High Trails 2025

I wrote this all down on 26 Oct. 2025, the Sunday after High Trails.

On this last occurring Wednesday, I returned from High Trails, which is an outdoor education program for 6th graders, as a counselor. Of course, I'm a senior in high school this year, so I was meant to watch over the little ones and even teach some of their classes.

It was 3 days, so I'll explain each of them in more detail;

Monday:

On Monday, we went to the middle school at the normal school start time. All the kids dropped off their bags and went to class for the first period. We, the counselors, loaded all the bags into a moving truck to take them to the High Trails site, which is located in the mountains. At 9am, they released the kids to get onto the buses, I was assigned to watch the kids on the 4th and last bus with another counselor, Masen.

The bus ride was just over 2 hours, I think. As we got onto the dirt road leading to the site, one of the kids on my bus needed to pee more and more, so much so that he started crying out of fear that he would pee himself. Luckily, he made it to the bathroom in time. All the kids were taken from the buses to the central firepit/amphitheatre for instructions.

We then moved them to their cabins. Each cabin had an East and West side, with one high school counselor in charge of one of the sides. The cabins were all split up between the boys and girls, with guys on one side of the site and girls on the other. The guy counselors got our own cabin for after the kids' lights out.

After everyone had claimed their bunks and put down their bags, we went to lunch. One half of a cabin sat at each table, with their counselor watching over them. Then one of the cabins would be the waiters at the tables to refill dishes and help clean up. I didn't get the memo the first couple of times (because no one gave me a spatula) but as the counselor I was supposed to scrap all the food from the plates onto one plate so the kitchen had an easier time. Oh well. I did eventually figure it out.

Then the kids went on a hike with the other staff and teachers while the counselors had a meeting with one staff member named Maddie. She explained our roles and more importantly, which groups we would be in charge of for the discovery groups. Lots of fun. She even made a nametag for Eli, who couldn't come at the last minute because he didn't fill out the required forms on time. I wish he was there. But if he was, he might've let some kids die on accident. Just sayin'.

After the kids had some time to recover from the first hike, the counselors went with them on another hike called "Setting the Mood" where we thought about the nature and sounds and reflected on the importance of nature. We were supposed to do an activity called "Find your Tree" on the way back, where the counselors guide the kids (who had their eyes closed) through a grove of aspens and give each of them a tree. They were supposed to then be able to find their tree after being brought to the starting location. But I was part of the set-up crew for dinner, so I had to leave early and the staff had to take over my job. So sad.

At dinner, I helped set the tables but then my job was to wash the dishes as people finished. And dinner that night was a buttered-chicken casserole, which was great but super greasy and horrible to try and get off the dishes. But Maddie the staffer helped with the bucket of solution which ate through the grease before I rinsed them. Then we sent them through the dish sanitiser named "Esteban." Such a thrilling story, I know.

We brought the kids to what they call the "Interbarn," short for interactive barn, where they learned about space, the layers of the Earth, fossils, dead frozen animals (super weird, they just kept them in a food freezer, but super super cool), rocks/minerals, tracks, and scat. Even though it was called a barn, it was more like a school building, with carpeting, AC, lights and all the good stuff. I was of course in charge of the tracks and scat station. The theme of High Trails for me was running the most boring stations. We started at the Interbarn by setting up a skit to show the kids before they were released to the stations. What do you do with tracks and scat? My staffer and I came up (she had the idea) of me being a deer and dropping the jar of deer scat and the deer prints board behind me. Then she would follow and say a deer's been there. Great idea, I know.

The kids got there and we all went upstairs to do our skits for the kids. I found a grass skit and brimmed grass hat for my deer costume, super original. Maddie the staffer was the leader of the skits, and was dressed like an old woman, which she played quite well. The counselors doing the space rotation had someone dressed as the Sun, Earth, Moon, and an alien (Connor from stuco) named "bee do bee do" because of the sound it made as it flew through the solar system. I forgot most of the rest of them. Except for the frozen animals. They did a skit about a hobo cooking show where he cooked the animals for a TV special.

We did three rotations after that, where I was meant to lead the last one to improve my leadership skills or something like that. Then we all headed back to the cabins.

At the cabins, everyone had to take off their shoes to keep it clean. I had to use the bathroom, so I went into the bathroom of the 6th graders (bad idea) real quick. I stepped into the stall and then noticed a wet feeling through my sock. I left after trying to smell my sock and nearing the ground (but not too close) to try and smell the puddle next to the toilet. I couldn't smell anything, so we can hope for the best. But my sock was soaked, so I told Maxx, the other counselor for our cabin that I had to change my socks so he should watch the cabin. I took off my socks and decided I didn't want to put my bear feet into my boots, so I carried them all bear-foot down the dirt trail to our cabin. I am now quite good at walking bear-foot on rocks.

Our cabin had a couple staffers responsible for us named Grace and Jamie. They told the kids each night what would be happening the next day and asked them how their day was.

