Are You Allergic to Goldenrod? (This is a Trick Question)

Fall may bring crisp, cool weather and beautiful colors in the trees, but it also brings fall allergies! Many of us (me included) suffer from runny noses, sneezing, and watery eyes as the seasons change, and we look around for something to blame. For many people, their eyes are drawn to goldenrod.

When I was growing up, one of the cardinal rules in my house was that we shouldn't pick goldenrod and bring it inside, because it would set off my father's allergies. As I grew up and started developing seasonal allergies, I also assumed that goldenrod was to blame...imagine my surprise when I learned that this beautiful flower is falsely accused!

It's easy to understand why so many people blame goldenrod for their suffering. Whenever they sneeze, they can look around and, most likely, see the showy golden flowers somewhere nearby. But in actuality, the very showiness of the goldenrod's flowers should be our clue that it is not to blame for our allergies.

In general, plants with showy flowers are showy for a reason: to attract their insect pollinators. Since these plants rely on insects to carry their pollen from plant to plant, the pollen is generally too heavy to be carried by the wind. Therefore, the pollen from these flowering plants is rarely to blame for your sneezing!

The true culprit is generally growing somewhere close to the goldenrod, but is much less likely to be noticed: ragweed. As you can see from the photo below, ragweed is a fairly nondescript plant. Unless you know what you're looking for, it's easy to miss.

This year seems to be a particularly good year for ragweed--it's growing in every corner, and I've seen some truly mammoth plants. So if you are a fellow allergy sufferer, get ready for an intense allergy season!

First Aid Training

Yesterday the Pok-O Staff finished up our first aid certifications. We all are certified by the American Red Cross in "Responding to Emergencies" and "CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer." It's good to have this training, but spending hours on end in the class tends to make us all a little loopy. Luckily, we were able to direct this loopiness to good use in our practical exam, when we bandaged Adam up for almost anything we could. In the photo below, he is treated for: A possible skull fracture, a neck injury (kind of...this isn't actually how we would treat a neck injury), a broken forearm, and a cut on his other arm. Only the fact that it was time for dinner prevented us from splinting a leg or putting him on the backboard!

First Aid Training was the last part of our staff training. Today the kids arrive! Two hours and counting left!

We're Back!

Pok-O-MacCready Outdoor Education Center is back from our summer break!

Every summer, things here at Pok-O change considerably as the Outdoor Ed Center takes a step back and the Pok-O-MacCready Camps take over active use of the site. Instead of school groups coming here on field trips, several hundred summer campers arrive to enjoy a few weeks of hiking, swimming, boating, games, and all the other activities that come with going to camp.

As the end of August rolls around, however, the campers head home, and the staff of the Outdoor Ed Center gear up for another year of visits from schools, scout troops, after-school programs, and all the others who visit between September and June.

Our season has been off to a busy start, with a full schedule of staff training! We have a mix of returning and new staff members, so we take the first week and a half to review all the classes we teach here and get ready for the arrival of clients. So far we have completed all of our team building courses, gone over our ecology classes, gone mountain biking, canoeing, and have hiked two of the four Pok-O-Patch mountains. (And that was just in the first four days!)

There are a number of familiar faces on our staff this fall: Stites McDaniel, our director, never actually left over the summer. (He just spent a lot of time in the office.) Brian DeGroat, who was an instructor last year, is stepping into the role of Assistant Director, and is doing a great job. I (Molly Smyrl) am back again as Program Coordinator, while Liz Pierson is taking over as Naturalist. Adam Reed, who was an instructor last fall, is back for another go as well. Mike Gast, our chef, rounds out the list of returning staff.

We also have four new faces as well--three on our teaching staff, and one in the office. (The photo is the new instructors goofing around on top of Rattlesnake Mountain.)

Mark Scott (on the right) is our Climbing Director. He worked at summer camp last summer, and now is here for the fall. He grew up about ten minutes from Pok-O, and has a long family history here---we have reason to believe that he's the first person to be a second-generation Outdoor Ed instructor; his parents worked here in the '70s.

Julie Warren (on the left) is a new instructor this fall. She's one of two Julia's on staff this summer (we have a new marketing director who is named Julia), so Julie is desperately hoping that she'll get a nickname (she's never had one before.) If you have any suggestions, let us know.

Madison Andrus (in the center) is our fall-season intern. This internship will give her the last credits that she needs to graduate from Missouri State University. She's a life-long girl scout, and since arriving at Poko has acquired the nickname "Mad-dog." (Julie is upset that Madi got a nickname before her.)

As mentioned before, Julia Backus is on board as our new Marketing Director. Julia has worked at summer camp for 4 summers, but now gets to experience the thrill of a full winter at Pok-O. In keeping with our pattern of nicknaming everyone except Julie Warren, Julia has recently been nicknamed "Thriller." She's also fond of card games.

All in all, it looks like we have a great staff, and we're looking forward to the season ahead. Eight days until the first students arrive!

Where have we all gone?

Well, as Molly said, the Pok-O outdoor ed staff have all disappeared it seems. But nevertheless, camp will not be quiet! Starting on Monday, all the campers will arrive and camp will be bustling again for the next 7 weeks.

