Students who had participated in the Warwick Area Farmworkers Dulce Esperanza Summer Enrichment Program this past summer who were in Ally Secord’s group learned about mapping and areas around the world as part of their academic enrichment program. One of the areas they selected to do a deeper dive on was the Appalachian Trail. That group of students was taken on a short hike on the Vernon, New Jersey area of the Appalachian Trail.

They were excited to see turtles and other wildlife– disappointed in not seeing any bears! Two of the highlights of the hike was that the students met two sets of through walkers, hikers going from Georgia through Maine. The through-walkers were happy to take a break from walking to tell the students about their experience. This hike helped to make real all of the history and mapping that they learned about in their academic portion of the work.