Document text
DOCUMENT RESUME
BD 209 0487 RBC ui3 011
TITLE Instructor's Field Manual: North Caroiina Outward
Bound School.
INSTITOTION Outward Bound, Morganton, N.C.
PUB DATE 80
NOTE 210p.; For a related document, see RC 013 010.
AVAILABLE FROM Worth Carolina Outward Bound School, P.O. Box 8617,
Morganton, NC 28655 ($6.50).
EDRS PRICE MFO1/PCOS Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS Adventure Education; Camping; Equipment;
*Experiential Learning: *Field Instruction; First
Aid; Foods Instruction: Group Dynamics; *Learning
Activities; Outdoor Activities; *Outdoor Education;
Physical Environment; Rescne; *Resource Materials;
Safety: Teaching Methods; Young Adults
IDENTIFIERS Natural History; North Carolina; Nortu Caroiina
Outward Bound School; *Outward Bound; *Survival
Education
ABSTRACT
A supplement to the North Carolina Outward Bound
School's Instructor's Handbeok, this field manual presents useful,
but not required, information gleaned froma old timers and resource
books which may enable the instructor to conduct a better course.
Section one considers advantages and disadvantages and provides
directions and topographical maps for solo sites and campsites in the
Table Rock, Green Cave, Toe River, and Worley's Cave areas. Section
two delineates responsibilities of the logistics staff and procedures
they use to organize the flow of equipment, transportation, and food.
Section three reveals supplementary information about the area's
geologic, human and natural history; natural phenomena; signs of tine
and direction; environmental concerns; and weather. Section four
describes activities to build cooperation, talking games, solc
activities, night activities, caving activities, simulations,
Tyrolean traverse, and the ropes course, plus guidelines for cave
Jeaders and lead climbers. Section five describes advanced rescue
techniques including hauls, brakes, anchors, litter carries, rappel
rescue, ropes course rescues, zip wire rescue system, and cave
rescue. Sedical concerns examined in section six include first aid
kits, drugs, blisters, diarrhea, stings, bites, anaphylaxis,
snakebite, and hypothergia. Section seven concentrates on winter
considerations (first aid, frostbite, clothing, food, and equipment).
Appendices present origins of names and knot diagrams. (NEC)
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* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be sade *
* from the original docusent. *
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INSTRUCTOR'S FIELD MANUAL
NORTH CAROLINA OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea of a Field Manual was originally conceived
by Mike Fischesser, who wanted to pull together various
pieces of information that were lying around in various
forms in various places. The field manual was first
put together in 1979 by that year's layover staff: Ken
Murphey, Lynne Godshall, Lyle Dean, Dave Hendricks, Aram
Attarian, Linda Ramsey, Tina Gonzalez, Clem Dabrowski, and
Cath Johnson--each of them writing different parts, with
Mike contributing some as well. In 1980 this original
was revised, rewritten, §& enlarged by Cate Huisman, who
did most of the writing and editing, §& Liz Cornish, who
did some of the research and writing, made the preparations
for printing, and did aJi-the typing. Kevin O'Connor,
Cath Johnson, Tina Goi/alez, and Dodie Maxted all read the
text and made usefui - suggestions. Dave Hendricks provided
some new technical Giawings, and Lynne Godshall prepared
the maps. Through it all, Mike Fischesser helped us to
keep the original purpose in focus and answered hundreds
of questions.
Special thanks to Don Obert for the section on light-
ning, Kevin O'Connor for coaxing the Green Cove history
out of Pid, and John Logsdon for showing us how to tell
time by the moon.
Copyrigat North Carolina OUTWARD BOUND School 1980. All
rights reserved.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
“PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
; his document has been reproduced as
son va Ho 1 ina te the person or organization
Originating it.
f Minor changes have been made to improve
reproduction quality.
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ° Points of view or opinions stated in this docu
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC’.” mark ia nent naneaanety raprnenes oft ST
a position or policy
AN EXPLANATION
The English language-has yet to produce an acceptable
genderless pronoun, She/he, (s)he, and she-or-he are all
graceless and unpronounceable; the constant use of the non-
commital they and their is clumsy and confusing. He and his
are clear, simple, sexist, and proper. She and her are clear,
simple, sexist, and different. mene
We've opted to be different. Whenever a personal pro-
noun is called for, we've used she or her. We've done this
simply for the sake of clarity and simplicity. And differ-
ence.
