Outdoor confidence

[Blukanu]

A few years ago a casual acquaintance asked me about doing a BWCA trip because he knew I was into canoe camping. I started asking questions about his plan and it was obvious he didn’t have one. The more I asked it was apparent he really had no clue what he was doing. He wasn’t a regular camper nor a paddler. I left him with suggestions on local areas he could get his feet wet if he’s serious about wilderness canoe camping. Not sure if he ever followed through.

This makes me wonder how many people attempt some sort of big trip like this and get totally in over their head? Not talking about learning curves like packing an extra meal or something. Talking about cutting a trip short because they completely over estimated their abilities.

 

[Chip]

A friend took a trip on Georgian Bay and cut it short because the guy was totally inept. Guy couldn’t paddle and had no camping skills.

I started a trip on the Machias and bailed halfway through. I was paddling with a friend I had paddled with before in less challenging waters. We planned a route through a rapid where we needed to catch an eddy and she actively paddled away from the eddyline. “I don’t like to turn in current,” she explained. She wouldn't paddle stern. So I told her, okay, you’re in front, just decide where you want the boat to go and start paddling for it, get the bow there, and I’ll make the stern follow. She agreed. A bit later we were heading for a mid river outcropping and I was waiting for her to go left or right. Either would have worked, but we smacked the rock dead center. Asked what happened, she explained she couldn’t see it. We survived the day and camped.

I was thinking we were in trouble. She wouldn’t take commands from the stern and couldn’t see to avoid large obstacles. Then it rained overnight. Next morning, she wouldn’t come out of the tent because her tent leaked and she was wet and cold. She told me all she brought to wear was jeans and cotton sweat shirts which were wet. Rain was in the forecast. The day’s paddling plan included some Class IIIs. Trip over. We were near a road. I paid a guy to drive me back to my truck and returned to pack up our gear.

In retrospect, I think there were some mental problems playing out that manifested as passive aggressive behavior. Years earlier, the brother of the woman had told me he’d never again paddle in the same boat with her. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I’ve never paddled with her since that aborted trip on the Machias.

 

[Modified Ottertail]

Maybe the title of the thread should be "Outdoor Incompetence."

 

[ppine]

There is an old adage that says "Big expeditions are conducted by only two kinds of people, the experienced that know exactly what they are getting into, and the inexperienced who really have no idea."

Some people have plenty of confidence, bravado even, but they can't back it up. Real confidence comes from experience. As a trip leader you have to learn to tell the difference.

Last year, we ran the Klamath River in northern CA in snowmelt. My brother and I brought our drift boats. After a big snow year, the river was big and pushy. We are both in our 70s and had trouble rising to the demands of such a trip. We got off the river after 2 days instead of the 4 we planned on. We could have handled the trip okay 20 years ago. We had the experience to realize something bad could happen. I dipped a rail and half filled my boat in a little side channel. There was so much current, all of the little mistakes were really magnified.

Put your ego aside and consider the safety and morale of your trip members, especially the weaker ones.

 

[Alan Gage]

I'd guess almost all of us started off by getting in over our heads and biting off more than we could chew.

Some people get discouraged and some people use that as a platform to learn more and improve.

The BWCA seems like a good place to start for a newbie.

Alan

 

[yknpdlr]

For many years I was an instructor for an 8-day BSA trek leader guide certification training program. Before coming to the course, prospective students (typically of college age) were given a questionnaire about their perceived abilities and experience. The natural tendency is to exaggerate self-worth, which was well proven out when some began the training. One particularly bad year we had a 50% failure rate out of 25 students. Fail the training and they get offered no summer guide job at a BSA resident camp. Maybe they can teach the Indian Lore or basket weaving merit badge instead. While there are certain stated guidelines for passing, among the instructors in our own minds, our primary justifiable criteria was: "Would we trust this person to safely take our own child into the wilderness for a week and return unhurt and having had a good outdoor experience?”. If not, then they got a thumbs down with a detailed debriefing of why and an offer to return when more ready.

I have been canoeing and wilderness backpacking/camping since I was in my teens (during my Boy Scout days). Later I did my own high adventure mainly Adirondack backcountry trips. I started canoe racing the Adirondack 90-miler with colleagues from work when I was 46 years old. Eleven years later in the fall of that year I was invited to race as bow paddler in the 440 mile Yukon River Quest for the first time in a 7 -seat 34’ voyageur canoe. Our “Captain” and canoe owner required every paddler to train, either with the team or separately, or on a paddling machine during winter for the equivalent of 500 paddling miles before traveling to the Yukon River nine months later. The next year we returned to race in the first ever Yukon 1000-mile race, followed two years later by another Y1K, then three more 440-mile YRQ races. Each took considerable dedication and experience with more training to be successful and to finish at or near the front of the race pack.

Separately, I have taught land navigation for my state homeland security and emergency services agency for several years. Students were from law enforcement and other state and local professional emergency agencies. A number of students in each course said they had previous military experience. But when asked, many of them said they understood land navigation but "were a little rusty on procedures". Code words for "I never understood and still don't know how to effectively do it". But we do get them through the training one way or another. It is not a fail type of course.

 

[yknpdlr]

I'd guess almost all of us started off by getting in over our heads and biting off more than we could chew.

Everyone knows the old adage of "how do you eat an elephant? - You do it one bite at a time. Approach high adventure or difficult activities the same way. Just make it to crest the next hill, or the next bend in the river, then look for the next one just ahead and do the same.

 

[Keeled Over]

It's been a LONG time since I read it, but in Canoeing With the Cree, weren't both youngsters best described as greenhorns (noobs to the younger set) but somehow, they made it.