Students from Whittier and Alaska work on a single track bike train in Utah.
The view from the freshly maintained bike trail in Utah is wide ranging.
By Maria Burke
Special to the Glacier City Gazette
Voyage to Excellence, a residential school in Anchorage run by the Chugach School District, is a school where students from all over Alaska come to develop life skills, learn about real life situations, learn about job opportunities and much more. Students stay at the school for different amounts of time ranging from 4 to 80 days, depending on the phase. On April 18, 2016 the Outdoor Leadership Phase kicked off. It was a very eventful trip in which we had many great learning opportunities and it was so much fun.
This was VTE’s first time taking students out of the state, and for many of us, the first time leaving the state. It was a very exciting experience for both adults and students. During the trip, we were flexible and did many things that we were not used to. The main activity of the trip was mountain biking.
Most of us had never gone mountain biking before. However, there were a few who had. Each day we biked at least twenty miles, taking breaks where we could find elusive shade. It got tiring at times, but we all pushed through and reached our next campsite. We did this for about four days, until finally we reached our destination. Getting off our bikes, and looking back to how far we biked, gave us all a sense of accomplishment.
There were many times, some of us almost gave up, but we all kept pushing and made it back. By the end of the trail most of us had bumps and bruises, and extremely deep tans. It was amazing to see how much we all persisted. It was definitely a skill that will be useful in the real world.
After resting for half a day, we met up with the Moab Trail Mix and started building the Western Chisholm Trail, which is one of the many trails in the Horsethief mountain bike trails. It will be used for single track mountain biking and would be about ten miles long by the time it is finished. We used rakes and pickaxes to clear debris from the trail and make sure it was as smooth as possible.
Then we used large branches to line the trail, and make sure that the bikers wouldn’t go off-roading. We learned the importance of service projects, and making good use of our public land. For two days, we helped build the trail and when we were finished it was amazing to see how great the trail looked, and to think about how people will ride this trail soon.
From then on, we didn’t really have a schedule. However, VTE made sure that we were always active and exploring. We went on lots of hikes, and saw many different things. We saw various interesting rock formations, such as the Three Gossips, the Birthing Rock, which is covered in petroglyphs, and lots of different plants and animals. The trip was very educational; we learned about different rock layers and wildlife. One day, we visited the museum, and learned about Moab’s history, they had interesting artifacts and information.
We also got to see the Arches National Park, such. There were many arches in various sizes. It was very exciting to see them up close. Another adventure we went on was to see dinosaur tracks. They were amazing; there were many tracks of different types ranging from the Velociraptors to prehistoric crocodiles.
The trip was a fun experience and we are all very thankful to have gone. We not only got to take home all the wonderful stories, but many of the things we learned such as teamwork, persistence and trying new things. We all shared an amazing adventure. We will all share our experience to our communities and the great time we had.