Part I
Reflect on our mountain biking workshop and identify what you learned from the experiences over the three days. Include the following components of the workshop:
- Introduction the first morning
- Working with the NBCC students
- Sustainable trail building techniques
- Mountain biking trail design concepts
- Riding techniques - uphill, downhill, gear shifting, balance, weight distribution
- Teaching techniques
- Progression of the workshop - the order in which topics were covered
As we prepare for our AT backpacking trip, keep yourself updated on the weather forecast for Millinocket at the NOAA website. Also reference the equipment checklist you have received for the backpacking trip (you may also download a copy).
After viewing these two pieces of information, address the following items in your blog:
- Comment on the weather forecast for this weekend.
- I would like to you to look specifically at the clothing requirements of the Personal Gear List section and list out the pieces of clothing that you are bringing with you, and identify which pieces of clothing you will need to acquire between now and Thursday afternoon. Also identify how, when, and where you will acquire these items before Thursday afternoon.
- Visit the following web sites and comment on your menu for the trip:
- http://www.adventurealan.com/food_general.htm
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/402778
- http://gorp.away.com/gorp/food/swfood.htm
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1av9VczJxk
4. Share your expectations for this trip. Comment on the following:
- What are your personal goals for the trip?
- How do you think you will perform?
- What are you most nervous about?
- Identify some strategies you will use to stay warm and dry
- Have you been training - did you follow the recommended training schedule?
- After our discussion on Friday, are you "prepared" ?
Finally, we will meet on Thursday at 11:00 in the classroom. You will need to bring with you your backpacks and all of the gear you will be taking with you on the trip. This is for two reasons: (1) I want to see your gear and be sure that you are prepared, and (2) we will conduct a packing lesson in which I want to make sure all of your gear and food will fit in your pack. Please be aware that if you do not have the gear listed on your equipment list by Thursday and do not bring it with you to class, you may not be allowed on the trip; as your participation in the expeditions is mandatory, you can see that this could have significant consequences. Please contact me before Thursday at 11:00 am if you have any questions or concerns about this.
As usual, I look forward to reading your posts.
8 comments:
Walking in the first day, the room was filled with WCCC and NBCC kids that had this stereotypical adventure outdoors-type person look to them. They were a good group of kids. I didn’t learn much in terms of setting up a bike appropriately for somebody. And I failed to see how the trail building we did was any more sustainable than another, and it did seem like a lot of common sense. But I do think it helped some think about other factors that the trail would encounter from various weather conditions. The riding techniques section I thought was going to be a little more in depth for people, beginners to intermediate maybe. I think the main focus of the workshop was to introduce people who know very little about biking to learn enough about it to enjoy themselves. I have instructed quite a few individuals with trials, but I would like to be able to hone my teaching ability a bit more, to communicate a lesson better. Overall the experience was worth while, I was excited to learn about how the business was started, how it is maintained, and how well its doing. The workshop moved well through its topics, getting its points across before moving on to the next topic.
The weather looks like its going to be pretty wet this weekend, and even below freezing at some point. I only hope the ceiling and visibility isn’t too low for a flight on Friday. I was really looking forward to getting flown in. My list of clothing I have is as follows: Polypro’s top and bottom, fleece pants, warm shirt (not cotton), fleece jacket, plenty of warm socks, wool hat, gloves and glove liner, hiking boots, and hunter orange vest. I do not have a vest of any sort, and I have a waterproof breathable top but not bottoms. The bottoms are just waterproof. I have some pseudo-snow pants that are lightly insulated but are a good breathable somewhat waterproof nylon exterior. I never used them in anything above freezing, so Im not sure their capacity to repel water. I’m not sure what you would call them? Ski pants maybe.
I think I have a decent menu I checked out the sites and I might make a change on a few of the items and I don’t really know if my menu will check out at 36 dollars, but I think it will be close. Im thinking about swapping out Ramen noodles for some of those two serving already made rice meals. I might get some vacuum packed Tuna in water as well.
