Back from two weeks of outcamp trips. The first week was called wilderness. Three other staff members and I took a dozen 12 year olds into the woods and attempted to teach them the skills of camping and backpacking. It was not easy. It was a week filled with complaints, repeated directions, noise, and a couple of tantrums. But, with a weeks worth of recovery time and the realization that no twelve year old is going to resist the urge to play with burning sticks, I am able to see that they really did have a good time and did learn a thing or two. Late in the week we took the kids in canoes across the lake to stay at a campsite and do some real backpacking. This is the view from our campsite.

The second outcamp trip was quite different. One other staff member and I took out five high school boys on a trip that was half kayaking and half backpacking. Our campers were wonderful and had no complaints the whole week. Although it rained at some point every day we stayed relatively dry and we were able to see some great scenery, both on the water and in the woods. The following picture is of me at the beginning of a mile and a quarter portage. I single carried this canoe with my pack the entire way, a feat I am quite proud of.

Our backpacking portion of the trip brought us down a segment of the Northville Lake Placid trail (A 120 mile adirondack trail) to a great site on a beautiful lake where we stayed for two nights. We climbed a fairly high peak (approx. 4000ft) and did some bushwacking/orienteering. This is sunset over a small, beaver-dammed creek.

This is Terrell Pond, which we found to be more of a lake and were extremely pleased that our expectations were exceeded. The "pond" had a pair of loons which I saw from about 15 feet away at one point. My closest loon encounter ever.