It started about 3 this morning I think.  A little pitter patter at first, just enough to break through the evening noise and half way wake me up.  I listened to it getting stronger and stronger, thinking to myself, its going to be a soggy day.

The rain did prevent them from popping out precisely at 6:00 as they have been doing, though there were a few mad runs to the restroom, a 40 yard dash through the early morning mud.  Of the 3 bathrooms sort of near to our corner of Curry Camp, the center one is the best.  The showers are larger, there is a blast fan heater type device and it seems less trafficked for some reason.  I took advantage of the rain to get in an early shower - oddly enough I realized after I turned on the water that I had company.  What I thought was a leaf started hopping about, so before the water got hot enough to hurt it I corralled a very lively frog and deposited it outside. Probably best that it in my shower, some of the other kids may not have been as amused.  The rain was still coming down as we got ready for breakfast, and though my optimistic Irish (is that an oxymoron?) roommate thought that it would clear in a bit - such was not the case.

I moved over to the One Up Mushroom group today to participate in their challenge hike up Yosemite Falls.  The Fuee Fuees went to the base of El Capitan, while the Care Bears headed off someplace else - hard to know for sure what those Care Bears are up to, they may look cute, but they are the ones who have seen all the good wildlife (Bear, Bobcat and today, a coyote!)  Actually the Care Bears hit the spider caves today, so the mushrooms were able to look at them from a thousand feet over head.

 With the rain making the day look reasonably bleak, the kids decided to fuel up hard.
 

You will notice a pile of bacon on most plates - these little dragons really like their bacon...




After that, it was time to gear up...

....and hit the trail.






 The challenge hikes really are great opportunities for the kids to push themselves.  Its wet, steep, cold and uncomfortable.  They had to carry their own gear and rely on each other and themselves for support.  Again and again the other chaperones and I are impressed by the kids ability to stay positive and be tough in difficult situations.  Of course they complained some, who wouldn't, but they still did what needed to be done.  We do try and head off obvious mistakes, a few kids seemed to want to bring almost their entire wardrobes on some of the hikes (we lightened those loads) others came out without their day packs or jackets (we sent them back to get them) My favorite was the student who come out on trail with one hiking shoe and one tennis shoe.  Lucky they were the correct left and right shoe, just different styles.  He didn't seem too upset about the situation when one of the chaperones pointed it out, and who knows, it seemed to work for him.  Mrs Boniface kept an eye out for that sartorial misstep and caught him the next day before trail - a good catch I think.




Lunch today was another of YI hiking specialty - a pizza sandwich.  Pita bread, cold pizza sauce, sliced mozzarella, pepperoni and olives! 










It is in fact more disgusting than it sounds, and yet we all happily ate it, with the right ambiance anything can work.








Because of the rain our evening campfire was adjusted to an evening of games and activities at the outdoor Indian museum.  It is sad that the trip is almost over, but I think it has turned out very well.  They have spent time reflecting on themselves and thinking about who they are and what they are doing, and their observations have been encouraging.  I am curious to know if the time here has changed them in noticeable ways.  I think it has made what was already a close class closer, and the kids have gotten to spend time not only with their usual friends, but also classmates that they may not sit with at the school cafe too often, but who are people who they have an enormous amount in common with, and who are also friends.

Wednesday the 25th

You would think after a few days of getting up early, hiking all day and then going to a group class every night til 8:30 or so, you would think after a few days of this that they would not be popping up exactly, precisely at 6:00 AM. You would in fact be wrong - as at precisely at 6:00, and I mean exactly precisely on the dot, they start popping their heads out of their cabins like little gophers.  Not all of them, but a good number, and by 6:30 I would  say that the majority are bustling about getting ready for their day.  They are having a grand time for sure, their excitement gives them energy and they are eager to get up and get going.

One strategy they have developed to really maximize their time is to keep their rooms highly organized.  It is a mature approach to the situation, & I hope you all wish they could be as efficient at home.

Pic Courtesy of Hugh

By keeping their spaces neat and tidy, they are all able to concentrate on important things, like hair.





