It was a bright, sunny, and beautiful day.  We just got out of the car after driving for 30 minutes even though it felt like forever.  When we arrived at the Acadia National Park I was in awe over the gorgeous views of the mountains, covered in green, luscious trees along with crystal clear streams.

“It looks like a great day to go hiking!” exclaimed my father.

“Uuuuugggghhhhhh,” I moaned, “ Another hike? We have already been on like three just in the past week.”

“Yes, stop complaining Ed,” my father responded.

“Fine,” I said reluctantly.  I really did not enjoy hiking a bajillion times a week.  I mean the views are amazing sometimes, but other times it could just be awful.  You could be walking for hour after hour until you just can not walk anymore and then when you get to the top you do not even get a nice view.

As we approached the base of the mountain we decided to break up; my mom and sister would go on the hike around the lake, while my father and I decided to go up the mountain along a cliff and then meet back up at the crossroad.

About 1/8 way through the hike my dad and I realized that we ran our of water.  During the morning it was nice and cool so we decided that we did not need to bring that much water, so we packed only a couple of water bottles.  That turned out to be a mistake as the temperature drastically increased as the day went on.

When we finally met up with the rest of my family we were officially out of water with more than 70% to go and the hardest part of the hike.

    “Dad,” I cried, “I’m so thirsty, why didn’t we bring more water?”

“I don’t know, where were you when we packed for this trip,” my dad replied.

After we met up it took us about 30 minutes to hike up the rest of the mountain.  When we got to the top my parents decided to stop for lunch.  I had a thanksgiving sandwich, with cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing.  My sister had a plain ham sandwich, with lettuce and tomato, my mom had the same thing as me, and my dad had a barbecue chicken sandwich.  We also had fresh picked Maine blueberries that we collected on the way up to the top of the mountain.

After we finished our lunch  we continued down down the path we started on.  As we got to a crossroad my dad said:

“Lets go down this path,” he exclaimed, “much more scenic.”

“Ok,” we replied.

So as we head down the mountain we come across another cross road.  My father again decided for group.  He decided to go right.  I thought that was a bad idea because we had already gone off the path we came from by going right and now we were going even farther than where we should have been.  I almost said that I disagreed with the decision I decided not to because of my father was already fed up about me so I piped down and didn’t mention it.

We had been walking for nearly four hours and thirty minutes when I realized we were lost.

“Dad were lost, and I am thirsty, and tired, and I really just want to go home and sleep, so please tell me where we are?” I cried.

“Ed, please stop complaining, I know exactly where we are,” he responded.

“Then where are we?” I replied very annoyed.

“Right here,” he exclaimed triumphantly.

I looked at where he was pointing on the map.  I almost laughed.  He had where we are totally wrong.  I retract our route on the map and found  out that we were on the complete opposite side of the mountain then where we were supposed to be.

“Uh….. Dad, um I think we are actually here,” I said pointing to the spot that we were at on the map.

“Dont be ridiculous Eddie, we are obviously right here,” he exclaimed.

“No we are not,” I said as I showed him the route that we took down the mountain.

“Oh,” he responded embarrassed, “ then I don’t know where we are.”

    After we figured out where we were on the map we started to head off again.  We had  been hiking for what seemed like eternity in this beautiful park.  Even though we had been hiking on the mountain for hours and the hot beaming sun shown down on us as we trudged around the mountain we had a glimmer of hope.  We saw a sign that had exactly where we wanted to go listed.  Unfortunately for us the sign said that we had to hike another 3.5 miles until we got back to where we wanted to go.

    By this time I was about ready to pass out and die from thirst.  I had been without water for hours now and had been hiking up and down hilly terrain for that entire duration.  I was about just give up and lay down when I heard the sound of rushing water.  When I heard the water I scurried down the hill and stopped short of the stream.  The stream was all murky and muddy looking, but to me at that moment it looked like crystal clear water. I stooped down and took the bandada out of my bag and soaked it into the stream  This should hold me until we get to the park store I thought to myself.

After our brief stop at the river we again set off.  I felt like if I took another step my feet would actually fall off my leg.  I started to complain but quickly realized nothing was going to be fixed by me complaining so I stopped.

As we rounded the next corner I saw a sign and ran up towards it.  It read that our destination was only half a mile away.  I was so happy that I only had to walk what seemed so little compared to the amount I had already walked ( around 10 mi.), but then quickly remembered that I still had to walk it.  That immediately got my hopes down, but I was still happy that we were finally so close to where we want to go.

After I turned the final bend on the trail I saw the end.  I felt so relieved, but then i realized how thirsty I was.  So when we got back to the hotel the first thing i did was crack open a soda can.  It was the best soda I had ever tasted.