Last weekend I spent 4 days at Algonquin Provincial Park with 20 or so students, a trip we've been doing for about 4 years with city kids getting their first chance in the great big woods.
This trip was more than a bit out of the ordinary without a single night below freezing. Instead we had absolutely beautiful weather, highs around 20C, lows around 10C and nary a cloud in the sky until Sunday night. Even better, the moon was late rising giving a perfect view of the stars.
Some highlights of the trip:
We arranged for park naturalists to run some programs for us; a tour of the logging museum with a guide in the character of 19th century lumberjack, a night hike where city kids were left sitting in the dark (with included nervous loudness), a guided tour of the fall colours, and best of all, a Wolf Howl. An interesting fact is that around 180,000 people visit the park in fall colours season including many from overseas who fly in specifically for it. The warm weather made the colours less spectacular than last year. One or two cold nights are needed to bring out the red and orange in the sugar maples (also to get rid of the remaining biting insects).
The wold howl program has been going on for 50 years since a researcher trying to track wolves found that any noise even marginally like a howl will elicit a response. In the summers they do a public wolf howl where a couple thousand people come to the park and quietly listen for wolves. Our group was much smaller and after trying a couple locations were greeted by about a minute of howling from a pack of 4 or 5 including the yipping of the pups trying to howl. The kids were a great mix of excited and nervous.
Also fun was the spot where I set up my hammock had lots of pedestrian traffic from the kids. Many having done no camping before found it interesting instead of the strange looks I get from the experienced. If only the school would invest in a full set. Even nicer was to sit and chat with the ranger about hammocks becoming more popular - no hint of a hassle.
Not everything was perfect though. After a long week, us teachers hit the hay early. At about 1:30 I was woken from a deep sleep with kids telling me that a girl fell down and was sleeping. Confusedly I got up and discovered that a student was unconscious on the ground. That meant a few hours of activity, calling an ambulance, the school's principal, the parent, and trying to keep the kids calm. She was released from the hospital the next morning and her mother came to pick her up (immigrant mom with no car had to take the bus up to get her). Also the Ministry of Transport decided to have major construction on the one highway through the park meaning it took one of the teachers 4 hours to do an hour long drive. Still having to wake up early the next morning for programs we were all more than a little tired.
Finally dinner time came and having more of a chance to relax, I pulled out by new Granfors Bruks small forest axe to prep for a camp fire. Jokingly I turn to another teacher and ask what the tradition is for a new axe, christen, bless, blood. 20 Minutes later I found out how sharp it is as it skipped off a knot and landed on my foot. Yes, the axe is sharp out of the box. Most annoyingly, after getting back from the hospital with 4 new stitches I find out that another teacher had been using the axe to split wood using a rock and managed to put two nice dings in my brand new (and blooded) blade.
Still a good trip and the injury meant I got a chance to catch up on my sleep. Time to fix the blade on my axe and plan for the next school trip in the spring.
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