When I was in senior high school I decided to join Adipura Club. This was because my school was one of the best schools that cared the environment in Garut and I cared too. I learned many things about environment in this club. This club might not be popular in my school because when I joined it in my first grade, the members were about fifteen people. But it became much more popular by other students when I was in the second grade because the activities became more interesting. It was not only interesting, but also dangerous such as hiking, rafting, caving, climbing and diving. I did not join all those activities because I had a weak body. The school also did not permit all of it, so we just went hiking because it cost less money and less dangerous.

This club did not only give me fun but also a knowledge like how to find edible food in mountain, species of plant and animal that lived in mountain, how to survive in nature etc. When final-term holiday of the second grade, other members and I went to Guntur Mountain. Guntur Mountain was one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, it was one of the most active volcanoes in 1700s-1850s. The last eruption was recorded in 1847 and it had erupted more than ten times. Hiking required experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge to maintain safety. We did not have those criteria so we required someone who had it.

Even though the height of the mountain was not really high and the journey might be short but we still had to be careful because we did not know what might happen in the mountain. That was why there was a professional club with us who already had experience, athletic ability and technical knowledge. Before the other members and I started to climb, the instructor told us about many important things. He told us that when we went hiking, there were several things the climbers had to be careful with, such as falling rocks, falling from rocks, avalanches, weather, altitude and volcanic activity. But since the mountain wasn’t really high we just had to be careful with falling rocks, falling from rocks, avalanches, weather and volcanic activity.

When we were hiking, there was falling rocks everywhere, my friend also slipped several times, it made me scared but the instructor said it was normal and told me to not worry. Before we went hiking, the instructor told us that there were two styles in doing it. The first style was called expedition style and the second was alpine style. The second one was called alpine style because it usually referred to alpine mountaineers/climber who was climbed Alps or Rocky mountains. It was also more focused in handling the icy condition of mountain. We applied expedition style which was so different with alpine style. In expedition style, we were more in working together and avoided some bad things like trapped in bad weather and forced to descend in avalanche conditions. I never thought hiking would be this difficult.

I went hiking not only fun but also for planting trees. Guntur Mountain often suffered from fire. It made trees and other plant died and could not grow anymore. It was also one of my reasons why I chose this mountain. Many people did not really care of this because they did not feel the effect yet. But I thought the effect already happened especially the avalanches. It happened more often every year or maybe everyday but people did not realize it. All of this just made me more worry about the environment. Other than avalanches, the other effect might be flood. Flood could happen because of the bad hydrologist or there was no more land that could absorb water. But people did not seem to care that too. That was why I suggested the other member to plant trees together.

We might not plant many trees such as in television when the president held an activity to plant one thousand trees, but at least we cared about the environment. It was also because there were just a few of us that we only could plant 20-30 trees. After we planted the trees, we prayed together so that the trees would grow and become useful. I also hoped that not only us who were doing this, but many people would be interested too especially the government. It was because if people kept ignoring this, someday in the future there would be a huge calamity. After we planted the trees and reached the top of the mountain.

We had lunch together and I took some pictures of sceneries and the other members to commemorate it. In a few hours, we decided to go down the mountain. Even though the journey was short, I felt so tired. But when I saw the scenery, all of my tiredness disappeared. It was one of my greatest experiences or adventures because it was the first and might be the last time I went hiking. I hope I could do it again in the future or at least doing something more to the environment, especially in my hometown.