I only have a few weeks left here in Harrisburg. April has been quite a full month, with many adventures including the Good Friday paddle, Easter celebrations, our Homeschool Caving Course, kayaking trips for Messiah's Outdoors Club, and trainings for the final group of Adventure Education students.
I am thankful to have had many hours on the water over the past month. Paddling is one of my favorite activities, and as the weather has warmed up and spring has sprung, Dave and I have enjoyed many paddling trips. Dave has a tradition of paddling on Good Friday. He has been doing so for about twenty years, and I have joined for the past few years while at Messiah. The weather was literally freezing this year (low 30s), and I considered not going, assuming that it might be miserable, but nevertheless, a group of us headed to the Stony Creek (about an hour and a half away) for some whitewater canoeing and rafting. Despite being cold, it was quite fun, and those of us in canoes thankfully managed to stay dry and warm enough with dry suits.
Besides the Good Friday paddle, we led a few kayaking trips for the Messiah Outdoors Club down the Yellow Breeches and also spent two weekends doing training for the final group of Adventure Education students. One weekend was our American Canoe Association Instructor Certification Exam, where we assessed students who were working to become canoeing instructors with the ACA. The students spent the weekend teaching canoeing skills to one another and to a group from the Outdoors Club, and Dave and I provided feedback on their teaching, technical skills, and leadership. It was really exciting to see them teach the group of Outdoors Club students some canoeing basics; many of the students had never been canoeing before, and by the end of the trip, they were performing various maneuvers on the river. Then last weekend, we facilitated a Swiftwater Rescue Course for the Adventure Ed students. We taught them various river rescue skills. A highlight of the weekend was spending all of Saturday on the Susquehanna River (much bigger water than the Yellow Breeches); we had lots of fun trying different rescue techniques and taking turns being the "victims" and rescuers. On Monday, Dave and I set up four different rescue scenarios along the Yellow Breeches, where we pinned boats and ourselves in various locations. The students took turns leading as "Incident Commanders," and after each scenario, we processed how the group worked together, what they did well, and how they needed to improve.
We also finished our five-week Homeschool Caving Course this month. During our final week, we took the group into Carnegie Cave, which is about an hour from here. It was awesome to see how much the students had grown in their caving knowledge and skills. We had the students use maps to navigate around the cave together, and they did really well with this activity.
When we're not adventuring, Dave and I have been working on finishing the website design, planning the logistics of canoe rentals for the summer, and designing the weeklong trip we will be leading in May.
I have also been training for my marathon, which I will be running tomorrow. Abby will be coming out to join me for part of it, so I am really excited to see her as well.
In a few weeks, we will be headed to Ohio to facilitate a senior experience for a local high school that will include adventure, faith formation, and serving on a farm. After that, I'll be headed to the Adirondacks for the summer to be working for a program called La Vida.
Well, I'd better get some rest before my race tomorrow, but I wanted to post an April update.
Comments