After I had returned and sorted out the kids at our cabin and they were starting to settle, it was time for our counselor's meeting at the dining hall. They gave us cereal, but the bowls were so small that I didn't even bother to go back for more. Like you could only fit 3 pieces of shredded wheat into the "bowl." What's even the point at that point? Anyway, Maddie the staffer showed us the schedule for the next day and the lessons for the "discovery groups," where we the counselors would teach the kids about nature or things people did in nature. I was assigned to "Woodsfolk," previously called "Woodsmen," but changed for political correctness. We (another counselor named Elizabeth and I) would teach the kids about the trees in the region, the jobs people had relating to trees, and how fire mitigation worked. After scanning through it we gave them back and headed to our cabins.

That night was pretty chill, everyone just wanted to go to bed, so we got ready and fell asleep after some others did a little cuddling.

Tuesday:

The counselors woke up at 6am to get the kids ready by 6:30. Then we went out for a hike. It was so unbelievably cold for me. I don't know how the kids did it. I also went with the group that was supposed to be the hardest, but it was really very easy for me. I guess I'm just really good at hiking. On this hike I met a girl named Tigan, who was really really nice, but had a bit of a hard time hiking. She kept asking me to make sure she wouldn't fall over, which was really cute. She had cramps on the way back so I was preparing to carry her back to camp on my back, but she made it all the way on her own. Both ways, she was basically holding onto Ally's (another counselor) hand the whole time.

After returning, we did breakfast and set out the first discovery group of the session. Like I said, I was in Woodsfolk, but the staffer who was supposed to teach us was sick, so another had to sub for her. So Elizabeth and I got Mav the pyro-ecologist. She was very energetic and great at entertaining the kids, although I felt like she didn't really want to be there. My costume consisted of a leather jacket with the strips that hang down from the sleeves and a fur hat, so I looked more like a trapper than a logger.

We were each supposed to play characters during the Discovery Group, and I was selected to the Lumberjack. I couldn't think of an alias in time, so I stuck with Italo as my name for the first Discovery Group. But Mav was Terri H. Ugger the tree hugger and Elizabeth was Eco Treeko the Ecologist. I wish I was faster in the head with the creativities.

We started with bringing the kids to a clearing past the yurt. We never used the yurt, so I don't know what it's for. The clearing had all the trees that we were supposed to teach them about, and Mav essentially led everything the first time through. After telling them all the facts, Mav quizzed them on the trees, then we moved onto the next area to teach them.

Honestly, the Woodsfolk DG was kinda boring, and especially hard to keep their attention in. Although it's hard to keep a 6th grader's attention for anything.

We moved onto a grass clearing and Mav told them about the impact humans have on the environment. She pointed to a road between two sections of forest and asked them whether the two sides were part of the same ecosystem. It was really hard to get the kids to engage.

Next we moved up a hill (we had between a huge boulder and some barbed wire, which was super relaxing while watching the kids) next to another section of forest. While there, Mav showed the kids a cactus which wasn't native to the area and told them about the different species of sage. She also spoke about the aridness of the environment.

Next we moved into the forest, which she called the "Forest of Diseased Trees." There we were supposed to teach the kids about the things that kill trees, including beetles, fungus and diseases, lightning, and loggers, like myself. She made them point at me and shame me for killing the trees.

Next we did a fire "demonstration." There were matches sticking out of a block and their density in certain places was supposed to help the kids see the importance of mitigating fires through the removal of an abundance of fuel. She'd light one match on fire and show them whether or not it would spread to the surrounding matches.

We had the kids make a model of the cross section of a tree trunk, but I don't know how many of the kids understood what was going on.

We brought them deeper into the woods and showed them trees that were scheduled to be cut down, from disease to the threat they posed to the people in the area. We told the kids to use a 6 point scale to rate some other trees on the danger they posed, 1 being most safe and 6 being most dangerous. Supposedly lumberjacks and environmentalists used the same scale when planning which trees must most critically be cut down.

We brought them to a 4 story "tree house." I was more like 4 platforms supported one above the other with 3 trees at the edges. There was a cargo net floor on the 3rd level, which was very neat. Near the tree house was a huge teepee made of logs.

We let them play with Elizabeth and I monitoring them for around 40 mins each DG session. Then we headed back for lunch.

After lunch, we gave the kids a little down time in their cabins, then headed right back out for the next DG. We rotated around so the kids could experience more.

This time around, Elizabeth and I were supposed to take the lead a lot more and teach the kids. We did all the same things, Elizabeth and I tried to split up the content pretty evenly, but I had a louder voice, so I called them to listen more (funny because I'm usually very quite). I got to light the matches at the demonstration. Other than that, we did everything the same way Mav did. Mav followed us for the first half to make sure everything was smooth, then left us with the kids and a couple teachers to teach on our own.

We then brought them back to camp for Rec time. During the Rec time, I started by playing Ga-ga ball with some of the kids. I found Tigan again, who was a little nervous to play because she is so small, but I told her we could work together.

