I felt that today was a good first day here at Camp Huntington. We started our day by taking a nature hike to different parts of the peninsula. I really enjoyed it because I have never been to most of the places that we went to today. Our first stop was to the Barque. I have passed by the Barque and walked around the deck of the Barque every time that I have been here. I even slept on the deck on one night during my last trip here. However, I am pretty sure that this was my first visit to the inside of the Barque. While it was small by my standards, it was pretty impressive when you think about the fact that it used to be a houseboat. For a boat that was built at around the same time as the camp, they had a great deal of technology on board (e.g. flush toilets, ventilation system). After we finished on the Barque, we walked past the ropes course to the church.
I had always heard that there was a church on the peninsula, but I never visited the site. This was because I did not know how to get there and there usually was not enough time to explore when I visited in the past. The church was breathtaking! The cedar shakes really made it stand out. The inside was equally as breathtaking. It looked immaculate and could easily have mass celebrated if that was desired. You can even see Antlers from the church. We then departed the church and ventured out to the Kirby Camp.
Although the group was split for the voyage to the Kirby Camp, we all eventually made it there. It was a rustic yet peaceful setting. There were a lot of flies there, but I’m sure that you would get used to them (and use bug spray as well). Out of respect for the individuals renting the camp, we left to go back to the Carlson Classroom. However, Tim’s wife managed to spray Tim in the Face with bug spray while she was spraying their son. According to Tim, it felt just like pepper spray.
The remainder of the day was spent in the classroom. We changed the schedule and did many of the indoor activities today because of the heavy rain that was predicted. The remaining time before lunch was spent setting up our blogs. It took me a while to complete everything because I did not have a Gmail account, but I was able to get the template set up just before dinner. After a tasty lunch of pulled pork, we had our discussion about Adirondack Green with author John Slade. Although I did not remember all of the little details about the book, it was interesting to hear his thoughts about why he wrote the trilogy. He wrote it to try to educate schools about what is possible with both clean energy and community service. I would love to try to integrate this book into my teaching in some way. Even if it is only as a read aloud book (with certain words edited), I think that it could be a powerful teaching tool. John Slade even autographed my book and posed for a picture with me. It was a thrilling experience.
After John’s presentation, we watched a video about the history of the Adirondack Park and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). I have mixed feelings about the strictness of the APA. Under certain circumstances it is a good agency that is helping us save the park for future generations. Under others it places unnecessary constraints on homeowners looking to make improvement on their lands. If a person were complaining to me about the APA, I would need to look at the specifics of the situation before casting judgment one way or another.
After dinner, we listened to a presentation on sustainability and clean energy. There was talk about the idea that climate change is occurring, but that no one with political power is recognizing it. We discussed in greater detail the idea of Peak Oil. Now that the “low-hanging” fruit has been picked, we have to get the items that are harder to obtain. In that regard, one of the destructive methods of obtaining coal is open top mining (I’ve also heard it referred to as strip mining). After seeing footage of what it looks like, I can understand why Karl is very upset over this practice. Another opponent of open top mining is actor Woody Harrelson, star of movies such as “The Cowboy Way” and “Money Train.” He briefly spoke out against the practice in the video. Beth and Karl also presented several examples of how they now try to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
After a long day in the Carlson Classroom, most of us took a trip to the sauna. I did not know what to expect having never visited the sauna at Camp Huntington before. After sitting in the sauna for a few minutes, we went out to the beach area of the lake (nearby) and jumped in. I was freezing when I left the sauna. Tim said that it would make a big difference by sucking it up and submersing ourselves. After experiencing the initial shock of the water, I found that he was right. We went back into the sauna and created some steam from the stove. This got us all sweating. We repeated this cycle three more times before we walked back to camp. I thought about doing some swimming at the dock, but the whole sauna experience made me feel tired. After a nice warm shower I came back in, did some work on the blog, and went to bed. Although it was a loaded day, the sauna was the perfect thing to get me ready for bed.
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