Re Post: Babes in the Woods

Video: GPS for Confidence Building
I wanted to repost this since–my “Babe in the Woods” has been promoted to a cadre position on my team…

Lighting a fire in wet conditions, and not rescuing from the failures is tough…

I have never been a fan of the notion everybody wins. When coaching youth roller hockey in San Antonio, I had one of the few, and eventually the only program that still kept score in the YMCA portfolio of sports programs.

I believe that you need to give kids a realistic view of their performance, but done so in a way that you leverage their strengths in whatever evaluation you are doing. I don’t believe in sugar-coating the feedback, or playing with soft gloves. I also don’t believe in being harsh on them either.

In all my workshops, coaching endeavors, or training I do with kids, military leaders, new adults to the woods, etc is the same… I define the conditions and expectations, allow them to perform, allow them to self evaluate, and then provide guidance and feedback.

The other aspect is tough. I don’t rescue. I allow failure as long as safety is not compromised. Nothing is learned if I am constantly helping a participant to a point I am completing the task them.

Let’s discuss two situations where I have to guide a participant differently.

The first is a fire building scenario. The participant has a good grasp of the concept, understands how to use flint and steel, knows the type of tinder and has been highly successful in starting fires in the past. But this has all been in controlled conditions when it has been fair weather and dry materials.

Survival fires though are most often needed when conditions are wet and clammy. To really test skills, I have to put the participant into real conditions so they not only have the ability to start fires and get warm when most needed, but to have the confidence to do so.

Most fail in getting the fire started in these conditions. Many times, I fail. It is a difficult test to complete. But the real learning is through the debrief with the participant and allowing them to do it again.

Watching a participant unnecessarily expending energy to grab materials, using the wrong materials, standing by and watching the fire not start can be irritating and the desire to jump in can be powerful. But I have to let them fail. This is because the participant has acquired a level of mastery in controlled conditions that can lead to over-confidence which is just as dangerous as not having the skills at all. Here you have to have the tough love and not jump in, allow them to identify their own mistakes, and then provide guidance.

In the other situation, a participant who is new to GPS navigation. In this scenario, the participant is just learning, and allowing them to fail outright as they work to program coordinates, follow the gps to a target, and try to find the best path to get to the target can be overwhelming. In this case I will work closely with the participant and provide constant coaching and working them to success. I still use the same debrief techniques of “what, so what, now what” that I have discussed in the blog and podcast in the past.

Building a solid toolbox of skills is an on-going exercise. As a team, constantly work on our skills to either keep them sharp or learn new techniques. It is also what helps us in communicating with each other and building our team and our families to a tighter cohesive group.

I am not a fan of the everybody wins philosophy. In the back-country people die. There is no second place with mother nature, just a body bag.

Original article: http://waukeefamilyymca.blogspot.com/2011/09/everybody-plays-everybody-wins.html

For more information about us, please checkout http://www.AdventureIQ.com for other blogs, podcast, and videos.

Intro to geocaching in China video

More wp issues today….quick posting of China video
http://m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DD7ddS4utdJM%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&feature=youtu.be&v=D7ddS4utdJM&gl=US

video link

Mission Accomplished!

Mission Accomplished!

My last night in Korea. So wish I was on a red-eye to Tokyo. Ready to be in the arms of my bride and feel the hugs of my baby-daughter. Pretty sure Trigger and Ranger are ready for some much needed Daddy time as well. As a bonus, my Mom and Dad are there and I will get a chance to see my Dad for Fathers’ Day.

The class did a terrific job on their Geo-Mission. They really thought outside the box and leveraged technology, high speed transport, and of course lots of communication. When one of the team members was not feeling so well, they left him in charge of a command post, where they could check in with him, provide updates, and get better intel on each cache site. He would even send pictures of each hide site to them. In one case, this was the only way they found the hide. We also boarded a bus to get across town to a site. Pretty innovative.

I was proud of the way they used their problem solving skills. It was great to work with the teams in Korea and the people are wonderful. I also enjoyed working with their leaders who really want to see their people be successful.

After class I had one more mission to complete. I brought several travel bugs with me. All the cache site I had been to were micros. I needed a place to to put a couple that I had been carrying for awhile. I also wanted to see something historic. I was able to complete both when I dropped them off in the park built around the tombs of Seolleung and Jeongneung, from the 9th Monarch. He was a great king during the 1400s.

With both job and adventuring behind me, it is off to the airport in the morning and a long flight home. Ready to close the chapter on this adventure.

Mission Specific GeoAdventuring

Today we took our Communication Skills workshop outside. Their objective was to recover secret documents held at various cache sites in Seoul. They were responsible for all mission prep, communication, strategy, and execution.

Prior to the team meeting we met with the leadership team to ensure they understood the mission for the day, provide them some insight to each target, advise them on our expectations, and a few clues on potential pitfalls. What I love about the team here is their openness to teaching.

The team assembled for a final meeting to discuss the plan. Each member was able to provide input. I enjoyed the fact that much of the strategy for execution was given by the team, with final approval coming from the leaders.

The team hit their first cache area within a few minutes after departure. The original plan was to find the first cache together and then split into teams of two. This was so they could find all the objectives. They are Asian, they wanted to complete all 25 targets in the three hour time frame. When I did this exercise in Europe a few years ago they hit the second one and went for a latte.

In the area they quickly found that even though their smart phones got them on the objective, it was not specific enough to get them on the cache. I then handed them my Garmin so they could get closer.

It was a great feeling finding the first one. Though one of the rules was for them to use stealth, you can’t blame 10 new cachers to be so secretive on their first find.

