Robert's Moments of Doubt

When just planning a trip (of any size), there are issues that have to be overcome. In actual execution, there are even more hurdles that have to be cleared, in order to reach the top. What pushes you past the obstacles is your desire to achieve.

David Roberts was committed to his expeditions, perhaps to a fault. In Moments of Doubt, he said,

"Never in my life have I found myself so committed to any project. I daydreamed recipes for Logan bread and the number of ounces a certain piton weighed; at night I fell asleep with the seductive promises of belay ledges and crack systems whispering in my ear" (December, 1980, pg 183).

Although it required compromise, ultimately, hiking Whiteface is something that everybody wants to do. We have committed ourselves to that plan of action. Just as Roberts dreamed Logan bread and pitons, we are dreaming about penny stoves and rain gear (which will hopefully just be precautionary). This drive will push us past the hiccups that occur along the way, ultimately leading to our successful completion of our adventure.

Quinn's Essence of Adventure

It is important to relate our upcoming expedition to material we cover that relates to us, and our ultimate goals in our adventure. It is clear that any hike possesses some risk for us, especially as a group that has known each other for maybe a month. We all come from different backgrounds, and each have different skills we must utilize in order to be successful.

This brings us to William Quinn, who states that, "it is a process which begins in the acceptance of a situation where one knows one will need to call upon one's own supposed talents and spontaneously, irrevocably, act upon them" (1989-90).

This is by no means an insult to anyone in this expedition. Quinn's article does a good job in capturing how the 'Essence of Adventure' is defined. It is important to remember, as stated earlier, that each individual in our group is completely different. Each of us attended a different school, in a different town, and it makes us who we are as individuals. This gives each of us different skills, strengths, and weaknesses. The trip is too close to test out these abilities. We must rely on the word of mouth of what others excel in, and hope that no danger (knock on wood) will strike us during our trip up Whiteface. If it does happen, we must rely on each others individual strengths in our time of need to safely, efficiently, and cooperatively reach the summit.

References

Quinn, W. (1989-1990). The Essence of Adventure. Journal of Outdoor Education, v24 p22-25.

Trip Plan

·      We plan to hike Mt. Whiteface because it was recommended to us as an interesting and fun hike. It will push us to achieve a higher level of experience in hiking than most of us have previously had. Our hike will fit with our definition of adventure because we will be working as a group in order to achieve a common goal; we will be working together physically and emotionally in order to summit the mountain and complete our adventure.

·       We want to learn to communicate effectively in order to achieve a common goal; furthermore we want to get to know each other through our hike so that we can enjoy our year on the fifth floor together. We also want to learn more about an area and activity that some of us have not participated in or not pursued at the level of intensity as we are planning.

·      We need to work together by having regular meetings and giving each group member an equal voice in decisions; we should also use everybody’s different experiences and strengths to our advantage. It will also be beneficial if we continuously support each other so everyone can succeed.

·      Meghan and Emily—plan the food

·      Ruby—secretary/note taker

·      Erin—treasurer/budgeter, leave no trace expert

·      James and Ryan—map/trip route

·      Jen—packing list extraordinaire

·      Jared—medical/first aid kit carrier

pawtuckaway and whiteface

I know we were talking about going to Puwtuckaway and hiking Whiteface. So instead of doing work for other classes, I looked stuff up. This is what I found:

This is the url for pawtuckaway. The campsite is open until October 30th, like Meghan said. The site said that they only take reservations up through the end of August. If somebody calls and tells them that we have a large group interested, we might be able to get around that. Each site holds a max of 6 people, so we'd need two. The site fee is $30-32 per night, but that only covers 2 adults and 4 kids. It's $10 for each additional adult, so it'd be an extra $40. So to stay the night it would be between $100-104. There are canoe rentals there, but I can't find pricing online. The phone number is (603)895-3031.

Whiteface is in Grafton County, about 2 hours away. It's 4020 ft high. The route suggested by the AMC is 11 miles round trip (see it here). I think that's a little ambitious to do in one day, if we have to drive up that day. Unless people are willing to leave really early, like 8 at the latest. Another site says that it takes about 7.5 hours to complete (here). Does anybody remember the name of that place that Jayson was talking about today? Because I have no idea what it was called. I just emailed him to find out. I also asked about trailmaps, because we might be able to stay in a shelter on the mountain for a night (I have no idea if there is actually one there, but a trail map would tell us). That's all I have for now.

-erin

Meeting Notes 9/14/2010

9/14/10

Attendance: Jared, Jen, Megan, Ryan, Erin, Ruby, James, Emily

·      Date of expedition: October 23^rd; Backup: October 30^th  

·      Decided to hike Mt. Tecumseh, the lowest of NH’s 4000 footers

·      Our definition of adventure is doing something that none of us has ever done before but that we all have a desire to do. We may not be pushing our limits individually but as a group we must work together to communicate effectively in order to successfully complete our hike.

·      Ground rules

o   All decisions must be a ¾ majority

o   No complaints

o   No person left behind

o   Be off the mountain before dark

o   Every group member must contribute an equal amount of work

·      We need to come up with a packing list/who’s bringing what

Definition Of Adventure

 Our definition of adventure is doing something that none of us has ever done before (hiked Tecumseh/a NH 4000 footer) but that we all have a desire to do. We may not be pushing our limits individually but as a group we must work together to communicate effectively in order to successfully complete our hike.