Essentially all of your children have fallen in love with the wilderness... and will be setting up tents in your backyards until they move away to college...
What an adventure!
To remain in compliance with the Adirondack State Park rules regarding group sizes... we split the group into 2... Team Hardcore Parkour consisted of... Emily, Max, Olivia, Zach, and Ethan. (see Into the Woods Part II for Team Giant!)
The gang was quick to pick up backcounty life. Setting up camp like pros, throwing the bear bag up into the trees, and scouring the surrounding woods for fire kindling!
The first day of hiking was full of fantastic trail conversation, games, and Adirondack history! But let me get to the main event here... after gauging the group's amazing hiking ability and extreme thirst for adventure... we proposed the possibility of a sunrise hike.
They embraced this idea wholeheartedly. Which meant we went straight to bed... and woke up at 12:30am.
On the trail by 1:30, we hiked through the dark with our headlamps and our hearts beating out of our chests at the idea of how exciting our summit would be. The moon was bright and our eyes adapted quickly.
Somehow the leaders had concealed a pie from the famous Noonmark Diner in Keene Valley, NY and it turns out this was just the sustenance the group needed after the long climb! We arrived at the top of Noonmark Mountain in time to see a sky full of stars and we all hopped in our sleeping bags to await the sunrise in comfort warmth.
As the sky began to brighten with colors we were pretty speechless.
We are so proud of the way the kids embraced this challenge and how exciting and empowering it was to them to do something so out of the ordinary.
Reluctant to leave the summit (understandably so!)... we hiked back to pack up camp and travel to our next site at the base of Roaring Brook Falls. The group spent a low-key afternoon setting up camp and enjoying the falls before an early bedtime.
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