Monday (9/20):

We started our morning with another scavenger hunt—this time looking for photos of bears throughout the yard!

After Morning Meeting and snack we had some time for free play at Forest Camp before embarking on a big hike. Our free play time was made especially special because we got to bring a soccer ball to kick around altogether! Everyone did a great job practicing their kicks and taking turns passing it to one another.

We hiked along the entirety of the Hires Trail on Monday and got to wave to Mossy Rocks on our way up. We made a quick stop to check out the view and explore at Lookout Rock, where we were able to see the peaks of both Camel’s Hump and Mt. Mansfield.

The downhill part of our hike was filled with lots of curious pauses as we looked at mushrooms, and observed their shapes, sizes, and colors. We definitely have a group of future foragers on our hands! There were lots of down trees from our recent rain that we had to crawl over, and in the midst of our obstacles we came across a little red eft.

At Thank You Circle we shared our favorite parts of the day—which were mostly about the mushrooms and red eft, and we ended the day with more Forest Camp free play.

Friday (9/24):

This Friday morning started out with a little bit of rain, which kept us inside for some fun coloring leaves and acorns!

Our morning meeting leader this morning decided that we should go on a hike up the Hires trail. We had been up to Mossy Rocks before but not all of our friends had yet gotten to see Lookout Rock and the rest of the trail! We started off on our hike and it wasn’t long before we came upon our first Red Eft. And then soon enough after we found our next one…and another…and another.

There were so many red efts we just had to start counting them all. Even as our number got higher and higher the enthusiasm for these salamanders never went away. By the end of the hike we counted 1 American Toad, 1 Spring Peeper and…24 Red Efts!!! This Friday group sure has had a lot of luck with critters.

We ended the day with free explore and play time at Forest Camp, which for many of our friends meant turning over logs and looking through the leaf litter for whatever other creatures we could find. Thank You Circle was filled with excitement about all we had found. We look forward to exploring together again next week!