To Do:
	Read our most recent Adventure Log posts!
	Schedule a Custom Adventure.

Get our newsletter!

Email Address

Close

HSE Civil War Bicycle Tour

May 6th, 2010 Classes,Homeschool

We are kicking off a collaboration with Bicycle Tours of Atlanta and are offering a new urban adventure: A Bicycle Tour of the Battle of Atlanta.

Our first tour for the general public will be held in collaboration with the B*ATL Event Festival in East Atlanta in July.

Last week, we rolled out a version of it with a group of families from Homeschool Excursions (HSE).

So, why is Sure Foot Adventures leading Civil War tours? We believe in helping people find creative ways to get outdoors, and a bicycle tour is a perfect intown adventure. We also wan to help people connect with the land around them, and learning history is a great way to do that. Are we Confederate sympathizers? No. We approach the story of the Civil War as a national tragedy (for the destruction and death it caused) and as a huge victory over the system of slavery. But most of all, we want participants to see the layers of history in the land around them and the neighborhoods we ride through.

At 11 a.m., our group of 10 cyclists departed the Zoo Atlanta parking lot in Grant Park for an 8-mile ride that approximated Civil War troop movements and visited important sites from the July 22, 1864 Battle of Atlanta.

Starting behind Confederate lines at Fort Walker, the only remaining visible earthworks left from the Civil War in Atlanta, we took a long uphill ride tracing Hardee’s night march and then criss-crossed Moreland Avenue (Leggett’s Hill) on side streets, learning the history of the battle and its significance.

General Hardee’s night march has always particularly intrigued me, probably because it involved hiking! General Hood ordered Hardee’s men to embark on an all-night, 12-15 mile march around the flank of the Federal armies in an attempt to attack from their rear. Many of these soldiers had just pulled back from fighting at Peachtree Creek, only to be sent on this extreme night march which culminated in a full day of vicious fighting. The most amazing thing to me is that these soldiers did not give up. It’s incredible, really, what humans can do when pushed.

In designing this bicycle tour, I originally wanted to bike the entire route of the night march. Many of the roads on Hardee’s route still exist (Key Road, Fayetteville Road, Flat Shoals Avenue, etc.), but this route would double the length of the ride. Instead, we ride directly to East Atlanta (one location where the battle began) via Ormewood Avenue. Ormewood has a long, slow hill which I hope helps participants simulate some of the fatigue that Hardee’s troops felt during the night march. Truthfully, though, nothing can simulate that!

Our tour visits the site of General McPherson’s death (for whom Fort McPherson was named), the remains of Leggett’s hill (which was mostly destroyed by the I-20 overpass at Moreland Avenue), the center point of the battle, and the Railroad Cut featured in the Cyclorama Painting. We use the height of the Inman Park MARTA Station overpass to look at the terrain surrounding the battle.

More than anything, I believe that bicycling the battle route allows participants to truly connect with history because the Civil War was so influenced by terrain – a fact which can’t be truly understood when driving. On bicycle, we can cover the whole battlefield (as opposed to the small area we can cover on foot), but we are forced to recognize the hills and valleys that so affected the fighting.

Plus, it’s great exercise and a wonderful way to see the intown neighborhoods of Grant Park, Ormewood Park, East Atlanta Village, Edgewood, Reynoldstown, Inman Park, and Cabbage Town.

This group of homeschool students were excellent cyclists, followed group-riding safety guidelines to a tee, and loved learning history while NOT sitting behind a desk. One young man raced me up a steep incline near Leggett’s Hill (and beat me, of course). Several participants chose to carry their bikes up the long staircase at the MARTA station, instead of taking the elevator (not that there is anything wrong with the elevator–those stairs are LONG). All in all, it was a great day of riding and history. Several participants even toured the Cyclorama in Grant Park after we completed the tour.

Please join us on a future bicycle tour! Visit biketoursatl.com, batlevent.org, and surefootadventures.com for more information about our tours.

HSE Mapping & Orienteering Class

April 5th, 2010 Classes,Homeschool,Outdoors Education

I recently taught a Mapping & Orienteering class for 10 kids and their parents from Homeschool Excursions. I highly recommend checking out this group. Vered, the director, puts together excellent and diverse programming for home school families. I love that Homeschool Excursions groups are racially, politically, geographically, and gender diverse.

The class was held at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in Decatur, and it was cold that day! With the gorgeous weather we’ve had for the past week, it blows my mind to think that we almost called off this class because it was snowing when we woke up!

The first father and son to arrive were into scouting and the young man was attempting to get an orienteering merit badge. I’ve was only a Webelos Scout for two years in elementary school, so I had no idea what BSA would require for a merit badge. It actually made me a little nervous: “Am I teaching enough skills and in enough depth?” Luckily, when I flipped through the merit badge book, I found that my class covers most topics, though I’m not as focused on terminology as BSA is. As with most things I do, this class is focused on practical orienteering skills.

Nevertheless, the class must start with a discussion of the concepts of longitude and latitude. Then, we looked at top maps of our area and tried to find clues on the map that would help us figure out, without a compass or GPS, where we are. We looked at contour lines, landmarks, bodies of water, roads, etc. Finally, we pulled out the GPS and pinpointed our location using longitude & latitude coordinates.

Compass-making was next, and we each built a magnetic compass using a needle (that we magnetized by rubbing on a magnet), a styrofoam float, water, and a plastic cup. Why do we do this? Making a compass teaches us how and why a compass works. This knowledge makes the use of a store-bought compass more intuitive.

