ELLIS HIGH HIKES HOOK MOUNTAIN
Nov. 22, 2014—Nyack, NY
There are few things louder than a bus full of twenty teenagers. Except, that is, when someone sets off the bus' emergency alarm.
The Ellis High School hikers discovered this on November 22nd, when, halfway through the drive to Hook Mountain, the bus hit a bump that set off the alarm. For the next fifteen minutes, volunteers and students alike cringed under the high pitched squeal, until one volunteer finally solved the issue. Needless to say, everyone was happy to unload at the trailhead and start moving.
The trail started near 9W north of Nyack, and skirted the cliffs along the Hudson for most of the day. The day began with a slight uphill ascent through fallen leaves, allowing students the chance to warm up despite the cold. After thirty minutes of hiking, we reached our first viewpoint and rest space, where the students broke out the quintessential hiking snacks- Cheetos and Extra Spicy Hot Tattis. Volunteers ate their granola bars with envy.
After some more hiking we reached the second peak for the day and our lunch spot. The group enjoyed a beautiful overlook that offered spectacular views of the Hudson, opportunities for bird watching, and a chance for the bravest among them to take a look over the cliff's edge.
From there, the trail took the group away from the cliffside and down into the forest, where students tip toed over frozen portions of the trail. When asked how they liked the scenery of New York, one Bangladeshi student remarked that the ice reminded him of other beautiful places he'd seen in India and Nepal.
"No! New York is too cold," retorted a student from Puerto Rico.
Around 2pm we reached our turn around point, at which point the organizer of the trip, Raymond Greenwell, announced the culminating activity: a solo hike. And while some students balked at the idea ("We'll be lost!" said one girl), everyone eventually got on board. Students were staggered one minute apart from each other, and volunteers waited at key points to make sure no one took a wrong turn. This allowed the students to experience a few moments of alone time in nature, and to enjoy the silence of the afternoon.
After the group came back together, we held a de-brief circle at an overlook. Students talked about their favorite portions of the trip.
"I loved the views," said one.
"I loved being with my friends," said another.
By the time the group got back to the bus, the sky had started to darken and the day was cooling off. Volunteers and students alike napped on the ride home, enjoying a much quieter and alarm-free return.
ELLIS HIGH SCHOOL HIKES WYANOKIE HIGH POINT
Oct. 25, 2014—Ringwood, NJ
Sometimes it is easy to forget how wonderful hiking during the fall can be. No humidity, mild temperatures with a hint of brisk, cool air, beautiful vibrant hues of browns, oranges, reds and yellows filling the landscape everywhere you turn, and no mosquitoes help make this one of the best times to get outdoors. These were the prime conditions that greeted 15 ELLIS Preparatory Academy and KAPPA International students on the October 25 trip to Wyanokie High Point in the Norvin Green State Forest in New Jersey.
Upon an 8:45am arrival to the high school in Marble Hill all of the kids, volunteers and staff were geared up, excited and ready to go. It had been six months since my last ICO trip with ELLIS (English Language Learners and International Support, led by Krisy) and I was eager for our adventure into unchartered New Jersey territory.
After maneuvering the hilly and wooded back roads near Ringwood, NJ thanks to the combination of a trusty handheld and Google map, we arrived to a bustling parking lot of the former Weis Ecology Center. Any questions of what type of topography laid in front of us to High Point were immediately answered by a toweringly steep hill at the start. Led by Ray’s trusty dog Jasper, first-time hikers like Bronx-native Mahamadou and seasoned vets alike attacked it with excitement and energy, and before you knew it, we were on our way.
A gradual ascension yielded a couple beautiful overlooks of scenic New Jersey. One viewpoint was punctuated by the happy arrival of volunteer Justin, led by Craig who had kindly stayed behind. When we finally reached the top, full panoramic views of colorful undulating hills and a large lake allowed for the perfect lunch spot and selfie-backdrop. “This is so beautiful,” said one KAPPA (Knowledge and Power Preparatory Academy, led by Andy) International student. “Just think that I’d be home right now playing video games”. While many were enjoying the sun’s warmth and breathtaking views on top of this giant rock, volunteer Tom used this opportunity to brush up on his French with Ginette, an ELLIS student who recently moved from Togo.
