Salk Middle School sixth-graders – 200 of them – treated to a day in the woods: ‘There’s nothing to be taught’

Some 200 Salk Middle School sixth-graders traipsed 3 miles through Deep Creek Canyon in Riverside State Park Friday for one simple reason – and it didn’t involve learning.

“There’s nothing to be taught; that’s not the goal today,” math teacher Matt Garvin said to chaperones before the trip. “If anything, they’ll look at (nature) and say, ‘Wow, that’s cool!’ If they do, I’ll take that as a win.”

For the first time, they brought students on a hike for a field trip.

Garvin, who spearheaded making the first-time hike a reality, said the trip is a big deal for the district.

“There are other districts in the state that do have some experience, but most of those districts are considerably smaller,” Garvin said. “Smaller districts do these things all the time, but when it’s only 70 students in your whole district, it’s a lot easier.”

Elise Cereghino, one of the students, appreciated the fresh-air field trip.

“I like Salk because we’ve never done this in elementary school,” she said while navigating the sunny, tree-lined trail. “We’ve never been on a hike.”

Garvin said it’s important for children to experience the outdoors, especially with its accessibility in the Northwest.

“Spokane is surrounded by nature and so many underused trails,” he said. “You can read about the nature of Spokane or you can go experience the nature of Spokane.”

Garvin noted that Salk’s sixth-graders don’t get to participate in Camp Reed, an overnight summer-camp-like trip many Spokane area sixth-graders take each year. Salk Middle School ended that tradition after the coronavirus pandemic.

Jeff McMurtery, a band teacher and one of the 20 or so chaperones, agreed.

“Anytime I can help kids get outdoors and have a great experience, I enjoy that,” he said.

The students seemed just as excited to hit the trails.

“I’m a very adventurous girl, so I was pretty excited for a hike,” sixth-grader Dakota Bray said before the journey.

“I wanna see a deer,” proclaimed another student, Sam Cliffrod.

The group did not run across any deer, but they did see a garter snake, mushrooms and the occasional horse feces.

At one point, the path crossed the Spokane River.

“Look at all the geese,” McMurtery said.

This was met with a series of energized shouts of “Geese?” and “Geese where?”

“Slay!” student Peyton Childers said of the orange and yellow trees reflecting on the still water, using a popular affirmation among young people.

Travels were marked with several stops for shoe-tying, some exaggerated crawls up particularly steep hills and, at times, choruses of “Marco Polo.”

Garvin put a lot of thought into selecting a trail for the hike.

“It needs to be beautiful, it needs to be interesting, it needs to be not too hard,” Garvin said. “If the hike were a trudge, then that takes out the joy and wonder of enjoying being outside on a school day.”

Though the hike is a first for the school, Garvin hopes it will become a tradition. He also hopes to one day get off-roading wheelchairs for the trip.

“My dream is that every sixth-grader in the whole district could do this,” Garvin said.