast as I could because I was going camping in the woods for the first time EVER! I sprinted to my 15-year old brother Steven’s room and started jumping on his bed and screaming, “Come on, wake up!” until he groggily got up. Then, I repeated the process with my parents.

My mom said to me with a tired smile, “Honestly Steven, calm down.” The whole time I was thinking, Hurry up and get ready! We had packed up the previous night, so it was almost time to depart. My parents and brother prepared and we ate breakfast. After we were done, it was time to finally get in our Honda Accord.

We all heaved our bags into the car and started off. I didn’t do much. Just looked out the window at the endless sea of soaring Redwood trees, their peaks out of sight. It was breathtaking. Then I got hungry so I gobbled my way through a mountain of Ritz. Soon, I felt myself feeling woozy, and before I knew it I was asleep.

When I rose drearily from the seat, I was shocked to see my friends huddled over me. And then I remembered that my friends Max, Alex, and Brian were also camping with us. When they moved away, I was astonished by the sheer amount of vegetation and the incredible amount of trees at Big Basin. It was already noon. Then Brian snapped me out of my amazement with the words, “Let’s play frisbee, sleepyhead!” And then we began our game, with the result crowning me as the winner (as usual). Thankfully, the adults had set up the tents. For lunch, we had sandwiches and watermelon and more Ritz. Then we got bored, so we decided to go on an adventure which didn’t start out too well…

We told the adults we were going out on a walk near the campsite, but on the way we took a few wrong turns. You see, an adult was supposed to come with us, but we ran off too fast for them. I heard one of them chuckle and mutter, “Kids these days.” Then we were off, into the massive woods. It wasn’t until then that we realized the sheer scale of the Redwood trees. We were so blown away that we ended up taking a few wrong turns on the path.  We decided to do something… interesting, which happened to be splitting up. Now that I look back on it, I realized that it may not have been our smartest move.

Finding my way back by myself seemed to take ages. I ached to get back to my tent and my squishy inflatable bed; until my all my emotions were engulfed with panic. I was looking around, and I saw something furry coming towards me. What if it was a bear? I held my breath and resisted the urge to scream. It was… a squirrel, which scampered up a tree and out of sight. Phew. While I was watched it squirrel leave, I noticed something else. A dusty path, hidden under the fallen leaves, that might just me lead to our campsite! Excitement and anxiety flooded through me. A thousand thoughts flooded through my mind. What if it‘s the wrong path?  What would my parents think if they found out? What if I missed dinner? I had to take the chance and try it.

I rushed along the trail, and it l was right, it was the path to our campsite! “Yes!” I whispered to myself and then realized that less than an hour had passed and I was back early. Then my parents asked me where the other kids were. I lied to them and told them we were playing a game of hide and seek, and was relieved to hear them say, “It’s almost dinner time. I hope they come back soon.” My friends also made their way back shortly, one every few minutes or so. But we all made up different excuses. Max said we were playing cops and robbers, and Brian told them that we lost our ball. Then he came over to me and said, “Dude, I’m hungry.” Afterward, we had a very satisfying dinner. (And the adults had healthy stuff.) I was so exhausted from finding my way back that I went to sleep almost immediately.

Until this day, no one knows that three nine-year old boys had almost got lost in the depths of the Big Basin State Park…and I’d prefer to keep it that way!