 Today was a big day for many reasons.  The Care bears and the Fuee Fuees had their Challenge Hikes, longer adventures with some pretty serious elevation changes.  The extra distance, plus a bit of rain, really pushed them all.  Everyone had different hiking buddies during the ascent, and there were readings & quotations to think about ever so often.  Since the smiles have not gone away, the pushing has been a good thing,   The Fuee Fuees ascended Yosemite Falls to about the mid way point:

Pic Courtesy of Kristine

Pic Courtesy of Kristine

While the Care Bears went up Vernal Falls.  Lunch was a sort of cold burrito/enchilada bean mix thing that the chaperones were pretty sure they wouldn't touch and were pretty impressed that they devoured.  My recommendation the next time you serve something new is to take them on a 6 mile hike just before you sit and eat.

Pic Courtesy of Charles

Pic Courtesy of Charles

Of course you will need to have something like this at the end as a reward.








I am told that not only did the Care Bears have an amazing hike, the also saw a fairly large Bobcat.  There may be some images floating about, and I am very happy for them as these are incredibly rare predators to see, especially during the day.

Pic Courtesy of Hugh

The kids were also given some new team building challenges.  One I especially liked was from the One Up Mushrooms, who were told that they had to get into a line, first in the order of the sizes of their different pets.  Once in line they had to then change order, but they could only rearrange themselves if there feet never touched the ground.

Pic Courtesy of Hugh

It took them a while to figure it all out, but after some brainstorming, they came up with some great ways to move around without walking on the ground.

The rain had mostly stopped by dinner, and truthfully, even though it was enough to break out the rain gear, it was not torrential by any means.  After getting dried off and having dinner, tonight's evening program was the much anticipated night hike.  The Mushrooms were folded into the Fuee Fuees and the Care Bears, so we had to groups go off in different directions.  Our ensemble headed off to the Merced River for a game of Predator & Prey. 



One sad note, Gabe unfortunately came down with a case of Step and had to have his trip cut a bit short.  I am sure he will be feeling better soon, but if everyone can wish him a speed recovery I think that would be much appreciated by the O'Briens.  We have only one more full day left, and I am sure tomorrow will bring even more adventures.

Tuesday the 24th

Another bright and early start for us all - I think I counted 5 or 6 different alarms all going off at 6:00 AM when whisper hour ended this morning.  The kids hit the sack fairly hard last night.  It looks like each day is about 7 miles of hiking total, about 4-5 during the day on trail, and then about 3 at night going back and forth from Curry Village to the Yosemite Visitor Center for evening program.  I am tempted to start at the end of today as its closer to my memory right now, but I suppose its best to stay as close to chronological as I am able. 

So after the 7th or so beeping noise everyone started getting ready for breakfast.  As you can see, a few other schools have joined us, but we are not interacting with them at all, the YI folks keep things humming along at a very brisk pace. 



I have gotten the other group names for you all.  In addition to the Fuee Fuees, there is also team One Up Mushroom and Team Care Bears.  (I think I scored with Fuee Fuee).

The Care Bears spent the day over by El Capitan, the largest piece of granite in the world, as tall as 3 and a half Trans American Pyramid buildings, stacked on top of each other.  Among other things they went over the basics of climbing, as their YI Instructor Aubrey is something of a climber, and they say modern rock climbing was invented here at the granite cathedral.

The One Up Mushrooms spent the day working their way East to Mirror Lake, where they played a game of polar bear challenge.  Stephen one after 20 minutes, though Ms Emma did give him a run for his money after the other people dropped out.

They are a very reflective bunch, those One Up Mushroom people, in addition to science and ecology they are learning to commune with the Earth.






The Fuee Fuees had an appointment today with the spider caves.  Veterans know what I am talking about, a somewhat secret YI destination near the base of the Yosemite Falls.  They are not marked on any map, and if you do not know where they are you could walk past them and never know that they are there, which is what thousands of people do each day. Here are the entrance and exit to the Spider Caves, but as to what happens inside, I think you will have to ask your child about that.  Suffice to say it is an amazing team building and conquer your fear type of exercise, and while the Fuee Fuees went first (and were amazing) everyone is going to get a chance to go through. 

Spider Caves Entrance

Spider Caves teeny tiny exit...

