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This week we had the honor of welcoming Noga Korem, who is “racing as a privateer,” and Dan Craven, of the professional Israeli Road cycling team, to the chava (ranch)! The duo came to our machane (camp) to visit, teach, and enjoy the beauty of the chava (ranch) through Melinda Goldrich, longtime Ramahnik, supporter of Ramah in the Rockies. She recalls the way she got involved with this team, saying, “the Colorado pro challenge came through Aspen two years ago, that was the first year of the team, and I was asked to gather some members of the Jewish community to be supportive of the team and cheer them on.” Since then, she has built a relationship with the team and has familiarized them with the Colorado Jewish community.

International biking superstar Noga Korem was so excited to get to spend some time in our little corner of the Rocky Mountains. “It’s a really really nice place.” She said. “I love it. I feel sorry I wasn’t here when I was their age.” This morning, Bogrim Advancing Biking had the opportunity to take a double perek (period) lesson from the bike team members, where they learned how to steer, brake, pedal, and stand up on mountain bikes more effectively. “It was a lot of fun.” Noga says, “It looked like the kids really enjoyed it. They loved riding and they loved learning new things.” This wasn’t her first time teaching kids biking. Back in Israel, Noga teaches girls cycling and works with them to hone their skills.

Dan has also really enjoyed his experience at camp. “I only started racing my bike when I got to university because it took me that long to find it,” he told me. “And here are these kids who are being exposed to all of these things; it’s really amazing.” In regards to the culture of the camp, Dan has a real appreciation. “They’re up in the mountains; you don’t see a single kid walking around with a cell phone. We need more of that.”

Raz Paul, Rosh Ofanayim (biking) here at camp, was thrilled that they came to visit, saying, “it’s awesome to see Noga jump and do tricks on the bikes. Every time she goes to a competition or anything, the Israeli Facebook goes crazy. She’s one of the best in the world in downhill biking.” Indeed, being Israeli himself, Raz has a special appreciation for Dan, Noga, and their accomplishments, and he aims to spread his enthusiasm throughout the camp community. Raz is also especially glad that they will get to spend time teaching all of the different edot (age groups), saying, “they are joining all our perakim…one perek of each edah. They taught us some bike skills, how to properly stand on the bikes, how to turn, how to jump safely. The kids love them.”

Indeed, our chalutzim (campers) found the experience of learning from, talking to, and riding with professional cyclists to be invaluable. Yonah, 14, found their instruction to be tremendously helpful, and is hoping to utilize the skills they taught him on future mountain biking masa’ot (backcountry excursions).  He explained, “I learned in general how to go down single tracks and bike better.” A highlight for Yonah was getting the opportunity to follow Noga down a single track and witnessing a world class athlete in action. “It was really cool, she’s so good,” Yonah said, with awe and admiration written on his face. For a kid from New York City who looks forward to mountain biking here at camp every summer, it was truly a once in the lifetime opportunity.

Israeli Cyclists with Campers

Wow! This has been an exciting week! We can’t believe it’s already the second Shabbat of the session.  Last Shabbat was an incredible, beautiful, and ruach-filled experience!  Throughout this week, all our chalutzim [campers/pioneers] headed out for their masa’ot [excursions], and now they are back, getting ready to celebrate this Shabbat with us.  While we typically wear white on Shabbat, this week in honor of Independence Day, we will be wearing red, white, and blue!

Independence Day is always an exciting day, but even more thrilling when it’s full of camp magic! Our Ilanot and Metayalim (3-6th grade) chalutzim started our day out with a patriotic music wake up .  They came out, danced, brushed their teeth, and decked themselves out in red, white, and blue.  It was so fun to watch our chalutzim sing, march, and dance along to hits ranging from Party in the USA to Proud to be an American.

Where we might typically have a morning activity block, we did another special 4th of July activity this morning.  US Army Reserve Captain Josh Wolf (and brother of our Business Director) arranged a flag to be given to us that was flown over his base in Afghanistan a few years ago.  We held a flag raising ceremony on our migrash [field] with the Ilanot and Metaylim chalutzim.  Our horse staff acted as a Color Guard, and Douglas Wolf and his son, David, raised the flag given to us by Josh.  Some line dancing and more fun American music capped off the morning activities.  We followed this with a delicious breakfast of red, white, and blue themed food—waffles, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, and whipped cream!

As our chalutzim are now getting ready for Shabbat and are back from their various excursions, I want to share a brief few highlights of the various trips.  The trips ranged from 2-5 days, depending on the age of the chalutzim, and follow our core value of “challenge by choice”, letting the chalutzim pick the degree to which they want to push themselves.

Ilanot, our 3rd and 4th grade group, had a special horse masa.  Gabi “G-baby” Wasserman, the head of Ilanot themed the masa around a medieval mission to save a princess from a dragon, both played by members of our tzevet [staff]. They also took a day trip to our neighbors on the buffalo ranch and fed the buffalo and cattle.

Metayalim, the 5th and 6th grade edah, went rafting along the Arkansas River in Brown’s Canyon.  They are also the first of our chalutzim this year to have been to the top of a “14’er” (mountain higher than 14,000 feet), Pikes Peak, and were quite excited to see some Bighorn Sheep.  The Metayalim were especially excited to be seeing and learning about fossils at the Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park.  Today they visited a local farmers market where they had a morning long scavenger hunt.

Sollelim, the 7th and 8th grade edah, chose between climbing, backpacking, rafting-biking, and service/trail crew options.  A new option we added this year was archery masa, taking our chalutzim through a 3D target archery range/course. This masa, led by Shira, our head archery instructor, went through Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

Bogrim, our 9th and 10th grade edah, tried some new routes at Rocky Mountain National Park.  The original route that we had planned had to be altered on Sunday when the group arrived and found the trail closed becaues of snow.  The ofanaimmasa [biking trip] rode back triumphantly in the pouring rain, singing and cheering.

JOLI (Jewish Outdoor Leadership Institute), the 11th and 12th grade program, went to Indian Peaks.  The snowpack is extremely high this year (300% of average), and at various times during the week they trekked their way through snow, altering their route as needed to avoid the deeper parts and the closed trails.  As a result of the snow, they themed the trip “Masa Beyond The Wall” (A Game of Thrones reference).

Now that our chalutzim are all back, we are excited to spend Shabbat and this next week at camp together.  We look forward to our famous Shabbat Challah,tilapia fish tacos, and a festive July 4th Shabbat.

As a reminder, we post pictures and updates on Facebook most days that chalutzim are at the chava [ranch]. If you are not a fan of our Facebook page, please become one.  Here is the link to our online photos that we update every two or three days, and here is a link to a video we posted on Facebook of 4th of July and the masa’ot returning.

As always please be in touch with any questions or comments.  You can always email me or our yoatzim [camper care team] at campparent@ramahoutdoors.org.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eliav Bock