All of the Houses (or Hovses) hold their own trips for their members. Last weekend was Avery’s Camping trip to Silverwood Lake, which they offered for one or two days. Before the trip, there is a lot of planning and organizing by the socteam (social team) representatives: to reserve the campsite, plan food, and also rent camping supplies. The participants also have to organize drivers and passengers in order to get there, because it’s an hour’s drive towards Las Vegas from Caltech.

My group arrived first at the campsite, but there was very little to do except for putting up our tent. That task actually took a while, as the tent poles were bent oddly, and we were just generally confused and incapable. However, after an hour of struggling, we finished assembling the tent, just in time for other groups to arrive. I had hoped that we could watch them struggle with the tent as well; alas, they were much better than us when putting up their own tents.

Going out and camping in the wilderness, made me realize that 1: we are in a desert and it’s heckin’ cold at night at 2: night begins so much earlier in the winter (even though it doesn’t feel like it during the day). The sun set at around 5 to 5:30 and rose before 6. I was lucky enough to be there for both sunset and sunrise, and while the color they dye the sky is slightly different, it’s still a beautiful sight to behold.