February 7, 2009 -- We piled onto a big tour bus along with a group from Camp Interactive and left Kingsbridge High School just past 9:30 a.m. Amin popped “Night at the Museum” into the DVD player and we rode to Bear Mountain in style.

After arriving at Bear Mountain, we put on our warm gear and grabbed a snack (Lunch Part I, as Ray calls it) at a picnic area. The carousel building was closed for a party so we had no place to retreat from the cold. Instead, we just kept moving; we ran out to a snowy field beneath a cloudy sky for snow wrestling and serious games of Assassin and the Environmental Game. If you managed to stay on your feet for more than a minute, you had real power.

At 11:30 a.m., we walked over to the skating rink situated on a hill within view of the Bear Mountain Bridge, an elegant suspension bridge that spans over the Hudson River and rounded Hudson Valley hills. After lacing up our skates, no easy chore, we hit the freshly groomed ice. We skated at many levels, from the cautious I’m-not-sure-I-want-to-be-on-these-blades-of-steel ones to the yes-I-can-do-this others who glided with more ease. But by the time we had to leave the ice at 1:30 p.m., the sun had emerged from the clouds and everyone was spinning around the rink with more confidence.

After finishing our lunches Part II, we took our snow disks over to the sledding hill, where the sun glinted off the firmly packed snow, icy in spots. One, two, three and four at a time, we slid down the hill with lightening speed until we were covered with snow or maybe feeling a smashed snowball sliding down our neck.

Once Hector and his snow disk buddies started to show slight signs of fatigue, we headed over to the Trailside Museum and Wildlife Center, where we strolled through the reptile house, home of a Timberwood Rattlesnake, a Black Rattlesnake, a Spotted Turtle and many other reptiles that hid behind rocks or wrapped around tree branches. Outside we walked past a statue of American poet, Walt Whitman, but everyone found the bears much more exciting. Two brown bears frolicked outside, and then one of the brown bears went back inside its shelter while the other one sat on its haunches and looked like it was clapping its paws. Meanwhile, the black bear blocked the door like a guard and wouldn’t let the other brown bear out again. Needless to say, we were all belly laughing.

Ray had to work hard to herd all of us back to the bus, but we got on and were back to the city by around 4 p.m., tired, but satisfied after a great day. Amin turned on the movie, so we could catch the end of “Night at the Museum,” but most of us (including Amin) were sound asleep soon after leaving Bear Mountain State Park.

Trip Report submitted by volunteer Johanna Knapschaefer.