When the moon aligns with a holiday
This year, Thanksgiving and Christmas both line up with a Full Moon. To celebrate this, we ran our first ever Full Moon Night Hike on Wednesday, November 25th, the night before Thanksgiving, and over 30 people joined us.
We started with a brief talk about Farrington and an introduction to hiking outside at night inside the Farm House Office. Many of our hikers, young and old alike, were quite enthusiastic when we learned that pirates wore eye patches so that they could see easily above and below deck quickly. This meant that for us, we tried to keep our flashlight usage to the minimum, so we can keep our night vision. Then we headed out into the woods. After a short walk out into the property, we explored how the rods and cones in our eyes affect our vision at night.
Then, we walked back toward the farm house, and families had the chance to choose between heading back to the office for a warming cup of hot chocolate, or heading out for a “solo walk” through the spruce forest trail. Families who chose to continue walked were released one family (or one person if they chose) at a time to follow the trail to its conclusion.
We lit the spruce forest trail with LED tealights laid out throughout the trail so children and adults alike could easily follow the trail on their own. One participant said walking the trail was like following the Will O’ the Wisp from Brave. Her daughter, whom she assumed would easily be bored or scared, instead ran ahead to find the next tea light.
All families met back up in the farm house for the requisite hot chocolate after they finished on the trail. Conversations lingered and children whispered about their experiences on the trail while families discussed big plans for their turkey days. The event was a wonderful kick off to the holiday weekend.
Did you miss the opportunity for a night hike? While it will not be a full moon, we will be running a night hike/ snowshoe on Saturday, January 30th, from 4:30-6:30. Email Brianne (at) naturelinc.org to register.