PURPOSE: OF THE- FIELD MANUAL
The Field Manual is a supplement to the Instructor's
Handbook. The instructional staff of NCOBS is REQUIRED to
know the material in the Handbook. This is necessary for the
instruction of a safe and high-quality course at NCOBS. All
safety policies are indicated by an asterisk (*) in the Hand-
book. It also contains history, philosophy, objectives, meth-
ods, procedural guides and necessary information on all act-
ivities.
The Field Manual contains useful, but not required, in-
formation, gleaned from old-timers and resource books, which
may enable the instructor to conduct a better course. It is
a timesaver; it provides the instructor with information she
would otherwise have to seek elsewher:. It also expands upon
many items in the Instructor's Handbook. It is not intended
to be a wild foods guide, rescue manual, natural history
guide, or ecology text. There are more thorough resources
addressing those topics in the NCOBS Technical Library.
Safe and high-quality Outward Bound courses cannot be
conducted through the use of the Instructor's Handbook and
Field Manual alone. Sometime during the instructor's career,
that unusual or non-textbook field situation will arise which
a method or policy does not cover. These situations, some-
times critical, demand good judgement. The instructor must
reach into her bag of tricks and possibly improvise a solution
from the many methods she knows. This may be the biggest ad-
vantage of manuals and handbooks. They provide a background
and set of standards, which, if studied, will be the basis for
sound decisions in tight situations.
-Mike Fischesser
Program Director
February 1980
g CONTENTS
ORIENTATION TO NCOBS) (White). ..ceecccerecescccscces
Course AreaS.......e. eee er er. Ee eee ees
Sat Table GR ac kk chew ae een teen Ll keek sie chake
+ ME. SOG ss 6b 666 4b wh Oa oS OOO a OO re he Oe
= BAVOr TORT Ma ds cae i Cad ba es : ee sousyeese
- Worley's Cave..,
LOGISTICS (Blue)
DORI OURS 5 kik 080 0 06 064 0Ee bee ee
Transporation.....e.,-
THE COURSE ENVIRONMENT (Canary)
Geologic History ‘
- Pleistocene Ice Sheets
- Cave Formations veneae ce
Human History crececcee
- The Wilderness Act.,
- Human Phenomena.......
Natural History
- Common Trees.
- Useful Plants...
- Common Mammals
- Common Birds
- Some Tips on Spotting Wildlife
Natural Phenomena....
Natural Signs of Time and Direction
—. Terre res vere s”
- Telling Time by the Moon
Environmental Concerns
~ Backwoods Ethics. ..swceseees
- Cave Ethics
- The Litter That Lingers..
Weather. ehctuebeeeenase
- Forecasting. ..cccccoess
- Lightning
BOTIVitiCS — f0U5t) 2csans
More Initiatives, Activities, and Talking Games
- Activities to Build Cooperation...
- Talking Games..
- Things to Try with Other Crews
- Solo Activities.
Night Activities..
Caving Activites......
Simulations.....
TYTOLCAR TYOVOrSe. cic ccccces
More About the Ropes Course
- General Descriptions
- Philosophy of Design.,,
- SROOY SPEC ic ccsicene' ,
- Special Considerations for Some Events..
Requirements for Cave Leaders
Guidelines for Lead Climbers..,
RESCUE (Green) ...s+.»
Search, Rescue, and Evacuation
= INGIVIGUAL RESPONSIDILICICS .. cw reccncccsssesesucse
- Search Techniques..
- Rescue Pack Contents
Hauls, Brakes, and Anchors
Litter Carries: Horizontal, Vertical, and
Telpher Lines......
Specific Rescue Techniques
- Methods of Relieving Weight from the Waist of
a Conscious and Unconscious Climber
Seven Steps to a Rappel Rescue
Ropes Course Rescues,
Zip Wire Rescue System.....
Cave Rescue Call-Down....
iii
MEDICAL CONCERNS (Goldenrod) .......--eeee00.
First Aid Kits
Drugs in NCOBS First Aid Kits.. . .
Supplemental Information on Common Medicai Problems
- Blisters...
WS BTERGR so odes ch eh RAOL OSES KARE ED OO
Stings, Bites, and Anaphylaxis...........
Wn ho POE Oe ee OPE TS OP! PP CST ET Tee yor
= BY DOCROrmis.. sssss ees 0's been bee 6440S Sw ee
Emergency Telephone Numbers.......
WINTER COURSES’ (Pink)
First Aid in the Winter,
Frostbite CES ecacece
Clothing for a North Carolina Winter.,.,
Tips on Winter Equipment.....
