Today: Teaching = Gratifying

I got a panicked email from our central registration about three girls at one of our schools.  Two of them are recently arrived and speak NO English.  One of them is SUPPOSED to be in my class (she was here last year), but her mom sent her to a different school.  Hmmm…my daughter speaks almost no English, so I’ll take her OUT of the bilingual program and send her to an ENGLISH-ONLY SCHOOL.  Yeah, that makes sense.  Oy.

Anyway, I tried to call all three parents, but only one phone number was working.  I spoke with that parent (of one of the newly arrived girls) and invited her to come see our school, where her daughter could get more support.  I called at 8:45.  She and her young adult daughter (who I’m guessing acts as a translator) were at the school at 10:00.  Luckily, my kids were at a special and I was able to show them around.  I could tell they were a bit wary at first, but as we spoke (in Spanish), they began to warm to me and especially to the idea of the daughter being in the class.  I answered their questions one by one, and finally, the daughter (who is about 19?) looked at me out of the corner of her eye and asked, “WHERE are you from?”  I told her the US.  She scratched her head, “But your Spanish is so good…”  I told her I had studied in Mexico and I know what it feels like to sit in a classroom, not understanding a thing, frustrated out of my head while people scream at me like I’m stupid, when it’s just that I can’t understand.  At that, you could SEE the viceral relief take over.  Both Mom and her daughter said, “Oh, yes!  That’s just how it is!  She is one big ball of nerves!  She can’t sleep, she doesn’t want to go to school, she vomits, she can’t eat!  The lunch we pack her comes right home!  Can we really have her here?  When can she start???”  I told them they just had to get everything squared away with registration.  The fear crept back into their faces.  I told them I would call and that alleviated the tension a bit.  The daughter said, “Could you please write a note too?”  So I did.

They went so far as to ask me, “Could she repeat the 5th grade?”  I raised my eyebrows inwardly, but outwardly I said, “Well, it’s only September.  Why don’t we wait until May and see how she does?”  Oh my.

An hour later, the mom called, joyful, to tell me her daughter would be in my class on Monday.  She thanked me over and over.  It felt very gratifying.  Her family seemed nice.  I hope she is too.  I hope she will fit in with the class and that she will learn well…

Donaldson and Emmons: Our Hardest Peaks Yet OR We Are 19er’s!

The last day of summer is today.  Then it’s back to the classroom.  We went out with a bang though: we had planned an ambitious three peak-a-palooza on “unmarked” trails Saturday, September 5th.  (I say unmarked, but by now, most of the high peaks are fairly well trailed.)  Our friend, John, invited us to come up to his cabin to hike up Donaldson, Emmons and Seward with him and his daughter.  We jumped at the chance to do this monster 17-miler!  Billy Goat Boy and his dad also came.

To do this hike, we had to get up at 4:15 am to be ready to leave at 5:15 am, to be on the trail at 5:45 am.  It is better to START in the dark than to FINISH in the dark.  And let me tell ya, IT WAS DARK.  The kids were a little less than enthused about getting up that early, but they did it.  It was about 50 degrees F at the beginning, no wind, clear skies.  We signed in and we were off, John’s daughter setting a mean pace for us.

My husband told me the first part of the hike (3+ miles) was flat.  He LIED.  It wasn’t flat.  It was mostly downhill.  That meant coming back was going to be UPhill.  But we moved as fast as we could.  After that, we took a left turn and the hike was STRAIGHT UP, for a longass time.  It took us five hours to get to the peak of Donaldson.  Everyone else was moving at warp speed, but my littlest one and I were struggling up.  I am so proud of her.  She has the shortest legs (I’m second) and it’s NOT easy for her.  She did it and she ROCKS.

It was a gorgeous day and the views were fabulous.  However, we didn’t get to enjoy them, because we had to really get to it and push it, if we were going to do two more peaks.  It was about this point I thought, “This isn’t fun.  I don’t like this.  If I’m going to expend all this energy and goad my little girl up the mountain, I want to be able to lie in the sun and eat m & ms at the top, dammit.”  She will get stronger and faster, but right now, she couldn’t keep up with the others. 

So, on the way to Emmons, my husband and I decided that we were going to call it quits with two peaks.  After that, the hike got more fun.  We were able to slow down (a LITTLE) and smell the roses (as it were).  My two older children must have wings on their feet, cuz they were flying along with the others.  We caught up to them and told them we were going to head back down after Emmons.  Our son was fine with that and decided to come with us.  Our oldest though, wanted to go on with the rest of the group.  I was really torn about this, as this has been a family thing we do.  It didn’t feel right to me to have her leave, but I also didn’t want to stop her.  And frankly, I’m overjoyed that the mountains have so gotten under her skin that she felt compelled to get that third peak in.  I’m really REALLY proud of her.  So, the group split.

We went back to Donaldson and enjoyed some sun/m&m time at the peak.  Then, we made our way back down the mountain.  The up I can do, the down is what gets me.  I think I need new boots.  My feet slip too much in the ones I have and it is hell on my toes.  I have blisters the size of dimes on the bottoms of each of my big toes and I’m going to lose each of those toenails.  Owwwwww.  But it was so worth it.