Although we left the summit and the fantastic views, the fun and excitement continued as we came upon a shored up old mine (which Jasper did not hesitate to wade into the pond of mud) and a small, trickling waterfall. By the time we came upon a fork in the road, we had hiked for cumulatively for a couple hours. It would have been understandable if tired legs yearned to head straight back to the oddly comfortable bus seats. However, without any qualms, students happily chose to continue hiking along the longest route!
When we returned to the trailhead, we concluded the trip with a great closing circle where everyone reflected on his or her favorite moments of the day. For me, it was great to get back out and see again what the money we all helped fundraise at the Adventure Film Festival NYC will go to. There is nothing like leaving the confines of the city for the uninterrupted views of a completely forested, colorful landscape. And hearing nothing but the bus engine hum on the way home and seeing everyone wiped from a wonderful hike, I’d guess to say the students would have agreed.
Until the next one!
NYCICO "ABOUT US" FILM
THANKS FOR A SUCCESSFUL ADVENTURE FILM FESTIVAL NYC!
A huge and hearty thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to the Adventure Film Festival - NYC 2014 and for those who chose to support NYCICO either through your ticket purchases or donations. This was an incredible team effort and it was a tremendous success thanks to the support of the incredible Adventure Film Festival team in Boulder, the core team of NYCICO volunteers who worked tirelessly to make everything run smoothly and professionally, and our generous local sponsors, especially Digital Ocean, Green Mountain Energy, Whole Foods and Mezetto. And everyone agreed that an incredible highlight of the event was having some of our NYCICO agency students get up and speak about their experiences with NYCICO (students were in attendance from CampInteractive, Urban Assembly, CatRock, Brooklyn Prospect and ELLIS High School!).
It's thanks to everyone's generosity and enthusiasm that we will be able to introduce so many more youth to the outdoors through hiking, camping, rafting, ice skating, skiing, orienteering, canoeing and more! We are THRILLED to announce that our current fundraising status stands at $14,264 as of this post- which puts us at 95% of our fundraising goal for the AFF! Remember that 100% of the proceeds from this fundraiser go towards future ICO trips. It's not too late to donate- if you haven't gotten a chance yet and want to help push us over our $15,000 goal, please visithttps://www.crowdrise.com/AdventureFilmFestival-NewYork to make your tax deductible donation.
To see photos from the AFF NYC, please visit our facebook page
Hope to see you all next year at the 3rd annual AFF NYC!
We would also like to thank our VIP attendees, Jack Rabbit Sports, Patagonia, Trader Joe's, Aesop,King of the Mountain Events, Brooklyn Boulders, Loomstate, The Bowery Hotel, Destination Backcountry adventures and Unique Copy.
HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES? ASK ELLIS AND CATROCK!
Sept. 27, 2014-- Congers, New York
The ICO’s first Ellis High School outing of the fall season was greeted with bright sun, clear skies, and mid-80s temperatures with low humidity — perfect for a day of apple picking in upstate New York followed by a short hike in the Palisades. What made it even more special was that Michelle Brick led the trip to complete her fieldwork and become ICO’s newest certified leader—congrats Michelle!—and it was the first outing for several new volunteers picked up at the August 6th recruitment meeting in SoHo.
The day began with the usual gathering at Ellis and a bus crawl through Bronx traffic to pick up our colleagues and fellow attendees from the CatRock/Sierra Club Youth Leadership group, with whom we shared transportation and parallel activities. After that it was clear sailing, though, and it wasn’t long before we all arrived at Dr. Davies Farm in Congers, NY. The good Dr.’s apple orchard rests at the foot of a giant, rippled slab of brown vertical rock that picked up highlights in the late-morning sun, beckoning the mountain climbers in the group, and contrasting with the lush green grounds and trees to make a beautiful setting. We leisurely filled our bags with fresh-plucked Macintosh, Delicious, Granny Smith, and whatever else was within reach of the long picking poles. Plenty of fresh fruit never made it into the bags, however (yum!) and the lovely Eleanor, the charming two year-old daughter of an Ellis faculty member, was sometimes seen with one apple gripped in each tiny hand.
