Camping trip with the 8th graders

School officially started this week but I have yet to teach a math lesson. We just haven't had the time for that type of academics. Instead of filling our bags with books, pencils, and paper we packed our overnight bags, grabbed our tents and sleeping bags, and set out for an adventure. Every year the 8th graders have the opportunity to take a class trip to Washington D.C. and New York at the end of the year. This trip is expensive so the school offers a few fundraising opportunities throughout the year. The first is the annual YCC trip. The Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) organizes outdoor work projects for groups of students which help them earn money for their organization. Our group had the pleasure of working at the Sylvan Lake State Park outside of Eagle. The state park was way off the beaten path and we were essentially cut off from the outside world for a couple of days. Ten miles down a curvy paved road that took us out of town then another 5 miles of dirt road before we reached the ranger station. There is no cell phone reception within 15 miles of the park and the closest land line with about 10 miles away. With a generation so attached to electronics it was nice to just get away from everything and get back to the basics. In addition to no phones we had no electricity which meant no lights in the pit bathrooms. I was really impressed by the kids' adaptability. They really had a great time!
I was also thoroughly impressed with their work ethic. We worked really hard for a couple of days doing not so glamorous jobs. They were dirty and hot but they kept working with a drive that blew me away. On Thursday my group spent a couple of hours making minor repairs to one of the many hiking trails in the state park. First we hauled rocks and scooped dirt in order to build a more gradual approach to a bridge across a river. The kids worked quickly and after about a half hour we left behind a section of path that looked like it had always been there. Next we worked on a section of path that had been washed out by the river. Our job was to raise the path a bit and reinforce it with rocks on either side. This job took us a couple of hours to complete because we had to dig trenches, put the big rocks in the trenches, then fill the area with numerous buckets of dirt. It was hard work but the kids were really proud of themselves when we finally completed the job. That evening we had dinner on/near that section of trail and they really enjoyed showing off their hard work to their friends.
On Friday my group shifted gears and continued a project begun by other groups the day before. With clippers in hand we set out toward the lake in search of overgrown willows that were compromising the hiking trail and choking out a nearby river. After three hours of work we had filled the back of a truck bed a couple of times and had another pile of branches that just would not fit onto of the huge pile already piled precariously in the truck bed. It was hard work but we had a lot of fun and really enjoyed admiring the progress we made in just a few short hours.
We didn't work the entire time we were at the park though. In addition to admiring the beauty around us we took time to pit one homeroom against the other in a game of capture the flag. Thirty teenagers and a couple of teachers running around a field like crazy people-talk about a good time!! Unfortunately my homeroom lost after about an hour of running and searching. In our defense though the flag was hidden so well that the other team couldn't find their own flag! We eventually found it the next morning during a thorough combing of the field. What a great experience! We had a chance to bond with our students, create memories, and earn a lot of money for our end of the year trip.