Spring break camping

March 20, 2005

CASEY RESSLER/Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

While some students from the Mat-Su Valley may have headed to warmer climates with their families during spring break last week, several students decided that March is the perfect time to get outdoors.

For the first time, Trailside Discoveries brought a spring break camp to the Valley, and judging from the smiles on the students' faces last week, it was a rousing success.

"I love coming to camp. This is the life," said Brooke West, one of the attendees. All students ranged in age from nine to 12.

Trailside Discoveries offers outdoors-related camps and programs throughout the year, but this marked the first time they came to the Valley during the winter. The winter outdoor skills camp took place on the Kellogg-DeWulf campus on Spring Creek Farm, off Farm Loop.

During the week, students learned a wide variety of outdoor skills, including snowshoeing, orienteering and lessons about wildlife and the environment.

"If I hadn't come to camp, I would have missed the opportunity to see a real-life raven," said 9-year-old Ryan Palmer. "A lady who took care of a raven brought it in, and it's wing was shot and she is taking care of it. She actually had the bones from his wing in a case."

Generating interest in the outdoors, and about science, is what the camp was all about, said Rebecca Michaelson, the program manager for the Valley camp, as well as building relationships with others.

"Every day we work on community-building. Part of having good outdoor skills is trusting who you are with in the outdoors, and being a good team player," Michaelson said. As she pointed to a clear blue sky, just before heading out snowshoeing, she said, "Learning out here is a lot more fun than learning in a classroom, isn't it?"

Each day, between six and nine campers came to the farm, and each day, they were treated to something different. On Monday, the group snowshoed around the campus and learned about Alaska's birds. On Tuesday, the topic was 'Predator vs. Prey,' and the students actually got out and searched for predators by finding signs of their whereabouts.

On other days, the group of students learned about winter camping and survival skills.

Last Thursday, students had to use some orienteering skills to enjoy what remained of the morning. Around 10 a.m., after a lesson in how to use a compass by instructors Scott Owen and Jerry Huber, the students strapped on snowshoes and headed to one corner of a field on Spring Creek Farm. From there, half of the group headed out, using predetermined coordinates. The other half quickly followed, following a second set of coordinates. After hiking up a hill, the groups continued on their ways, back into the woods. If both groups were right - and they both were on Thursday - they found large sleds in the woods, which provided an hour of fun as they zoomed down the hill they had just hiked up to find the sleds.

"I think the best part was going sledding, and also the snowshoeing. We found a little caterpillar one day," Palmer said.

Palmer said he had never been on snowshoes before, and that in itself is a big reason why the camp has been so successful, in Anchorage and now in the Valley - it exposes students to things they haven't experienced before, and gets them interested in the Alaska outdoors.

"These are first-time experiences for a lot of them," Michaelson said. "Hopefully, they'll take that home and want to get interested in the outdoors."