After working extremely hard to get the Abbott Loop Community Church to support an access site from their property, we ended up needing to look elsewhere.  Hoping for a strong partnership with the Anchorage School District, we then worked to open an access site from the Parking Lot of Spring Hill Elementary.  This, too, backfired as the ASD Risk Management and Safety Department eventually denied our requests. We were still determined to improve the trails and build our obstacle course when the Park Foundation told us that they were not willing to honor our grant without access.

Fortunately, we have Elise Huggins on our side, and she was not about to let this project go.  While our class was in Costa Rica, Elise look a closer look at the area to try to come up with a reasonable alternative. Then she saw a little slip of land that bordered Lake Otis between Spring Hill and Hanshew. She found that this land actually belongs to the RA Park!  This find allows us to create an access point off of Lake Otis and closer to our new school site!

On Wednesday, we went out with Elise and marked the trail access route as well as the obstacle course route.  We also checked the soil for “rockiness” and clipped some low hanging branches for bike riders. It felt good to move beyond the planning stages!  As the summer progresses. Check your email for workdays! It would be great to get a crew together to build trail and install the obstacles We will keep you posted!

As Promised, here is a link to the Costa Rica photos:
​Costa Rica Photos