Maybeck and the Outdoors

In recognition of the importance of our natural environment, we begin and end each year with an all-school camping trip. These trips take place away from the Bay Area and are a required part of the school’s curriculum. The school also sponsors an optional three-day bike trip during which cycling enthusiasts can ride to our camping destinations in the days before the trips.

Beginning-of-the-Year Retreat

waterfall pic, retreat hike

 

We begin the year with a six-day program that permits students and teachers to become acquainted in a relatively short time. Our usual destination is the San Jose City Tuolumne Camp near Yosemite. We sleep in platform cabins with cots and have use of the camp lodge, kitchen, and dining hall. The camp has electricity and showers, and is a comfortable site for our retreat.

Classes and activities are held on a theme related to the summer reading, ushering everyone into the school’s academic spirit. Teachers give presentations and show films; students take part in workshops and discuss the summer reading, the films, and other topics. At the end of the program students write a response to the summer reading. Students also learn about being a part of the Maybeck community by taking on camp duties: under staff supervision, they prepare our meals and clean up the kitchen after them.

There is plenty of time for recreation: ping-pong, hiking, swimming, ball games, reading, resting. The whole school also takes a day-long hike in Yosemite.

Bike Trips

Bicycle enthusiasts—experienced and novice alike—can join the Bike Trips and ride to our beginning- and end-of-the-year camp sites. Students set out three days before the school-wide trips begin and ride about 150 miles, camping each night along the way and enjoying opportunities to swim and relax. A support vehicle carries food, camping supplies, and the occasional weary student. In the fall, the trip starts in Danville, CA and winds through the windmill-covered hills of the Altamont Pass and into the Central Valley. After crossing the blisteringly hot plains of the Central Valley, students ride uphill into the Sierra foothills. The will-testing climb up Priest Grade gives the students a wonderful feeling of accomplishment as they ascend 2000 feet in 4 1/2 miles. The destination point is 150 miles away at the City of San Jose Family Camp, just outside of Yosemite National Park. In the spring students will ride up the coast and through wine country on their way to Lake Mendocino, near Ukiah.

In recent years the Spring bike trip has begun in Point Reyes. The trip cuts through the rolling hills of the Wine Country.

Full Moon Camping Trips

Each year, the school sponsors two optional Full Moon Camping Trips, which take place over the course of weekends at local regional parks. A group of interested students, staff, and parents go on backpacking trips in parks such as Emigrant Wilderness, Big Sur, and Point Reyes. A recent trip included the Skyline to Sea trail through the Santa Cruz where we were treated to beautiful waterfalls flowing through old growth redwoods, and even a mountain lion sighting! Beginning hikers are welcome, and the only fees are for food and campground expenses.

End-of-the-Year Trip

This four-day program takes place during the week before graduation at one of the many National or State Parks in California. We sleep in tents on the ground and cook outside. Despite our more rugged accommodations, though, the trip echoes the one in the fall: students take part in workshops, watch and discuss films, play games, and help with meal preparation and clean-up.

The end-of-the-year trip provides a chance for students to draw the year to a close and say good-bye to their friends. Students spend time signing each other’s yearbooks, and there is a special breakfast for the senior class. Most years, the whole school enjoys a hilarious look back on the year through a performance of student skits.

Maybeck's campsite at Lake Mendocino