Electronic Maps Training

Remember a couple of previous posts where Monica, Dan, Loren and I went to the woods to practice some mapping stuff? (link below for one of those). Today was the session we were planning for. Our North Country Trail chapter, Spirit of the Woods, held a training session on the NCT Interactive Map and also the Avenza app.

The time began at Elk Township Hall with a couple of hours of classroom time. We encouraged people to bring a computer or tablet so they could actually do the stuff we were talking about.

Then we had a wonderful lunch. The Chapter provided sloppy joes, and people brought side dishes to share. As is so often the case at events where I have big responsibilities I did a terrible job getting pictures. But trust me, the food was wonderful!

For the afternoon we broke into small groups and each went to a different trail location so that we didn't have 20 people all glommed up together in the woods. Dan, Loren, Monica and I each took a group. There each person practiced using the Avenza app to help understand where they were and how to find the trail if you lose it.

The final part of that was that each person had a turn at being "lost." That person was blindfolded and carefully led into the woods by another person.

Once far enough that they were completely out of sight of the trail, the blindfold is removed. Then that person used Avenza to find their way back to the trail. The idea was to build confidence. Everyone I've gotten feedback from so far has said that it helped them understand that they didn't need to panic, but that they did have the skills to find their way back to the trail. (The "leader" person had kept a track of their route, so if things went poorly, that person could lead them back, and final fallback was to call out, and the rest of the group still on the trail could holler back to guide them in)

How'd that go?

Here's that team, on their way back down the trail, easily finding it by following a few simple steps.

This took all day for me (and prep time over the past few weeks). I am rewarding myself by doing very little else for the rest of the day. Curled up with a book.

See This Way!