I think that I am hiking a section of the hundred mile wilderness is a goal in itself, it doesn’t matter how far I go. I think I will be fine on the trip, I have been hitching a lot and walking with my pack, breaking in the old boots and feet. I did some squats the other day, maybe a little too recently, I am hoping to take it easy on my legs before the trip and eat a huge spaghetti dinner tomorrow night before the trip. I don’t have any real concerns, I think I will be alright with the equipment I have for now. If I do get wet or perspire too much, I have an extra set of long underwear expedition weight so I won’t be too cold at night. This is the only time I think I will be a bit cold, but I do have my sleeping bag liner and winter sleeping bag for extra warmth.
Casey Ryder
I found the workshop to be very enjoyable. Starting with the intro the first day I began to see that a lot could be learned fromthis course. I was already pretty familiar with mountain biking so the intro was a bit redundant to me. The kids from new brunswick were pretty sweet. We all got along and could all relate to one another pretty easly, talking bout adventure stuff and wat not. Im kinda bummed it’s the second years going with us and not them. Building a sustainable trail was really awesome to me, when I was a kid I loved leaving paths in the woods and I guess its always stayed with me. Cliff did a good job at explaining his art and technique and I came away with a lot of good tips and ideas. I really liked building the bridge as well, I can see that technique coming in handy latter in life. And the way he taught us all this stuff and showed us everything was done very well to.
Looking at the weather im pretty disapointed………………….. but,I went shopping this weekend and found myself a nice hammock. It weighs 20oz and fits nicely in the pack…Im hopping the way the weather is that this will hold up, Maybe you can give me your input on the idea. But yeah the weather makes me unhappy.
I have all I need for this trip. Im bringing a couple polypro shirts, a nice hat, synthetic socks, frogtoggs, fleece top an bottom, synthetic top an bottoms, and I have an orange bandanna and an orange vest. What I do need though is a pair of gators wich I will rent from the oac cause I no u got some new ones……and ther nice.
Samantha Sutton
Well I didn’t really get to actually ride the mountain bikes because I got really sick and puked on the last day. But I felt the rest of the workshop was informational. I don’t really ride bikes very often, so he actually had useful information that I didn’t know. I didn’t mind working with the Canadian students, they seemed alright. Some of them didn’t really see the point of why they were even there because it’s not like they will be able to use the trail after they spend all that time helping build it. But yah…like I said before I kind of missed a lot from being sick. I saw their teaching techniques, but I didn’t actually get to be taught.
The weather is supposed to be really rainy and crappy, so I don’t really know what to comment about that. It’s going to probably be cold and wet, I would imagine. Well I’m going to bring the clothing that you listed us to bring. I’ll bring poly pro underwear, fleece pants and jacket, wool socks, waterproof breathable jacket, wind pants (there not water proof though), two orange things, and my hiking boots.
Well I expect this trip to be wet and cold, but other than that it should be good. I don’t really have any goals…I guess to make it, I am pretty out of shape now. I really let myself go over the past year. I hope I’ll perform alright, but who knows. I’m not really nervous at all. Well actually my boots aren’t broken in yet, but I’ve been wearing them every day since I bought them. I just don’t want to be the one who gets blisters, and has a miserable time. Well I have a rain jacket, and I’m kind of hoping that wind pants will cut it. I’ll most likely be wet and cold for this trip. What if I were to wear a garbage bag, that might keep me dry. Or put one over my pack so all my stuff doesn’t get wet. And well no I haven’t been training so we will see how it goes.
Dana Marble
Although I'm not into mountain biking, I learned a lot and enjoyed the workshop.
The NBCC students helped a lot, it's too bad they couldn't stay for the full three days.
The trail building itself went well, and a lot was accomplished.
I just down loaded the NOAA forcast, it looks like we'll have some pretty wet weather. It will be a challenge to stay warm and dry. It looks like EB will come into play and spirits mabe pretty low after a couple of days, I hope my rain gear doesn't leak.
As far as the clothing goes, I think the only peice that I won't bring is the fleece vest. The NOAA forcast indicates no real cold although we will be in the higher evelations.
Actually I'm not too nervous about the trip, after all we're all in the same boat and misery loves company.
Planning is everything and we all should have been planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
I have my equipment ready and my meals all planned out so lets do it.