[ | COURSE AREAS
TABLE ROCK
Table Rock was the first location of NCOBS. The ori-
ginal board of directors selected the site in 1965, attracted
to the Linville Gorge. Extensive negotiations followed to
lease the property from the Forest Service and to assure
local residents and users that the property would not be
overused and abused. The following autumn (1966), Lance Lee--
a former HIOBS instructor~and four friends camped out at the
site and started construction. They returned in the spring
of 1967 with even more friends to complete the first base
camp. This included tents on platforms for staff and stu-
dents, a mile of new road, mobile homes for temporary housing
of staff families, and a dining hall constructed from the
timbers of the former Morganton Furniture Company, donated
by Mr. A.K. Phillips. (The remains of the tent platforms,
which were replaced with cabins in 1973, may still be found
below the warehouse and near the Bastard and Utopia Trails.
The dining hall and mobile homes are still as they were).
The school was dedicated on 2 July 1967 by Mrs. Emma Clark,
postmistress at Jonas Ridge.
Karl Rohnke constructed one of the first ropes courses
on the ridge south of the present zip-wire. Later he con-
structed another one below and southeast of the warehouse.
Remnants of both may still be found in these areas. The pre-
sent ropes course, designed by Mike Fischesser, was constructed
and first used in the spring of 1976 (there is more about this
ropes course on pp. 138 - 141).
Presently, NCOBS has a "special use permit" with the U.S.
Forest Service: it is good from 1978 to 1997. The school and
the Forest Service have an excellent working relationship
and have successfully co-ordinated many rescues, evacuations,
and service projects together.
The reputation and quality of experience at NCOBS has
grown vastly over the years. This is largely attributable
to the variety of activities and challenges offered in each
course, and these in turn are facilitated by the Table Rock
course area. The resources are numerous (caves, rocks, rivers,
expedition areas); this enables the school to offer a wide
variety of course activities in response to varying public
need and demand. :
While we are quite pleased with Table Rock, after 5000
students, we must constantly look for new ways to decrease
our impact on the area. Hence, trails have been re-routed
and switched-back to minimize erosion, the ropes course
3
practice area has been moved, and the base of the baby slab
has been covered with stone slabs to reduce erosion. Larger
scale efforts to minimize our impact have included reducing
crew size, reducing van travel, and seeking out new expedi-
tion areas when traditional ones show signs of wear.
RRE
TABLE ROCK BASE CAMP
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Established;
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
ANDREWS CREEK SOLO SITE
Summer 1977
Grandfather Mountain
Follow the directions in the Driver's Dir-
ection File (DDF) to Wilson Creek solo area.
After the sharp right towards Old House Gap
go 2.5 miles and look for a steep dirt road
to the left. 1/2 mile up, this road crosses
Andrews Creek. Sites are downstream from
the crossing and a large meadow, in a young
coniferous forest on flat ground. They ex-
tend to the creek crossing. The dirt road
serves as a trail for cairn checks.
All sites are on the creek.
Evidence of frequent camping at one spot,
possibly weekend fishermen. May be crowded
on summer weekends. soi
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Andrews
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Best Copy Availabe
13 :
Established;
Quadrangle
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
ARMSTRONG CREEK SOLO SITE
Summer 1976
Celo
Follow the directions in the DDF to the turn-
around above Armstrong Fish Hatchery. Walk
in about 1/4 mile past the turnaround to
find a watchcamp site--you'll have to cross
the creek a couple of times. Solo sites ex-
tend up the creek from here.
You can also use the southern end of Arm-
strong--access from Hazelnut Gap trail.
People at the fish hatchery are very help-
ful, and there is a possibility of doing
service projects with them. In most places
the trail can be used for cairns. If you use
both the upper and lower ends of the creek,
you can fit a couple of crews in. Con-
venient solo as a half-way point on an ex-
pedition to or from Mitchell. All sites are
on the creek.
The northern end has been heavily used and
Best Copy Available
14
BEE BRANCH SOLO SITE
Established: Summer 1976
Quadrangle: Grandfather Mountain
Directions: Follow the directions in the DDF to Wilson's
Creek Solo area. Take the trail behind the
fisherman's camp and follow the creek to the
fork with Bee Branch. Solo sites are back
towards the road from the fork, on both sides
of the creek.
Advantages: All sites axe on the creek. Due to thick
growth and many bends in the creek, sites
can be fairly close together. Excellent
watch camp--flat, lightly wooded, and there
are large pcols just below the fork. It is
near enough to the road to head off fisher-
men. Possible solo site for crews exped-
itioning to the Deerfield.
