ELC!!

Hey I'm back!  I just got back from ELC (Environmental Learning Center), also known as Wolf Ridge.  I went up with my 8th grade class for a week of fun! We also got to miss a week of school for this which is an added bonus. The bus left on Monday morning at 5:00! I was so tired, and on the bus most of us slept. We got up to Wolf Ridge around noon, and then had lunch before our first activity.  I had a Lake Superior view hike first.  Then we got back, ate supper, and went to our cabins.  I had a cabin with 4 of my friends, plus a chaperon, who's really nice.  The next day we were gone all day doing a stream study and learning about beavers.  We had lunch in between, and almost everyone jumped in the creek! They called it the "Polar Plunge".  Luckily it was really hot out; I even got sunburned! After we got back and had supper, the girls gathered together in a small group and talked until 12:30! I never got more than 6 hours of sleep up there!

Image: 'Deep View' 

 On Wednesday it was cold and rainy, and we learned about smammals (small mammals) and climate.  In the evening we went on a night hike, even though it was cold and rainy.  Someone even fell in the lake!  Thursday was one of our really fun days.  After we woke up and ate breakfast, we had the adventure ropes course.  It was about 30 feet off the ground, with four challenges, and it ended with a zip line!  A rope bridge led up to the first platform.  The first challenge was probably the hardest- a single tightrope with bungee cords leading up from it to wires at your waist.  Then there was just a single log, a single tightrope, and two logs.  On the zip line at the end it felt like I was flying! I even did the ropes course blindfolded! It was so fun! After lunch we had competitive orienteering.  I was with my friend and a chaperon, and later we teemed up with four other people.  We did really bad, but we got to slide down the side of the mountain in loose dirt! In the evening, we had F.I.R.S.T. games.  We had a bunch of activities, ending with us getting the whole grade over a flat wall that we had to pull everyone over!  On Friday, before we left, we had rock climbing.  We learned how to belay, and then we got to start!  It was so fun! I almost kissed the goat, but I couldn't make it to the top of that course.  On the bus ride back, most of us slept, and then we stopped at Gooseberry Falls.  We finally made it back at about 8:00!  It was such a fun trip!