Can folks share what various Boarding Schools offer in terms of excellent Hiking and Running trails on campus or “adjacent” to campus?
Hotchkiss has a wonderful network of trails, highlighted by the 7 mile Larsen Perimeter Trail. Trail Map is below:
Thacher and Cate must have some great hiking…
St. Paul’s has a 2,000 acre campus so plenty of space to run, hike or explore both marked and unmarked. Here is a map some former students put together.
https://millville.sps.edu/allaccess/documents/athletics/trailmap.pdf?201805151130
Deerfield has a beautiful and large campus that is nestled in a valley surrounded by rivers. The students often go on hikes as teams, classes and friend groups to “The Rock” - a small mountain rising above the campus that in winter also serves as a ski run for Eagle Brook school. There are running and hiking trails accessed from the campus. If you want to travel down the road a bit, there are bike trails and state parks.
There is a popular trail a bike ride away at Mt Sugarloaf. Also really great bike rides along the CT River and Deerfield River. We have also done the trails near Amherst and up in the Shelbourne Falls area (Bridge of Flowers is there).
More info on nearby hikes:
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I believe Berkshire has trails up the mountain behind it.
Millbrook is on 800 acres and has a nature preserve within that (besides its zoo!) with trails, including boardwalks through wetlands. It’s a tradition that the 9th graders wade into the wetlands as part of their classwork (can’t now remember if it was science class!).
@Mumof3Boyz I just discovered the Hotchkiss trails – where I stumbled upon a waterfall on the way to a lake. Spectacular!
It is hard to beat Thacher when it comes to cross country running and hiking — especially given the climate! The school is actually adjacent to Los Padres National Forest and operates base camps in the Sespe Wilderness and in Golden Trout. Horse camping is also popular.
More on Thacher’s Outdoor program:
Isn’t there also a fly fishing EC you can take at Hotchkiss? If you can, go drive from Hotchkiss to Millbrook - there are some hiking trails on the way that are good and a beautiful scenic overlook -you get a nice view of the Silo Ridge course, too!
Info on Thacher cross country:
https://www.thacher.org/team-detail?Team=37146&SeasonLabel=2019%20-%202020
The Appalachian Trail goes right by Kent School…you can pick up a leg of the trail in town. Good hiking up by NMH. Holderness, Putney, SPS. If you decide to visit MX, SMS. Or Concord Academy you can take an easy walk on the trail @ Walden Pond. Not far from Brewster, Millbrook & Kent there are some great trails near Dover Plains, NY.
Bear in mind that Lime disease can be more of an issue in the Northeast?
Middlesex owns a large portion of the 1,200 acre Estabrook Woods which abut the Middlesex campus. The Woods are popular with runners and are used for cross country by some of the town’s private schools.
@CaliMex- Lyme disease is really only a factor if you stray off the woods paths or go through tall grass. Most New England running trails are wide enough that Lyme disease isn’t an issue.
SMS has lots of running trails and as @Golfgr8 mentioned, a quick jaunt off a trail and along the road will put you back onto the trail to Waldron pond. There are numerous ponds and lakes surrounding the school to the south.
I think they all have great XC trails. I have runners in the family who checked this out carefully and we have been to many running events. XC runners want good varied trails with some hills and varied terrain. The best courses have lots of options ( and less mud). Lyme disease is, in fact a huge thing in NE. Just running on trails means one has to check after each and EVERY practice. Anyone living in NE, knows that even a simple stroll through the grass or day or gardening can mean you pick up a tick. Most XC runners spray their shoes with DEET or some other strong chemical so they don’t get it on their skin and it keeps things in check. Many also wear light clothing to spot ticks. Lyme disease is nothing to dismiss. It is a very serious condition. But this doesn’t apply to just runners. It applies to field hockey, lacrosse, football, soccer really any outdoor sports.
For those coming from another state, please tell your kids about Lyme. And please tell them to check themselves. One of my kids had it when they were 8 and they caught it in time. We know many people who have long term lyme issues. It can be debilitating. And it is very common. Look it up, it isn’t something you want.
Lyme disease is in California, too. I know people who suffer from it. Those dang ticks are everywhere.
Cate sits high up on a mesa, with one road in and out. I am not a hiker, but I think there is a trail that goes off behind the school somewhere. I think there is a camp site back there.
From what I can gather, which isn’t much because kiddo doesn’t partake in the abundant outdoor opportunities, they usually involve day trips elsewhere. Surfing, rock climbing, skiing, scuba, hiking, all kinds of stuff. The nature offerings within a one hour radius are outrageous. But the campus proper doesn’t have space for wooded trails. It is basically on a cliff with a view of the ocean, and a steep range of huge rocks (bigger than hills, smaller than mountains) behind it. Down below is farmland. It is probably a 2-3 mile run to the beach, through quaint beach town Carpinteria.
The cross country team does pretty well, too - I would think there would be interesting runs once you make it down from the mesa. The greater Santa Barbara area is so so beautiful.
@CateCAParent That sounds gorgeous. At Nationals and JO, most elite runners are from CO, CA, and a handful of other places ( upstate NY). There are lots of reasons. Some are based on where the kids run ( CO, and it’s high elevation) and some are based on experienced coaches. There are some very good runners in CA.
@Happytimes2001 - not knowing the first thing about xc, I will take your word for it. But it does seem like a great area to run long distances in nature. ?
From the moment I first saw the Cate campus I thought it was terribly wrong for a high school kid to get to live and learn in a place with that view. It totally skews a person’s expectations of the world. Hopefully the people who live there never stop appreciating it.
And just to be fair, compared to other campuses, Some of Cate’s buildings, especially the dorms, are not up to snuff by elite bs standards. They are working on it, but if bright and shiny buildings are your thing, Cate may disappoint (though there is a new dining commons that has been “about to open“ since the fall… lol)
@CateCAParent You know one of the reasons we didn’t want to send the kids to BS was, it wasn’t a reflection of real life. It was a highly orchestrated lifestyle of pure learning, sports and arts. What’s not to love? And the facilities ( whether new or old) was so amazing when compared to public school. ( And our school had recently built a multi-tens of million dollar school). Still next to any of the BS we visited, it would not compare at all. The campus feel, the history, the dining areas were all like beautiful small colleges. Do kids appreciate that? I think they do.
The other thing about long distance runners from CA, they run all year. Many NE XC runners stop during the snowy season. There is one course known for its mud. Kids run into the woods pretty clean and run out the other side covered in mud. One year at the state championship, kids ran across a sheet of ice, into the woods ( 6" of mud) and out the other side. One lost a shoe, a couple were bloody ( from others’ cleats) and many were crying. Many of the parents were pretty teary-eyed also. But every single kid finished.