Hawk Mountain (Personal Choice) -Amber Matkowski

As a child a frequently went on "outdoor adventures", as my mother called them, with my family. We did mountain biking, white water rafting, camping and hiking. I did not realized until taking this class just how much time I had spent in the wilderness. I was especially surprised by the lack of time that others in the class had experience with nature. I always remember that my favorite place to go on an outdoor adventure was a place called "Hawk Mountain" which was not too far away from my house. This place had a trail up the mountain to view a crevice where many different types of birds flew and hunted. We would go at different times of the year so that we could see all of the different species as the came into the area. I remember sitting on the huge boulders atop the mountain as a young girl wishing that I could fly. The view from the mountain was so beautiful that I couldn't imagine all the amazing things the birds must get to see. I had many great times at Hawk Mountain and learned alot about the wilderness and many different animal species. My brother and I would often pretend to be professional mountain climbers as we pulled ourselves up to the highest rock we could. Now that I look back on these memories with my family in the outdoors, I am very glad that my parents gave us such a well rounded childhood and we got to experience so many different things. One thing I will never forget though, is walking back to stand beneath a waterfall, almost stepping on a snake, and crying until my dad came to carry me out of the water. I suppose I didn't like the wilderness very much that day.