After a thrilling 4 day trip into the Steel Creek Canyon and Linville Gorge Wilderness, the Wilderness Club returned from the woods this February intact, yet again! As far as Wilderness Club trips go, this one was a little out of the ordinary for the ever-expanding club as it was the first trip since the spring of 2022 that was not split into two squads. With just 43 students on the trip and 5 teacher chaperones, this winter trip was a considerable shrinkage from the whopping 76 students on the Fall Trip in November 2023.
However, the small trip meant that the club did not need to create two opposite-direction squads to manage campsite sizes and overall leader/chaperone/participant ratio. Normally, trips have a “NOBO” and “SOBO” squad, which means students hike the same trails and same distances but swap starting and ending points, often meeting in the middle for an exciting reunion with friends and fellow hikers. Brooke Murgitroyd (’25), a leader on the 31-person leader team, reflected on the smaller trip size, “I liked it better because I got to know everyone, not just half of the group. I also liked having a big group around the fire, but I’m hoping more people sign up for the next trip!”
The Winter Trip was recently renamed from the “Spring” Trip to avoid luring bright-eyed students in with the promise of warm weather – the nightly temperatures dip below 30o! Nevertheless, the trip featured sweeping panoramas of the Pisgah National Forest and the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Linville Gorge is one of two wilderness gorges in the American South, some even nicknamed it the “Grand Canyon of the East.” The club traversed the trail for four days it was part of the 1,200-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail. Despite the cold weather, students eagerly jumped into fresh, cold water, truly embodying the spirit of the “polar” in Polar Plunge. Molly Acton (’25), a Wilderness leader and polar-plunge enthusiast, reported she polar-plunged both in the morning and at night. Molly exclaimed, “Even though it was cold, I had a lot of fun!”
Another highlight for many was the stunning view at the top of the Chimneys, named because of the stacked formation of craggy boulders that form rocky pillars. Sunsets in the winter in the NC Mountains are particularly colorful because of the cool weather and less humidity, creating crisp sunsets that always treat Cary Academy’s Wilderness Club, never failing to impress. Another interesting fact, less water vapor in the air creates bolder colors because less light is scattered, according to WBUR News.
The laidback nature of the Winter Trip, with 18 miles of hiking distance under a backpack, does come with challenges. For leader Dhruv Mulik (’26) and his mini-team of participants, bear-bagging posed a common challenge. Contrary to its name, in the NC mountains “bear-bagging” most often effectively prevents small creatures like squirrels and raccoons from snacking on students’ lifeline during the night. “Our participants really struggled to throw our rock-bag over the branch within 30 attempts,” Mulik sighed. “We also had trouble picking out a good tree.” It’s a tale as old as time in the Wilderness Club – nighttime bear-bagging excursions often devolve into hour-long throwing practices, which can become some of the best memories of trips.
Overall, the 2024 Winter Trip was a fantastic way for students to disconnect from the hustle and bustle of early second-semester school and reconnect with nature and each other, learning new skills, fostering old relationships, and building new ones.
Source: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/12/02/winter-sunsets-science-new-england-newsletter