Part of Trinity Valley's curriculum is the Trojan Outdoor Experience, or TOE program. Starting in 3rd grade, students are exposed to outdoor programs in a variety of settings. One of the biggest trips is in the 8th grade year- five days in the Big Bend area. This is actually the last year for the school to go to Big Bend- next year we will combine our Washington D.C. trip with the TOE trip and will do this part up in Virginia, which will be a cool experience, too!
Anyways, on Monday we drove a long way down to Big Bend and immediately set up our tents before sunset in Chisos Basin:
Although it was pleasant but windy during the day, as soon as the sun set the temperatures plummeted into the low 40s. Let's just say I was wearing many, many, many layers at night!
Accompanying us (but living in a lodge, not tents!), was our "cooking crew"- parent volunteers who had prepared all of our food for the trip- quite an accomplishment!
On Tuesday, we floated canoes down the Rio Grande-- my camera wasn't water proof so I don't have those pictures! The river was low, but we had a great time! I thought I wouldn't get wet, but after one accidental splash I decided, what the heck...and my fellow teacher canoe partner and I caught up with every canoe in our group and had some amazing splash battles! I was soaked! We also hiked a trail called Closed Canyon. It was a short, easy, but fun little hike!
On Wednesday, we got on the hiking trails around 7 in the morning and hiked the "Lost Mine" trail in Big Bend.
The summit of the hike provided amazing views at 7550 ft!
After getting back down and having a quick sandwich lunch, we drove for about 3 hours to Balmorhea State Park. We got to take a quick dip in the natural spring pool there! It was great actually staying indoors in a lodge with a BED and a SHOWER!!! :) On Thursday morning, we headed out early for a little drive to the main attraction of the week- hiking Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at 8749 feet! It took 4 hours to get up, but it was SO worth it!!! It was one of the hardest things I have ever physically done, but I have to admit, I am so proud of myself!! I ended up in a small group of 4 kids and myself-- we called ourselves the "Fantastic Five"! Our motto was "It's not a race, it's an accomplishment!"
Lunch on the side of the mountain:
Near the top, we started to catch up to some of the earlier groups..This shot makes me think of The Sound of Music!
It was extremely extremely windy! We had sustained winds of 40 mph and gusts of 80 mph!!! There were times we literally hugged the side of the mountain as the gusts came upon us! We also came across some patches of snow and ice that were sometimes difficult to cross.
But man, were the views amazing!!!!
When we got near the summit, we had some waiting times. The winds are so rough at the summit, we were only taking kids up a few at a time so we had some wait time. As groups came back down, we gave each other high fives! Here's my 'next door neighbor', 7th grade science teacher Erin as she leads her group back down.
Finally, my group got to be at the summit!! We did it!!!
Then we headed down the mountain, a much easier journey!! However, I really needed to protect my bad-ACL knee and my legs were EXHAUSTED by this point, so I was going really slow and got behind my group. However, I made it down in just a little over 2 hours!
SUCCESS!!!!!!
What was really amazing is that there were about 3 kids who really struggled through this hike, but they accomplished it!!! Part of the mission of the program is to get kids out of their comfort zone and push them to realize what they can accomplish when they put their minds to a challenge. When these last three kids came down, a lot of the kids were at the finish line, cheering them on and even formed a tunnel for them to run through-- it was great! (Note: obviously, there was an adult with each of those 3 kids-- they weren't on their own, and our leader was the very last one off the mountain!)
Anyways, it was a great opportunity, even if I am EXTREMELY sore still today and feeling exhausted!!!
