Little Rock Pond with Buster

A few days ago I signed up for a Wilderness First Responder(WRF) course. Once completed, I will be WFR certified. Now some of you may be wondering why I'm going to be spending my hard earned Peace Corps readjustment allowance on 10 intensive days of WFR training. The answer is to be a professional environmental educator who leads kids in the woods on a regular basis, this certification is pretty much standard. Also people won't take you very seriously if you don't invest your time and money into this course. So I signed up and received some pre course information. Within this pre-course information it was stated that you should be able to carry a quarter of your body weight, over rough terrain, in the day or night, 4 miles in 4 hours. I realize that 4 miles in 4 hours is not difficult, and defiantly something that I can do. But if this 4 miles is straight up a mountain, I could do it, but I would be very uncomfortable. So my goal for the next month is to get in shape so that carrying a quarter of my weight 4 miles isn't that big a deal. I also don't want to be the last one of the bunch dragging ass up the mountain with everyone else already done.

I figured that I'd start the day after I found this out. So I found an easy hike, 4 miles in fact and put weight in my pack to equal a quarter of my body weight. As I was preparing the night before, my mom suggested that I take our dog Buster. I woke up the next morning and I put everything in the car, including dog stuff. I located the trail head on the map and was off! With my trusty dog beside me, I was ready for a hike. I got a little mixed up getting there, believe it or not random dirt roads aren't marked very well by their forest road numbers. We finally arrived and it looked like it was going to rain any second. But I wasn't going to turn back. If it had poured and it was just me I would have gone, but I couldn't see taking my little boston terrier on a 4 mile hike through the rain. I figured that I would go as far I could until it started to rain and then turn around so that my dog didn't get too cold.

I did end up making it to the pond and back again without it raining in under 3 hours, this included stopping at the shelter out of curiosity and then going down the pond to eat my lunch. I only met 5 other hikers on a relatively nice day on a trail that's heavily used. I figured that this was pretty good. Overall I thought while hiking that this is really a good fit for me, leading kids into the woods. With my backpack on, and my dog walking through the woods I felt like I belonged. It was good to get back and remember why I love the woods so much.

Other hikes on my list: white rocks, okemo, baker peak, killington, and along the Long Trail.