First day of the mock three-day program. L was the educator and A, B, A, J, JL, and K were in my group. Our goal of the day was to go through the first day of a typical three-day program for a school that wanted to focus on watersheds.
We hiked over to Lost Pond on the Lost Pond Trail (0.5 mi one-way) and I was the “sweep”. The sweep is the last person in a group of hikers that makes sure nobody gets left behind and that the set pace for the group is adequate.
We did activities along the way like “Water Cycle Relay”, a water cycle song, and ate lunch by the river. One of the first activities we did was to create a sound map. Everyone in the group was extremely creative and though every map had the same general layout, it showed how different people visualized their sounds onto paper. It was a beautiful way to bring art and nature together. This map activity really illustrated how things that we may take for granted – cars driving by, birds chirping, or a river flowing – are all interpreted very differently by each person.
Afterwards, we hiked to the Square Ledge, or “Squedge”, and it was only difficult because of all of the post-holes created by people hiking before us and, of course, the ones we made along the way. The warm and gorgeous weather almost backfired on us in this way by creating soft snow that gave way almost immediately stepping upon it. Let’s just say the warm breeze did not make hiking a breeze!
The top of the Squedge was beautiful. We all took a picture together then did one last trail activity about watersheds.
Just being on the ledge, but not even close to the edge of it, made me nervous. But after a while it became peaceful to watch as the skiers went down the mountain across from us and watching the now toy-sized semi-trucks drove on by below.
Our last activity was a night hike. We left at dusk and gradually gained our night vision. We didn’t stay out for very long and did a very small loop that started from the trail-head at Pinkham and went to Blanchard’s Loop Trail. L told us a great story that related sense of sight to night vision and later told us the science behind it. Our hike finished with us looking up at the stars on our own. I picked a nice spot almost under a tree and got to have some time to myself for what seemed like the first time today. I’ll definitely be hiking at night again.
Tomorrow is day two of the mock three-day program, and I just hope I have enough energy to get through it all in one piece!
