On Friday, July 14th, 8 students, 3 staff members and our BCYC intern took a trip to participate in Outward Bound programing at the Discovery Center. All of the students involved are active All Stars with the Bicycle Coalition Youth Cycling Program on one of our summer Teams: Mountain Biking or Race/Tour Team.
This post was written by Bicycle Coalition Youth Cycling member Daa’mir Speight-Taylor (featured in the above photo on the left) recapping the adventures of the day:
The games: We played a plethora of games from matching games where we all had 2 images and we couldn’t show each other our images, we had to communicate to make the story, to games where 2 people were in the middle and we had to throw a ball one of of them while the other had to protect that person, and games that kinda just set the foundation for the day. To be honest, I did not know most of the people who were with our group, so It helped me get comfortable around everyone to play a few games together. We played various games from just getting to know each other, teamwork, and headbands on our phones. Overall a very good fun day, we all really liked just the environment, and the vibes of the Outward Bound workers we worked with were giving off it was fun and we definitely want to do this again not just with the same people I feel with the addition of new people would be really interesting and just as impactful. Just a day for everyone to step back and not worry about anything.
The actual climb: The climb is what I’m calling it we went on these huge tall wires hooked on climbing equipment, and we had to cross logs, wires, ropes, and random wooden blocks. Sort of like type roping but literally more than 7ft in the air, obviously on a line but still scary. It was sort of surreal I knew what I was doing while at the same time I didn’t, it wasn’t really something I had never done before. I mean it was fun I don’t regret it I will say my legs have never shaken like they did when I was up there.
“I feel like while everything else before that was team building but it was really about trusting yourself, outward bound and finding your rhythm, kinda like what we’re first taught while riding bikes “trust the equipment” vs “trust your bike” and trusting yourself just ends up coming along for the ride.
Hopefully not the end: With all things considered it was really fun. Not just to play games, cross wires, and eat pizza. But to get to know everyone there my fellow All Star riders, our coaches, and outward bound. I mean we knew our coaches but it’s different when you are walking across a thin wire high up above the ground. I think it was really good for us whether we realize it or not and definitely made my day better we were all just high on that energy we all had.
Daa’mir Speight-Taylor is a Junior at Multicultural Academy Charter School. Daa’mir has participated in BCYC for 2 years and recently became a BCYC All Star and is active on the Mountain Biking Team.
~Thank you Outward Bound, BCYC and of course Elly at BCYC for having me write this~