Summer Program

June 16-19, 2014 – Exploring Redwood Regional Park

This week ‘s theme was hiking and exploring the parks in the East Bay.  On Monday, students hiked in the Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve doing a scavenger hunt for different types of flora.  Students went geocaching along the East Ridge Trail on Tuesday.  We identified five caches of the Critters of the East Ridge series, which were all hidden off the trail disguised as animals.  The longer hike was rewarded with lunch at the local gem, Fenton’s Creamery, in Oakland.  Students learned the meaning of having “eyes bigger than your stomach” after ordering lunch plus ice cream sundaes.  It was delicious!  Wednesday was our long day.  We started the morning grocery shopping for our camping overnight, spent the day hiking with llamas, and then spent the night camping at Redwood Regional Park.  Hiking with llamas was an amazing experience that I hope Orion can do again sometime.  Students were able to have their own llama for the day. We learned about their personalities, grooming, and history as pack animals. We shared the llamas with other people in the park and the llamas helped us transport our belongings from the parking lot to our campsite.  Camping was a blast; students played card games, shared stories around the campfire, and ate s’mores. Thursday morning we made breakfast and packed up camp. No help from the llamas this time. We made our way back to the Orion campus and ended the week reflecting on our accomplishments and goals.  Below are pictures of the highlights from the week: