Foundation News

This summer, Inner City Outings (ICO) programs from across the country took participants on special trips supported by The Sierra Club Foundation. Here are trip summaries from three of the programs in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Nashville.

Seattle ICO leaders took twelve students from Washington Middle School to Mt. Saint Helens for an overnight camping adventure. The group drove to Mt. Saint Helen’s Volcanic National Monument, hiked the Hummocks Trail, and explored the different microclimates and ecosystems created post-eruption. The group then camped in the Lewis River Valley, which provides access to ten miles of hiking trails, waterfalls, and trout streams. The next morning, they packed up camp and ventured to Ape Caves, an underground series of lava tubes 2.6 miles long dating from a flow that occurred roughly 2,000 years ago. After the strenuous morning, most of the kids slept all the way back to Seattle. A highlight of the trip for the teachers who came along was to see so many of their “hyperactive” classroom kids engaging and exerting themselves.

Los Angeles ICO took 28 students from the School for the Visual Arts and Humanities and Los Angeles Academy of Arts and Enterprise on a two-hour Level II rafting adventure along the Kern River. With expert guides from River’s End Rafting and Adventure Company, the students learned the basics of paddling rafts safely and working together as teams to navigate the river. Trip highlights included going down three rapids, swimming in the river, and a variety of water games. This outing was a treat for these urban kids who primarily go hiking with ICO during the school year.

Nashville ICO spent a weekend canoeing and kayaking down the scenic Duck River near Columbia, Tennessee. Fifteen students, refugees from Somalia and The Congo, from Catholic Charities’ Refugee Youth Program were very eager to see the sights of their new home. This special outing included a morning of paddling, swimming, and lunch and then paddling to a campground for an overnight stay. After fixing a camp breakfast in the morning, they packed up their gear and paddled back to the put-in site. The weekend provided the ICO leaders an opportunity show the teens as much as they could about the natural world outside the housing projects where most of them currently live.