A Picnic at Horse Meadows

A picnic in the snow for the last day at High Trails. Our whole group trekked up to Horse Meadows, about 2 miles each way. We arrived at the meadow in a moody cloud of fog, before snow started falling in flurries 20 minutes later to make our picnic a real event. It was only a dusting, but very exciting nonetheless.  After lunch we were all ready to bundle up for our walk back to camp to find some warmth.

Tonight the kids will be putting on cabin skits for the grand finale campfire.

We expect to be back at MBMA around 2 pm tomorrow.We'll give the office an update on traffic when we pass through Temecula.

And with the cold weather, a few new activities were undertaken...

Adventure Day Wednesday

Today the kids jumped into the mountain adventure activities with a turn at wall climbing, archery, orienteering with a compass and map, and an adventure course that takes them through a series of teamwork obstacles. 

The cooler weather set in today as expected, but for the time being we've had clear skies. Rumors of snow tomorrow have the kids very excited. If the weather holds, we have plans for a longer hike up to Horse Meadows that we'll do all together as a big group.

And a few more photos from around camp today, and our activities last night...

Birds, Environmental Awareness, Plant Life & Screaming Chickens

The screaming chickens is actually a game played during down-time at camp. A group with the instructor finds some open space in the woods. The instructor walks about 50 yards further on, then when the signal is given, the kids run towards the instructor and scream as loud as they can while they run. That's it. Screaming chickens in the name given to the activity. Not exactly something we do at MBMA every day, which, I think, is the point.

Today was a full day of ‘classes’. Each of the three topics, birds, plants and environmental awareness took up about two hours of the day. Our instructor in one group was Danny, a recent graduate from University of Georgia with a degree in biology. The birds lesson we started with was much like the others, except that Danny is an avid birder. The group set out in the in the direction of Jenks Lake, about a mile up the trail, where we would eventually have lunch. About 10-15 minutes up the trail, we veered off to find a nice spot to sit for a short lesson, during which Danny pulled out a small white board from his backpack. Some vocabulary is introduced, a there's little discussion of bird life. On this occasion we actually spotted a red-tailed hawk, stellar jay, mountain chickadee and, a rare (we're told) brown creeper. Then, when the group seemed to get a little restless, we headed on up the trail another 15 minutes or so, found another spot to sit, or do an activity. In this case, we had a game to help understand how birds’ beaks are adapted to different types of food. So the kids were given small tools to pick up items strewn around by the instructor. The tools were spoons or small clips one might use to close a bag of chips, and the items used to represent food were strings and beads and buttons. So, as the kids ran around trying to pick up items in the woods, they were gaining an understanding of how some beaks are more efficient for different food types. Then, another 15 minutes up the trail, the lesson continues with a wrap up of the activity, and a discussion of how the loss of a food source might affect a bird that has a particular adaptation.

We eventually made it to our destination, Jenks Lake.The rest of the afternoon was more of the same on the way back from the lake, with the two other lessons built into the walk back.

Tonight we have an astronomy lesson, then the kids get to do some raucous line dancing in the dining hall.