Guide School Day 2: Quiz, Coordination Games, Leader Presentations, and PREPARE

Last night we had our second 3-hour classroom session of guide school.

We started out with a nice quiz on our readings from our text book, Outdoor Leadership.  Everyone seemed like they performed pretty poorly.  I had read the PREPARE chapter and read most of the two leadership chapters, and I even struggled with some of the questions.  I think the point of the quiz was to get us to take our future homework assignments a bit more seriously.

Then we played a few coordination games in which we had to remember who we were throwing objects to and how we were catching object from, even when the ordering was mixed up.  It was an interesting, quick exercise that made us all work together.

Then we sat down for the leadership presentations, which really shouldn't have taken long.  The assignment was to prepare a 3 minute presentation on a leader or mentor - and you had to bring a visual aid.  I volunteered to go first.  I presented on Heather, who I see as a great role model.  I picked leadership aspects in Heather to match each letter of her name and spoke shortly about how she exemplifies each aspect.  H is for 'heart of a servant', as Heather puts others first.  E is for 'environmental', since Heather cares for the environment (I gave her Borrow Earth Responsibly motto as an example).  A is for 'all in', since Heather puts everything she has into whatever she is doing.  T is for trail-ready, since Heather took me on my first backpacking trip and happily showed me how to filter water on a later trip.  H is for 'hard worker', but I guess it also could have been for 'healthy'.  E is for 'enjoys life' as Heather always seems to be enjoying life to the fullest whether we are volunteering, relaxing, or hiking.  R is for 'real' because Heather is a real, authentic person and she inspires this in me when I'm around her.

My presentation went well, despite the fact that I spent very little time preparing.  I passed around a picture of Heather, JT, and I backpacking at Lost Maples and wrote the letters of her name on the whiteboard.  The positive comments I received where: my talk was energetic and articulate, my passion showed through as well as the effect she has had on me, and they liked the acronym.  The constructive criticism comments I received were: I could have included more stories and I seemed a bit nervous.

Atleast half of the rest of the group went over time, with multiple people taking more than double the allocated 3 minutes.  Overall the presentations were interesting though, and some of them really helped us get to know our fellow guide school members.  A few people really opened up through the presentation, which was great to see.

For the last hour or so we discussed PREPARE, how to plan a trip, and how to conduct a pre-trip meeting.  P is for participants (who is on your trip?  what are their abilities and experience?), R is for resources (gear, budgets), E is for equipment (inform participants of what to wear, what types of group gear, personal gear, kitchen gear, and technical gear are needed?), P is for plan (itinerary and time control), A is for access (how is proper access obtained?), R is for rationing (menu, food buy, food pack), and E is for emergency plan (what are the protocols?).

At the end, we were broken up into four groups.  These four groups will present their pre-trip talks and trip plans for a weekend trip that they design in the next classroom session.  I'll be in Peru though, so I'll be missing out on this exercise.

We also received three types of rope at the end of the session.  We have 8 knots that we are supposed to learn: water knot, bowline, figure 8 follow through, figure 8 on a bite, normal figure 8, double fisherman's, prussik hitch, and trucker hitch.  I started working on four of the knots today, and found that it is actually pretty fun!  Animated Knots is really great for learning knots.

Leave No Trace - Online Awareness Course

As part of guide school, I was required to take the Leave No Trace online awareness course.  It was interesting - I would recommend it to anyone who uses public lands, whether it is for day-hiking, backpacking, fishing, rock climbing, dog walking, or some other activity.

The seven principles of Leave No Trace, as well as some highlights, are:

1. Plan ahead and prepare: know the regulations of the area you are visiting and carry a map, compass, adequate water, and appropriate gear for the location and season
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces: walk in the center of the trail when official trails exist (even if this means walking through mud), camp in official camp areas when they exist, camp on durable surfaces away from the trail in the backcountry, walk in dispersed and small groups on durable surfaces in the backcountry, avoid areas beginning to show impact
3. Dispose of waste properly: either dig a 6-inch or deeper hole at least 200-ft away from water, camp, and trails to bury excrement or collect and carry it out (this includes dog excrement!), carry-out all food waste including apple cores and banana peels
4. Leave what you find: do not collect stones, shells, flowers, ect, do not carve into trees, do not move natural elements to build furniture
5. Minimize campfire impacts: use a lightweight stove if possible, but create a small, controlled fire if you must have a fire (and be sure to burn it completely ashes and put it out completely before bed and then scatter the cool ashes before leaving)
6. Respect wildlife: Do not disturb wildlife, never feed wildlife, avoid interactions with wildlife (hang food, trash, toiletries in trees)
7. Be considerate of other visitors: take breaks off of the trail on durable surfaces, keep noise/talking to a minimum

Although I'd heard of the Leave No Trace initiative before, I did not know its seven principles.  As such, I also didn't realize that I was unknowingly breaking a few of them: walking around muddy areas, collecting shells at the beach, moving rocks to sit on, and not always taking breaks far enough away from the trail.  It might be nice if the National Park Service had their Leave No Trace video available for viewing at their visitor centers.

