This trip was another first for the Mouat Outdoor Education program as we decided to move our snowshoe and tubing trip to Manning Park. For the snowshoe portion the group experienced a guided snowshoe trek around the 4.9km Lightning Lake loop, learning about various aspects of the Manning Park ecosystem, identification of animal prints and the sport of snowshoeing. Students were treated to stunning views of the lake and surrounding snow covered peaks as they traversed one of the many great hiking/snowshoe trails that the park has to offer. After a short bus ride up the mountain the group tackled the tubing portion of the trip on the Manning Park Polar Coaster. Unlike tubing runs at other local mountains the Coaster is unique in that each of its runs employ a turn at the halfway point. This results in high velocity at the start coupled with a long run out at the end. This activity was definitely the highlight of the trip as many students spent all 3 hours on the runs without a break. Highlights included the multiple double tube runs, as well as the multitude of races that took place throughout the day. The laughter and smiles abounded and this will definitely be something that will stay on the schedule for years to come! Thanks to the 3 new supervisors who joined us on the trip! Outdoor Education students (and anyone else who wants to) please leave a 100 word blog response below.
Mouat Extreme Outdoor Education 
This past Thursday, I spent my day snowshoeing and tubing at Manning Park.
The first half of the day we went on a snowshoe hike around lightning lake. I enjoyed this because it reminded me of camping at Lightning Lake in September and doing the same hike. I really enjoyed how different everything was when it was covered in snow. This activity taught me how to wear and use snowshoes; which took a while to get used to, as I had to watch my feet with every step for the first half of the walk, as well as teaching me about layering winter wear and making sure to take off layers before I get sweaty so I don’t end up getting cold. Next time, I would have brought a small backpack to hold my water bottle and a snack because I didn’t like holding it the entire time.
The second half of the day was spent tubing at Manning Park Resort. My friend and I went to the safety instructions on the tube park and then went to the lodge to eat before we started tubing. I liked the way the rope pulled the tubes up so I wouldn’t have to walk. If I did this again, I would not have eaten before going because by the time we had started, the lady had taken away most of the fast tubes, so we couldn’t go as fast. In preparation for both these adventures, next time I would like to have a strap to connect my gloves so I don’t have to worry about losing them.
Sounds like a good experience and some good lessons to takeaway!
It was nice to try something new: it was the first time to go snowshoeing und tubing for me. I imagined snowshoeing kind of different, but I really enjoyed it. I really liked hiking in the snow and have the new felling to wear snowshoes.
Tubing was more fun, than snowshoeing (even though snowshoeing was fun!). It was a new experience and I really enjoyed to go down the hill – with spins or without. But the best part was to go up the hill with the “lift”. I went down the hill more than 20 times. At the end we weren´t allowed to use the new tubes, so I wasn´t that fast anymore. If I had the chance to go there again I would do it!
I really enjoyed the tubing portion of this trip even though they took away the fast ones. I’m glad you got to try something new!
Such a fun experience!
I’m glad but what were the highlights? What would you change? What did you learn?
This snowshoeing and tubing trip was so fun. I really enjoyed the hike when we were snowshoeing, and the beautiful views when tubing on the mountain! With friends, this is such a fun experience. For next time, I wouldn’t eat before going tubing because the staff took away the faster tubes. I learnt about different animal tracks while snowshoeing, and we even got to see some fresh rabbit tracks! I also learnt about safety on the mountain and how to keep our beautiful community and mountain the way we found it. This was such a fun experience and I would love to go again!
Thanks for revising your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the experience!
During the snowshoeing and tubing trip of ‘23, I had learned about how to get snowshoes on, was introduced to 2 different types of snowshoes, and learned about animal tracks and the animals that have manning park as their home. I learned that I will eat the grossest, nastiest things ever, I get overheated very easily, and that I like pure leaf iced tea. I wish we did not have to snowshoe and just went tubing for the whole 6-ish hours. Next time, I would bring more food and bring less of other useless things that I had brought on the trip.
I’m glad you got to experience both disciplines as I think tubing for 6 hours would have got boring.
I had never done either snowshoeing or tubing before so it was a whole new experience for me.
At first, I found snowshoeing a little difficult because the shoes felt giant on my feet and they were really uncomfortable for me. But after a while it definitely got better!
The nature and the weather were stunning again. Manning Park is such a beautiful place!
I also liked tubing. It was a lot of fun to race against my friends or just get down the hill!
It was such a cool day but unfortunately it was also my last Outdoor Ed trip!
I’m so glad you got the chance to join us on so many adventures. I hope that you made some great memories that you will be able to take home with you!
2 weeks ago I was able to go enjoy a whole day at manning park where we went snowshoeing and then tubing. In the snowshoeing part of the trip, we walked for maybe a little under two hours, we got to enjoy seeing the beautiful surroundings and we got to see loads of animal tracks while learning about our guides and their love for and history with Manning Park. In the snow tubing portion, we had a ton of fun being spun or simply pushed down the hill in these really fast tubes (that was till they were taken away and we were left with slower ones) but it was a ton of fun and the workers were extremely nice, id say i personally went down and up the lift like 25 times cause of how fast and fun it was.
I’m glad you enjoyed the trip. While the fast tubes were fun it was probably a good idea to take them out of circulation before someone went over the barrier…