After playing a round, I met an autistic child named Lucas or maybe Lukas, I'm not sure, but I found him crying near the Ga-ga ball pit. He told me that he wanted to play Ga-ga ball but that he couldn't get over the wall on his own (he was very short), so he felt very childish and ashamed.

I told him I could help him over the wall, but he said he would feel like a baby if I did. Tigan was there the whole time supporting him too. I told him I could show him how to get over the wall by himself. This brightened his face, and he followed me with some coaxing. I found a place where the wall had some bent boards and a little ledge where he could try to get his toes and climb over. After trying for a minute, he decided he couldn't do it and started to lose hope. I told him we should try again where the wall was shorter. He reluctantly followed me and we waited for the last round to end before jumping over. As the last couple player competed, all the kids started cheering. This made him very scared because of him autism and he began to sob. After being lost for what to do for a moment, I decided to ask him if I could move him away from the noise while trying to not yell too much. He agreed and I grabbed his hand to pull him away. I brought him over into the grass and we sat down for a moment to talk. After chatting for a moment, Ally and Reyna (some other counselors) came over to console him too. We talked about his rock collection and his fascination with space for at least 30 minutes. Then it was time for dinner so we all headed in. Perfect timing, I was running out of things to ask him.

After dinner, we went to the hoedown. It was a little building, but completely open on the inside to allow for lots of dancing space. We, the counselors of our cabins, we told to dress up in goofy costumes for the event. I found a pink bandana which I tied on my head like a dew rag and a felt knight's breastplate. The staffers there were supposed to be dressed as the Chipmunks, and we led dances for them to get their voices back.

After a good bit of dancing, the individual cabins were told to come up with a dance for a cabin vs. cabin dance off. My cabin (which was named Kinnikinnik, I forgot to mention that earlier) chose the song "California Girls" after much debate. The kids actually came up with most of the routine on their own and Maxx and I just invented a little intro. We would start by calling the boys onto the stage, then we would all snap and move forward, then 2 of the boys would de cartwheels across the stage. Finally, a group of them had come up with a trick in the cabin that they wanted to use for the competition which consisted of 5 boys sliding forward with the legs apart in a line and a final one sliding on the ground between their legs. Of course, our group won first place.

After the hoedown, we went back to the cabin for bedtime. One of the boys informed me that he lost his daypack, so I had to keep an eye out for it. It wasn't hard getting them to get ready for bed that night, although I think it was that night or the night before one of the kids was under a bed and pulled out and he hit his nose on the bunk, causing it to bleed. It was ok, I taught him how to shove paper into his nostril.

We headed back to our cabin as the counselors. This night, we were a little silly. The other guys insisted that we interlock toes, so we made a power chain of interlocked toes. Then we stacked everyone onto one bed just to prove it was possible. I fell asleep quickly that night.

Wednesday:

The counselors woke up at 5:30am to wake the boys up by 6:00 so we could have all their stuff cleaned up by 6:30. After waking up all the boys and helping a couple pack their sleeping bags, I went outside to look for the lost daypack of the one boy. I checked around the Ga-ga ball pit where he thought he left it, then in the dining hall where the lost and found was.

After digging around the other bags, I found it. Dennis, the camp director, saw me and stopped me to tell me that he thought I worked really well with kids (he followed us on the last DG) and asked whether I had ever considered working at a place like High Trails as an adult. I told him that I really appreciated it and would consider it.

I needed to make sure all the boys were working. I gave the one kid his daypack back and started working with individuals to clean up all their stuff. I found a couple unclaimed piles of clothes, which sorted out except for a single glove and pair of socks. Pretty good for a bunch of 6th graders. We were out on the porch by 6:32, but no one needs to know.

After all the kids got their stuff over to the loading area, they were allowed to play in the Ga-ga ball pit again. Then it was breakfast time.

After breakfast, we had the "Session on the Rocks" which was a reflection time for the kids and I guess also us. Everyone was supposed to be quite as we hiked across camp to some boulders in the sun. Some of the staff members read bits of poetry reflecting on nature. We went back to camp to prep for our last discovery group. After grabbing our kids, Elizabeth and I were teaching solo with the help of a couples teachers from the school, though only as chaperones.

After returning from the final DG, we had lunch and loaded on the buses. Dennis came up behind our bus to give us the bag of lost and found items through the back door.

On the bud ride home I almost fell asleep. Masen and I were responsible for keeping the kids sitting and out of the ally way, which was hard because all they wanted to do was be in the ally way.

Just 30 minutes out from the school, William (one of the 6th graders) said he had to pee and couldn't hold it. I walked to the front of the bus to let the teachers know. They decided we could stop in 10 minutes, so I went back and told Will that we would stop in 5 minutes and worked with him to talk him through it. We stopped at the Rudy's BBQ near Red Rocks Open Space. All 4 buses had to stop together, just for Will. Poor kid.

We hit the road again and finally reached the school. I grabbed my bag and Giada just as mom was pulling up.

And that was all of High Trails.