So, we took our store-bought compasses, blank maps of the nature preserve, and our wits and walked the entire length of the park, identifying landmarks, deciding which direction to go, and looking at the flora & fauna. The kids were particularly intrigued by the landmark I call “The Beach” and navigated us towards where they thought it might be. We found it – a sandy area along South Peachtree Creek – and the kids spent awhile playing, climbing trees, and running around (playing in nature is one of my favorite parts of any class).

Once the kids led us back to our outdoors classroom using their maps and compasses, I told them that everything they had done today was wrong! Yes, wrong, because we did not correct for magnetic declination. (Come take the class, if you’d like to learn more.) I like leaving that lesson to the end because I think it drives it home more forcefully the fact that one small degree of difference can cause all calculations to be disastrously incorrect.

Finally, I introduced the participants to geocaching, the international treasurer-hunting game. We created and hid a cache (the kids named it “The Beach” after their favorite part of the Nature Preserve), and then I posted it online for others to find. As of when this post was written, 11 people have already found and logged our cache!

Despite the chilly weather, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching this class with these participants and look forward to bringing another group to the Clyde Shepherd Preserve soon!

Homeschool Excursions has also posted an excellent photo diary of the class on Facebook.

Wind, Water & Wisdom Backpacking Trip

August 17th, 2009 Backpacking,Homeschool

We just completed a wonderful – and tiring – 4-day backpacking trip with the new school, Wind, Water & Wisdom and several other homeschool families. Aged 11-15, these kids thrived in the woods, collecting millipedes, salamanders, frogs, bugs, and other fun critters. Camp was often chaotic, but everyone pitched in when needed, and our group began more efficient with each day we stayed in the woods.

All of our pre-trip nervousness and stress disappeared the moment we walked into the woods. It’s amazing how the forest can bring peace back in my life.

We stepped onto the Benton MacKaye Trail with excitement and awe, and soon arrived at our first night’s campsite at Peter’s Cove. The evening was filled with

…”hobo meals,” s’mores, and more.

Because few of our hikers had been on a backpacking trip before, we had a lot of teaching to do – how to best pack and adjust packs, how to set up tents, where to collect the best firewood, etc. But we never had to teach the love of nature to these kids. In the midst of J.S. and me trying to toss ropes for hanging food bags, I lodged our rock (tied to the rope) in the crook of the tree. Afraid that we had “donated” our rope to the tree, we called H.S. over, who scampered up the tree, untangled our rope, and then hung the rope from above!

Few of us slept well the first night (as is typical on backpacking trips), and Day Two was our longest day with the most elevation gain. Though the uphill was difficult, we collected wild blackberries, told stories, and took long breaks to climb trees. We made it to camp alongside the Jacks River, waded and bathed in its water, cooked a huge meal of pasta and sauce, and ran to our tents as the sky opened up and rain poured down on us.

The tents held, but the sky didn’t clear until after noon. When it did, we packed up and began the first of our 14 river crossings that day. Everyone completed the crossings masterfully, and we escaped the river without anyone washing downstream. We only got wet when we chose to!

That night, we celebrated H.S.’s 14th birthday with cheesecake and candles. R.D. also turned 14 the day after our trip.

On a trip such as this, the “lessons” of nature are not always evident. The kids (and adults) were so at home in the woods, that we encountered few difficult situations. Even in the rain and fog on Wednesday morning, everyone was upbeat and generally positive. However, a few moments stick out in my mind:

One young man’s mother had told me that he had a very difficult time on his last trip to the woods, so I was paying extra attention to his well-being. In the middle of the night, I looked out of my tent window and saw a light coming from the fire-ring. This young man wasn’t able to sleep. Instead of tossing and turning and waking up his tent-mates, he had coaxed our fire back to life and was sitting near it warming himself, deep in thought. I was impressed that the person I thought would need the most help on our trip was so self-sufficient. He and I talked for a few minutes around the fire, and then went back to our respective tents in the hopes of sleep.

Another young man, smaller than his peers, had trouble adjusting his own pack, much less picking it up and putting it on. He regularly asked me to carry his pack or at least remove some of its gear. I was confident he was not carrying too much weight, so I always responded, “We’re all a team on this trip, and that’s your part of our gear to carry.” Still, every time we stopped for a break, Josh or I had to lift his pack onto his pack and snap together his waist belt. Then, on the last day, on our last stop, I suggested to this young man that he get a head start on the rest of the group. His eyes lit up, he stood up with his pack, fastened his own waist belt, adjusted his shoulder straps, and set off hiking.

One young woman, in particular, was amazingly self-sufficient. She ate what was put before her, efficiently packed her own pack, and periodically chose to walk in the rear of the group, in solidarity with the slower hikers. When one participant’s pack was not fitting well, she was willing to trade packs, even though the new one was not as comfortable. She adjusted her straps and made it work. Even when she got blisters, once I showed her how to bandage herself, from then on, she doctored herself, sitting next to me as I wrapped other people’s blisters. This confidence and self-sufficiency comes naturally to her, but it is also a testament to her comfort in the wilderness. She was the 2nd youngest person on our trip!

I was privileged to lead a trip with such amazing kids. Though I’ve barely mentioned the parents who participated in this backpacking trip, I was impressed at their stamina, laid-back attitude, and gentleness with the children. Without their accompaniment, my job would have been much more difficult.

So, we exited the woods having built deeper community and grown more comfortable living outside of civilization. I can’t wait until our next excursion. What a wonderful group of monkeys!