A full moon glowed Monday morning as the new day came into being, just enough light to cast the woodland grounds south of Anoka High School in silhouette.
Scattered in a clearing were quinzhees, or igloo-like snow dugouts — barriers between the world and the senior high schoolers inside them, who shouldered through a chilly night in the teens.
Perhaps, too, the quinzhees were filled with fantastic dreams of more winter camping nights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That is to come after Sunday night's dry run on metro turf.
The eight students will join six other classmates Feb. 23-26 for a camping trip into the BWCA, heading there through Bearskin Lake off the Gunflint Trail.
In doing so they'll follow the well-worn path of Anoka teens before them who were educated on essential survival skills and wonders of the natural world in a class named Outdoor Adventures that has been held for more than 25 years.
Now, it's their turn.
Summer trip origins
Chase Evertz, a science teacher, exposes the kids to a range of topics. They cover wilderness safety, like how to spot hypothermia. They dug into the basics of fire-starting, working with cook stoves and building their own latrines, mindful of Leave No Trace ethics. They've molded and hollowed out the aforementioned quinzhees, and Evertz took several on the nearby Rum River to auger holes, just like they'll do up north to get to water.
Putting the knowledge in motion is fundamental to the class, said Evertz, and the idea was echoed by one of the class's founders, Scott Birklid, now a retired chemistry teacher and sports coach.