This year’s adult session, held June 6-10, was the 25th Adult Session since Dot re-initiated this annual event as one of the flagship activities of the then fledgling Nature Camp Foundation. Sixty-five campers and staff gathered for a weekend of “Back to Basics,” emphasizing fundamental natural history and skills of observation and identification. Campers were able to experience nature drawing and journaling, getting down in the creeks to learn about crayfish, making deerskin drums, nighttime hunts for caterpillars, reflective writing, learning the difference between grasses and sedges, enameling nature silhouettes on copper disks, star and planet gazing, discovering unusual plants in and around Camp, and the always popular Appalachian string band workshop.
The weekend culminated with an all-day field trip to the Apple Orchard Mountain area of Bedford and Botetourt Counties, where we learned about the geological landscape and its rich botanical, avian, and herpetological delights (including finding the endemic Peaks of Otter Salamander!!)
