Scouting Rock Rift

Bryan Squeezing Through!

About to start my first season of summer camp with the Mohonk Preserve. It is very different from other summer camps I have taught in the past. With summer day camps from Delaware Nature Society, each age group and week of camp would revolve around a theme (i.e. Fish Scales and Snake Tails, Wizards & Lizards, Shell Sleuths, etc.), or at Teton Science Schools, you and a teaching team would design series of days of camp around an inquiry question or topic. At the Mohonk Preserve, the summer camp model is very different. They have three age-groups you can teach camp in (similar to what I am used to): 3-5, 6-10, and 11-13. However, these three age groups get a series of weeks, but most campers do not do all of the series of weeks. Within those series of weeks, different instructors will lead those weeks in a variety of diverse activities. I thought this was vey interesting. Since I would be leading a few weeks of camp, I found it odd that I really did not communicate with the other instructors of other weeks to see what they were doing so we did not replicate or copy something that was done in a previous week and bore any returning camper. But I had an open mind to be ready to tackle this summer camp and see how it planned out over the course of the summer. For the summer I was assigned to teach 2 weeks of Camp Peregrine, our ages 6-10 summer camp. I ended up being assigned week 1 and week 4 of this age groups summer camp schedule.

Super Glad I am Skinny!

Like all programs I end up preparing to teach, scouting out teaching spots, hikes, and places is a must for me. By scouting out places before I teach, allows me to plan what I may be in for when I take my camp or class out to that place. It's great to  see how long it would take me (then guess-timating how long it would take a class), what types of materials I would want to bring, anticipate the challenge areas of a hike, areas to stop and have snack, games, lessons, and water/rest stops, etc. During week 1, my co-leader and I decided to take our class on a rock scramble that bordered the Mohonk Preserve and Mountain House boundaries. My co-leader Kim had done this hike before and suggested she would feel comfortable leading it. I was more than okay with that as I love observing others before I try it, but I also wanted to scout it on my own just so I had an idea for myself how I should prepare myself. Another co-leader, Bryan, was going to join us on this hike, and since he had never done the hike before either, we decided to scout it together. So glad we did, this hike/scramble was awesome and we felt that our campers would enjoy it too, but we also discovered areas where we knew we were gonna need to definitely help/support our campers on some cruxes on the scramble. There were definitely areas of slippery, slick crevices and tight squeezes that we would need to keep careful eyes on out kiddos.

But definitely taking time to do it ourselves beforehand made me feel better on not just observing it and hiking it with my campers, but to co-lead it and support my fellow staff as well. Check out some photos of us squeezing through some tight areas!

TheChristyBel