Essay about Shadow Lake in Vermont: Climbing a Cliff

Submitted By jcalcerano
Words: 591
Pages: 3

Looking back on it, I realized how big that cliff actually was. It must have been at least eighty feet tall. At the time, it didn’t seem that big and it looked like it had lots of ledges. That and the fact that my sister was giving me ten dollars made me decide to climb it. It all started when my sister and I were walking around Shadow Lake in Vermont. We go there and walk around the lake every year, but this was the first year we went alone. As we were walking down the road around the lake, I saw five crows blocking our path. I thought they would fly away when we got near but they didn’t. An omen. They never flew away. I just walked between them. My leg even brushed one of the crow’s legs and no movement. They weren’t dead either. It was an incredibly warm and sunny day with not a cloud in sight. About three-quarters around the lake, we approached the cliff. Dark clouds suddenly stormed in and it must have dropped 5 degrees. Another omen. I then heard my sister say: “I bet you ten dollars you can’t climb to the top of that cliff.” “You’re on.” I replied. Stupidest mistake ever. So I began climbing. It was surprisingly easy the first couple minutes so I continued climbing. I climbed about 25 feet up before I finally looked down. I could see everything: the cabins on the other side of the lake, Glover –the smallest town on the face of the earth- -not really-, even another lake really far in the distance. Still, I kept climbing. Afer another couple of minutes, I ran into a spot where I couldn’t find a ledge for my foot. I was super high anyway, so I decided to turn back. I couldn’t find the ledge to get back down either. Right when I saw it and put my foot on it, it crumbled away to nothing. Uh-oh. I was stuck. “Come on! Why did you stop?” my sister called up. “I’m stuck!” I screamed down. “Oh crap,” my sister must have thought. After another 10 minutes and me still being stuck, we decided to call for help. “Call the Army! Police! Firefighters! Anybody but Mom and Dad!” I screamed down. “No way! They