Move Outside and Bike Camp: fun while learning!

If you ride a bike or take a walk, you know that sound. The sound of outside: the wind, trees, rivers, birds and more. This past summer was the 7th or 8th year working with the Treasure Valley YMCA Move Outside and Bike camp, and it remains my favorite part of this job.

Move Outside and Bike is a very active camp, mostly riding bikes but also doing some hiking, fishing, disc golf, card playing, learning about birds, and how the river gets lower as the summer moves on, plus where the sweetest blackberries are…we’re not saying! It’s when winter comes and I ride along the Boise River Greenbelt that I can hear echoes of summer fun, the laughter and chatter, bike bells, and so much more. When the leaves have fallen from the trees, I can see the areas that seemed so hard to reach, the place where a shoe got temporarily lost in a muddy creek, the secret wasp nest that no longer has the shelter of leaves to disguise it, and the contour of the river bottom that seemed so deep in the early summer that is now dry and exposed. It’s an undescribable feeling for me, a deeper emotion of satisfaction and of yearning for the next year’s adventures.

The fabric of this camp is so rich and diverse. Each camper brings a different perspective and interest, so we may be playing Spikeball one day, then endless rounds of Uno the next. Campers bring fishing poles for Eagle Island day as well as discs for disc golf, and all of us love the snow cones at the park. One of the most interesting things to come out of our camps is Geochaching and plant identification. We all know that cell phones can be very distracting, but when we use them for Geocaching and plant ID, they become the educational tool that everyone loves. There are lots of geocaches in the Treasure Valley and we’ve traipsed across tall grass and water, searching for that elusive cache. Some are so clever, others very simple. Learning about wayfinding and watching for things like poison hemlock and poison ivy are important life skills disguised as fun adventures.

We’ve spent a lot of time learning about Greenbelt etiquette, ringing bells, slowing down, and being aware of surroundings, but we also ride on the road. During the school year we work in the classrooms teaching bike and walk safety, but in the summer we’re really able to experience the feeling of the roads. We are always aware of the complexity of bike lanes and access points in neighborhoods when we’re headed toward the Greenbelt and we take the time to explain how to use the road, and when to use the sidewalk.

We’re housed at Valley Regional Transit and have the great benefit of using the bus to extend our trips across the valley. From the West Y to Ivywild Pool, from the Downtown Y to the West Y, we’ve used the VRT bus and taught all of the bike campers how to use transit too! Removing barriers to learning how to move is our goal and we feel the MOAB camps give us the best opportunity for a well rounded transporation education. We see many of our bike campers during the school year in classrooms and on bike rodeo events and we know they’re going to be the kids with the deepest knowledge in the classroom. It’s a true joy to see these kids again and again. Who knows, maybe they’re the next generation of Safe Routes to School educators or Treasure Valley Family YMCA camp counselors!