Backpacking up the steep Rocky Mountains was nothing like he was familiar with in Missouri. The altitude was nothing like he was used to, even the feeling of the air on your skin was unfamiliar. He had heard rumors of bears being around the very trails he was walking, and as the sun set behind the mountains, it got dark faster than he was anticipating. Within 20 minutes, he was swallowed by darkness, and a cold chill on his spine with thoughts of bear attacks on his mind.
Senior Michael Huber has been backpacking with his friends for years, and over the summer went to the Rocky Mountains with him and a few friends.
“It was breathtaking,” Huber said. “I don’t think I understood how the mountain range as a whole would look once I was actually there. I’ve seen pictures before, but when they say the pictures don’t do it justice, they’re right.”
The group got the idea from their friend’s older brother, and thought that they should do it themselves. After planning since December, and a powerpoint presentation to their parents, they were good to go.
The whole excursion was organized and paid for by the group of friends. After fourteen hours of driving they stop at their hotel to check in and get acclimatized to the altitude.
“I think it was a good idea, because that gave us a bit of a buffer in between going from a 14 hour car ride to immediately sleeping out in the open, in the air like that,” Huber said. “That probably would have made me a bit more sick.”
The group of friends then traveled through the mountains taking several hikes. To lakes, up 70 degree inclines, through streams and near deadly animal encounters with bears and moose, and awkward interactions with European tourists.
To this group, though, it was never about the destination. Huber originally attended grade school with the friends he went camping with. Their journey with backpacking originally sprouted from boy scouts.
“We didn’t really like the actual Boy Scout part of it with doing merit badges,” Huber said. “We really just liked being able to camp and then just go and mess around.”
The group thought, why not do this all on our own and leave boy scouts behind? So that’s what they did.
Going into high school, there is an all too common theme of losing connection with your grade school friends, which was no different for Huber.
“Our group used to be bigger, but as we got older, we kind of stopped hanging out with [our old school friends],” Huber said. “So [backpacking] is one of the things that is very core to our friendship and our relationship, because it’s something we grew up doing together and can still do together as friends. It keeps us close.”
The appeal for the group is their ability to go out and do everything on their own and escape from everything else going on and catch up no matter how long it has been.
The oldest of the three, Luke, just went to Mizzou which will limit their ability to see each other, but this hasn’t stopped them in the past. In fact, they are in the process of planning more trips to Yosemite or Grand Tetons.
“It’s just a really good way to keep that bond between old grade school friends,” Huber said. “I’ve heard stories of people separating after grade school and I’m glad that’s not us.”
