Project Moby is a program that Mr. Deblois, a teacher at Monmouth Academy, first started in 1992. Moby, meaning “My Own Back Yard” gives students a chance to see the beauty of their state. It also teaches students about the history of Maine and the scientific aspects of it.

Every year some of the school staff take the freshman class to Acadia National Park. The students tent out there for a week, rain or shine. This year just so happened to be a very good year!

Luckily we were blessed with good weather for the entire trip. On Monday, Sept. 17, we all boarded the buses ready to “rough” it for the week. Before we even got to Acadia, our adventure started with a visit to Fort Knox. There we learned its history and the materials for which it was built, which were huge blocks of granite. An interesting fact I came across was the fact that after Fort Knox was built it was never really used.

After that laid back exploration, the teachers thought it would be a good idea to burn our abnormally high amount of energy with a hike up Bubble Mountain. The hike was good, and the scenery was gorgeous, but the most interesting thing about Bubble Mountain was at the top. Half off the cliff there was a huge boulder, literally living on the edge. It looked as if it would fall off by just blowing on it, but in reality not even the strongest person in Maine would be able to push it off. It defied gravity!

On Tuesday we hiked Gorham Mountain. Once again the view was beautiful, but the highlight of the day was the whale watch. We traveled thirty six miles off the coast and were lucky enough to see six humpback whales. We also saw puffins, seals, and even a basking shark. It swam right in front of the boat! These kinds of sharks don’t have any teeth though, so no worries. Whew!

Wednesday was more of a relaxed day, which means it was the only day that didn’t include hiking mountains. Instead, we went to a place known as Wonderland. That’s what its really called if you were wondering. There, we recorded the elevation and distance of the tides for a science project. After we got our data we went back to the campsite to work on our presentations. Don’t think we didn’t get our “hyper” time though. We took a break and went to a lake close to the camp. The bravest of us even went swimming. I regret to admit that I was one of them; it was freezing!

By the time Thursday came around everybody wanted to go home. There was no running water, so we were probably dirty and smelly. Eww! The teachers must have wanted more sweat because on Thursday we went on two treacherous hikes. We took a trail by the ship yard and hiked to a spot facing the ocean. There we drew landscape pastel pictures. After, we went to Sand Beach and took a trail off that. That hike was one of the steepest. I can still recall the adrenaline rush everytime I stumbled.

Finally, Friday! Only one thing was on everyone’s mind, HOME! But before we could do that we had to drive up Cadillac Mountain. Seeing the ocean laid out in front of us, sparking as if diamonds were hi pen just under the surface, was breath taking. I think everyone paid more attention to the beauty of this mountain because that was the last thing we were going to see before we had to go home.

After a well deserved trip to McDonald’s we were on our way home, ready to take in the beauty of Monmouth. Ready to once again take running water, heat, and electricity for granted.