Eleven East Grand Outdoor Education students took part in a winter camping outing recently on East Grand Lake.
Students built a quinzee (snow shelter), collected firewood to make warming and cooking fires and took part in a lost person scenario using map and compass in the Sucker Lake area.
Assisting on the lost person scenario were former East Grand Outdoor Education students and cousins, Seth and David Cropley, who are currently attending Beals College where they are enrolled in a two-year conservation and law enforcement program.
The Cropleys entered the thick woods south of Sucker Lake and west of Greenland Cove, while students were located to the east on the snowmobile trail and divided into four groups with maps and compasses. Prior to beginning their search, outdoor education student Lendin Stoddard called the lost pair by cell phone and asked them to fire a shot so the search teams could get a bearing on their location.
The lost pair fired three shots over the course of a half an hour. Students located the lost persons in about 45 minutes. Back at the camp during a debriefing/discussion time, the Cropleys discussed how important their outdoor education experience was while they were students at East Grand and how it prepared them for the conservation and law enforcement program, giving them an edge over fellow classmates.
Both Cropleys would like to become game wardens. During the debriefing, students also discussed the importance of staying together as a team, trusting the compass and not to go so fast through the woods as to work up a sweat. Overnight temperatures dipped to almost 20 below zero.
Three students stayed in their snow shelters overnight while the others opted to stay in a heated cabin nearby provided by Tom and Jackie Jones.
