What were people’s opinions on this year’s senior class backpacking trip? Overall, this was rated to be the best out of the four class trips. Hikes ranged in difficulty from easy to hard, and a few people were willing to provide insight into each hike. 

Minnie Mangum (‘26), who was on one of the medium-level hike, explained, “I thought that the difficulty of the hikes was perfect, in some areas it was more tough so that we could push ourselves and go beyond our comfort zones. But then it leveled out, and it was nice to take a break until the next big section. I think it served class bonding positivity. I talked to a lot of people I normally wouldn’t have, bonding over how difficult the hikes felt and complaining together.”

Regarding the hardest hike, Landon Burnsed (‘26) says, “I regret not being able to do the hard one, I feel like the experience would have been more fun, and being able to do some of the treacherous terrain would’ve been super cool.”

Jonah Lodge (‘26) was on the hardest difficulty hike that consisted of almost 20 miles of backpacking with a 40lb backpack. At first, Jonah was put into the easy difficulty hike, but after some reconsideration, he decided he wanted to challenge himself by going on the harder hike. In the end, he had a great time and found a new appreciation for backpacking. He quotes, “imma climb K2 now.” 

Key takeaways from this year’s senior class trip are that there were people who loved the difficulty of the hike, but there were also people who wished they were on the harder hike. If you are on the fence about which difficulty hike you want to sign up for, many seniors would urge you to choose the more difficult one.