Disadvantages: Students put too close to the road can be
seen from its next switchback. Not good
on weekends--too many fishermen. Long
mee oS, enemy, NY
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Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
10
' BOONE'S FORK SOLO SITE
July 1977
Grandfather Mountain
Follow the directions in the DDF to Boone's
Fork solo area. Follow the left fork to the
parkway, cross over, and directly on the o-
ther side you will see a small trail (a
few hundred yards to the right of the Daniel
Boone trail). Follow this trail for about
1.5 miles; where the map shows a switchback
just before the end of the trail, keep going
straight ahead to the creek. Watchcamp
can be on either side of the trail to the
creek. (Note: The parkway crosses Boone
Fork, but it is not shown on the map as it
is incomplete as of this vriting).
The sites get better and better as you go
downstream. All sites, arc on the creek.
This is a good location from which to depart
for Calloway Peak and do an expedition over
Grandfather to whe school for final.
— IE.
Established:
Quadrangle;
Direction:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
DOBSON'S KNOB SOLO SITE
Summer 1973
Ash. ford
Follow the directions in the DDF to Dobson's
Knob. Depending on the state of the road,
you may be able to drive only to the saddle
and have to walk the last couple of miles to
the turnaround. The watchcamp may be either
at the turnaround or towards Black Creek,
which is the water supply. A trail runs up
the ridge to Dobson's Knob from the turn-
around; sites are on both sides of it.
Pleasant woodland area, some grassy spots,
enough vegetation to make good sites.
Possible solo for Mitchell expeditions.
Sites are fairly remote, as access by road
is poor.
Have to carry water to all sites. You'll
generally have to truck students at least
one way, as the sites do not conveniently
fit into standard expedition routes.
12
HARRIS CREEK SOLO SITE
Established: May 1978
Quadrangle: Linville Falls
Directions: Follow the directions to Pisgah Church in
the DDF. Just past the church, turn left
onto 194 and then left onto 19E. After
approximately 2.5 miles, turn left at
Green Valley Church. Go along Brushy Creek
Road past the airstrip and take the road
into the landfill. Continue past the landfiil
to a barn and have students walk from there
ever Laurel Creek to Harris Creek. There are
numerous very good sites along Harris Creek
and some of the side streams. There are
also some good sites between the Toe River
and the trail from Laurel Creek to Harris
Creek.
Advantages: The trail indicated is actually a woods
road, making cairn checks easy. All sites
are on creeks. White Oak Branch could be
explored for further sites.
Disadvantages: On Sundays several rafts come down the Toe--
could disturb the students there. Very
unattractive access through landfill (possi-
ble access down the trail from the parkway)
Minor annoyances sometimes with small planes
using the airstrip. Access through tie land-
fill is not always open.
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Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
IRISH CREEK SOLO SITE
Summer 1977
Oak Hill
2*miles down Table Rock Road from the school
you will come to an old road on the wight
with a chain across it. Follow this trail
about 2.5 miles until you come to the watch-
camp at a road junction near Irish Creek.
You'll cross 4 very old bridges--use ex-
treme care! There are 2-3 sites on the trail
leading to Shortoff, 3-4 on the same trail
SE of thé watchcamp, 4-5 on the old road from
._Table Rock Road, and 2-3 on the handdrawn trail
on the map. This area is only lightly wuoded
so the sites have to be a fair distance apart.
Trails and roads can be used for cairn checks.
The area is within easy walking distance of
the basecamp. With sites along 2 or 3 dif-
ferent trails, none of them are very far
from watch camp. Most sites are along creeks.
The area is net used by tne public much be-
cause there is no vehicle access.
Sometimes you can hear vehicles on Table Rock
Road. Some vacation trailers and the Table
Rock Fish Hatchery are within easy walking
distance of the solo site; this temptation
might make it a poor solo site if you hive
students who may break solo. Students who
might be tempted are best put upstream, so
they would have to walk through the watchcamp
14
SHORTOFF MOUNTAIN S0i0 SITE
Established: Many years ago}
Quadrangle: Ashford
Directions: Access to these sites is not possible by road.
Hike there via either Irish Creek, Chimney
Gap, or Wolf Pit Road. To get to the sites,
hike out to the edge of the mountain on the
trail shown on the south end of Shortoff.
Follow the edge of the cliff around for
Sites. Once you get to what appears to be
the end of the useful area, there is a small
downclimb, and slightly below are more sites
on a line leading southeast back towards the
trail. There are also sites along the cliff
to the north, as long as you do not go any
further than the trail shown on the northern
end; you then enter the wilderness area.