The intro the first morning was really interesting he really knew what he was talking about and he made it easy to understand. One thing that I didn't know was that you don't use the left gear, but now I know. Working with the other students was okay I didn't really get to work with them but we all talked to each other and they shared some interesting things about their school and we shared ours they were really interested in our wall though even though they have one. Making the trail took some hard work and time but even though it rained it was definitely a hard but good trail. It was hard for me the first time working with the gears but doing the training with the gears in the room really helped a lot, timing it right and moving the bike around smoothly. Going uphill is a real challenge for me but going downhill was no problem except for the mud. Gear shifting came to me once we got on the trail. I had plenty of balance except when the rocks and roots knock my feet off the pedals, I had good weight distribution I know where to be on the seat. I have some warm items and the clothing that I will need are my raincoat and rain pant it said that it was going to rain all weekend. My personal goal is to loss weight on this trip and to make it though the trail all right. I don't know how I will perform but this will be a long hike for me I hope I will be able to work though it. I am most nervous about keeping up with everyone I don't want to slow everyone down. To keep warm I would just keep moving or put more layers on, to stay dry I have my rain gear. I have been walking long distances, wearing my hiking boots, but I haven't walked with my pack. I have no idea if I am prepared but I do have the items that I rally need.
The mountain biking workshop I think went really well. I really enjoyed watching the video on bill greens Maine, and watching Taylor ride his bike around the room shifting up and down almost continuously. Cliff really knew what he was talking about when he was talking about biking. I didn’t know that you really didn’t have to worry about the front sprockets. The nbcc students are really cool and they aren’t afraid of working. I had a really good time working with them and they are animals on the rock wall. They have a really good personality and aren’t shy. The way we built the trails was pretty cool we really didn’t cut down any trees and still made an awesome trail. By just pruning back some limbs and moving some brush it’s amazing what you can make for a nice single track trail. By zig zaging up the hill it makes the trail a lot longer and easier to ride up hill. If I was to do this first off alone I wouldn’t have even thought about it and I would have taken the trail and shot it straight up the hill through every tree possible. This has a good concept in mind of how to transfer your weight on different parts of the trail rounding corners or going up and down hill. Shifting while going uphill is also continuously important. If you weren’t able to shift while going up a hill like these you wouldn’t be able to peddle up it unless you were some macho man hunk guy. Topics in the workshop flowed very smoothly it wasn’t like we was being taught things that we really didn’t need to know yet but were being taught things in the order that we would need to apply them. I never even thought about how to make a bridge with gaps in the cross members to support a bike and I never thought that to get rid of rocks you could use a sledge hammer and shatter them. I learnt things in the trail building workshop that I can apply elsewhere.
The weather for this weekend doesn’t look very good at all. Rain is part of being outdoors and if going to be in the outdoors as a profession rain is something that has to be dealt with. If you have the correct gear and are well prepared than you will still get damp because yes it is going to be raining out but you won’t get soaked like you otherwise would if you had nothing to cover you up. As for the clothing that I actually have for poly pro long under wear tops and bottoms I have a pair that I am going to bring I have fleece pants and a fleece jacket. I will also be bringing my fleece vest with me. I am going to bring another fleece jacket for warmth and for layering along with a sweater and another pair of rain proof tops and bottoms. I will bring a couple pair or wool socks along with a type of liner that I can I have a fleece hat that I will have packed along with a pair of my gloves. My hiking boots aren’t going to be in my pack but they’re going to be on my feet. As for hunter orange clothing I’m going to take an orange towel that I have and wrap it on my bag to help support my sleeping bag and I will also cover it all with a garbage bag to make it all waterproof. As a menu for the trip I would like to bring a few things of ramen chicken and beef and I would also like to bring a can of chicken noodle soup even though I will have to carry in that extra weight and carry out the trash. It will be worth it to have one decent meal I would also like to bring some powered milk with me and a couple packs of instant breakfast. Packing into the final small spaces that I have left I would like to add in some beef jerky and some dehydrated food and throw a couple cliff bars and some gorp in there. One of my personal goals for the trip will be that I would like to get out in one piece and I would like to ration myself so that I’m positive that I will have enough food for it all and that I will also have enough fuel. I have been conditioning so I’m not worried about the energy that I’m going to use. I’m not really worried about getting tired.
