Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust’s ‘Hikes for Tykes’ returns
Sep 9, 2022
Lynne Cotter picks a crabapple off a tree to show to the hikers. Photos by: Morgan Beard
Hikers make their way down the trail using the boardwalk.
Lynne Cotter dishes out apple slices to the hungry hikers.
Cotter talks to Oren Andersen, who is turning three years old later this month, about fiddler crabs.
Lucas Oggenfuss, 5, and his dad look out on the harbor.
Thea Morales, 4, asks hike leader Lynne Cotter a question before sitting down to listen to a story.
The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust kicked off the fall/winter session of its Hikes for Tykes program on Thursday, Sept. 8 with a walk around the organization’s Star of the Sea Reserve near Padanaram Harbor.
The monthly program takes preschoolers and their parents on short hikes through different DNRT properties, teaching them lessons along the way.
The land trust started the program earlier this year with the first six-month session running through the spring.
“People loved it, so that’s why we’re doing it again,” said Development and Outreach Specialist Kendra Parker.
This month’s hike was centered around apples and crabapples, led by DNRT volunteer and board member Lynne Cotter, a retired elementary school teacher.
Before embarking on the trek, Cotter showed the group a few yoga poses to help them limber up and get into the spirit of the walk.
Along the way, the group stopped to identify a variety of foliage like winter and tea berries, as well as some mushrooms that grew near the path.
When the hikers reached a clearing, they took a break to listen to a story told by Cotter.
The story was about a little boy who was sent to find a “little red house with no doors and a star inside.”
Though the boy searched far and wide, asking everyone he came across to help him find the house, nobody could help him. But the answer finally revealed itself to him in an orchard when the wind blew an apple out of a tree.
As Cotter finished the story, she produced her own “little red house” from her bag and sliced it in half to show the star formed by the apple seeds.
After the young hikers snacked on apple slices, they forged on, eventually finding their way to a path that extended out into the tall grass that borders the harbor.
There, they took in the sights of herons fishing in the shallows and fiddler crabs scuttling manically between the reeds before turning around to return to the parking lot.
Before they left though, Cotter and Parker had one last surprise for them: a take home arts and crafts activity that they could use to make their own pair of apple-shaped glasses out of paper.
Hikes for Tykes will continue on Oct. 13 with a walk around Ridge Hill Reserve where kids will learn about fall and leaves.
The program is scheduled to run monthly through June 2023. For more information, or to sign up, visit dnrt.org/event/hikes-for-tykes.
