Mercer's Outing to Hyak Snow Shoeing and Sledding

<< Trip Reports click to return to the list of our trips.

Team:

Asa Mercer Middle School

Date:

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Trip Types:

Snow Shoeing, Snow Sledding

Plan:

Team will meet at Victrola Coffee then proceed to Mercer middle school to pick up kids. From there we will head to Hyak Snow Park. We will start with snow shoeing, lunch, then finish with sledding and hot cocoa.

Report:

Feb 23rd ICO Trip Report

The team met at Victrola Coffee on Beacon Hill for normal catch up and to discuss the plan for the day. One of the highlights was the fact we got a van with 12 miles on it! There was still plastic on the floor even! With the caffeine hitting our veins we headed to Mercer to meet with the kids. Sarah our school rep was already there with a few kids but was low attendance overall. With the snow storm the previous week and the kids being out on the mid winter break we had a couple of the confirm kids no show but luckily some of the on call were already there. One student was running late but still had no showed up by our cutoff time. We ended up with a great group size though of 5 kids, two leaders, and the one teacher. We had one slight scare when we checked the pass road conditions and saw chains or 4x4 required which we had neither. A few minutes later we checked again and it had switched over to traction tires required and we all breathed a collective sigh. Road conditions were great on the way up and had no issues getting to Hyak.

The snow shoe portion went really well with the kids all enjoying their first time snow shoeing. We slightly modified the plan off getting to the edge of the lake when the kids started to slow down. We ended up finding a great vantage point above the lake and took advantage of the great fresh snow to build some phenomenal snow people. We had some discussions around group safety and communication along with talking high level avalanche awareness. The journey back to the van went quickly with no issues. Lunch was quickly handed out and did have a surprise where a gluten allergy meant some adjusting and swapping of food. I should have caught this on the permission slips but was missed in the earlier communications on the roster sheet. One student had dropped their phone in the snow earlier in the day right outside the van and didn’t realize it till we had returned. Luckily we were able to find it!

Everyone had a great time during sledding and there were no collisions or injuries though the sledding was quite bumpy due to the fresh snow. We had hot cocoa to wrap up the trip then headed home and made it back to the school at 3:40. Two students walked home but we were able to confirm with their parents before letting them head out.

Suggestions:

The winter snow storm then followed with the mid winter break did not help with our attendance. Probably best to schedule an outing before their break.