I think that I would perform fairly well because I have been out getting in shape for it and have done a 3 night trip in the NMW with some of my friends last hunting season around this time and we walked through the woods aimlessly looking for partridge. We got dropped off one Thursday and got picked up that Sunday so we could go back to school that Monday. We wasn’t really worried about conserving fuel because we had a compact fire thing that we just built a fire in cooked our hunting’s and some of what we brought with us. The thing that I would be most nervous about on the trip is getting wet feet and not being able to get them dry. That is one of the most uncomfortable things in the world. And I’m also worried about running out of food or not being able to get it all into my pack. some strategies I would use to stay warm and dry would be that I would layer up with my wicking layer than I would put on my insulating layer followed by my shell layer witch I will make sure is waterproof I will hang this up at night so that it will hopefully dry under cover and I will bring a few trash bags to put some of my clothes and sleeping bag in I will also have one more bag to cover my pack with and keep the water out of it. I haven’t followed the training schedule exactly recently as I had the beginning but I had done some extra things In the beginning more that what the schedule said that I needed to just because I had nothing else to do during that time. As for the discussion that you had on Friday I can’t remember because I wasn’t there but yeah I would say that I was prepared the best I could be for this trip minus the food portion of it but that I’m still not 100% worried about.
Mountain Biking Workshop…
: The introduction on the first morning was good for what I was there for. I think Cliff was very insightful and very optimistic about what he does. The papers handed out at the beginning of class also helped me stay in check of where we were going to be and when we we’re going to meet.
: I honestly didn’t get time with the NBCC students. I saw them in class and that was all I personally saw of them.
: The trail design was kind of crazy. Not going in a start line kinda made the trail more difficult but at the same time more interesting for the hardcore mountain bike rider.
: The riding techniques were kinda different. I’ve never heard of riding a bike that way. Riding up a hill in the forward position was complicated cause I’m so used to standing and peddling. Just getting on the bike was a complication. I’ve never seen anyone in my life mount a bike the way he taught us, plus half the time he didn’t even mount the bike the way he instructed us to in the first place. Down hill riding I don’t want to get started on cause I’m just very uncomfortable with the whole situation. Balance everyone should have learned that the first time they got on a bike.
: I think the progression of the workshop went very well. It was very speedy and things went very smoothly.
AT Trail Trip…
: The weather report is terrible. Its raining all weekend long and its just a terrible. From tonight on to Sunday evening its raining.
: If I was going I would bring my sweaters made of wool, my boyfriends polypro shirt, my rain gear, A couple cotton t-shirts, wool socks, a pair of jeans, and my long johns. Which I probly wouldn’t even use that much cause we don’t change anyway.
: Theres no menu but you probly already figured that.
:To quit smoking which I’ve already done.
: Terribly cause I have a heart problem that no one thinks I have.
: dying.
: layers and a sleeping pad.
: I’ve attempted trainig.
: yup
That’s all I pretty much have to say.
I thought that the biking workshop was really cool. The first morning it was interesting to learn about how you should position the seat. I never knew that it should be parallel to the ground. I enjoyed making bike trails but I liked making trails in the woods better than in the field and I think we have too many turns in that field we should adjust that. I didn’t know that when riding up a hill you should sit down and lean forward I always stood up and that’s probably why I always struggled getting up a hill. I really enjoyed it and I hope that more people get interested in mountain biking and start using the trail. Hopefully this spring it will come to good use if it all don’t turn to mud that is.
So I checked out the weather and it looks like rain for this weekend. Not a big deal because at least it will be warmer out if it rains because it has been pretty cold out lately. I have all the right clothing for this trip and I am feeling pretty confident that I will be fine. I had to run to my house in Pembroke to bum some orange off my dad but other than that I had everything. I am looking forward to this trip but right now I just
wish I knew when we were leaving because I want to know if I need to go to bed early tonight. I love hiking and I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I think I will be fine on this trip as long as my right ankle doesn’t act up because sometimes it likes to act up on me but other than that I will be fine. I’m not nervous about this trip because we are doing something I enjoy unlike the sailing trip that I was dreading. I have been training for this trip but wish I could have done a lot more its just that some unexpected things came up this month for me and I have been really busy. I am defiantly prepared for this backpacking trip. I think we will have fun!
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