Adventure education students finished off the year with their last of four adventures. Students in Carley Foxx’s (staff) unique physical education class have been on four field trips this semester, each teaching students about how to responsibly enjoy the outdoors.
Throughout the semester, the students have embarked on a bouldering field trip to Loveland Climbing Collective, a snowshoeing field trip in Estes Park, a trip to Colorado Youth Outdoors and finally a hiking trip to Boulder and Fort Collins.
For each of these field trips, Foxx taught the students several lessons related to the various field trips, including Leave No Trace principles, fire building, compass skills and skills involved with the activities.
“We covered Leave No Trace principles — which are the seven principles of doing your part and taking care of the outdoors …. This really just means trying to genuinely leave no trace, staying on trails despite conditions and not venturing off to look over areas you’re not supposed to,” Foxx said.
On May 2 and May 7, the classes embarked on their early bus ride to their adventure location. The group that adeventured on May 2 was able to hike at the trailhead in Boulder; however, due to heavy rain and snow, the group on May 7 improvised and hiked Horsetooth Rock in Fort Collins: “The anticipation was that we would be able to go to the usual trail down near Boulder in Left Hand Canyon, but they got over a foot of snow, so … we had to make quick changes based on the unpredictable weather conditions,” Foxx said.
Students were thrilled to still be able to go on this hike as it provided an enjoyable way to destress from AP testing and finish out the semester, especially for the senior students. Charles Eberhart-Meyer (12) said, “This concludes the semester by having a lot of fun and spending time with everybody in the class who I’m all friends with.”
Cammie Smith (staff) was one of the teachers who volunteered to chaperone for Foxx’s field trip. Like the students, Smith enjoyed the company of all the students and embarking on the hike.
Smith said, “We’ve had a really good crew with us …. We’ve done a lot of sharing of snacks, sharing of water and it (was) a really good hike!”
Despite the unfortunate circumstances, the students were still able to enjoy their hike to Horsetooth Rock, allowing them to effectively destress and enjoy the company of their classmates.
Foxx said, “I think this was actually a perfect last field trip … especially for the seniors, because it is kind of a life lesson. It’s not what we planned for or hoped for with the usual hike, but you guys navigated it and managed very well.” For example, the students didn’t get to see the falls because of weather and got off the trail right before a thunderstorm started.
This field trip concluded the semester for the students; all that is remaining is their final adventure projects. Many students created lifelong friendships through the class’s adventures and are grateful for having taken Foxx’s adventure education class.