Other of today's activities included a stop at the outdoor Native American Indian Museum, a talk with one of the  interpretive Miwok guides named Phil, and two bear sightings.  The second was tonight, but only Mrs Boniface was lucky enough to bear witness, as she had to take care of some issue at camp and took the bus to catchup to the evening program, and apparently there was one on the road.  The other was last night at the Bear Talk, when one of our bold young adventures helped out with the presentation. 

That was not the only pedagogical feat our kids performed up there, as tonight during the climbing demonstration, two of our best and brightest volunteered to be a cliff wall.





So as you can see things are going well.  Tomorrow is a challenge hike day as well as the night hike - so our mileage should be around 10 for the day I would guess.  In addition to the kids, I would like to acknowledge the chaperones, who are doing an amazing job, and Mrs Boniface, who is keeping everything & everyone on track. I am looking forward to telling you all more tomorrow.

Monday the 23rd

I know in years past there have been flurries, snowball fights, thunderstorms and all sorts of inclement weather up here in the valley.  This year not so much. Sort of cold at night, but not really that bad, and by the time were ready to gear up the sun was out and the sunscreen was being put on (yes, we are checking).

From 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM we have what is called whisper hour, so that those of us asleep can stay that way.  Wonderful concept this whole whisper hour thing, reminds me of some other camping trip....

Anyways, the kids are pretty good about this, though there is some necessary plotting, scheming and general chattering that must go on any time kids, woods, tent cabins and flashlights are all combined.  The kids did not have a problem getting up this morning, they were excited and happy, despite the fact that there were no bear sightings during the night.  We did have a few late night bathroom visits (they come and get us for those) and for general roaming around the kids are all using the buddy system and staying within the prescribed boundaries that the YI people have given us.  Our breakfast slot is 7:30, so we do have to move along to be there on time, and being on time is important.  There are 7 or so other schools up here, and if we miss our meal time we go to the back of the line.  Breakfast was fine enough, not exactly Prospect, not even Louie's, but the coffee is Pete's and there was lots of bacon (by the way, a lot of your kids really, really, like bacon).  We are making sure the kids get hydrated up in the morning, between the altitude and the hiking we want to keep up with that.  It has not been a problem as the juice bar has quite a variety of flavors, and some of the kids now love this guava/passion-fruit combo that frankly does not seem all that appealing to me.  But hey, they are getting in the fluid so its all good.

After breakfast today we met our YI Instructors

We were divided into 3 groups, Mr Albert and Mrs Kelly in one, myself and Mrs Von Zedlitz in the second, and Mr Cotter and Mrs Boniface in the third.  The YI people are that sort of highly competent Northern California cool neo-hippie type that you would expect, a bit more Berkeley than Stanford if you follow me (oooh the Villegas and the Shadix are going to get me...).  Our group is lead by a nice young person named Adrien (Insert Rocky Joke Here) and she lead us through a naming game that involved making up a dance to correspond to the number of syllables in your name.  Not sure if the other chaperones were made to dance, suffice to say that even though I have only 2 syllables mine was pretty horrid.  After that we had our first of many circle times, which is the YI's preferred method of settling everyone down so they can get some instructional work in.

The only downside is that a lot of my pics will be my group - we all go different directions and though we did run into one of the other groups up by mirror lake, we don't interact when we are on trail, so we can keep group cohesion.  I am going to bully the other chaperones to take my camera so I can get a variety of content.  Our groups name is the Fuee Fuees (Sp).  Apparently they all had a game in kindergarten where they would pull their sweatshirts over their knees and jump around the playground saying "Fuee Fuee"...who knew? I am told that there was another group of martians on that same playground who said "Meep Meep" and they must have had a good time back then because they were all giggling about it as they explained it all to Adrien.

So Adrien, Kristine the Fuee Fuees and I all headed sort of East-ish from Curry Village after we went over a few more rules, talked about our theme of the day "You are all a  part of something bigger" and learned what it means to Chase a Coyote.  Chasing a Coyote for boys is much easier than Chasing a Coyote for girls, and while Adrien and Kristine managed that I made sure to tell the boys how lucky we all were that we did not have to deal with those sorts of logistics.  There seemed to be general agreement on this point, and I also went over the necessity of washing hands after said Coyote has been Chased...and also the absolute necessity of not touching me unless I actually have seen those hands being washed.

