The first thing newcomers have to master at the Flying Colors Trapeze School in Scandia, Minnesota, is the climb.
It's 24 rungs of a fiberglass ladder from the front lawn of Sherri Mann's farm and school to the platform where one of her assistants awaits. The platform is the last thing students touch before they swing into the air. It's covered by a canopy. It's blue. It's the size of a gurney.
Standing there on a recent day a student would have seen far across Olinda Trail to a field of freshly rolled hay, or to their right the paddock where four horses idly grazed, heads down and unaware; or, below, a sturdy-looking net stretched tight, like it was ready for impact.
