The Storm of Storms!

Last week's snowstorm left us buried under a bit more than two-feet of snow, with no power and lots and lots of local tree damage. In light of this, and for the sake of safety, we're going to hold off on our events for the next week or so until things are a bit more stable around here. The trails in most parks remain heavy with snow and subsequently difficult for short legs to negotiate. Add to that the broken limbs which continue to hang precariously overhead and I think it's best to stay out of the woods for a while longer. We can't even let our girls out in the backyard or driveway because of all the branches that have yet to come down.

Hoping that all of you weathered the storm relatively uneventfully!

Please check back here later in the week for updates and the new spring calendar.

Looking forward to those first bits of green!

George's Island Eagle Hike

Yet another blustery, winter morning in the outdoors for Kids Unplugged today on George's Island. This park has special significance for us as it was the site of one of our earliest hikes last winter. This year, we visited during Teatown Lake Reservation's annual EagleFest and some of the folks from the Saw Mill River Audubon were on hand with scopes and other viewing apparati to assist us in spotting eagles soaring above the river and roosting in the trees along its shore.

There are varying perspectives from biologists about whether or not to call eagles "migratory." Eagles tend to travel southward from their home breeding grounds in Canada when those habitats become less hospitable during the late fall and early winter, however, depending on the severity of the winter the birds don't follow the same routes year after year. There are several places in New York that are significant over-wintering areas for eagles--the St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River--making those areas prime for observing these incredible raptors.

We were very fortunate on this cold February morning as the eagles were in abundance around George's Island today. An impressive bunch of families arrived for today's event, bundled up and enthusiastic. We started out along the shore with the Audubon folks catching glimpses of the eagles perched in nearby trees before having a hot cocoa in the Teatown tent and heading out on one of the park's trails. The white blazed trail took us through the snowy woods and while we couldn't see any eagles along the trail, there were plenty of diversions--ice for thwacking and sliding, animal tracks to ponder, sticks to gather, and boulders to climb.

Because the trail was not a loop, we hiked in for a while before turning around to leave some time to head down to one of the Hudson's little beaches to look for the sea glass found so and do some more eagle spotting. We scooted down a little ravine to the beach and while there was a shortage of sea glass the small inlet was covered with thick swaths of ice that had accumulated on the shore. The kids spent the time trying to break up the sheets with rocks, throwing broken pieces into the water, and collecting oyster shells. The parents joined in the fun too, and I watched as one dad hoisted a large sheet of ice and tossed it into the river with a crash.

All this time, the eagles soared above the river, the wind blew in gusts across the icy water, and the everyone had a great time. And a second visit to the cocoa tent at the end didn't hurt either!

Okay, So it Was REALLY, REALLY Cold!

Whoa. Can you say 12-degrees? Remember those days when the snot would freeze inside your nostrils when you breathed in through your nose? There's a nice physical image for you. That's what it was like out there this afternoon, for our first anniversary shindig at Ridge Road Park. In light of this, the first thing that absolutely must be said without further ado is THANK YOU! to all of you brave souls and your wonderful children who rallied today to come out and celebrate with us. For the sake of posterity, the first anniversary celebration just had to fall on our official first anniversary, however, for the sake of our communal health and sanity, all further anniversary celebrations will be held on the 6-month mark of Kids Unplugged's anniversary, subsequently allowing us to have future parties in lovely June.

My very devoted husband headed outside this morning at 8 o'clock (the temperature was a balmy 8-degrees at that point) to start gathering and chopping firewood, loading his car with charcoal and digging out our camp stove. At 10 a.m. he and a friend, a fellow Kids Unplugged enthusiast with his own wheelbarrow-ful of wood and camping gear to tote, headed to the park to light grills and make the fires before the festivities were to begin at 11 a.m.

As my mother-in-law likes to say, "no good deed goes unpunished" and my absence at 10:30 soon alerted them to the fact that they had started a gorgeous, roaring fire at the wrong picnic pavilion. Thankfully, for everyone's sake, it was their discovery and not mine and they quickly broke down camp and relocated to the correct pavilion to start firing things up a second time. They soon had several fires going around the octagonal fireplace in the center of the enormous pavilion where we'd set up a circle of picnic tables laden with bagels, s'more-making goodies, Coffee Labs coffee, and camp-style hot chocolate.

Parents soon began arriving with their bundled broods. Shortly after 11:00, when the cries of "my hands are cold" became a bit too much to bear, it was time to for a hike to get warmed-up and find some marshmallow-roasting sticks. The trail here is unblazed, however it is lined on either side by a low fence/wall of woven sticks that I believe was a scout project of past. It's a very pretty and natural addition to the trail and obviously a great deal of work went into its making. The kids speculated on the number of hours it took as we walked--8? 1,000? We made it a good way down the trail and our bodies did start to thaw a tiny bit from the walk before we decided to head back to the pavilion for the cocoa that would hopefully be hot upon our return. A few more ambitious members of the group decided to forge ahead to see if the trail was a loop. A good time later they approached the pavilion having hiked to another picnic area located on the opposite side of the park. Needless to say, they were ready for something hot when they got back!

The rest of the time was spent huddling around the fires, eating s'mores and hot dogs and, eventually, semi-frozen Kids Unlugged birthday cake. My husband started a hip-hooray for the success of Kids Unplugged's first year and concluded by saying, "So thanks to Gina for dragging us all out here today when we could be snuggling up in front of the warmth of our flat screen TVs." Hardy, har, har.

When we got home, our girls spent the entire afternoon in the living room, fire blazing in the fireplace, buried among the quilts and blankets they used to make tents on the sofa and chairs while I popped them big bowls of popcorn and didn't give them a hard time about getting it all over the rug. I think they earned it.

