More anticipated than the Oscars and more pored-over than Pokemon cards in Mrs. Jones’ third-grade class, we are delighted to announce the arrival of our 2012 trip schedule (or most of it anyway…*)! Our Trips at a Glance page is updated with 2012 dates and tuition costs, and each individual trip page is updated for dates and prices, too.
We have two brand-spanking new trips that are not represented anywhere on the website yet. Our California Mountains & Coast (CMC) trip is a 14-day trip open to 13-15 year-olds. These guys will start off with an overnight-camping trip on Santa Cruz Island in the unbelievable Channel Islands National Park 20 miles off of Santa Barbara. There, they’ll paddle through sea-caves and (if they dare) do some snorkeling in the chilly water. Then they’ll head up the coast to the Big Sur area for some stunning coastal day-hiking. For the final major portion of the trip, the group will cross the central valley and head into Yosemite National Park for several days of high-country backpacking. Finally, the group will shake off the trail dust and put on their city duds to explore San Francisco to close out the trip. CMC will be offered twice in 2012, from July 2-15, and July 20 — August 2.
We’ve heard from so many of you about the need for another great service-oriented trip in addition to our Caribbean Service Adventure. So, without further ado, I’m happy to announce our Rocky Mountain Service Adventure (RMSA)! This, too, will be a 14-day trip and packed with great service projects. Our group is set up to work with the Rangers in Rocky Mountain National Park, at a food bank in the northern valley, and with the stewards of the Continental Divide Trail. Along the way, they’ll hike the high peaks (of course!), ride the rapids on the world-famous Arkansas River, and, in a first for any Apogee trip, spend a day on horseback. RMSA will run twice in 2012, from July 2-15, and July 19 — August 1.
One other major change to note, in response to great feedback that we’ve received over the years, we’ve changed our perennial favorite New England Mountains & Coast trip so that it will now run for 11 days (instead of 7 days as in years past). This will allow our NEMCers to do more hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and spend a day riding the Kennebec River’s fantastic rapids. It is still our introductory hiking trip, but with these changes, we’ll be able to cover a lot more ground and get in a lot more fun!
We hope that you will be as excited as we are about next summer’s trips, old and new! Please give us a call or drop us a line with any questions about the schedule, trips, etc. Hope to hear from you soon!
* As mentioned above, the two new trips are not noted on the website yet — we’ll get them posted when we make our updates to the site. These should be up in about a month. We’ll be making some smaller changes to the site in the meantime, too – so please be patient as we get up to speed for 2012.