Advantages: Fantastic views for students.
Disadvantages: Winter use only; the area is crowded in summer.
Have to carry water to all sites from the
spring marked on the map. If you are using
sites on the very southern end of Shortoff,
it is difficult to check cairns without al-
most walking into the sites. The area is
exposed and dangerous during thunderstorms.
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
STACKROCK CREEK SOLO SITE
Summer 1977
Grandfather Mountain
Follow the directions in the DDF to Wilson's
Creek solo area. Continue across Wilson's
Creek from the campsite; Stackrock is the
next creek of any size on your right. A
logging road runs left of the creek. A
watchcamp site is just off the road on the
south side of the creek--not large but good
enough for a tarp. A few hundred yards up
there is another possible watchcamp site
‘nm some apple trees, but this one is not
convenient for water. Sites extend from
here on up the creek on the left and right
sides of the logging trail.
If you stagger sites carefully, students can
all go to the creek for water. Most fish-
ermen stay on Wilson's Creek, so this area is
ok to use on weekends. The logging road
makes cairn checks easy. It's possible to
hike out here by one route from base camp
on main expeditions, and have students hike
an alternate route back for final.
Folks may try to drive up the logging road,
so it's a good idea to set up a watchcamp
near Old House Gap.
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
WEBB CREEK SOLO SITE
September 1979
Grandfather Mountain
Follow the directions to Wilson's Creek
solo areain the DDF, but go only about
4 miles north on the parkway from its junc-
tion with 181. Here the paved road to the
left goes to Linville; take the unpaved road
to the right towards Roseborough. The road
descends for about 3 miles: where it flattens,
look for a dirt road to the left at a new
summer house. Follow this road a few hundred
yards, past an old farm and some newer houses,
to where it ends in atrail. Just after the
trail crosses the creek, a watchcamp can be
stationed where the creek and the trail both
fork. Sites are up both forks of the creek.
All sites are on the creek.
Webb Creek trail is not heavily traveled.
The watchcamp is close to a road so supplies
need not be carried far.
WILSON CREEK SO}. SITE
Established: Spring 1976
Quadrangle: Grandfather Mountain
Directions: Follow the directions to Wilson's Creek solo
area in the DDF. The watchcamp for this
site is about 100 yards down a trail which
starts behind the fisherman's camp. Sites
start about 300 yards down the same trail.
Some sites are downstream on the south side
of Little Wilson's Creek with a cairn check
possible along the trail. The remainder
of the sites are on the north side of Wilson's
Creek going upstream, with cairn checks at the
top of the embankment above the creek.
Advantages: Sites on Wilson's are excellent--large pools.
Sites on Little Wilson's are ok. All sites
are on the creek. Good expedition, with many
variations for fast and slow crews, from here
to the deerfield.
Disadvantages: Beware of sites flooding in very heavy rain.
Do not use this area on weekends--too many
fishermen.
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GREEN COVE
By the early 70's, increased enrollment and the
limitations on the use of the newly-designated Linville Gorge
Wilderness Area (see p.80 ) made it necessary for the school
to look for new azeas in which to operate. Mobile base camps
were used for a few years in the Pisgah and Nantahala
National Forests; then a specific tract of land was located
in 1974. Green Cove, near Franklin, N.C., had been willed
to the Boy and Girl Scout troops of western N.C. They
weren't using it full-time, so they azreed to lease it to
NCOBS for 10 years (1974-1984). They still have use of the
area and facilities in our absence,
Green Cove was named for Jud and Ruthie Green who lived
there with their children Frank, Nelson, Ed, Jeff, Jess,
Ralph, Isme, May, and Lisi in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. The foundation of their cabin may still be found
about 600' down the road from the parking lot, about 5' from
the west side of the road. The property passed to the Nichols
family, who built the old cabin near the parking lot around
1930. Fate Garlet, a half-sister of Pid Ballew (a character
well-known to many Green Cove staff) also lived in this house.
At least two other families have lived in Green Cove
within the time that Pid can remember. at one time there
was a cabin where the tent platform row stands on the south
side of the trail to Rocks ft 4 II. This housed various
members of the Smith and Justis families. Ab and Meg Burrow
with their children Ollie, Betty, Thad, and Zeb lived in a
big log house in what is now the Field campsite. All these
families were mainly subsistence farmers--they raised corn,
vegetables, cabbages, and beans in the fields now overgrown
in the cove.