Next time--June. I promise.

Fishing for Ice in Swan Lake

January has definitely been the month of ice! If you look back through our recent adventures you'll see ice-play in all of its various incarnations. Kids have spent a good deal of time sliding on, chopping at, spinning on, tossing, cracking, skating on, poking at, fishing for, stomping on, and smashing--the ice. Frozen puddles, bits of icy brook, thickly covered ponds and lakes--each variation has had its own appeal. But I think that the most fun to be had has come from simply thwacking away at it with a stick. There's something very satisfying about finding a good, strong stick, one that doesn't break with it's initial sharp contact with an unyielding, frozen surface, just going to town trying to get through to whatever water might lie below.

I can remember doing this as a kid, poking through the thin sheath of ice on a puddle to the street below at the bus stop or breaking through the icy edge of the frozen swamp in the backyard woods and using the stick like a crowbar to hoist broken sheets from the murky water and then hacking away at the retrieved pieces with rocks and sticks to break them further. The ice was fascinating. Clearly it still is.

Our hike today at Swan Lake lent itself perfectly to this favorite winter past time. As we've been hanging on to the light a bit longer these days, I figured we'd have no problem getting all the way around the lake before the sun began to set. What I didn't plan on, though I don't know why, was the magnetic pull of the ice. So while we made good tracks on the beginning of the trail as we headed clockwise around the lake toward the stepping stone bridge, we didn't get too much farther than that. The lake's frozen edge beckoned. The bridge begged to be crossed and then crossed again, and again. Fallen branches were collected and the thwacking commenced. A great team effort ensued to pull a large sheet of ice to the shore, which was nearly successful--parents were treated to a chorus of groans and shrieks when it slipped out of hands to crash onto the ground below.

A couple of our families had forged ahead and we spotted them across the lake when we decided to take a cue from the waning afternoon light and begin our hike back. Racing them back to the trail kiosk was the only way to pull the kids away from their icy endeavors.

With several more weeks of winter ahead, I imagine the ice-adventures are going to continue!

Kids Unplugged First Anniversary Celebration & Fundraiser

Kids Unplugged is Turning One!

Join us as we celebrate our first year's success!

Saturday, January 30th
11:00 a.m.

Ridge Road Park, Hartsdale
Octagonal Picnic Pavilion
(with a big, cozy, fireplace!)
(click here for details & directions)

*Hiking & Exploration Kids Unplugged Style*
*Make Your Own S'mores*
*Yummy Hot Cocoa*
&
*Birthday Cake*

Suggested Donation
$10/family for members
$15/family for non-members

B.Y.O. picnic lunch & hot dogs for the grills and water. All of the above treats will be provided by us.

Looking forward to seeing everyone then!

Please dress for the cold weather--boots, snowpants, warm mittens and hats are best!

A Hike for Haiti at Rockwood Hall

As we all know, Haiti was struck by a severe, 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck approximately 25-miles outside of the capital city of Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010. The subsequent devastation the people of Haiti are suffering is emotionally overwhelming for all of us watching on the news and wanting to do whatever we can to help. In this spirit, Kids Unplugged sponsored a Hike for Haiti this morning at Rockwood Hall in Rockefeller State Park. We raised close to $200 which will be donated to UNICEF for their recovery efforts in Haiti. Below are some photographs of the morning's hike. Many, many thanks to all of you who participated today!

East Irvington Bushwhacking

We returned today for Wacky Wednesday to one of our favorite local spots--the East Irvington Nature Preserve. Jane & Walt Daniels, in their incredible book Walkable Westchester, list the preserve under their section of "tiny treasures," and that is indeed what it is.

The preserve is split into two areas for walking, a wide dirt road that leads straight uphill from the initial access trail to a water tower and the Wecquaesgeek Trail that abuts the road in a semi-circle. Hiking along the dirt road you can enter the Wecquaesgeek Trail early on and exit it back at the road near the water tower. You can also hike up to the water tower and take the Wecquaesgeek back down, which is what we did.

The kids spent a lot of time today bushwhacking off trail. It seems to me that more and more of that is starting to happen, especially among the kids who have been joining us for a while. Our earlier hikes were spent covering more ground with the actual hiking, but now it seems there is a lot more off-trail exploration happening. Today, a couple of fallen trees were one of the big draws, and the kids spent a bit of time climbing and balancing on the trunks and branches. What fun to climb a tree that is horizontal! You get to explore limbs and areas of the tree that would be completely inaccessible if it were in its traditional upright posture. Other draws were, of course, the huge boulders bordering the trail in the woods, stick collecting, dirt drawing, mud digging and general rumpus.

The kids love the destination of the water tower and the mystery that surrounds it like the chain-link fence that is actually there. I love to listen to their speculations. Can people get in? Do they climb it? Is that what that ladder is for? What if they fell in when they got to the top? Is there a door? How do they get the water out? Is there water inside? How do they get over the fence? The questions go round and round.

I use the lure of the Wecquaesgeek Trail to lure them away from the water tower. Several kids run along ahead while being reminded that they need to be in the sight-line of their grown ups, and hit the trail pointing at the faded brown blaze-markers they see affixed to trees. They feel confident following the blazed trails. There is a mountain to climb, a large, icy puddle to explore, stumps to sit upon, sticks to break and whack and wield.

We're losing light and we need to move the group up on the "mountain" back down to the trail and along toward our cars and homework and dinner. As the kids load in, shedding boots, clicking seat belts, one mom calls out to me quoting her son, "That was the funnest Kids Unplugged yet!" Cool.