At Sunapee High, traditional ball sports aren’t the only outlet for exercise and being part of a team.
English teacher Tom Coverdale for years has led groups of SHS students on overnight hiking and camping excursions throughout New Hampshire’s mighty backcountry.
The Pemigewasset Wilderness, Sandwich Mountain Range and Franconia Notch are some of the areas Coverdale and his wife, Tracy, have taken students since he began leading the quarterly trips at Sunapee in the early 2000s. Before that, Coverdale led similar outings while a teacher at Newfound Regional High in Bristol, N.H.
“I grew up out west (near Tucson, Ariz.) and escaped the heat as much as I could to hike in places like the Sierras and the Rockies,” said Coverdale said in a recent phone interview. “I always thought it would be great to help kids have the same kinds of experiences, and when I was at Newfound I actually did it as part of my thesis while pursuing my Masters degree in education (at Plymouth State University). After I came to Sunapee, it was something I really wanted to continue.”
Coverdale used to lead the outings independently on weekends, but eventually the father of five requested for them to incorporated into Sunapee High’s programs curriculum. Now they’re typically overnight on a school night, the groups leaving campus together after school on Thursday and returning Friday.
Now that the trips are sanctioned by the school, students are vetted for academic and behavioral standing before being allowed to go.
“It’s actually a pretty big incentive for some of them, to keep their grades up and stay out of trouble because they really want to go,” said Coverdale.
For impact and logistical reasons, group sizes are typically held to 12 or fewer, including chaperones. Tom Coverdale leads all-boys groups while Tracy’s groups are all-female.
While the trips are open to anyone who wants to apply, they normally draw students not involved with varsity sports, if only because the outings would interfere with practices and/or games for those athletes.
“A lot of the kids who sign up are accustomed to rural settings and may have spent a lot of time entertaining themselves in the woods,” Coverdale said. “But I’ve found that for most of them, it’s their first overnight camping experience. They might have climbed Mount Kearsarge or Mount Cardigan, but it’s their first time being introduced to backpacking, camping and hiking and their first time climbing anything like (5,249-foot) Mount Lafayette or seeing the Pemigewasset Wilderness.”
That helps turn the great outdoors into a learning environment for students as they’re walked through activities like campsite setup, fire building and cooking while exercising low-impact principles.
“It’s alternative kind of intelligence that you see from kids out in the woods, as opposed to the classroom,” Coverdale said. “Seeing the way they handle situations together can’t be quantified by a something on a chalk board or a test score.”
It becomes a learning experience for Coverdale as much as it is for the students.
“What I learn most is about the kids and their character. If you have someone who’s an experienced hiker, but they make a point to hang back with the kid who’s struggling a little bit or hiking slowly, those are leadership qualities that you might not have known about.”
More learning opportunities arise as the groups ramble along the trails. Coverdale will often share his knowledge of the deep Native American folklore surrounding areas such as Mount Chocorua, or touch on how weather patterns affect vegetation and geology on different sides of the same mountain.
“You might think of these trips as recreational, but there’s a lot of learning from one another that goes on because of all the conversation,” Coverdale said. “There’s something about the mountains that allows you to open up.”
The Norwich Community Pool Committee was formed last spring in order to glean public interest for a new public swimming hole, one that would replace the former swimming area on Charles Brown Brook known as the Norwich Pool.
That area, buoyed by a town-owned dam, was wrecked by Tropical Storm Irene five years ago, and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources last year denied the town’s stream alteration permit application to repair the dam.
The Norwich Community Pool Committee has identified several areas within “Norwich proper,” or within a few miles of Main Street, that could potentially become town-managed swimming areas. They include sites along Charles Brown Brook and the Ompompanoosuc and Connecticut Rivers, including areas near the Huntley Meadows and Dresden athletic-field complexes as well as Patchen’s Point, Killdeer Farm and the Ledyard Bridge area.
The committee recently conducted a survey gauging public sentiment toward swimming at those sites — none of which yet have been evaluated for financial or environmental feasibility — as well as which characteristics of a new swimming area would be most important to residents. The latter categories included inquiries about parking, beach and grassy areas, pet friendliness and canoe/kayak access, among others.
About 300 residents responded to the survey, which closed last week. The results will soon be available to view on the town’s website norwich.vt.us, according to Pool Committee member Gered Dunne.
The Committee also recently held a public forum on the matter at Tracy Hall, drawing about 15 people who expressed little opposition to the concept of a new town-run pool.
“I think there are a lot of people in Norwich who would like to have a place where they could bring their families swimming, and it’s up to (the pool committee) to look at different sites and see what the best matches might be,” Dunne said. “Once we figure out the best options, we can present them to the Selectboard.”
If there’s one aspect the public doesn’t appear to be supporting, it’s an idea for an in-ground, chlorinated pool. Sixty-eight percent of responders rated one “not at all important” on the survey, while 65 percent ranked having a swimming area made from naturally occurring waters as very important or moderately important.
The Hanover Recreation Department and Hanover Conservancy are leading a two-mile family hike on the Appalachian Trail to celebrate National Public Lands Day on Saturday.
Participants will meet at Hanover’s Black Recreation Center for a two-mile, out-and-back hike to the AT’s Velvet Rocks shelter.
Kids will embark on a scavenger hunt on the way out, then be served a snack at the shelter before the descent.
Hanover’s hike, to be led by Hanover Conservancy members Gail McPeek and Courtney Dragiff, was prompted by the national non-profit Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s initiative to encourage family hikes on National Public Lands Day.
“As soon as we heard about (the initiative), we knew the section of the AT here in town would be a great place for it,” said Liz Burdette, Hanover’s assistant recreation director. “We want to show families that this is a great hike they can do together and, for the kids, hopefully help a love for hiking and the outdoors.”
Participants are asked to register at www.hanoverrec.com.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.