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Thursday, August 11, 2011

North Country Trail Conference- Day 1

Today's report will likely be of less interest to some of you, but it's a big part of my life. Every year I go to the annual conference of the North Country Trail Association. This year it's in Dayton, Ohio, and here's what I did today (after a 4 hour drive to get from where we were hiking).

NCTA board meeting

This is a meeting of the board of directors. I am currently not on the board, but am chairman of the Long Distance Hiking Committee, so I attended to give my report.

NPS award recipients

After that was the awards presentation from the National Park Service. Various awards are given for everything from 100 volunteer hours up to a new level of 10,000 hours. This is the group of people who received jackets for 2500 hours of volunteer service.

Memorial Hall

This was followed immediately by Dayton's famous Skyline Chili dinner served in the beautiful Memorial Hall. I did the picture on an odd angle to show the ornate walls and ceiling.

The evening program was by Andy Skurka, who is a rather famous adventurer. Most recently he did a solo circle-Alaska trek, and that's what his program was about. Perhaps I'll tell you more about him tomorrow.

I'm going to cut this short and not bore you with a lot of details, but these pictures should give you a flavor of the day. These conferences are very important to me because it's the time I get to see so many of my trail friends. I'm very proud to be a part of a group that works so hard to make this trail a reality.

Tomorrow- still at the conference, but more adventures and fewer meetings. OK... maybe more meetings too, but it will all be good.

See 8-8 Game for a picture from another conference

4 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

It looks like it might be an interesting thing to be a part of. I'm not one for meetings, but I might be able to sit through something like this for awhile. I hope you had a good time.

Ann said...

Wow 1000 hours of volunteer service. Those are some dedicated volunteers.
I like the angle you took that picture. That's some building.

RNSANE said...

I know how important an organization such as this is for you...sort of like my international forensic organization is for me. It is always wonderful to gather with others who love doing what you do, to cheer each other on and to share in the fun and accomplishments.

YooperTurtle said...

Joan,

Actually the pic of the group of us is for our 2500 volunteer hours and we received jackets.

Was surprised you had never met Andrew Skurka before. Glad you finally got the chance.

Lorana