Rainy Start - Clear First Night!

After so much preparation it's hard to believe it's really here! The morning was rainy and chilly as I went over to Mr. Swanson's house for our guides breakfast. After that it was a whirlwind of checking the weather, distributing last minute request items purchased last night and flipping through paper work.

Finally students were arriving from the dorms, parents were dropping off their children and the nervous and excited energy in the lower gym went up about 10 notches!

After a few inspiring words and a Whoo Rahh from Mr. Menke it was off to small groups to meet the wilderness instructors, pack those backpacks and start learning how to stay safe and comfortable on the trail.

I was running around taking care of last minute requests. We have a supply of extra layers, loaner sleeping bags, water bottles and all sorts of other goodies. Despite our best efforts to check everything these last few months there is always something that gets forgotten, or locked in the post office or in the cage or just plain lost.

Kaitlyn, Lindsey and senior leader Mike were among the first groups to head out after their crew ate a quick brunch.

Skip collected three groups in his bus to deliver them to their trail heads and I had the pleasure of dropping of Ms. Saxe and her crew.

As they were getting off the bus at the lonely trail-head Jake L. looked around and mused, "We're in the middle of nowhere. But from here we're going to be hiking . . . . even more into the middle of nowhere!" Yes indeed!

There was some goofy excitement that I took advantage of to get a few corny pictures.

But also a group shot just before I headed back to campus. You can click on any of these pictures to see them larger.

Last I saw of the group they were heading north on the Appalachian Trail hiking just a few miles to their first campsite. Don't forget you can download the group list and route information to the right so you can follow along day by day. Here's a reminder of how to do all that if you've forgotten.

Tonight the weather report for Lincoln (closest bigger town to the trails) has been revised to not include any rain in the forecast and even the typically cautious AMC weather report has no mention of rain for the valley's tomorrow. But it will be chilly tonight probably hovering around freezing for most of the groups.

That's all I can think of for now. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!