Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Where Does the Time Go!
Hello All! This is our first entry to the blog since we’ve set it up and can’t believe how quickly the time is going! To those of you who have been keeping watch on the blog site waiting for updates, well, we’re finally at it. Thanks for your patience.
Today was Gary’s last day at work so we are another step forward in our plan. One change we have made is the date of departure. We are aiming for the second week of June, most likely the 8th or 9th. There are some family things to take care of first before we go.
Life has been busy during these months of preparation. First, we took a bicycle maintenance course at Wheelworks in Belmont. Thanks to our great instructor, Sean, fixing a flat, truing a wheel, and changing a gear cable, among other things, can now be added to our resumes. We learned so much from this course and got lots of good advice on the best way to travel with minimal tools for bike repairs. The first thing Sean told us to do if (when!) we do get a flat is to get off the road, take a deep breath and drink some water – we’re not in a race to get it done fast and this will remind us to be safe.
The highlight of our prep period, hands-down, was the Wilderness First Responder course we took through the SOLO program in New Hampshire. Gary and I are now official WFR’s (pronounced "woofers"). There were 11 of us in the class for this intensive 10 day course taught by an amazing instructor, Josh, with assistance from Katey (see photo of the gang after we all passed our final exam!). It is difficult to truly convey how impressive this group of people was to us. Our classmates represented such a wealth of talent in terms of outdoor skills and life experiences. We gained a tremendous amount of knowledge in wilderness medicine and feel so much better prepared to handle any injuries that we may encounter.
In our WFR course the emphasis was on learning to make an accurate assessment of a medical emergency in the backcountry and then figuring out the best course of action to treat it. There was a protocol that we were taught to follow and were given scenarios ("oh no…") in the woods every day in order to practice what we learned. Many of us were quite nervous about having to demonstrate our newly acquired skills. Like anything new, it felt awkward and many times we were unsure if we could remember the right thing to do or do it quickly enough. The best advice came from one of our seasoned backcountry classmates (and my dorm-mate) Sigrid. It was similar to the "take a deep breath" advice above. She said something like "don’t forget to smoke a cigarette" – not literally of course – but take the time to step back, breathe and figure out what to do next. Good to remember when life gets crazy.
In addition to the wisdom shared, the support from all of the class gave us confidence as we pulled for each other to do our best. To our fellow WFRs, Betta, Sigrid, Anthony, Ann, Brad, Mike, Josh, Matt and John, Gary and I are so grateful for your friendships and support on our next BIG adventure.
Today was Gary’s last day at work so we are another step forward in our plan. One change we have made is the date of departure. We are aiming for the second week of June, most likely the 8th or 9th. There are some family things to take care of first before we go.
Life has been busy during these months of preparation. First, we took a bicycle maintenance course at Wheelworks in Belmont. Thanks to our great instructor, Sean, fixing a flat, truing a wheel, and changing a gear cable, among other things, can now be added to our resumes. We learned so much from this course and got lots of good advice on the best way to travel with minimal tools for bike repairs. The first thing Sean told us to do if (when!) we do get a flat is to get off the road, take a deep breath and drink some water – we’re not in a race to get it done fast and this will remind us to be safe.
The highlight of our prep period, hands-down, was the Wilderness First Responder course we took through the SOLO program in New Hampshire. Gary and I are now official WFR’s (pronounced "woofers"). There were 11 of us in the class for this intensive 10 day course taught by an amazing instructor, Josh, with assistance from Katey (see photo of the gang after we all passed our final exam!). It is difficult to truly convey how impressive this group of people was to us. Our classmates represented such a wealth of talent in terms of outdoor skills and life experiences. We gained a tremendous amount of knowledge in wilderness medicine and feel so much better prepared to handle any injuries that we may encounter.
In our WFR course the emphasis was on learning to make an accurate assessment of a medical emergency in the backcountry and then figuring out the best course of action to treat it. There was a protocol that we were taught to follow and were given scenarios ("oh no…") in the woods every day in order to practice what we learned. Many of us were quite nervous about having to demonstrate our newly acquired skills. Like anything new, it felt awkward and many times we were unsure if we could remember the right thing to do or do it quickly enough. The best advice came from one of our seasoned backcountry classmates (and my dorm-mate) Sigrid. It was similar to the "take a deep breath" advice above. She said something like "don’t forget to smoke a cigarette" – not literally of course – but take the time to step back, breathe and figure out what to do next. Good to remember when life gets crazy.
In addition to the wisdom shared, the support from all of the class gave us confidence as we pulled for each other to do our best. To our fellow WFRs, Betta, Sigrid, Anthony, Ann, Brad, Mike, Josh, Matt and John, Gary and I are so grateful for your friendships and support on our next BIG adventure.
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