Mike Fischesser first looked over the property for NCOBS
on a cold rainy afternoon in September 1974. Having deter-
mined that there were good trees for a ropes course, good
rocks for climbing, and plenty of campsites, he returned
in the spring of 1975 with John Logsdon, Tom Horrell, Drew
Hammond, Joe Marion, and Jon (Zeke) Zeliff to build a base
camp. In just four hectic months, they scouted expedition
routes, tried climbing areas, found service projects, lo-
cated solo sites, built the kitchen cabin and a ropes course,
wrote schedules, and got all the necessary permits, papers,
and permissions for a program. Green Cove was ready in June
for its first six crews.
20
The original work group was known as the Pioneers; the
first route on Whiterock was named the Pioneer Route in
their honor. The next two routes were called "Dan's Decision"
and “Rufus' Commitment". Dan Meyer (then school director)
made the decision to start a second base camp; Rufus Dalton
(then chairman of the board of trustees) had and continues
to have an exceptional and inspiring commitment to NCOBS.
The climbing hut was built inthe spring of 1979 by
Tom Horrell, John Logsdon, Anne Gehr, Andy Turcot, and
other staff. Swap-Ya volunteers built the staff cabin in the
cold March of 1980.
Green Cove has proven to be a valuable asset to NCOBS,
both because it has lessened our impact on the Table Rock
area, and because of its own unique offerings of routes,
rocks, and proximity to the Chattooga River. The Forest
Service is planning to contract for timber bids in the cove
in the spring of 1980; logging will probably occur the
following summer and fall, and the existing road through
the cove will be widened and graveled to give log trucks
access to the head (south) of the cove. After some delib-
eration, NCOBS has decided to work with the Forest Service
instead of against it in this effort, and to continue summer
and fall operation out of Green Cove around the loggers. It
will take some initiative and creativity for instructors to
present the logging as a positive learning experience.
ERK
N\A
i GREEN COVE BASE CAMP |
Best Copy Avo ‘lable
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
BUCKEYE CREEK SOLO SITE
Summer 1977
Scaly Mountain
Approximately 2.5 miles south of Otto on
23/441 there is a hair pin turn where a dirt
road takes off on the right. A gate across
the road belongs to Captain Chester Flancher.
Continue up past the gate on the jeep trail
until you come to a foot trail running along
the creek. A flat area here below the sites
can be used for a watch camp. After a short
steep climb, the area flattens out for the
sites.
All sites are on the creek. Close to basecamp.
Few other users.
or 2 TEE oo
Ae.
GAS
23
Best Copy Availalole
28
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
24
DRYMAN'S FORK SOLO SITE
1978
Prentiss
Follow the road to Pickens Nose until you
come to the Reynolds Gap. Use the Coweeta
Hydrologic Laboratory Map to find the road
from Reynold's Gap to Dryman's Fork. 4.5
miles from the gap, the road ends at the
fork. There at the road end is a good watch-
ce™-. <A log bridge across the creek just
up: cream from the watchcamp leads to a trail
which follows the creek downstream and can
be used for cairn checks. Downstream there
are 8-9 well-spaced sites. A trail upstream
of the watchcamp leads to 2 more excellent
sites. Possibly there are more sites further
upstream and on the tributary downstream from
the watchcamp.
Undisturbed by road noises or fishermen.
Lots of room for sites.
Lots of poison ivy. Use only on weekdays.
Sometimes folks from the laboratory are in
the area to take water samples or to work on
the road or bridges. Check their schedule
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
LICK LOG BRANCH SOLO SITE
Summer 1979
Rainy Mountain.
Follow the directions in the DDF towards the
76 bridge. About 5.5 miles south of Clayton,
turn left off 76 onto a dirt road, just past
the Chechero Church on the left. After about
2.5 miles, this road crosses Lick Log Branch;
just past the bridge is a turn-in at an old
road on the left. Walk up this road less
than 0.5 mile to a trail; a left on this
trail will take you back to a fork in the
left fork of the branch. A watchcamp can
be set up at the fork; sites are on trails up
the left branch and elsewhere as shown on the
map.
All sites are on the creek.
hee
Best Copy Available.
30
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
LLOYD COVE SOLO SITE
Spring, 1975
Scaly Mountain
Lloyd Cove is the area to the east of Green
Cove; permissions to use it has been given
by Henry Dillard. An old logging road goes
behind the fields on the south and east sides;
there are about 8 sites along this road. 0-
thers are out along the marathon route where
it comes up into Lloyd Cove from the Tessentee
Creek valley.
Re-supplies can be made from the orienteering
station on the ridge between Lloyd and Green
Cove. Some students have a bit of pasture
to sit in at the edge of their sites. There
are four pastures inthe cove.