Guide School Day 1: Team-building, goal-setting, and schedule

Last night we had our first 3-hour classroom session of guide school.

We started by playing multiple team-building games to familiarize ourselves with each other.  These exercises included introductions, games to remember names, a rope game where we had to remove knots without moving our hands (this resulted in most of the group having to move their bodies through one of two rope holes), and a rope game where the group had to come to a consensus on which of six rope circles connected all rope circles.

Next we discussed the four core character traits that are important for guides.  The first is Initiative, which is the defined as identifying and completing tasks before being asked to do so.  The second is Humility, which is defined as understanding that my success is the result of investment of others in my life.  The third is Creativity, which is defined as identifying new solutions to old problems.  The fourth is Loyalty, which is defined as using difficult times to demonstrate your commitment to others.

Then we discussed the schedule of guide school.  We have two more 3-hour classroom sessions - one on 11/20 that will cover Leave No Trace and trip planning and one on 12/4 that will cover group equipment, personal equipment, and how to lead a pre-trip meeting.  Then on 12/17 we will meet from 6pm-10pm to conduct a small food-buy, learn about the vehicles, and do final trip preparation for the San Marcos River Trip.  On 12/18 and 12/19 we will be doing field training on the San Marcos river.  We will learn canoeing basics and go through swift water rescue training, as well as learn about how to set-up camp and cook in the back-country.  On 1/3 we will meet from 1pm-7pm to conduct a massive food-buy, pack and load all our personal and group gear, and assign leaders for the different days of our Big Bend Trip.  We leave early on 1/4 for Big Bend National Park, where we will go on a five day canoeing trip, explore Joel's Canyon (including repelling!), complete a service project, and potentially go on a day hike to Emory Peak.  On 1/11 we arrive back in Austin.

Next, we completed a few more team building exercises.  We split into two groups and first competed to build an implement using tubing to move a small object from the starting point to a target without any of the team members moving outside of a marked area.  Next we competed to build the highest tower that could hold a text book.  My team won both competitions. :)  After each task, we were asked to consider how communication played a role in how our team functioned.

Then we all discussed what we hope to get out of guide school.  For me, it is multifaceted.  I want to gain confidence and self-sufficiency in outdoor environments.  I want to challenge myself.  I also want to push myself outside of my comfort zone socially, as I'm having to work with, trust, and spend a lot of time with people that I've just met.  I had the opportunity to do this on the surfing trip, and felt like I really grew in just one weekend.  I look forward to seeing how much I grow over the course of guide school.  And of course, I'm looking forward to gaining the experience I need to lead trips for UT - it would be great to be able to share nature with others and get paid to go on awesome trips.

Regarding what the group as a whole wants to get out of guide school, we eventually agreed upon "Experience, Fun, Respect, Confidence, Skills".  There seems to be a reasonably large portion of the group that is focused on fun and relaxation, which I'm all for.  But I'm also hoping to get a deeper impact from guide school, and I hope most of the group is aiming for as well.

Finally, these group goals were written on a wrapped package (it seems to be a massive book) and we did one final team building exercise.  We made a massive tower to support the package.  The tower ended up being taller than any of us.

For next class we have to complete Leave No Trace online training, read a few chapters of our textbook (Outdoor Leadership), and prepare a 3-min presentation on our favorite leader or mentor.

Overall, I think we have a pretty solid group for guide school.  About half of the group seems to already work for RecSports in some capacity, so they already know each other.  However, we'll all know each other rather well pretty soon, so we should become one big, cohesive group.  The people in guide school are from pretty broad areas study-wise, from a research scientist (Manuel) to a freshman studying engineering (Zach, I think) to a master's student in advertising who wants to work on advertising for non-profits (Hannah).  I'm pretty uncertain what everyone's outdoor experience is, but I'm assuming many are about like me.  We did take a survey, and everyone has canoed before but only about half of us have actually ran rapids before.

I'm excited to see where guide school takes me!

Guide School Acceptance

I received news yesterday that I was accepted to the University of Texas RecSports guide school along with 11 others.  I'll learn outdoor leadership skills, including most of the skills needed to become an outdoor guide for future UT trips.

I've been on two previous UT RecSports trips - a kayaking trip to Madagorda Island in Fall 2012 and a surfing trip to Padre Island National Seashore a few months ago.  Both were excellent, and I'm looking forward to hopefully leading many exciting trips in the future.

Guide school will consist of some classroom sessions, 2 days of swift water rescue training, and then an 8-day trip to Big Bend National Park.

My plan is to post details of Guide School, and subsequent trips, on this blog.  As has been seen through my travel blogging, blogging is a great way for me to process and remember great life experiences.