Last week, we joined our school's Athletic Director and some others on a reconnaissance hike through the wilderness near Ligatne. The goal was to get a feel for a 14 km. hike from Ligatne to Ratnieki as this route is being considered as part of the team building activities at the beginning of the year for our middle school students. Less than 500 meters into the hike, I knew that this would not work out with our 7th graders. There was no trail. This was not a marked and well-trodden path through the forest.
We were blazing our own trail through some thick grasses and bush, trying our best to avoid all the stinging nettle plants, relying on a "route" shared via online topo maps and, once in a while, slight indication that, indeed, another human had walked this route, in the form of a few meters of flattened plants. More often, we found animal trails or signs of warthog activity. This is not to say that I'm opposed to this kind of hiking but I am certain that it would not be appreciated by 28 7th graders and, especially, by those attempting to convince them to keep moving forward through impassable bush for 9 or 10 hours.
Ko was the first to crack. The bugs, branches whipping him in the face, and fallen trees scratching up his legs and back got the best of him by kilometer two. Then, he fell in the river and that, essentially, was the end of it. It took some superhuman effort and patience to "guide" him for the next two kilometers until we completed the first mini-loop and ended up back in Ligatne. At that point, the floodgates opened and all the kids carried out a successful mutiny, choosing Sigulda's outdoor activities over another 10 km. of hiking. So, the rest of the adults (other than Ash and I) continued on while we took the four kids out for a 7-hour adventure in Sigulda! We can safely say that this worked out better for everyone...
