Thursday, October 1, was the North Reading Middle School 8th Grade Hike. Erik took part with a lot of his friends and Steve went along as a chaperone.
Everything with schools these days seems to be structure, so when you get an entire grade out of the school and on a field trip like this, getting anything to happen takes a long time. While we waited for things to get started, we took this picture of Erik's entire home room.
We finally got under way, after many delays. Here's something we ran into along the trail up Mt. Wachusett. They call this "Balanced Rock". Imagine that!
The kids all had their own pace, so we had chaperones at the front, in the middle and in the back along with the teacher. Steve was the middle chaperone, so he tried to keep track of everyone in the middle as well as keeping an eye ahead and behind.
We reached the summit and the kids celebrated by writing their names with rocks around the compass at the top of the mountain.
Though many miles in the distance, we could see the Boston skyline from the summit.
Because of the lack of organization, Erik's group had to hang around at the summit for a while. With all of the delays, we didn't have enough time to hike back down the mountain and still allow the buses to meet their schedules, so the buses drove up the mountain to pick us up. This was a little disappointing.
Once we were back down at the parking lot, everyone ate their lunches and than at about 1:00 PM, the buses headed for home. We arrived back in North Reading around 2:00 PM and after gathering together for a short time in the cafeteria, the kids were dismissed. Steve and Erik walked home.
All in all it was a nice day for hiking, around mid-50's and partly cloudy. (There was a pretty stiff breeze at the summit too!) Steve and Erik had a great time!
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