Most of the outdoor ed staff you know and love through the blog will not be there however. With one exception!

Brian DeGroat has decided to extend his stay yet again by becoming a summer camp counselor. Brian will be living in the intermediate section, which houses boys ages 10-12 (or thereabouts, I can't remember the exact ages). He will be teaching drama, frisbee, and drama set construction. He is then returning to Pok-O in the fall as Assistant Director. Hooray!

Molly Smyrl has returned to the City of Brotherly Love to continue her work at the Crow's Nest Nature Preserve. She will be helping run the summer day camp there. I'm not sure exactly what she does, but I know she gets really dirty and has lots of fun doing it! Molly will also be returning in the fall as the Community Programs Manager. That means lots of cool things will be happening at Pok-O that everyone should come out and participate in! Hooray!

Liz Pierson has decided to travel the world this summer. She will be traveling to Sint-Truiden, Belgium for 5 weeks to work on an organic farm. This is all happening thanks to the WWOOF Program. That stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Check them out, it's a really cool organization. Liz will also be returning in the fall as naturalist. Hooray!

Viv.Poit, after spending 10 years in the US has decided to move back to her home country of Brazil. We are all totally jealous and planning trips to go visit her. She leaves July 15, leaving our summer to go back to wintertime! We'll miss you Viv! But have fun! Hooray!

Ginny Tice has gone back to school to finish up her triple major. We had a lot of fun working with Ginny and hope she had a great time as well. I've heard rumors that either Hawaii or the moon (okay, maybe just Hawaii) is next on her agenda. Good luck! Hooray!

Tim Oprazdek (I probably spelled that wrong, I apologize) is back being the director of the Pioneer section of Island Lake Camp in PA. He is in charge of camp craft things as well as the high and low ropes courses, and team building areas. We aren't sure where Tim's next adventures will take him, but we hope if that path leads to the North Country he'll come back and visit! Hooray!

Mike Gast has resumed his position as chef of Pok-O Summer camps. Cooking up some good food, and announcing the rule of the day, hooray!

And then there is Stites...Stites will be working in the office everyday, booking groups and making sure we all have jobs in the fall. Lots of computer work, and lots of phone calls. At least he gets to go outside and mow the lawn for Shai once a week. Good luck Stites! Hooray!

So that's it for us! Leave a comment and tell us what YOU are doing for the summer. Maybe we can share stories when we all reconvene again!

Liz

Scenes from Our Final Weeks

We had a busy final two weeks here at Pok-O. We've had a packed schedule of school groups, as well as all the tasks that come with shutting down the Outdoor Education Center for the summer and getting the summer camp up and running. Most of the Outdoor Ed staff is scattering for the summer, so we won't be posting on this blog much, if at all, until we're back in August. We hope that you'll be back to read it then!

Before we go, however, we wanted to share a few pictures from the last two weeks...

These kids are at the top of Rattlesnake Mountain, one of 4 mountains that they hiked in 3 days to earn their Pok-O Patch. 

These girls are showing off the edible plants that they learned about in an early-morning nature walk. 

A campfire at Intermediate Point...

Snapping Turtles have been coming out of the pond to lay their eggs. This one came all the way up the hill to outside Robinson Dining Hall!

This one is of the staff at our end-of-the-season dinner. We're all wearing the t-shirts that Viv made for us as a final gift. We had a blast this spring, and we hope that everyone else who came to Pok-O did as well. 

See you in the Fall!

Bouquet River Canoe Trip

On Saturday, June 6th, we had another successful community event! People came from Plattsburgh and Jay, both in New York, to canoe on the Bouquet River.

The weather cooperated by providing lots of sunshine. There was also a little wind, which managed to make the trip downstream more difficult than the trip upstream…just enough wind to keep things interesting, though, nothing dangerous.

After canoeing down to Lake Champlain, we beached our canoes and ate our lunches. The children, and adults, played in the sand and took closer looks at the birds nearby.

As we headed back up the river to Willsboro, we couldn’t help but notice the active wildlife. There was a turtle taking its offspring for a swim and also a duck followed by 9 ducklings! It was an exciting experience!

I am moving away from the Adirondacks in a few weeks, but days like that will keep my mind here for a long time.

1812 Homestead Open House

This past weekend we opened up the 1812 Homestead for a community Open House. We had about 40 people stop by to make shingles and candles, tour the Inn, taste hearth-baked cornbread, play old-fashioned games, and attend a lesson in the one-roomed schoolhouse. We had a great time, and hope that everyone else did as well! Here's a photo of Master Carpenter Brian showing a visitor how to split a shingle out of a log:

We still have a few events left in our spring season, most notably our Summer Picnic on Sunday, June 14th! We'll have swimming, boating, hiking, games, dinner, and a campfire...if you're interested in attending, e-mail me at programs@pmoec, or just show up that day!

