Week one in Winter Outdoors was great. On Monday morning, Ms. Delgiorno got the mountain bikes in shape and Tuesday morning the boys hit the trails. We spent the next three days biking around Ross, stopping in each day at EH Indoor Tennis for refreshments and warmth -- the weather was well below freezing two of the three days. Although several young Raven bikers lacked appropriate gear (despite repeated warnings), after a couple of miles of biking, everyone warmed up. We also hiked a couple of afternoons, visting the Montauk trail that leads to the Seal Haul Out in Block Island Sound, as well as Walking Dunes in Napeague. On Friday, we finished up the week with a trip to the Serpent Trail in Montauk's Hither Woods Park. This was quite a challenge, with many rocky steeps, and though Brandon Pettaway took a wild spill on a thirty degree descent, nobody got hurt. Lucas Merat won the award for biggest whiner, and said proudly, with a broad smile, that for him "whining completes the experience." Afterward, most of the gang headed home, claiming they were too tired to even watch a movie. The two intrepid faculty bikers, Michelle DelGiorno and yours truly, had a blast, though both were seen later that afternoon hooked up to IV's in the nurse's office. And not to be overlooked, students spent time between outings in the classroom with Dr. Liao planning and designing a website, on which they will publish their experiments from Week Two's ski trip. So off we go, Monday morning, to Stratton Mountain for a week of skiing/boarding and on-mountain physics experiments with physics maestro (and busdriver extraordinaire) Dr. Liao.
Shelby Raebeck