A trip to Shawnee National forest: To explore the part of America famous for its natural and recreational sites.

January 27-29,2012.

Paul Starcher, International Student Counselor at University of Evansville, introduced me to the University of Evansville Venturing Crew 365 but I had to get registered with the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) and pass “Youth Protection Training” to join them in their events or community services. It took me a few days to do that and my first trip with the crew was to Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. It cost about $60 dollars (from registration to the whole trip) but the fun I had and things I learned are beyond the monetary value I just mentioned.

Shawnee National Forest is located at about a 2 hours’ drive from Evansville. We, a group of 28 students, set off on the evening of January 27 and reached “Garden of the Gods” at about 8 pm. It was my first formal camping trip and it was a great chance to learn things from setting up tents to working on a team. It was a lot of fun to make a fire with wood and I said, “I can smell my home now”, which made the friends laugh out loud (In Chitral we make fire by woods in our homes, may be a surprise to many of you). At night it got pretty cold but in the morning going to see the sunrise in the wilderness of the forest was a mesmerizing moment. After a  breakfast of scrambled eggs, we started hiking and I came across huge pine and oak trees, ponds and streams, small herbs (as I can’t name) and different scenes which were the manifestation of the greatness and beauty of nature. We took some memorable pictures together capturing nature in the background.

Descending was a little tough as we all were tired but we waited for each other, making sure everyone is in the queue and sang on the way back to keep ourselves encouraged and energetic. We went to Burden Falls and enjoyed our time near the 100 foot high water fall. I was the first to reach the bottom of the water fall and also the first to slip and get some cold water on my jeans. As soon as we arrived back to our camping site I changed my jeans and joined the team for cooking and collecting wood to make a fire. I loved the rice with hot sauce. After dinner, we had a game which was a mixture of dance and songs.

On the morning of  January 29, we went to the observation trail in the Garden of the Gods. There were giant and marvelous rocks which had been shaped into different images like hogbacks and camel. According to the printed information I read on one of the rocks, these images are the result of sedimentation.There used to be a sea in this area some 320 Million years ago. This also depicts the role of nature in shaping our history and geography. After an hour of rock climbing and photography we were on our way back, after a memorable 2 days trip.
Last but not least, I am lucky to have a visit to the “Camel Rock” and take a picture with it because in 2016 this rock is going to be featured on US coins, part of US Mint’s “ America the beautiful” quarters program. 

Things I learned!

I learned a high sense of responsibility. Back at home I used to go on tours and trips with friends and ,unfortunately, in open places like a camping site or playground we would not bother to pick up the trash, papers etc. left behind by us. But here I saw that our team had a trash box or drum with them and we used to put any useless thing into it, from fruit peelings to used plastic plates. On the last day when we were about to pull down our tents and pack back we stood in a line in such a way that the whole camping site was covered horizontally. Then we started walking till the end picking every small bit of anything left by us, if any. Eventually, we left the camping site as clean as we had received it.

The second thing I learned was conservation of nature. In our whole hiking trip, in which we covered about 60 miles on the average, I observed that the trees are not smote down anywhere. There are instructions printed not to carry any grass seed outside the forest or bring new ones. There were specific routes to be followed while hiking so that not every part is trodden down by the people.

Thirdly, here in the USA, I found out that the laws for preservation of nature, archeological artifacts and historical avenues are well defined and implemented. It is because preservation of such things would ultimately lead to more tourists, greater revenue and higher standards.

I feel more responsible about nature around the globe after this trip.