A cabin was built in one of the larger pas-
tures during the summer of 1976, so we can
only use this area if the cabin is not in use.
Too crowded for three-day solos; ok only for
mini-solos as on short courses. Continued
development may eventually curtail our use of
this site.
.
~~
PERRY CREEK SOLO SITE
Established: Spring 1975
Quadrangle: Shooting Creek
Directions: Follow the directions in the DDF to Perry
Creek. There are enough solo sites in this
5-creek watershed for 2 or 3 crews. The road
has been recently gradedandis a little diff-
erent from the map, but easy to follow.
Sites begin way up in the flat, white pine
area.
Advantages: Fred Lewis and Dealy Wood live further on down
the gravel road. They have phones and are
very hospitable. Dealy is a class in mountain'
culture herself. Have your crew meet her
if possible. Possible service projects in
this area: Dealy Wood, Bellva Mull. All
Sites are on the creek. There may be more
_ good sites on Bluff Branch NW of here.
Disadvantages: There used to be a pretty wild-looking motor-
cycle camp up the trail to the left of
Perry Creek--avoid this area. All sites and
the watchcamp must be off the logging roads
and well-hidden (leave re-supply people a
cairn with directions to your camp). Crews
going on final from here will encounter steep
areas near Perry Gap. Tell them not to try
out their climbing skills. Steep banks of
Passmore Branch may be eroded by students
climbing up and down to build cairns. Try to
cous ey
anit ep tins
POUNDING MILL CREEK SOLO SITE
Established: Spring 1975
Quadrangle: Shooting Creek
Directions: Follow the directions in the DDF to Pounding
Mill Creek. Walk or drive further on the
dirt road to a creek-crossing within 1/2
mile . This is sometimes used as a watchcamp.
Sites are further up both Pounding Mill
Creek and Dark Fork.
Advantages: Anderson's Amoco is a nearby source of junk
food and other forbidden pleasures for in-
structors. Houses on #1338 can be used for
emergency phones. All sites are on the
creek.
Disadvantages: If students are put out along the creek be-
fore the fork of Dark Cove, take care that
they are not in a position to see anyone
coming in on the dirt road. Originally
there was some logging in Dark Cove, so the
sites with the most solitude will be up the
main fork of Pounding Mill Creek. Dogs are
a hassle when running out of this watch-
camp.
GASES
Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
SHOOK CREEK SOLO SITE
Spring 1975
Macedonia
Follow the directions in the DDF to Shook
Creek solo area. Walk up the main dirt road
to a metal gate 50 yards from the parking
area. A watchcamp can be set up in the field
further up the trail behind the gate. Sites
are in three areas: along Shook Creek below
the steep falls, along Maney Branch, and
below the watchcamp at the edges of the
fields. Watch out for snakes.
30
TESSENTEE CREEK SOLO SITE
Established: Spring 1975 —
Quadrangle: Scaly Mountain
Directions: These sites are up at the end of the road
past Green Cove, behind the Feneis's
house, along a trail out of the back right
corner of their yard. The sites are a-
tong the creek side of the logging road and
up tributaries. A watchcamp can be below
all the sites or in the middle. Call the
Feneis's for permission before using the
area.
Advantages: Easily accessible without trucking from
base camp. All sites are on the creek.
Disadvantages: Curious students wander down to the Feneis's
house. Some crews have been blindfolded
and marched by the house without ever see-
ing it. . Others have come in from an old
road out of Lloyd Cove; still others have
come in from the top of the watershed. An
unfriendly German shepherd lives at Feneis's
house--it bit an instructor in 1979. Sites
are close together and cramped. Use this
area only in a pinch.
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Established:
Quadrangle:
Directions:
Advantages:
WHEATFIELD SOLO SITE
Summer 1978
Scaly Mountain
Approximately 1.5 miles south of Otto
on 23/441 is a mailbox on the right side
of the road, which is the Pattersons’.
They are very friendly, but it's a good idea
to let them know you're coming in advance.
Take the dirt road that goes by their house
on the left. Where the road continues to
bear right at the edge of the woods, take an
old logging road left through an old corn-
field; follow it 0.5 mile to a flat area on
the left next to the creek; here is a good
watchcamp. Sites are along the creek. The
area gets very steep about a mile up, but
there are more sites further up the left
fork.
There is an old logging road running by the
creek which can be used for cairn checks.
All sites are on the creek.
