Usually when the wind is strong enough to rattle the minibus on the road, one doesn't think, "this is great hiking weather."  Obviously that's not the mindset of our middle school crew who took no prisoners on their Front Range hike at Rabbit Mountain in Lyons.  The winds were strong enough to blow us off trail, but we held steady and got through the hike in record time.  The students are clearly ready to take their adventuring to the next step at Eldora tomorrow.  It's time to strap the snow shoes on and jump into the snow.

Ms. Rako here...the students have been very impressive and so Mr. Jacobsma and I thought, "oh, wouldn't it be so sweet and lovely if we let the kids try to lead on the trails for a bit."  Cue three hours later and you had two tired adults and a group of students who were still leaping around like snow bunnies. 

Our second day at Eldora was fantastic.  We did a tough trail that looped into one we had previously done.  Even though there was a little familiar terrain, the fresh powder made the snowshoeing experience all the more intense.  The snow was deep!  Every student took a turn leading.  They kept watch for signs of the trail, using maps and flashes in the trees.  There was really no previous trail to follow because of all the fresh snow cover, but we managed to stay the course. There were again a few attempts at "extreme snowshoeing," so please enjoy the photos that demonstrate the attempts and the subsequent falls.