Post AT Processing

I hope you are all recovering from the aches and pains associated with diving in to backpacking on the AT, and trust that you have had an enjoyable holiday. I also hope that you have had some time to think about your experience and share it with someone else, as this sometimes helps to process.

For this blog entry, please simply write about your experience on the AT. Although I have a few various thoughts and questions that I would like you to consider and write about, please try to write your responses in a narrative format rather than using numbered and fragmented partial sentences. As you write, consider the following:

• What were your expectations before the trip?
• How did your actual experience compare?
• What can you learn from this difference or similarity between expectation and experience?
• Re-read your entry on EB, as well as the thoughts on the web pages used as resources. What are the actions you took to model good EB? What did you do that did not contribute to good EB? Comment on how incorporating these behaviors into your every-day routine could impact your life.
• How do you feel you performed physically?
• What factors contributed to your performance?
• What could you do to allow you to perform better next time?
• Describe how well you thought did with food planning. What were challenges you faced? Did you bring enough food? Too much food? The right kinds of food? What would you do different next time? What did you learn?
• Comment on how you thought you did with packing and loading your packs. Did you discover an efficient system? Did your packing become more efficient each time you packed? What did you learn?
• Comment on how comfortable you were during this experience. What were some strategies you learned and used to keep warm - both during the day and at night?
• Was there a moment (or moments) when you felt like you weren't having "fun"? Describe them and how you got through them.
• Finally, comment on how incorporating what you learned from this experience into your every-day routine could impact your life - both professionally and personally.

Pyrofest Reflection / EB

This blog will contain two parts:

Part I

During my travels today I have had a little time to reflect on our pyrofest experience.

As you know, most of us (Zack is the exception - well done, Zack!) did not start a fire. This has caused me to re-evaluate the way in which I view this activity. I consider the environmental conditions under which we attempted to pull this off to be quite challenging. Aside from this, I feel that I did not provide the instructional support that could have given you a better chance at "succeeding". Instead of giving this project the instructional time and attention you all deserve, I attempted to squeeze it in between our sailing trip and my professional development agenda. I apologize for this - we will revisit this project in the future, albeit in a less formal venue.

Having said all this, I nonetheless feel that this experience has (as all do) given rise to an opportunity to reflect and learn. I would like you to consider and answer the following questions regarding our experience:

1. What was the objective of the Pyrofest activity?
2. Was it accomplished?
3. What are three factors that prevented you from completing (or allowed you to complete - Zack) the task?
4. Would you call what happened a "failure"? Why or Why not?
5. Explain your feelings about not finishing.
6. Were you ready for this task?
7. Was it too difficult? Explain.
8. While the objective of Pyrofest may have been to complete a specific objective, what is the primary goal of the entire program?
9. If you now consider the overriding goal of the program, was Pyrofest a "failure"? Why or why not?
10. Is it possible to actually complete an assigned task, but still fail? Explain.
11. Is it possible to not complete a task, but consider the effort worthwhile? Explain.
12. If you were to do this task over again, what would you do differently?
13. Identify another task in your life you have left unfinished.


Part II

As we prepare to head out on the Appalachian Trail, I would like you to consider the term "expedition behavior" or "EB" for short. Visit the following web sites and read how they define EB:

http://recparks.asp.radford.edu/faculty/behavior.htm

http://www.nols.edu/alumni/leader/06summer/expedition_behavior.shtml

Please list five (5) things that you could do (or not do) while on our backpacking trip that could contribute to (or detract from) good EB.