Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the orientation for the participants of the 2013 CHS group. It was a lively group, with lots of conversation happening in the breakfast/lunch break portions of the day. Participants also asked lots of great questions of our presenters. The carpooling arrangements went a lot smoother this year. Which was good, because a lot of the parking areas were covered in quite a bit of snow, making parking a bit difficult for low clearance vehicles. It was nice to have cut down on about 20 extra vehicles if carpooling folks had come separately. Volunteers Francis Rondestvedt and Craig Illman directed cars to the right place to park.
Recent snowfall was evident at the Cedar River Education Center, which got around 8 inches of snow on Friday. It fell off the Center's roofs in great loud clumps as the sun warmed up the snowpack.
We also had a new presentation on Stretching from 2012 graduate (and current year participant!) Lindsey Mcleod. Participants learned about the benefits of stretching along with the usual presentations on Leave No Trace (Sarah Krueger) , WTA (Alan Mortimer), and Conditioning for Hiking (Ed Kula). I talked about the CHS Way complete with scenarios of a naughty hiker who looked a lot like Steve Payne. Matt Cleman ended the day with his stirring recitation of Robert Service's poem, The Call of the Wild.
Here's a picture from the day. If you haven't been to the Education Center before, it's really a great place to hold our event. It has a large kitchen, which was staffed by CHS volunteers, Debbie Doutlick, Laura Winger, Jackie Kiser, and Debbie Graham. They put out a lovely spread of endless coffee and food and snacks brought by participants.
The day ended with the round table discussions: Map and Compass Basics led by Bill Schecket and Hyla Dickinson; Nutrition and Hydration led by Arin Cole, and What to Bring in Your Pack, Clothing, and Footwear led by Matt Cleman.
Our pacing hikes for the afternoon were led by Anne Ward-Ryan, Jennifer Lekisch and Steven Fogg, Lynne Dial and Stacey Lissit, and myself. Our pacing hikes had to be a bit curtailed as it was difficult to get to some trails due to snow. The group that I led up to Cedar Butte learned all about the benefits of Yaktraks and other traction devices on steep trail covered in snow. We did have awesome views though and the sun and warmer temperatures were melting the snow as we walked under the trees, dropping it on our heads and down our shirts!
Other volunteers helped out as needed including Courtney Caryl, Jan Stephens, Leigh During, Lynne Dial and Jennifer Lekisch. I'm sure I've forgotten somebody. It was so great that there were so many folks there to help out!
And of course CHS Administrator Steve Payne coordinated everything and kept all us doing what we were supposed to be doing. He did so much that I can't mention it all here. Many thanks to Steve for making the day a great success.
CHS 2013 has officially started and I am certainly looking forward to another fun-filled year. I hope you are too! Let's get hiking!
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