Eventually, after sharing a few cider donuts from the farmstand, our group made its way to State Line Lookout Park along the Palisades Parkway and the trail to Peanut Leap Cascade, a true hidden gem of a hike. Following a group word game during which one of the Ellis students learned the hard way that his heavily-applied cologne was more attractive to the local bees than the ladies (a good laugh was had and no harm done, thankfully), we started our hike. From the top of the cliffs, which offered stunning views of the mighty Hudson below and the pleasure craft dotting the river on a gorgeous autumn weekend, we made our way down (via sometimes arduous bouldering and a long stone staircase) to the waterfall and the river’s edge. What Ray described as a rushing cascade when he visited back in springtime was more like a carelessly left-open faucet in late September, but the beauty of the rock made us all want to return and see it in its glory. The quietly lapping river was exceptionally calm this day, and the smell of burnt wood, leftover from someone’s pitfire in the stone ruins of an “Italian Garden” that once stood on the site as a lunch spot for the New York artist community, filled the moist air. A few from our group partook of the tire and slat rope swings hanging from trees at the river’s edge.
What goes down must come up, of course, and the group endured its biggest challenge of the day climbing back to the cliff’s edge. It’s safe to say that along with learning the usual pack-it-in-pack-it-out and do-no-harm tenets attendent to being in the woods, the Ellis students, many just equipped with sneakers, came to know the value of good hiking shoes on what amounted to another typically rocky trail common to our region. Wildlife sightings for the day included a couple of black vultures that circled close enough to the edge of the cliffs to betray their massive wingspan, and an exceptionally long and scary-looking black snake spotted in the bushes alongside the trail as we were ending our hike. We learned later that it was a Black Rat Snake, a species of constrictor common to the area that often grows to 6 feet long and 1-1/2 inches thick—perfectly harmless unless you’re a hapless rodent that scurries across its path.
The bus ride back to the Bronx was quiet, with plenty of conked-out participants scattered about the seats. It was the fitting end to a great day for all and a good start to the new season for Ellis.
CAMPINTERACTIVE SUMMER SUMMIT IN MONTAUK, NY
Saturday, July 19 to July 26th, NYC Inspiring Connections Outdoors assisted CampInteractive on their Summer Young Entrepreneur Summit as they camped out near the beach in Montauk, NY. Volunteers joined for the weekend activities and some throughout the week. The students had a great time setting up tents, building a bonfire, building mobile apps, surfing the waves of the Atlantic, kayaking in Fort Pond, hiking out to the Montauk Lighthouse, and much more during this packed week of fun and learning.
CATROCK LEADERSHIP RETREAT IN KENT, CT
The following amazing trip report and testimonial was written by student Vimary Toribio, a new CatRock Sierra Club Youth Leader describing the recent leadership retreat featuring caving/hiking/fishing/kayaking/swimming trip the weekend of June 7, 2014.
"My experiences on the first two Sierra Club Cat Rock trips have been amazing and each was one of a kind. The hiking trip was one of the longest and most challenging things that I have accomplished so far. However, it was a great experience to know that you had a team there to support you and for you to help support. If one of us needs to stop everyone else needs to stop too. Basically knowing the fact that you are going through such challenge with a team that supports you, made me want to not give up on the middle of the hike and keep going because they were my motivation. The view was truly beautiful - since I live in the city I sometimes forget how beautiful and relaxing can be nature.
That same night we got to make a BBQ. The food was delicious. And not only was it good but we also used teamwork to make it so it made it taste even better. After that we saw a movie about leadership and teamwork called Coach Carter. The movie itself was really inspiring. It is about a basketball team that needs to learn that to be on a team, you need to support your teammates both inside and outside the game, because if one person fails, they all fail.
