Raber

Name: Luke Raber

Guiding Question: What does it take to hike/live in the woods in Shenandoah National Park?

(optional) Use this space to list possible activities, tasks, experiences. Remember everything you do should help you answer your Guiding Question.

(Required) This plan is a “best guess” as to what you and your mentor think you will be doing. It is not meant to be a hard and fast schedule for your Exploration. The plan should illustrate how you intend to complete a minimum of 80 hours.


 * = Date ||= Location/Activity ||= Number of Hours ||
 * = Every week 4/18/11-5/23/11 ||= Walking/hiking with weight ||= 12 ||
 * = 5/24/11-5/28/11 ||= Shenandoah Hike ||= 80 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||
 * =  ||> Total Number of Hours ||= 92 ||

Journal:
 * 1: As we were just getting started we had to choose exactly where we planned to hike. After a number of options Brian and I chose Shenandoah national park in Virginia. We planned to hike part of the Appalachian trail in the north district of the park. There isn't much of a way we could change our course of action at this point because it is so early on, and this is an exploration that is concentrated into 4 days of hiking, rather than a month of doing something every day, like most students do. We weren't very far into answering our guiding question, but this would definitely come with time, especially when we went hiking. To start off, we just discussed some of the basic gear we will have to get, like sleeping bags. We were very excited to hike at this point but knew we had to learn a lot more before we could go.

#2: We spent a great deal of time preparing for the hike with Ms. Hegenbarth and Mr. Verry. We went to EMS and bought all the equipment we needed, as well as borrowed what we could from the school and our mentors. They showed us how to use our stove (which was very small and convenient) and how to purify water. They also showed us a very important skill that could be applied to the area we hiked; hanging a bear bag. They showed us the specific knots we needed to tie and what trees to pick to hang the bag. This would be prove to be very important considering Shenandoah National Park has a very dense bear population (if we didn't bear bag we would be attacked at night). We also set up the tent to see if it would work, which it did. A lot of this preparation helped answer our guiding question, because this is when we essentially learned how to survive in the woods.

#3: Brian and I originally had our plan of action to hike the northern district of Shenandoah, but we changed it so that we could hit the central district too. We definitely followed our plan of action because we basically HAD to or we would die...We thought finding water sources in the park along the trail would be difficult but it turned out being very easy and only created small side hikes. Food was easy as well. The most difficult things were safety, rain, and sleeping. We had to make sure to be very careful when poisonous rattlesnakes almost struck (completely serious) and when we came across a giant mother bear defending her two cubs. Rain was annoying, but not a huge problem. It poured and there was thunder and lightning right away as we entered the park, but it was awesome (though it was frightening being one of the highest points on the peak of a mountain) during intense lightning. It was also somewhat difficult to sleep when people snored in the shelters and when mice ran all over me. Also, the fact that there could be a potential nighttime bear attack was scary (especially with deer scratching the side of your tent and you not knowing if they are bears or not because you can't see). Overall the experience was great and I'd love to do it again.