SAT., SUN., & MON. LABOR DAY WEEKEND
SEPT. 3, 4, & 5
BOY SCOUT EAGLE PROJECT TO PARTIALLY ENCLOSE BYRDS NEST
ORMS ON THE MOUNTAIN FOR JUST LABOR DAY WEEKEND
I was told this was a Fishing Spider which I assume made its way to the Contact Station from the nearby Hughes River. It is hard to tell from the picture but you would need a circle of about six inch diameter to encompass all the tips of his legs. A very impressive spider.
On the days when it is on the mountain ORMS tries to get in at least around 2 hours of training. In this picture we are reviewing spinal stabilization techniques.
The following picture is of a fairly impressive Jack-O-Lantern fungi. These sometimes have a faint phosphoresence.
For his Eagle Project, Kevin of Boy Scout Troop 366 worked with SNP to enclose Byrds Nest Shelter for the purpose of holding rescue response equipment. When there is a non-ambulatory injury on the mountain a substantial amount of the response time to that injury can involve just getting the 15-20 people and all the necessary response equipment to the patient. Having required equipment cached high on the mountain allows for a much better response time. This new resource will also allow volunteers to engage in higher quality training high on the mountain where they can quickly respond to requests for help.
While the quality of Old Rag emergency response is being improved keep in mind, Old Rag is still backcountry! If you had a heart attack in your office you would not expect a specialized cardiac response team to jump out of a nearby closet complete with crash cart (well some might but come on really folks......) While on Old Rag you should keep in mind that you are probably hours from help and 10-15 plus hours from being able to be loaded on an ambulance. If you engage in your trip during a bad storm these times could be extended to over a day and in a blizzard possibly days.
Lots and lots of folks helped the Kevin on this weekend. SNP employees donated volunteer time, ORMS volunteers donated time, and passing hikers spontaneously volunteered time. One of the biggest tasks involved the logistics of moving all the lumber from Old Rag Shelter to Byrds Nest Shelter.
The following picture shows me alongside some of the hikers who had spontaneously volunteered to carry up wood.
ORMS volunteers training on patient assessment skills while the Scouts and volunteers work away on construction in the background.
For any of those of you who have ever built "structures" the sound of a hammer being used to nail up some framing may trigger memories of that purposeful and useful work.
False Foxglove one of the seasons pretty wild flowers. If you like wildflowers let this be a teaser to check out Silver Spring Wanderer's blog. I have a link to her blog over in the right channel of my blog.
Still lots of interior work to be done but by Monday morning the rough framing was done and the exterior walls were up.
Monday and the weather was RAINY but fun in its own way. ORMS trained more on patient assessment and flora identification.
For those with wilderness response training, think AMPLE, ABCDE, CRM, OPQRST, AVPU......
One of the pleasures of a hard rain is being able to experience the patter of falling rain and all the bubbling gurgling of miniature cascades.
No comments:
Post a Comment