By Doug Berg
After lengthy thought and deliberation, the Mini-School Council, in cooperation with the staff, has come up with a tentative schedule of major trips for the remainder of this year. Again, this schedule is tentative, and is subject to modification or cancellation, but at this point no problems are foreseen.
First, a cross-country skiing/winter camping trip is planned for March 13-17 in the Savannah Portage State Forest. This trip will be taken through an organization called North Country Winter Treks, and will involve seven students, Doug, Randy, and Lester. The major objectives of the trip will be to learn winter camping and survival skills and to learn leadership skills. The students will be picked by the staff. The cost of the trip will be 145.00 per person.
The second major itinerant effort will depart by bus April 27th, for the Southwestern U. S. and will be gone approximately 3 weeks. The trip will emphasize history of the Southwest, Indian studies, and desert ecology. When not riding the bus, Nick and Linda and their twenty charges will be backpacking various areas in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, culminating in an assault of the Grand Canyon of 7-10 days. Many, many preparatory details need to be worked out for this trip–transportation, menu, schedule, accommodations, to name a few–and an attempt will be made to select the group soon so that some fund-raising efforts can be made to defray costs. The cost of this trip will be 150.00. Lester may stow away on this one too.
On or about May 10th, Randy, in his sadomasochistic fashion, intends to find six or eight strong-legged, iron-rumped fools who will bicycle around the perimeter of Minnesota with him. I do not know what this trip will cost. It should cost nothing. Its participants should demand wages. At the very least, they should demand a free supply of liniment for aching, numb derrieres.
Near the end of May, I (Doug) will put together a BWCA canoe trip of 9 students and myself. The group will be composed of 2 very experienced canoe trippers, seven rookies, and myself. The 2 experienced students will lead the trip and will be responsible for every aspect of it–pre-trip planning, menu, shopping, student trip preparation, routing, and discipline and order during the trip. I will be along only to make the trip legal *(oh yeh?) and will intervene in the leadership of the trip only when it is a matter of safety.
Attempts will be made also to take out several 1-4 day trips (climbing, biking, hiking) when the weather becomes warmer. It all happens in the Mini-School Program! WHAT A PROGRAM!!!
*Lester’s Comment