Thursday, July 21

Fresh out of our Wilderness First Aid training, we arrived at breakfast the following day expecting a day of classes. However, Christina surprised us with a Headmaster’s Day: no classes! All of us were psyched about the prospects of a free day. Christina gave us two options for the morning and afternoon: one group could relax at the beautiful beach at Turquoise Lake, and the other group could climb Mount Sherman, one of Colorado’s 14ers. The folks who went to Turquoise Lake spent the day in the sun, playing sports on the beach and just hanging out, soaking up the rays.

Those of us who climbed Mount Sherman drove about twenty minutes to the base of the mountain. We hiked through scree and some snow up to the summit. It was a great change in terrain from what we had hiked previously. The day was really clear and every way we turned we saw stunning views of the surrounding mountains and some of the towns. The climb to the top was so rewarding, and as the hike was not very difficult we arrived at the summit with lots of energy to take group pictures and build a snowman. After a fun break for lunch at the top of mountain, we embarked on the descent, which took significantly less time. It was such a great hike and such a great day.

This week in Humanities, we studied the influence and importance of minorities in the American West and got the opportunity to share what we had been learning with the entire Summer Term community by creating a special Western dinner. Our main focus in the class was the movement from East to West and the journey along the way. The dinner we put on was in honor of a frontier businessman, Fred Harvey. We created a typical Western meal with stroganoff, corn cakes, salad, and a dessert of root beer floats, along with country music, plaid shirts, and cowboy boots galore. Also in class this week, we had a mock school board meeting discussing diversity in education, and watched the classic John Ford film Stage Coach. Overall it was a very busy but entertaining week in Rebekah’s class!

Activities have been a smorgasbord this week, ranging from horseback riding and fly-fishing to tie-dye and mountain biking. Most days, we brave the afternoon storms and enjoy the beautiful surroundings while practicing an outdoors skill— totally new for some students, and a continuation of a passion for others. Despite the action-packed schedule, there’s still some time to enjoy the little things back on campus, like rubber duckie races in the ditch outside Who’s Hall, playing pick-up Frisbee after dinner, or getting dressed up in ridiculous costumes to go bowling on "Friday night."

Today we head off into the backcountry for our second expedition. The expedition will take us through the mountains right above Leadville where apparently there are a number of beautiful high alpine lakes. Although we're sad to be seperated into two groups for the expedition and to not see some of our friends for the next seven days, we're excited for this next stage of our backcountry adventure.