From: Carol Anderson (carol67530@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Dec 18 2002 - 19:39:39 CST
While hiking early in the predawn hours has both its
pros and cons PLEASE make sure none of your crew
requires medicine first thing in the morning. Many
meds require at least some food to be taken with them.
If meds are required make arrangements for something
to eat as well (a power bar is often enough and can be
eaten with little fuss.
Don't even start on the "over protective mother" line.
The case with my second son (an Eagle scout) is that
med is required first thing in the morning. Without
the medication he is "spacy" enough that he is
actually a hazard to himself and the rest of his crew.
Luckily when the ranger on the mountain man trek
insisted the crew hike for an hour or 2 before
breakfast my older son, (also an Eagle scout)was there
to help the younger get something to eat and take his
med. The ranger never understood. (My second son has
ADD, but is as "normal" as ever WITH medication. The
ranger even asked us (we were at the training center)
upon return to base camp if eating was really required
with the medication. When assured it was truly was
necessary (to prevent nausea) and let my son funtion
he shook his head, said he had never heard of such a
thing and walked away.
I'm not saying all rangers would behave this way (or
advisors either) however...
BJ is very responsible about taking his medication and
has truly overcome many hurtles to function in a main
stream world. He has had has his Eagle, the religious
emblem of his faith, 2 palms so far.
Please make sure this is something you consider (and
help the crew leader) consider when making plans.
Carol
Great Bend, KS
--- Chris Summers <chrisinhouston@kingwoodcable.com>
wrote:
> I only remember hiking one time in what I would
> consider night, or pre dawn.
> We left Uracca Mesa and had wanted to get to the
> Stockade so that the
> majority of the crew could go up to the summit of
> the TOT and back down and
> we could make it back to base camp for lunch. My
> co-advisor had been a
> Ranger and Rayado Ranger and in 1996 I dont recall
> it being as big a taboo
> as it is now, but we felt confident with our mostly
> 16-18 year old crew and
> our experienced advisors and the fact we had been on
> the trail for 9 days.
> We rose at 4am and were on the trail hiking under a
> full moon so it we had
> pretty good conditions. It was beautiful to see
> everything in that early
> daylight and we did fine and made lunch at base
> camp.
>
> I encourage everyone to follow the rules but every
> crew I have advised for
> has been in agreement that we get up and break camp
> about 30-45 minutes
> before sunrise. We break camp and hit the trail as
> the sun is cresting the
> horizon and hike for about an hour and then as we
> take a packs off break we
> find a sunny spot (often with a view) and eat
> breakfast. We train hard to be
> LNT and we are very careful about avoiding spills,
> etc at all meals no
> matter if in camp or on the trail. I believe the
> advantage to getting a
> start right at sunrise is that you get a mile or 2
> under your belt before
> eating (not usually a big deal, hunger wise), you
> often see things you might
> miss, you take a packs off break and eat at the same
> time which kills 2
> birds as they say, campsites are sometimes in the
> forest and rather cold and
> damp in the early morning for dining, you get to
> your next camp by lunchtime
> hopefully and avoid the afternoon rain.
>
> As I recollect we never forgot any gear in a camp by
> leaving at dawn. We
> trained for this and we could be on the trail in 30
> minutes from the first
> call to wakeup. It became a game to see if we could
> improve our time. Set
> high expectations and train for them.
>
> As I recall several years ago when I was given this
> information, the number
> one thing that got people into the base camp
> infirmary was dehydration. The
> second one was sprains and foot injuries. Common
> sense says you should take
> good care of your feet and walking in the dark on an
> unknown trail can
> significantly increase your chance of having a
> serious injury.
>
> YOF
> Chris in Houston
>
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