ROAN Mountain

YM/LCpl nadia hinton, written 2019

I recently participated in a camping trip to Roan Mountain, TN with my unit, Capital City Young Marines, and it was incredible. On the first day, we drove for about four and a half hours, and we did lots of fun things along the way.. When we arrived, we set up our tents and unpacked our gear. 

The next morning after we got up, we separated the younger and older kids and we went horse-back riding. This was my favorite part. We made leather necklaces and horseshoes with our initials hammered in. Riding the horses was entertaining. My horse’s name was Nala and she was a bit skittish at first, but she warmed up to me. Next, we went to Bob’s Dairyland and had a burger. Later, we went back to our campsite and got ready to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail. I learned how to make a rope from straw. My rope was considerably long. When we got to the top of a mountain we did sit-spots, meaning we selected a set spot where we sat and reflected on our time there. After hiking , we went back to our campsite, had chow, then we hit the hay. 
​
On our last day, we got up, had morning chow, then we put on our swimsuits. After hiking up the mountain a bit, we arrived at Hebron Falls. We split into our squads and were allowed to climb around on the rocks and sit in the water. Afterwards, we walked back to the head, where we changed back into our regular gear, got back into the van and headed back down the mountain for afternoon chow, then we headed back home. Roan Mountain has been my favorite trip so far during my Young Marines career.