Posts Tagged ‘Patrick Boas’

Broathalon

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

It seemed like it was going to be a typical lazy Super Bowl Sunday for the Wilderness Adventure Staff.

Realizing that most people were setting up for their parties, probably out fighting the crowds at the grocery stores trying to grab some chips & salsa and a couple 2-liter bottles of soda, we had hopes of accomplishing something more adventurous.

Being it was one of the nicest days we had seen in a couple months, and not wanting to do the typical bike ride at Carvin’s Cove, we invented what is known currently as the BROathlon. A BROathlon consisted of 4 of our male staff members (Eric, Anthony, Chris and Patrick) spending 4-5 hours trekking the New Castle countryside on;

1) a 7 mile bike loop around Fenwick Park back to Base Camp,
2) a 1.5 mile run to the 2nd ford creek crossing and then
3) a 3 mile paddle down Craig’s Creek in our open cockpit white water kayaks back to Base Camp.

All started out well, we planned out the trip in the Administration building, drawing a rough map that we would follow, as well as deciding what prep work we would need to set up before we hit the trail. We decided that we should drop off the boats, pfd’s and paddles at the second ford before we did anything else so they would be ready for us when we arrived after our jog. Then headed back to camp to get our bikes ready for the loop. It took a good 30 minutes to get set up and be on our bikes on the camp road headed to Fenwick Mines. Our start was time 2:15pm with a goal of finishing the event in 3 hours.

A factor we did not put into our estimated time was the pack of camp dogs, Rocky, Jackson and Charlie. They must have been looking for something to do this Sunday as well, and it seemed as if they decided that a Dogathlon was a great idea. Hoping we could out ride the dogs we started to pedal faster, even the littlest of dogs (Charlie) picked up his pace and followed us all the way to the 615/611 intersections. A little frustrated we decided that we needed to head back to camp and chain them up before we hit the road again. New start time: 2:45.

We completed the loop successfully the second time around in about an hour, put our bikes away and started our 1.5 mile run to the second ford. Again the dogs started to follow us; luckily they were distracted by some of the stray rabbits on the property. We reached the house in about 20 mins, grabbed a quit bite to eat (pb&J) and then grabbed our boats and carried them down to the 2nd ford.

Though it was a beautiful day outside the water was still extremely cold, flipping your boat and or dragging our boats through shallow areas would be a horrible idea. Along the way we found some ice formations that had drained off of the ridge and froze before getting to the creek.

Not something you want to see as you are sitting in an open kayak with shorts and t-shirts on. Though it was a long paddle on flat water, it turned out to be a very peaceful paddle, soaking up some sun and remembering warmer days where we found ourselves on this creek almost every week. The creek looped around and we found ourselves pulling the boats out at Base Camp in less than 2 hours, finishing our BROathlon in roughly 4.5 hours. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon and we have hopes of setting out on one that would include more of our staff, meaning we might have to change the name from BRO to BRO/GALathlon.

Un-till next time…….

Patrick R Boas
XOXOxxOxoOx

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Wilderness People in an Urban Setting…

Friday, October 31st, 2008

A few years ago Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing received a phone call from Washington, DC. They were in need of our services.

OK, so it wasn’t actually the Capital or President but it was the Society for Science and the Public, which hosts a program (sponsored by the Discovery Channel) for some of the smartest kids in the United States.

We now help them out each year and we always look forward to it.

For the past year roughly 2000 middle school students had been creating science experiments and projects and this was the culmination of their efforts. They were competing for $40,000 in scholarships. These 2000 students were about to be narrowed down to 30 finalists who would move on to the final round of judging.

So…where does Wilderness Adventure come in? What does a summer adventure camp have to do with a science fair?

The job of our retreat center staff Patrick, Julia, Dan, Sarah, and Chris was to prepare the students for their final round of the competition. During the final round students would be working together in teams of 6 on their final project/assignment.

Most of these kids prefer to work alone, completing the projects, and taking all the credit. Working together was going to be a tough task. With dodge balls in hand our staff entered some of the nicest conference rooms they’d ever seen and tackled their hardest obstacle – kids that only like to study. After three hours it was declared “mission accomplished”. And as the parents entered the room they found that their reserved, studious children had transformed into crazy, sweaty kids that were working together.

What did we do? We started off with some large group de-inhibitors and team building initiatives to break down barriers and comfort zones…basically the plan was to get them laughing and to open up.

Next we broke them into their groups of 6 and put them through a series of activities that would be useful for them in their final stage. In the end we had an initiative that stumped most at first, but once the code was cracked they moved quickly to finish their task. Overall they looked exhausted, yet ready for the next couple days of their competition.

Our work was done, and greatly appreciated by the staff of the convention. After a quick breakfast the next morning we handed out some summer camp information to our new friends, hopped in the minivan, and headed back to the beautiful mountains of Craig County.

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Snowshoe MTBP

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

6:00 am.

My alarm goes off and I am once again upset that morning came so early. I can’t really complain too much, I am going to Snowshoe for gosh sakes! Well a half an hour later I am at the staff house meeting Jake and Patrick. Another half hour later we have left WA and are on the road. We get to Snowshoe around 10:00am ready for some H-Core biking action!

The Day could not be much better. We have a perfect temp around 58-60, the sun is out and I get to do some biking with 5 of my very close friends. The crew is, “Me” Dan, Jake, Ruckus, Anthony, Chris, and Steve.

We start the day with a great run, and warm up on the basin side with a trip down M, and N. We are all feeling great, Chris got his first taste of freeride and I think he liked it! After the first Run we hit the drop park for around 30 min getting ready for some airtime in the Western territory. We drop in on the sport Corse. A short but rocky trail with tight trees and some steep drop off camber spots near the end. We then make our way down to Ninja Bob, which is a fast east coast style type of trail. Lots of red clay rock drops and trees to avoid.

Next we get to Ball Jack and the beginning of Missing Link “The New Trail”. It was SICK to say the least. It was fast, flowy, and has Berms and tables and jumps sprinkled in everywhere. When you make it to the bottom you are tired, pumped, out of breath and psyched for another run.

The last section of the journey to the bottom of the mountain is a trail called Powerline. Now powerline in a trail you can ride as a novice or pro and anywhere in between. A great place to work on getting some air or just cleaning a berm at full speed. It is fast and full of tabletop’s, big berms. A short ride and you are at the pickup for the buss to the top of the mountain.

We broke up for a while, Patrick rode the XC stuff , Jake and I killed the Basin, Anth, and Chris did a little of both, and Steve made some new friends on Missing Link. The Basin side or “Freeride” side is Awesome. Full of drops, man made features, Boulders, Rocks on top of rocks, roots, and a thin layer of mud. It is such a great place to work on speed and your trail vision. It seems the Theme on Snowshoe’s Basin side is huge Ladders and big wall rides.

All in All it was an epic day. The rest of the Day was a blur. We could have all stayed and rode again the next day. It was once again amazing, and worth every penny. I am sorry to see that it is again “that time”…….the end of the season. I can’t think of how better to spend a day off. A great day, good friends and one awesome Ride.

Ride or Die….

Dano

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