Students Return to MPEC's Outdoor Classroom!

Today MPEC resumed the Earth Studies program when our 2 buses with about 70 5th graders from Hellbeck and Morton Elementary Schools arrived at the park. Today's lesson included basic orienteering, where students learn about using a compass, and then navigate their way through one of several courses we have set up in the park. The photo with the card illustrates one of the activities they do as they reach a point along the course, in this case reinforcing the tree identification lesson from the fall. It feels so good to see and hear these young people happily and actively learning while spending the day out in Nature and these big beautiful ponderosa pines.

MPEC drums in the Winter Solstice!

About 30 of us acknowledged the "return of the light" drumming around a warm fire in front of MPEC's Horseshoe Lodge as daylight began to slip away on Sunday evening. Winter solstice, the day of the year with the least amount of daylight and the most amount of darkness, marks the lengthening of each day as the sun begins climbing in the southern sky.

MPEC's Winter Wonderland

Winter has arrived with gusto to Pueblo Mountain Park (and lots of other places, so I've heard). The last few days' snow, not to mention the 14 below temps the other night, say that autumn is now just a memory. Snow total for this season is 55" so far, the snowiest start to winter the park has seen in several years. I took this photo this morning: sun not yet shining on the landscape, temp at 2 below, looking out over the park and mountainous backdrop from my property just east and up the hill from the park.

Happy winter, Ranger Dave

It's been snowing!

Winter snowfall is off to a good start so far...October saw around 30", and this past Sunday's 12" brings the total past 40". And to think, the entire 2002 winter saw only about 48" of snow...yes, that was a dry year! Average for the park for an entire winter is around 115", so here we go. The pond was trying to put on its winter ice several weeks ago, but a warm early November kept the ice at bay. The cold temps that followed the last storm just may have the pond "officially" frozen for the year...I'll keep watching. Here's what the pond looked like this morning, plus a yucca in the snow.

Horseshoe Lodge hosts first overnight retreat!

After months and months of so many details and so much work creating MPEC's new Retreat Center at Horseshoe Lodge, we got to do a hands-on test of the new facility. I am so pleased to say that it went really well...comments from 13 women who travelled from many places, including North Carolina, Florida, California, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario were very positive and confirmed what we already believed...MPEC has built a beautiful facility that has taken the 1930s work of the New Deal Era workers who built the Lodge and made it into a lovely facility that will be a lovely place to retreat to Nature for many many years.

Upon returning home to Wisconsin, Lee Miller put at her blog, "What did I experience? No hub-bub. Beauty everywhere. Clean air. Brilliant stars at night. Pine trees that tower high into the sky. Animal tracks. Hiking trails. Ponds and bubbling brooks. Beautiful snow. Sunshine. And the lodge - full of cozy comfort. It was majestic, just majestic."

Jo Hatcher said, "Wow. What an honor to be the first person to sleep in the beautiful Hideaway Room. The bear decor in the room kept me company and I felt peaceful and relaxed. Seeing the snow right outside the windows was like magic, an elixir that I needed for my tired and weary self. It was simply a treasure to be in this cozy room. Knowing that it had been decorated by loving hands from a special community of people was sacred to me."

It's been a long time since I blogged...

...to say we've been busy is an understatement. The last couple of months have been so full at MPEC, dominated by gearing up for and starting the 2009/2010 Earth Studies program for all Pueblo City Schools 5th graders, and completing Phase 2 of the Horseshoe Lodge.

Painting, furniture, kitchen needs, and creating the many systems to support our new overnight facilities are why I haven't blogged. I am very happy to write that the west wing's 11 overnight rooms plus 8 restrooms plus a couple of breakout rooms plus the fully upgraded kitchen plus the beautiful dining area all look great. Many generous volunteers and donors stepped forward to bring this home stretch part of Phase 2 to completion. We just put it all to the test with a 5-day retreat rental this past weekend, when 13 women from around the US and Canada arrived for a retreat-coach training. All in all, the Lodge and our systems performed very well - the rooms were warm and the showers were hot (thanks to our biomass heating system), the food was great, and all had a great time. We still have a few kinks to work out, but Phase 2 of the Lodge is essentially complete, save for a few projects currently in the works.

Simultaneous with all of this has been a great start to our Earth Studies program...nearly every week day since the last week of August, 60 - 75 students are in the park for hands-on environmental education. New this year, all students from the Beulah School are participating in Earth Studies as well (we modified the curriculum to accommodate all K-8 students).

The park itself has seen October bring quite a bit of snow. This morning's 1.8" brought the total snowfall for the month to almost 19", and it's been snowing all day, with projections for snow through tonight and into tomorrow. October 2009 snowfall looks like it will top 24", which is more snow than October has seen in many years. This may be a great year or snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in the park.

I hope to blog a bunch more in the coming weeks, sharing photos of the recent weeks of programs and lodge efforts...the rooms have turned out beautiful, and we'll soon be ready to take rentals. And blogs on the park's natural areas, as this fall morphs into winter (which seems to be happening early this year). Happy (snowy) trails, Dave

It's a Colorful Painting Festival at the Horseshoe Lodge

We've just completed 9 days of painting fun with volunteers coming from all over to help us paint the 21 rooms and 340 feet of hallway : one coat of primer and one and two coats in some rooms. YES..IT'S HUGE AND PAINT IS FLYING EVERYWHERE.

Plus on Saturday local artists came to create murals and others special art pieces to grace some of the rooms. This is going to make the Retreat Center at MPEC the place to come for rest, learning, and inspiration. Here are some of the views of the past few days.

The hallway was killer...and took primer plus paint by the 5 gallon bucket.
Here is our weekend Park Caretaker Beth Walsh donating time to help with the task.

It got fun when the Artists arrived to get creative. Pictured above is two of them in the Celestial Seasons room that will inspire it's guests to contemplate the night sky.

Butterflies are important ways to learn about Nature and are something we teach about at MPEC. What a better way to help people see some of the local species than to create a Butterfly Bath for moments of contemplation at the end of a long hiking day?

Even some of the much neglected historic picnic tables cried out for sanding and paint renewal and our volunteers popped to it and responded with gusto.

AND NEXT? the 25 new doors arrived and Tuesday, August 18 the staining and polyurethaning of all of them will begin. stop in for an hour before your hike if you can...every hour could help make a huge difference with these doors