Group 2 (Kelly/Albert) also headed East, though by another trial, and the third group (Cotter/Boniface) went through the meadow to the west - it was swampy from what I gathered afterwards.  The general day is spent studying science (ecology, geology & climate change), playing games doing team building exercises all built around the theme of the day.  For our group we did one of those blindfolded hike walks where everyone helps the person behind them

 The whole thing about being blindfolded is you are never sure where you are going

As we happened to be near the base of North Dome, it made sense to look around some.

This one was never seen again..........jk












The YI instructors provide a picnic lunch, and everyone caries a part.  Today was pretty good: pita bread, hummus, cheese, salami, tomatoes and chips.  They were in fact very serious about the whole bandana thing, in addition to being used as blindfolds (above) we are suppose to catch are crumbs and put them into a crumb bag so we do not leave any food behind.





We stop every little bit and either play a game (zipper tag, camouflage) or an instructional moment.

Adrien has also assigned a few people to have jobs: we have a toast master, whose job it is to propose a toast from time to time, so everyone keeps drinking their water and stays hydrated, a moop master (moop = mess of other people) so when we find trash we pick it up and pack it up in the burlap sack that the moop master has tied to their backpack, and a psychic, whose job it is to answer questions like: when will we get there, when is lunch, what time is it and basically keep those questions away from the adults. 


The kids are journaling, which will be graded when they return.












They also got a bit of a pedicure in the Upper Merced river, and now they have a solid understanding that glacial runoff is in fact bitterly cold.





So far I think things are going very well.  There are tons of smiles, a sufficient level of goofyness and in general a lot of happiness.  At the moment they group is in Yosemite Village watching a movie about bears and talking to some big guy with dreads, who sort of looks like a bear.  Tomorrow night I here rumors of a night hike, so I will likely be posting late if I can get to it.  But just know that all is well up here.

Lift Off

Sorry for the delay in getting a post up - some things that seem conceptually easy have practical hiccups...

That being said, we all left yesterday from NDV and made it to Curry Village in Yosemite.

I am happy to report that bus trip was uneventful...especially as I was not on the bus, driving up the "emergency" car, listening to "emergency" music and drinking my "emergency" coffee.  Safety first right....

We arrived in the early afternoon, about 3:00 on the dot, to a beautiful, sunny and down right hot Valley Floor.  Curry Village is right below Half Dome, so the kids can now all recognize this pretty easily:

Our tent cabins are also at the base of Half Dome, and I am sure you will all be happy to know that they are out of the land slide area.  That was one of the many nuggets of safety information that we got when the folks from the Yosemite Institute (YI) checked us in.  The Tent Cabins that got squished a few years back are on the other side of the camp, so unless there is a really unusual geological event we are probably ok.  Probably.  Speaking of Safety, I am happy to tell you all that there is a very nice lady on site and on call during the night watching over the tent cabins.  Her name is Security Sara, and like all the YI people she is very kind, nurturing and very good with the kids.  She gave us all the information we needed to know to keep the wildlife out of the cabins (mostly racoons and bears)  The kids are motivated to keep the doors closed as the racoons like to mark their territory (if you know what I mean) and no one really wants to deal with that sort of natural experience.  Security Sara is also the bear chaser away person, were not allowed to chase the bears away ourselves, which I have to say is not a bummer.  If they wander in one of Sara's jobs is to shoo them off.  She takes this very seriously and has lots of experience with it, and between you and me I am pretty OK that this particular job is someone else's. 

We all go to meal's as a giant herd of 6th graders, our assigned time is 4:55.  I know, it seems early, but it works well.  We get off trail between 3:30 and 4:30, so there is just enough time for fast showers and clean ups, and then were off to the cafeteria to eat.

 This is important as we have an evening program at 7:00 each night, and our fist night's program was about a mile and a half away.  In case you were wondering, everyone's flashlights are working just fine, as they kept turning them on and off and on and off and on and off...

The cabins are all clustered around each other, and the chaperones are interspersed throughout.  We roamed about last night making sure the lights were out by about 10 or so.  The kids have been extremely well behaved, they are getting along well with each other, being respectful to the adults and in general acting probably the opposite of what they do at home, which is to say, perfectly.