4th Grade Rock Eagle Trip

Legendary Rock Eagle

The Kittredge 4th grade class takes an annual overnight trip to Rock Eagle 4-H center located about 1.5 hrs away from Atlanta. The site sits on a beautiful 1,500 acre nature preserve and a 110 acre lake. Steve went along with Jax and the 127 other kids on the trip, hoping to get some quality time with Jackson and his teachers.

  

Stiv and a few other dads were the chaperones for 16 boys in a 45 year-old cabin! They had eight boys to a room each made up of four bunk beds with 45 yr-old mattresses. There was not much sleep going on and it reeked of smelly feet, but the kids thought it was the Four Seasons.

 This was only a small section of the bags and gear needed for all the campers and chaperones. The dads loaded and unloaded an entire bus full of gear twice by the time the trip was over. The whole process of loading and distributing the the gear to the correct camper was actually pretty smooth.

We are ready to start our adventure!

Calm in the middle of chaos...

One of the main activities was leaning about pioneers and how they used tools. This year, we learned how to make roofing shingles. It became clear early on that today's asphalt shingles are the way to go!

Jackson was learning how to use a special saw to cut a piece of wood so it could be used to start the shingle process.

Here Jackson is learning to use some contraption (forgot the name) that allowed the pioneers to shape the shingle into a usable piece.

Jax and dad enjoying the feeling of working hard to produce something out of nature with their bare hands. This was a first for BOTH participants.

"Check out my massive bicep.."

Here they are, preparing for the big hike up to Rock Eagle. The trail through the wilderness was absolutely gorgeous this time of year as the leaves were at peak color and the temperatures were nearly perfect.

Albino corn snake anyone?

Thursday night after dinner, we had "snake class" and learned the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes. We even got a chance hold four snakes! The consensus was that the corn snake felt like a wet noodle.

Our final activity was a canoeing excursion. Once we completed our instruction session and life vest fitting, Jackson and his buddy were ready to hit the water. 

The group all worked together to launch the canoes into the lake. No help was allowed from the chaperones!

"Wow, this life vest has great neck support!"

Busted! This was taken with all the lights off well past bedtime. The boys were up making mischief into the wee hours of the night!!!