Day 1 part 1

WAITing, WAiting, Waiting, waiting...

Well my excitement is bubbling over and I can't concentrate on my other duties here at the center. I'm waiting for my ABI / WOW group to arrive and they are a bit late. That's ok. Things happen, and this allows me time to catch up on more of the planning for the program........

Wait a second. Is that them pulling into the parking lot?

 Yes!

A minute or two later, 11 young women from Philadelphia tumble out of the rental van and head straight for.....the BATHROOM!!!! 2 plus hours in a rental van after coffee and water and breakfast in their stomachs make a bathroom break, before anything, else mandatory.

Next comes moving into their yurts, lunch and an orientation to PEEC and the Park. Then they're off to hike PEEC's Scenic Gorge Trail; a 1.5 mile loop through deciduous forests
that transition into hemlock ravines that drop in elevation to shelter babbling streams, a small waterfall and the quiet and cool of the forest. After that we whisk the girls int a team-building session that will test their ability to work as a team. This is important because the girls will need to work well together when on the river so we start the process of cementing a sense of community now, early on in the program. After that they will go to dinner in our sustainably built dining hall (seen below).

Their night begins with an astronomy program with astronomy professor Nick Platco of Stars Mars and More and after their dinner has settled, we will engage in a yoga session with Yoga instructor Meredith Hutter Chamorro that will eventually lead to a Night Hike to get the girls comfortable with being in the woods at night.



Then, off to bed in PEEC's yurt village.

Click below on the Photo Album to see pictures from today. Captions to come later.