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.