The next day breakfast was also divided to everyone to participate. After that, we went caving, Before going into the cave we had been playing some trust games. For some people it was hard because they had to overcome trust issues. But you have to learn to trust your team and know that they won't let you fall. Those activities helped when going to the cave because if one of us couldn't actually go up the rocks they would lend you a hand a push. It was really fun to get closer to people I already knew and meet amazing new people.
ELLIS HIGH AND CATROCK LEADERSHIP RAFT THE DELAWARE WATER GAP
On a beautiful and sunny June 28, 2014, a record size group of 51 students, recent high school grads, teachers, ICO volunteers and the Community TeamWorks volunteers from Goldman Sachs joined together for a great day of rafting, swimming and epic water fights on the Delaware Water Gap! It was a great way to cap the school year, as a few days earlier a number of the students celebrated their high school graduation! We were happy to help them celebrate.
Students and graduates were present from ELLIS High School as well as members of CatRock from West Bronx Academy for the Future, Kappa International High School and Bronx High School for Law and Community Service. In addition, 8 volunteers from Goldman Sach’s Community TeamWorks program enthusiastically joined for the day! On the bus, ICO assistant leaders Pedro Jerez and Justin Zucker helped everyone on the bus get to know someone new through an ice breaking game so we started the day with new friends.
Once we arrived at Smithfield Beach, PA, just north of Delaware Water Gap, we met with Edge of the Woods Outfitters who geared us up with rafts, paddles and PFDs (“life jackets!” for the kids). To make the groups more manageable in size, we did break into two groups: ELLIS High led by intrepid leader Ray Greenwell, and CatRock going with the Goldman Sachs volunteers and led by Craig Meisner. While the CatRock group practiced teamwork by transporting their rafts, ELLIS High warmed up with some giggles while playing some ice breaking games in the grass by the river.
Then it was time for the river! With the sun high in the sky and the weather just perfectly hot enough to make the cool river very tempting, we loaded up in our boats and set adrift. Time to lather with sunscreen! For many of the kids, this was their first time on a water craft; for others, it helped them feel right at home! We kept the boats close to each other long enough to enjoy our lunch, then packed everything away safely in waterproof bags for the real fun to begin! Ray provided each raft with a large bucket, and the kids lost no time in starting an epic water battle between boats, ending with almost all the participants jumping in the river to cool off and paddle about. It was especially fun seeing students who had never before stepped foot in a river submerge themselves for the first time!
According to one of our CatRock Youth Leaders, Vimary Toribio from Kappa International High School, " We also had an incredible rafting trip. It was really a challenge to carry the raft to the river, but we figured out that we could switch sides if one of us got tired. Again ,the keyword was teamwork. Also we got to actually interact with new people and learn about them and their lives while sharing joked and laughing together, on a really beautiful river. We even saw a bald eagle! It was really fun to get closer to people I already knew and meet amazing new people."
Thanks to some recent rains, the river was incredibly high, and the water moved at a pretty good pace, so the paddling was not incredibly strenuous, but different bends and forks in the river did give the students the opportunity to practice their steering, teamwork and communication. Many boats practiced paddling in sync to the count of six different languages, the native tongues of the students on board! After 7 miles of paddling, drifting, water fights, swimming, necklaces made from drifting weeds, the occasional paddle robbery, and many songs about rivers, we reached our destination at the Kittatinny Point Visitor’s Center in New Jersey. Everyone worked together to dump the water from the boats, pick up all the trash from the rafts and sort between trash and recycling, then carry the rafts up the hill to the waiting truck.
Standing by the bus, NYC ICO experienced one of its largest closing circles ever, as every one of the 51 participants spoke of their experiences of the day. Everyone had big smiles on their faces recounting witnessing great teamwork, spotting Eagles, enjoying the beautiful weather, and making new friends. And a special thanks to the Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks crew who were such an enthusiastic, engaged and valuable addition to the day! We’re happy to see any one of you on a future NYC ICO trip!
HIKEATHON 2014 IN TALLMAN STATE PARK
Thanks again to everyone who was able to make it out to the Hikeathon!