Hands on Nature

This weekend we had a "Hands on Nature" event for local kids. We had a great turnout---14 kids plus a few parents! We all had a lot of fun learning more about Long Pond, and all managed to get a little wet! Here are some photos:

In this photo, Liz is showing the kids a 3-D map of Long Pond and the surrounding mountains. This helped the kids visualize where Long Pond's watershed (the area of land that drains into the pond) is. 

We spent a lot of time hunting for macroinvertebrates (backbone-less critters that are big enough to see with the bare eye.) In this photo, the kids are using nets to scoop mud and dead leaves up from the bottom of the pond in search of the critters.

Once you have the mud up from the bottom, you have to search through it to find the animals. 

Despite our intentions to only catch invertebrates, the kids did manage to catch a few frogs as well! (Evidently the frogs jumped right into their nets.) In this photo, Liz is holding one of the frogs that the kids caught.

And if you can't find the animals from the docks, clearly you need to go into the pond to find them! By the end of the activity, most of the kids were completely soaked--which is how you know they had a good time!

Leadership Hike with Keene Central School

Today Tim and I headed into the high peaks region to hike up Rooster Comb Mountain with the 4th and 5th graders from Keene Central School. Rooster Comb is a local mountain for these kids--the trailhead can be reached on foot from the school, and you can see the school from the top of the mountain. This meant that many of the kids had climbed the mountain before, but that didn't matter...one of the goals of the hike was to talk about leadership, and what better way was there to demonstrate leadership than to show the group a trail that was already familiar to you!

Before we began the hike, we played a game called "Jiggy-jiggy Joy", which involves a series of actions being passed through the group, with each person doing the action that the person before them did the round before. It's a fast-paced game, in which the players need to be thinking about themselves, the person in front of them, and the person behind them. The kids were quick to notice that not only was the game fun, but it was also a good symbol for the kind of leadership that we were looking for on the hike---taking care of yourself, while also following the lead of the person in front of you and helping the person behind you. 

Then we were off for our hike. Each of the kids took a turn leading the group. Before we began the hike, we talked about what sorts of things we wanted the leader to be doing. The students said that the person in front had to set a good pace, and should stop to wait anything people in the back fell behind. As each kid took their turn in the front of the group, they all displayed this behavior beautifully! 

The leader was also responsible for making sure that we stayed on the trail. This was somewhat more of an issue, as seen from the kids' response in the photo below when I asked, "Which way does the trail go next?"

Just kidding! (That photo was completely staged.) Actually, the kids were really good at both following the trail through the forest and at keeping track of where we were on the map. This second part was yet another way that some of the kids showed leadership, because knowing where we were in relation to where we were going helped keep up the spirits on group members who got a little tired. 

We ate our lunches at the top of the mountain while enjoying the view. Every single kid made it all the way to the top, despite blisters, tired feet, and the fact that this meant that they got lunch almost half an hour later than usual! Here's the group at the top of the mountain, with some of the high peaks in the background:

Finally it was time to head down the mountain again, which presents different leadership challenges than going up---while going up, the leader must make sure that everyone is going slowly enough that everyone can keep up; while going down, they must make sure that everyone is going slowly enough that no one gets hurt from running down the mountain! Here's a photo from during our descent:

When we got back to the school, we talked about what we had learned about leadership during the day. The students were able to give a lot of great examples of times when their classmates had exhibited good leadership skills ("When someone fell down and cut their knee, he pulled out a first aid kit and gave her a bandaid.") We also asked the kids how they would describe a good leader. Some of their responses included:

• "Someone who takes care of the group"
• "Someone who makes sure the group is all together"
• "Someone who listens"

What I found most interesting was that nowhere in their description of a good leader did the kids mention anything like "someone who is in charge" or "someone who tells other people what to do." While they recognized that sometimes a group does need someone to step forward to help organize things and help the group make decisions, they were very aware of the responsibilities of the leader to the group. With kids like these making up the next generation of leaders, I think the world will be in good hands!

Thanks, KCS 4th and 5th Graders, for being so amazing on the hike today! Tim and I had a great time!

The Wild Center

Today the Poko staff got to go the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. The museum was closed to the public today, but they let is in for a behind the scenes tour! We got to see the animals in their "backstage" holding areas, which let us get a much-closer look than ususal. Here is a Saw Whet Owl. It's hard to tell from this photo, but this bird (a full-grown adult) is only about the size of a human hand!

The next photo is of one of the three river otters that live at the Wild Center. The otters split their time between their water tank, which is open to public display, and their behind-the-scenes play area. It's nearly impossible to get a good picture of them in the water because they move so fast, and it's not much easier when they're in their play area! One of them did pause just long enough for me to snap this picture, though. 

My favorite animal-encounter of the day was Stickly the Porcupine. The curator let her out of her cage to climb around a bit (porcupines are excellent climbers), so we got to see her up close. At one point, my face was probably only 6 inches from hers! It's an urban myth that porcupines can throw their quills, so we were safe as long as we stayed a few inches away. Given how cute porcupines are, however, we had to keep reminding ourselves that we couldn't pet her. 

Finally, here's a photo that shows you exactly how "behind-the-scenes" our tour was---the refrigerator where they store the food for the animals...which was mostly dead rats and mice!