Students share experiences from their Adventure Educator Semester with the President More Hey Mitch |
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Hey Mitch~ On this section of OBW, we participated in a phase of the expedition known as “Alpine”. This means that we traveled and camped above the alpine zone (above 3,400 feet in elevation). Alpine took place from Oct 19th to Oct 26th. Students were divided into two groups—both destined for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was expected by most, including our instructors, that there would be snow once we reached the alpine zone. However, to the disappointment of many and a pleasant surprise to some, there was no snow to be found. In fact, as far as we know the coldest night we had was a toasty 31.8 degrees! One group spent this phase traveling in the Pemigewasett Wilderness. In this group, we spent some time hiking along old railroad beds on the banks of the north fork of the Pemigewasett River. We got into the alpine zone to climb Mt. Bond, Mt. Guyot and South Twin Mountains and camped at the Guyot Shelter. The rest of the crew was making the trip to the Presidential Range (hitting up Mt. Adams, Adams II, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Clay and Mt. Washington) and also not experiencing any snowy weather, but on our day hike to Mt. Adams and Adams II wind speeds reached up to 80 mph at times as we crawled between the two peaks At times we were able to jump up in the air and move 4 feet over in mid-air to one side from the powerful wind. Two days later we had an early wakening to get to the summit of Jefferson. Once at Jefferson we traveled to the one mountain (Mt. Clay) that separated us from our final peak where the weather was perfect and made a great lunch spot (PB&J on bagels—YUM!). After lunch, the climb up Mt. Washington began. Hiking in t-shirts and shorts in the sunny weather getting closer and closer, we soon passed the cog railroad as the passengers of the train took many photos of us as we posed for our own cameras. Once we reached the top it was not as exciting to all the members of the group. Some were surprised that their first trip to Washington was seeing the auto road going all the way to the top with a little snack bar and weather tower that sat on top of the mountain blocking the views. On the way down to the Hermit Lake Shelter we got a lung full of smoke – which we tried to avoid - coming from the train as we headed towards the Lion’s Head Trail. Once we got to the shelter we all took a glance of Tuckerman’s Ravine and the mountain we descended from as the sun set –cool view. The next morning we got one last look at Mt. Washington as we headed to Pinkham Notch as the trip came to an end. This alpine section was our last trip to prepare us for our final that is right around the corner starting Oct 31st and finishing up on November 6th. Nicole Nelson, Lincoln Holt, Tyler Aucoin and the Drifters |
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Send the group a message! |
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Josh Ascani, Tyler Aucoin, Quinn Boyle, Austin Cannaday, Naomi Caywood, Aaron DeStefano, Chris Gerhard, Lincoln Holt, Mary Kinney, Dana Mark, Alyssa Marvel, Tim Masselle, Nate Miller, Nicole Nelson, Adrienne Patenaude, Brock Wier, Amanda Wogaman, Nicole Caruso, Beth Arnold |
