The NCF Envirothon was held at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, on the shores of Seneca Lake in Geneva, New York
Team Massachusetts arrived with the T-shirts that they designed
The first night features a trading session with other teams. Caroline's team swapped those bandannas on the right for all sorts of other states' merch
The competition format has field tests in Forestry, Aquatics, Wildlife, Soils, and a Current Issue, which this time was "Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future"
Is that a fluventic dystrudept or an aeric endoaqualf? (more on that later...)
The Envirothon outing was to Niagara Falls
and they rode the Maid of the Mist around Horseshoe Falls
When the scores were tallied, the two-time defending champs were dethroned by Tennessee and finished 6th. They won the Soils and Wildlife sections and each took home $900 - not too shabby. Next year's competition moves back across the border to Calgary, Alberta and the Current Issue will be "Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change". Caroline is very excited!
Where is this unsalted sea, with a beautiful empty beach and inviting placid water?
It is the southern shore of Lake Ontario, where Erin and I stopped on our way to pick up Caroline
After wading out like a quarter mile to reach a sufficient depth, we immersed ourselves to complete our swim tour of all 5 Great Lakes
Katy and Lyla met us in Ithaca, where Katy gave us a tour of the town and Cornell campus
Cornell has 8 undergraduate colleges: Agriculture & Life Sciences, Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Public Policy, Engineering, Human Ecology, Industrial & Labor Relations, and Business. Each college's flag was on display in the student union. Some were easy to decode....
...and others not so much
In the greenhouses of the Ag-Life School, they've cloned 4-leaf clovers!
And in the basement various soil columns were on display, and we learned how to tell our Fluvaquentic Eutrudepts from our Fluventic Dystrudepts
from our Aeric Endoaqualfs
and our Glossaquic Hapludalfs
Another of Katy's old haunts was the ice rink. She was recruited as a walk-on to play goalie for Cornell's Division I women's ice hockey team
From Ithaca we drove over to the Catskill region and our favorite hiking area at the Mohonk Mountain House
Charlie and Brad arrived separately, as did Heather and Tessie
