After a record-dry winter in California, and three snow trips postponed due to lack of snow, Mother Nature finally brought us some snow! On February 22nd, Inner City Outings and 28 students from the GEO Environmental Science and Design Academy at Grant High School traveled up to Echo Summit and were treated to a gorgeous warm and sunny day playing in the snow! Thanks to the generosity of Tubbs Snowshoes and their “Get Outdoors Program), our new fleet of snowshoes made their debut trip. Our first challenge- getting snowshoes on 28 kids who had never seen snowshoes before. In the past, this was always time consuming, and the kids we’d outfit first were antsy waiting for the others. Not so this year. While all of the models that Tubbs had donated to us were great, the Flex ESCs were particularly easy to strap onto 48 antsy feet! Snowshoes now on, we explored the boulder fields on the Rock Garden Loop, a great place to test out our new snowshoes- climbing up and down steep rocks, skidding down slopes, and running from snowball ambushes. We then continued to climb up to a beautiful vista- gazing upon Lake Tahoe and the canyon of Christmas Valley. While at first skeptical of the climb up to the viewpoint, gazing upon the Sierra Nevadas in their glory, the kids marveled at how much they enjoyed the peacefulness of getting away from the crowds, and had to admit the effort was well worth it. Along the way, there were plenty of stops to make snow angels and snowmen, and to rest and enjoy the mountain views. Back at the trailhead, Adventure Mountain, we enjoyed a couple hours of sledding and more snowball fights. Everyone left with big smiles and fond memories, and hopes to get back up to the snow again soon.
After a record-dry winter in California, and three snow trips postponed due to lack of snow, Mother Nature finally brought us some snow! On February 22nd, Inner City Outings and 28 students from the GEO Environmental Science and Design Academy at Grant High School traveled up to Echo Summit and were treated to a gorgeous …