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MJ- Everyone brought chairs and we sat down for about five minutes before our teachers told us to bring a stick. At that moment, we knew that we were going to do s’mores. After I found a stick, I gave it to one of my classmates. For me, I didn’t really want a s’more because my stomach was hurting, so I made one for Randall and then ate one later when my stomach was feeling better. Randall gave me a challenge to make a perfect marshmallow for him. I did it the first try. After s’mores, Randall brought out a little light lantern thing. He told us what to do for a candle circle. We were supposed to talk about what we wanted to bring back from this trip. We went clockwise and we all shared. The candle circle was very nice. It felt great because everyone was very very quiet and content. At the end of the candle circle, we shared news about our plan for tomorrow. Jake - In the morning, we woke up and we walked around the camp until breakfast time. At breakfast, we ate and made sandwiches for the ride. We packed up all our stuff quickly and put it in the van. The tents took a little bit longer because they were bigger. Randall helped put things away too. The drive home seemed very long. We stopped at a park in Leadville to eat lunch. Leadville is very different from Steamboat. When we got back to Steamboat, we collected all our stuff from the van and unstrapped stuff from the trailer and waited for our parents to pick us up. I was happy to be home because I didn’t sleep very well and my bed is very comfortable. But I am happy I went on the trip because it was fun. One thing I liked doing was testing water at the Gunsight bridge.
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Day 4Conor - We woke up in the church and went back to RMBL for some delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, potatoes and eggs. Then we tested more water that we collected from Copper Creek. After, we met a new scientist named Jenny who studies plants. We put nitrates and carbon on different plots and then watered them. Then it was time for lunch. Max - After lunch, we went on a walk and got to see all of the cabins at RMBL. Marmots burrow under them. One of them was named after a female scientist from the 1920s, Harriet Barclay. We also learned about the Board of Directors. We then went to the classroom and played a game. In the game, you could pick your character: salamander, marmot or hummingbird. Personally, I chose the hummingbird because he is my favorite. After you picked your character, you went to the first station. You could either pick option A or B. Sometimes A was correct and sometimes B was correct. Each station had words on it explaining what to do and the choices you could make. The goal of the game was to survive. If you chose the wrong thing, you didn’t get eliminated. You just went back to the previous station. There were ten stations. We learned how important water is to all creatures. After we finished the game, we made posters about problems that are happening to our waters. My poster showed that plastic water bottles are worse than Nalgenes. Plastic water bottles are mini but still cause a big impact. Lander - It was time to end our visit to RMBL. we circled up and went to the gift store. Everything was RMBL based. It was raining hard outside, so we were glad to be inside. I personally did not buy anything at the gift store. The rain ended up stopping so we packed up our van and headed for our campsite, Oh Be Joyful. We thought about a hike, but not many people were interested. We ended up walking from a parking lot back to our campsite to get some exercise. Then, back at camp, we played in the River. It was slippery. We skipped rocks and tossed a tennis ball. Now, it is time for our final dinner together. Ella- First, we went to the river with a new scientist, Mairead. We watched her look for macro vertebrates on a type of algae called Didymo. We took the samples from the water and we went into a classroom and looked at them more closely. We separated the different types of macro vertebrates into ice trays, identified all of them, and figured out if there were more in the water that flowed more than the other part of the stream. We figured out that there were more macro vertebrates in the non-moving water. Then, we went to lunch and played a few games that Randall taught us. At lunch, we saw a huge moose! Piper- After lunch, we got in the van and we drove the Gunsight Bridge on the Slate River. We got to do water chemistry tests there for pH, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and turbidity. We saw another moose! It was starting to rain, so we went back to our campsite and collected a few more items before moving into a church in Crested Butte for the night. After we unpacked, we went into town and went to 2 stores. Now we are waiting for some delicious dinner of chicken fajitas. Andrea - The rain was not as bad as originally forecast, but we are still grateful to have had a warm and dry place to stay. It has been;a very fun (if a bit chaotic at times) sleepover filled with games, convection oven s’mores, and a bedtime story. We are safe and dry! The storm appears to be clearing around midday on Thursday, so we will have one more night in camp before heading back to Steamboat on Friday morning.  Wesley- In the morning, we had oatmeal and then went to Rocky Mountain Biological Lab (RMBL). We met two scientists, Katie and Laura, who helped us remember what we learned last year about watersheds. We are in the Gunnison River watershed. We then hiked up to Judd Falls, which is named after a man named Judd who helped keep the town of Gothic alive. On our way to the falls, we stopped in a dry stream bed and found fossils! Grayson- After the waterfall, we hiked back down to RMBL and had lunch at the community center. After lunch, we tested rock hardness by scratched rocks against other objects like a penny and a pocket knife. Then, we learned about watersheds and wells. we went inside and learned more about wells with another scientist, Sam. One interesting thing that Sam does is take measurements of ground water with an instrument he designed himself. Truman- back at camp, we played outside for about 40 minutes before moving our tents and setting up more shelter in preparation of the rain. We are camped at Oh Be Joyful Campground and we are right next to the Slate River. Then, for dinner we had a Costa Rican dish, arroz con pollo. It was chicken and rice with refried beans and chips. It is normally served on birthdays or other special occasions. Our World Leadership School facilitators are from Costa Rica, so we have been able to practice our Spanish and learn about Costa Rican culture. Next, we will gather around the campfire to discuss the day and prepare for tomorrow.
Greetings from Crested Butte! After a very busy Monday morning at school, we finally got our van and trailer loaded and headed south. The trip was filled with bad jokes, our playlist featuring some questionable songs about chickens and ducks, and a haul of candy from a Silverthorne gas station. (Send my regards to your students' dentist.) We arrived at our campground, Oh Be Joyful, just as the sun was setting, and I am so impressed with how fast students were able to set up their tents and make our campsites a home for the week. We were greeted with a delicious dinner from our WLS partners, Randall and Javier. On a personal note, I worked with Randall last spring in Costa Rica on the 7/8 trip. I’m excited to get to work with him again! This group also had him here at RMBL last year, which marks the first time Randall has ever been able to work with a group twice in all his years with WLS. Very special. Students will be trading out blog duties based on tent groups throughout the week. We will update as much as possible! ~Andrea    |
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