The energy level and excitement increased as the team continued to find several targets. After 4-5 finds and one unsuccessful find, I had the team break for lunch on the road. Interesting note….team was great at finding secret cache site with stolen company documents…team struggled finding a place to eat. Its Korea, you can’t swing a stick without hitting someplace to eat. Then again, its Korea, food is a big deal. We eventually found a great little place where we were treated to spicy octopus and rice. Very spicy. Very good.

We returned from the mission, did a debrief, and when class had hit a point of exhaustion, we broke a bit early.

It was great to be back in a role I am very familiar with. I got excited as we got deep into the mission planning phase. I found myself falling back into those good habits you learn while on a combat or recon patrol. If you have been in this role you know what passage of friendly lines is. Imagine now you are doing your head count as your troops cross the wire….out of the elevator…..

Geo-Adventuring or GeoCaching

GeoCaching in London— Keeping me out of the troubles–and exploring a magnificent city!

Is it a hobby, a sport, or activity? Is it hide and seek, a treasure hunt, or a high-tech form of letter dropping? Armed with a GPS and a backpack full of trinkets I pick up at garage sales, thrift shops, and when feeling very generous, classic toys from all the regular cast of fast-food joints.

Geocaching has its official start around 2000, but many of us in the military teaching land navigation and GPS (PLGR) technology were into it well before that time. Our first cache sites were usually food, ammo, and water drops for troops in training exercises, but to increase interest, make it fun, and add a challenge to it- we would fill ammo cans with anything from movie tickets to the base threater, unit patches for trading or collecting, or some small trinket that would only have meaning for those on the search. (I once left a bag full of toy compasses for one of my squads signifying their completing of the night navigation scenario—some of those soldiers still carry it to this day).

Geocaching uses GPS coordinates found on sites such as geocaching.com to find a specific location containing a cache. By registering on the website you can gain access to the location of cache sites- many of which are within a short distance from your home or office. You also have the ability to see the level of difficulty, specific facts and hints, and of course what kind of cache it is.

Cache types can vary. The most common is the Traditional Cache– which is a waterproof container with a pen, a log book, and items to trade. The rule is that you sign and date the log book and trade for one of the items in the cache. Good Geocachers will trade items in their pack of equal or greater value. The slackers of the Geocaching world leave the crappy stuff, bits of change, or nothing. They are the usually the same people in life that live off of the rest of us… At the end of your adventures you go home (or from your mobile device) and log whether you found the cache or not.

Hula Chicken- found in a cache in Colorado

Micro and Nano Caches are tiny caches that create a great challenge. Micros are about the size of a film canister and Nanos are about the size of a pen cap. Normally, these only contain logs to sign. These are common in highly congested areas.

Virtual Caches are normally sites of historical significance. This is one of my favorites because it gets us into areas where we can learn about a place we might have never traveled to. Early in our geo-adventuring days we often traveled a few hours to such places. With virtual caches you not only have to find the location- but also answer some obscure questions about the site. This last weekend we learned about mayors and county clerks in our town during significant periods of growth and change, while standing in a pavilion that was once city hall. You email the answers to the cache owner who determines if you completed the find. There has been a moratorium on new caches like this because of the perceived increase in traffic. Not sure here—but if people are learning about these obscure pieces of history- I would think more traffic is better.

We have been learning to love Earth Caches- party due to the Virtual Cache going away. These are sites such as river confluences, petrified trees, rock formations, cracks in the earth, caves, etc. These combine science, geology, and GPS navigation. I have learned allot since I started doing these and they are a great way to teach science to the kiddo.

There are a few other types of caches we won’t go into detail on- mainly because I don’t do them. These include the multi-cache, the mobile cache, and event caches. I loved webcam caches but no sense going into that since most have been removed.

Something we are just getting into – that requires some steeper etiquette is the Travel Bug. The Travel Bug is not a cache, rather an item that goes into a cache. The purpose of the Travel Bug (TB) is to be transported from one location to the other and be logged. The actual (TB) looks like a GI dog tag and normally has “hitchhiker” attached to it. The hitchhiker is usually some type of toy, coin, etc.

Adventure IQ Overland Travel Bug #1– on a mission from Asia to the US. These are tracked through the geocaching.com website and you can see the calculated distance it has traveled, where it is, and who has it. It is tracked by those who find or “grab” the item, relocate, and log it.

Each Travel Bug has a goal set by its owner. Goals are typically travel-related, such as to visit a specific region or country in Europe or travel from state to state. I am about to launch TBs into Asia with the goal of making it back to the US. Travel Bug trackables move from cache to cache with the help of Geocachers find it in a cache, move it to a new cache, and log it. TBs should not be kept for more than a week. If you are not willing to log it and move it- leave it where it is. TBs have a monetary and emotional investment from the owner and depend on good Geocachers (not the ones living off the rest of us) to move these along. Often it is requested to have pictures taken of places or scenery with the hitchhiker. If you do this DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH THE TRACKING NUMBER. Those same slackers that are not good Geocaches will see the number and log it. I have seen TBs in California on Wednesday morning and in Aberdeen, Scotland the same afternoon. There is a special section on geocaching.com that explains what to do with these as well as other trackable items. I have a video posted showing a Travel Bug.

The last has been “Challenges”. This is a new one for us. Challenges are close to virtual caches in that it gets you close to some cool areas, but usually you are posting a picture, though in some cases it might have a question to answer.

We love Geocaching and its an opportunity to get out. I especially like it when I travel for work. It gets me out exploring my surroundings. It also gives us an excuse to really explore an area. We often pick an area of the map, load our GPS with Geocaches, and head out for a day of adventure.

I have placed several geocaching videos on my Youtube site, go check them out- learn from them- and then go explore!