We didn’t see much wildlife, just some toads.  But we did find a  bear track and bear scat.  That was pretty exciting.  I do hope I’ll be lucky enough to see a bear someday.  (From far away and going in the opposite distance, but still…)  Seeing the evidence of their existence was pretty cool.

We didn’t have any troubles getting down the mountain.  It took a long time, but no trouble.  I was a little worried about my oldest daughter because I KNEW she’d be coming down the mountain in the dark.  The trail was there, but in the dark I wondered how obvious it would be.

When we found the “flat” trail (the last three miles), we were really tired and sore.  The parking lot seemed forever away.  My daughter and I started composing a little song:

Oh my toes are sore and my ankle’s turned, but I want some more cuz I ain’t been burned, my hands are cramped from holding my poles and my pants are full of mud and holes!  There’s a parking lot out there somewhere, but we can’t find it, oh somebody come and rescue me before I have a hissy fit, fit, FIT!  Oh I have about 84 blisters, but let me tell ya mister, I went on a 15 mile hike, but I’d rather ride my bike!  There’s so much more to say, but I wanna be an ADK!  46ER!!!

I don’t really know how far the hike was.  LONG.  LOOOOOOOONG.  John’s daughter thinks our part of the hike was 15 miles and their part of the hike was 17 miles.  I do know the elevations: Donaldson: 4140′, Emmons: 4040′, and Seward: 4361′.  On the ranking scale of 1-7, they are ALL 7′s.  I am so proud of us!  We are 19er’s and our oldest daughter is a 20er!

We got back to the cabin at 7:30 and it was still a little light.  We took a quick swim and then made dinner.  I had decided not to start worrying about the other group until 10:00.  They got back at 9:00.  My oldest was exhilirated, but later, she admitted it felt weird to hike without us and that it felt strange at the peak without it.  Also, at the top of Seward, she said there was a memorial for an 8-year-old boy who died in 2006.  She said it was very sad.

The next day we took a little hike around the pond and we found a tree that beavers had been working on.  There were  two great logs on the ground and Billy Goat Dad said, “Hey!  These would be great souvenirs!  Wouldn’t one of these be great in your classroom?”  He was right!  And he was nice enough to carry the logs back for us!

It was a PHENOMENAL weekend and I am so grateful that John invited us!  Now, it’s on to school!

I GOT A FEVAH! ADK Lower and Upper Wolf Jaw OR We Are SEVENTEENER’s!

We are SEVENTEENER’s now!  This is our second (well, actually THIRD) peak of the day!  At the summit of Lower Wolf Jaw.  There was lots of gorgeous sunshine.  Temp was 55 degrees F when we started, 60 degrees at the end.  Early in the day, there was lots of wind (I HATE wind), but it died by the end of the hike.

The weather was supposed to be really nice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I packed up the car on Thursday and headed up to the mountains.  My husband followed us up after work (he played hooky on Friday).  We set up camp and the next morning, we were ready to tackle our third hike in three weeks.    A word about my kids here?  Three hikes in three weeks = 31 miles.  WOW.  I am amazed by their stamina.  Our plan: to go up Upper and Lower Wolf Jaw.  To do this hike, you have to park in a lower lot and then walk to and through the Ausable Golf Club.

The golf club.  It was pretty funny, walking through this club to get to the trailhead.  It was gorgeous!  We thought, wow, Muffy and Thurston must think WE make a silly sight!  The sign was not EXACTLY friendly.  Basically, “Hey unwashed masses: you stay on the roads and don’t mix with us.”

Wow!  So pretty!  (Even if it’s a different kind of pretty than we expect on a hike.)  We’ve never had a hike start this way, that’s for sure.

My youngest, celebrating after scrambling up a rock face.  I have to say, this just doesn’t look like much in this photo, but it was SCARY and HARD.  (Down was WAY worse.)  I keep trying to get a shot to show how challenging it is, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.  Take more word for it, this is NOT easy.  All I can say is I love hiking because it works EVERY part of the body (today muscles are hurting that I didn’t even know I HAD) AND parts of it terrify me.  I love working through that fear.  In my youngest’s words, “I feel like I really accomplish something.”  TRU DAT!

Here we are, WE DID IT!  Flex those muscles!  The hike was 11 miles and took us 13 hours.  I think that’s our formula: however many miles it is, it will take us that many hours, PLUS TWO MORE.

My husband and I had an interesting conversation during this hike about “peak bagging.”  My husband said the forums are full of discussions with “purists” who do not “like” “peak baggers.”  This makes me upset.  We started out doing these climbs as peak baggers, but it’s grown into so much more.  Yes, we’re going to try to do the 46.  Yes, I want that patch.  But because of this journey that we’ve begun, I’ve become aware of the ADK, which I never knew about before.  I cannot drive by a mountain without wondering, “What is it like up there?  How hard would it be to climb it?”  I want to climb other peaks in other places.  And all because of peak bagging.  So there.