Illuminator

         Alex had departed from Alaska on April 15 to leave for his new adventure he had been waiting for in a long time. Alex did not want anyone to know what he was doing or where he was even his family was not sure where Alex was and what he is going off to Alaska to do. He chose to live on his own and life on almost nothing threw out his entire experience.

       Then he crawled into the sleeping bag his mother had made for him and slipped into unconsciousness. He probably died on August 18, 113 days after he'd walked into the wild. 19 days before six hunters and hikers would happen to across the bus and discover his body inside. One of his last acts was to take a photograph of himself, standing near the bus under the high Alaskan sky, one hand holding his finally note toward the camera lens, the other raised in a brave beatific farewell.

       I decided on two passages from the book Outside 25, Story- Death of an innocent By- Jon Krakauer.  The first passages is explaining when Alex left to take off of & do his dream. What he wanted to do, not what anyone wanted him to. Second describing a short passage about his death & how his experience ended in Alaska.

        About theses two passages that interested me was that he was independent. Did what he wanted for himself but strongly believed that he could do it all the way. But Alex took the courage to go off  without telling anyone where he is going or what he is doing so all anyone can do is worry about what is going on with him and where he actually is. Alex did not want his family to know where he was and what he was doing specifically from the beginning because they probably wouldn't have let him go to Alaska & climb. Alex's death was something many people probably think is tragic that he didn't get to see anyone or say goodbye. But Alex was on a journey to something he always wanted & knew exactly  how he wanted to do this experience of climbing. Alex did eventually slipped into his death but walked into the wild 19 days before found dead next to the bus above in the back round was the Alaskan Mountains that he had finished climbing over 100 days it took him.


Connection to me: Connects to myself because I went rock climbing for a class field trip.
Connection to world: Connects to the world because their are other different types of rock climbers.
Connection to Text: Connects to other texts that have to do with rock climbing, stories, articles, books etc..

Vocabulary from- Outside 25- Death of an innocent By- Jon Krakauer

Protruded - A rifle protruded from the young man's pack, but he looked friendly enough, a hitch-hiker with a Remington semiautomatic isn't the sort of thing that gives motorists pause in the 49th state.

Sojourn - Alex's backpack appeared to weigh only 25 or 30 pounds, which struck Gallien, an accomplished outdoors man, as an improbably light load for three month sojourn in the back country, especially so early in the spring.

Hyperkinetic - It has one grocery, one bank, a single gas station, a lone bar-- the Cabaret, where Wayne Westerberg, a hyperkinetic man with thick shoulders and a rakish black goatee, is sipping a White Russian, chewing on a sweet cigar, and remembering the enigmatic young man he knew as Alex.

Introverted - He seemed very introverted, almost cold.

Conflagration - Many Alaskans have wondered why, at this point, he didn't start a forest fire as a distress signal: small planes fly over the area every few days, they say, and the park service would surely have a dispatch a crew to control the conflagration.

Reflection on Field Trip

         The whole trip was great to me, It was all new to me, I normally never go outdoors maybe like in my yard. But actually to go out into somewhere that is full filled nature all around me was great. To try and actually do something new an experiential  in my life that I never thought I would have been able to take the courage of and actually do it. But now that I have taken the courage to try something new it makes me want to keep on doing it to have more fun. Rock climbing I think was the most fun for me, using the strength in my body to make it to the top. Yes I did make it to the top and then unfortunately I had gotten scared but I did make it down eventually and I was safe on the ground.

       I did not think anything on the trip was bad, everything that we did I enjoyed and also had a lot of fun doing. The only thing that was bad was the lunch did not come soon enough and the milk was warm.  (:

       Start:
       Signed out of the school & got on the bus at 9:00 a.m.
Rode on the big yellow ECHO Charter Bus until we got to Spicer, MN.
When we arrived we got into a line and split up into two different groups.
I was in group #2, and that meant that we were going to be going canoeing first.

          We were told to stand in a circle while the staff was discussing to us what to do, what we need,
and different types of educational aspects we would need to about today's adventure of canoeing.
We put our cell phones in the shed and grabbed a life jacket & paddle. Picked a partner and was sent of to sail in the wetland water. One of the staff leaders went with Justina and I. As we were last to bring out our canoe their was a animal that was apart of the mouse/rat family that was running around in our canoe. We got it out and finally go out into the water. Justina sat in the bow & The staff leader sat in the Stern, while I sat in the middle because this was my first time ever being in a canoe. Justina kept getting me wet whens he paddled so my butt ended up getting wet because she put so much water in the boat where i was sitting in the middle.
After we were done canoeing we put everything away and took our bathroom breaks in the recycling toilets.

          Flying squirrel, this activity required us to put on harnesses the protected us from falling. Red was small, blue was medium, Grey was large. I wore a red harness. The staff leaders went over the directions and told us what to say, and when to say it. The different types of how to, like how close to stand if you want to swing in the air. or just go up all the way. First you would say if you were the one flying, you would say, Belayers ready, What speed you want, Check, Your name and flying. If you were a Belayer you would reply back and say Belayers ready, Repeat the speed, Say check, & say Flying & the persons name.When I was a Belayer I felt like I was going to fly forward when holding back to let down the flyer. Next when I was going to be the flyer I wasn't to scared just didn't want to free fall it. I went up I didn't scream or anything just kinda chilled. The harnesses were a bit painful at times. But I had a lot of fun doing this activity.

          Rock Climbing, This was by far my favorite activity to do from this whole trip. I normally do fine with heights but that is when its on a ride and it is fast. This time was a little different cause I was climbing up and coming down on my own not from another support system. First when I started to climb it went really well then about two steps from the top I started to get nervous because I could not grip against any of the rocks to pull myself up. As I sat their for about five minutes, then finally I made it up & then struggled once again but this time it was to come down from the rock climbing wall. Everyone kept telling me I can do it just have to trust the rope. But my problem was fearing that the rope would break and I would fall. But it didn't I made it safely down onto the ground. People told me I did a good job and it made me feel like I wanted to do it again to make myself have more courage to rock climbing. After finishing up with the activities, we thanked our group leader and went on our way back out to the bus for lunch and to leave to go back our school.

         I think something our class should try next would be, Snowboarding or Skiing. I think being that we live in Minnesota and we get drastic measures of snow sometimes that either of these would be a good idea to try out. To learn about how to Snowboard or Ski, Where you can go to do either of these activities. What equipment you would need & how to different types of things that involve Snowboarding or Skiing. For me trying either of these would be a great experience for me because I have never tried either of these so it would be something interesting & fun for a new experience.