Looking for a dynamic outdoor trip for your students involving teamwork, adventure and new challenges? We have designed this trip package with a select series of classes and activities to offer students an amazing bonding and life-changing experience.
Classes & Activities:
– Archery
– Survival
– Canoeing
– Gorge Hike
– You Pick! (recommendations: Ropes, Teambuilding, Blacksmith)
Evening Options: (Recommendations; Night Walk, Skit & Song, Campfire, DJ Dance Party)
What you get:
19th Century Homestead Journey
Travel back to a simpler time on the Ashokan Homestead, where students are embraced as members of our homestead family. We expect everyone to earn their keep! Contribute to daily life at our beautiful hand-built cabin by learning to cut roof shingles, firewood, and wall beams with tools of the era, or huddle around the fireplace and bake gingerbread in the Dutch oven.
Adventure Canoeing
Paddle on the Esopus Creek and experience the magic that has attracted so many to this important waterway. While navigating the waters with friends, students practice cooperation and communication to explore the wondrous habitat and get close with the wildlife the creek attracts. Whether it is seeing the fish swimming below the surface or the birds flying high across the sky, the experience is always unique and one that students will surely remember!
Archery
In this classic archery class, students learn the history of archery along with the necessary rules, safety procedures, and archery techniques before hitting the range and letting the arrows fly. With a variety of fun targets, kids and adults alike are certain to have a blast at the Ashokan archery range, challenging themselves to improve their power, precision, and accuracy with a bow and arrow while cheering on others to do the same!
Maple Sugaring (Feb-April)
After a scenic hike out to our sugar shack, students will learn about the history of maple sugaring and its roots in Indigenous and colonial cultures. Our staff will demonstrate how to tap a sugar maple tree in order to sustainably harvest sap from our sugarbush. Inside the shack, students will learn all the steps involved in turning that sap into a sweet maple syrup. Finally, they’ll enjoy the fruits of their labor with a maple syrup taste test and enjoy jackwax candy!
Hike to Cathedral Gorge
Hike through an old Eastern Hemlock forest along the Esopus Creek and explore the natural and social history of the region! The trail passes relics of the recent and prehistoric past, including a 19th-century water mill, a 130-year-old covered bridge, and a glacial gorge, before it ends at a 80-foot waterfall—the walls of which reveal rock layers that are millions of years old.
Survival
Learn basic survival skills and wilderness safety concepts in this fun, hands-on class. With the guidance of our survival experts, students work together to enact survival techniques, prioritize needs, brainstorm prevention measures, build a functional shelter, and gather kindling for a small fire.
Ropes Course
Challenge yourself on an obstacle course in the trees above the forest floor. Students work on their teamwork and communication skills while practicing personal and group responsibility as they encounter diverse elements along the course, such as the kitten crawl, the Burma Bridge, and the log crossing. The course culminates with a thrilling ride down our zipline
Team Building Level I: Challenge and Discovery
Work as a team to solve a variety of fun and purposeful challenges that cultivate trust and cooperation among the group. Designed to de-emphasize competition, these activities encourage creativity, spontaneity, and imagination, along with communication and leadership skills.
Team Building Level II
This team building course is more advanced than Challenge and Discovery, designed to challenge a group, both physically and mentally, through a variety of fun initiatives and ground-level elements. As a team, the group will be given the opportunity to practice effective problem-solving and communication skills in order to reach the final goal.
Night Walk (Evening Program)
Use your ears like the deer, step softly like the fox. Observe the forest at night! Available until May. No charge for this activity.
Stargazing
Observe the velvety night sky complete with the beauty of the stars at the Ashokan Center. Available until May. No charge for this activity.
Choose one more:
Team Building Level I: Challenge and Discovery
Work as a team to solve a variety of fun and purposeful challenges that cultivate trust and cooperation among the group. Designed to de-emphasize competition, these activities encourage creativity, spontaneity, and imagination, along with communication and leadership skills.
Team Building Level II
This team building course is more advanced than Challenge and Discovery, designed to challenge a group, both physically and mentally, through a variety of fun initiatives and ground-level elements. As a team, the group will be given the opportunity to practice effective problem-solving and communication skills in order to reach the final goal.
Recommended Evening Programs:
Night Walk
Use your ears like the deer, step softly like the fox. Observe the forest at night! (After May 15th, special arrangements need to be made.)
