Ranging Beyond the Camp

We introduced a brand-new class to the camp schedule this year. It's our first advanced Environmental Education course, and it's got the catchy name of Ranger.

The class focuses on the local ecology of Stokes State Forest and a study of the Appalachian Trail that involves hiking a portion of the trail itself. The class details the history and facts of the trail, and involves a lot of hiking itself. In the middle of the week they depart from camp for a 2 and 1/2 hour lunch hike on the trail, and even leave some home-made trail mix for weary thru hikers to pick up late.

It's a great opportunity to get to experience the world-famous trail that runs near camp, enjoy the great big state forest we're in and take a nice long walk in the woods. It's unlike any other class on camp, and have been quite a hit thus far.

A portrait of our very first Ranger class. Their true identities are unknown and legend refers to them only by their trail names. From left to right we have Ponderer, Ranger Ramey, Tetris, Heads-Up, Snap and Samalander.