 July 5, 2015
Greetings,
Today we bring you a special edition of Swain Stories, to share the adventures of a group of middle schoolers who experienced a special trip last month. Please enjoy!
by Bradley Hirsh, Outdoor Education Coordinator
The 2015 Swain canoers - nine rising 7th-9th graders - have now returned to the Lehigh Valley after a week of adventuring on the Chester River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. It was an amazing week of fishing, canoeing, camping, swimming, eating, and getting to know people in the outdoors!
Our trip began on Monday morning, June 15, as we boarded a bus for the two- and-a-half hour ride to Chestertown, MD, where we met Echo Hill Outdoor School naturalists, who would support us throughout the trip. After meeting up with Echo Hill Outdoor School, we proceeded to our launch beach, where we discussed our goals for the week, learned  how to pack the canoes, reviewed paddling for a canoe, and went for our first swim in the Chester River. After getting the canoes packed and ready to go, we headed out onto the mighty Chester for our first campsite at Neff's farm. We pulled in and learned how to set up camp.
That afternoon we had our first fishing session. We learned how to catch live
bait with a Seine net and how to hook that bait on a fishing rod in order to catch larger fish. Even though not everyone caught a fish on that first day, almost everyone dove into the experience of fishing or exploring the shallow waters of the Chester River with a Seine net. As the sun set, everyone went to sleep content with the knowledge that we had accomplished so much on our first day.
 Day Two took us to three new places: Southeast Creek, Fossil Beach, and Ill's farm campsite. We faced a strong wind throughout the day, but we were able to discover and explore a beach that had fossil imprints from millions of years ago when Maryland was at the bottom of an ancient ocean. We also observed the ways that modern erosion changes shorelines. We even discovered a small cave along the shoreline! After that we traveled on to Ill's farm campsite, which could be one of the most beautiful places on the Chester River. That evening we weathered our first storm, but the tents and the canoers held up to it very well.
We passed two days at Ill's campsite, where we  explored the Chester, played King of the Canoe, taught Echo Hill naturalists how to set up a canoe campsite for their training week, and visited Becky Brown Creek where we caught more than a few fish and constructed sandcastles. On our final full day of the trip, we visited Beck's farm campsite, which is a Mary-land Historical Heritage site. We set up camp and visited a unique part of the Chester River that we called Cannon-ball Point, because you could actually do cannonballs into the river there with a running start from the shoreline. On our final night, we had a campfire with s'mores where we discussed how humans had been sitting around fires and under the stars for millenia.
We spent the last morning of our trip swimming, fishing and packing up for our return trip. Then we canoed across the Chester to our pick-up point where we had a wrap up discussion before hopping on a bus that would take us back to Swain.
In conclusion, it was a wonderful trip where each of the participants did something that they had never done before, whether that was canoeing, catching a fish or sleeping outside. I was so proud of each and every camper for their willingness to try to new things, experience new environments, and learn about the world outdoors!
We hope you enjoyed today's edition of Swain Stories!
1100 South 24th Street | Allentown, PA 18103 | 610-433-4542 | swain.org
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