RIVER PROGRAM
From 1966 to 1975, NCOBS used a variety of different
rivers for tubing, canoeing, and rafting. Wilson's Creek
and the Linville, Nolichucky., Little Tennessee, and Nanta-
hala Rivers were all used at one time or another. Since
1975, we have offered primarily three days of whitewater
canoeing on either the Chattooga or the Toe River.
Toe River
The North Toe River flows out of the hills east of
Roan Mountain, joins the South Toe coming out of the
valley east of Mt. Mitchell, and joins the Cane River sev-
eral miles west to form the Nolichucky. The Nolichucky,
via the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, eventually
drains into the Gulf of Mexico. Thus the Toe River flows
through the higher mountains in the east to reach its
destination. Such a paradox is possible because the river
is older than the mountains; it helpedto carve them out of
the high plateau they once were (see p.67 for more on this
phenomenon).
Its name is a contraction of Estatoe, the name of an
Indian chief's daughter who fell in Iove with a rival
tribesman. While they were eloping in hs canoe, he was
shot and killed by her irate brothers. She drowned herself
in sorrow in this river.
Mining in the area was begun about 450 years ago. These
ancient miners were driven out within a few years by transient
bands of Cherokees, and mining did not resume until 1867
(see p.71 for more history of the Toe River area). Today,
silt from mica, feldspar, and kaolin mining colors the river
gray.
Most of the land around the Toe is private farmland.
NCOBS has permission to use a private campsite at Mile 17.
Crews are driven there after each day on the river; directions
are in the Driver's Direction File. If you run with your
crew out of this campsite, please have everyone wear sweat-
pants; the local folks are offended by shorts. The first
day's paddle is from Red Hill Bridge to Relief, about 7.2
miles. The second days' run is on the more challenging
upper section of the North Toe, from Boonford to Red Hill
Bridge (11.5 miles) or just to Mile 17 (approximately 7.5
miles) if a shorter day is needed.
Chattooga River
The Chattooga is part of the nation's Wild and Scenic
Rivers System, created by an act of Congress in 1968. Roads
cannot come within 1/4 mile of it, and camping is allowed
anywhere along its wild banks, as long as the camp is at
least 50 feet from the river or its tributaries or a trail
(trails include old roads no longer used by vehicles) and
1/4 mile from any road. The difficulty of the rapids in-
creases as you travel further down the river, so NCOBS crews
can do a 2-3 day trip which becomes progressively more
difficult, camping along the river. For us, the Chattooga
is about ideal.
The movie Deliverance was filmed here, and the river
has never quite recovered. Although the film catapulted
the river into the national spotlight suffiently to have
it classified as wild and scenic, it also drew thousands
of green-horn river runners, who have been drowning, camping,
and causing problems ever since. Several tour companies
run raft trips, and it is a rare day that an OB crew has
the river to itself. Local folks tend to dislike the tour
companies (including NOC) because they think the tour com-
panies are primarily responsible for the wild and scenic
Classification, which has crowded the area in general and
prevented the locals from driving to their favorite fish-
ing and swimming spots as they once could. To add to this
melée, NCOBS sends 700 people a year down the Chattooga,
and they all camp in the same several spots.
Thus, our impact alone is considerable, and if we are
to continue to have the privilege of using the Chattooga
River, we must minimize our impact on it. The following
campsite guide will help you to locate most of the campsites
along the river. As some of these begin to shown signs of
wear, we may discontinue use of them and designate others.
Course directors may set up campsite rotations to prevent
overuse and Overcrowding when there are two or three crews
‘on the river; check with your CD to find out whether there
are any particular sites you should use or avoid.
RUSSELL BRIDGE CAMPSITE
(Beginning of Section II)
Follow the directions in the Driver's Direction File to
Russell Bridge Parking area. Cross Route 28, staying on the
Georgia side of the river. Follow the Bartram Trail, marked
with yellow blazes, above the river until you reach a ford
across the West Fork. On the far side is an old road; the
first campsite is about 100 yards beyond the ford; others
are further on. Be sure your campsite is at least S50 feet
from this old road. Crews that arrive early should proceed
down the road to allow Table Rock crews, who generally ar-
rive very late, to camp without disturbing the earlier crews.
The water in the Chattooga and the West Fork are safe to
drink if purified,
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
EARL'S FORD CAMPSITE
(Beginning of Section IIT)
On the S.C. side there is a campsite just above the
river where you take out, about 100 yards from the ford.
Make sure your camp is at least 50 feet from the river. Anoth-
er campsite is across the river (Georgia side) at a point
several hundred yards below where Warwoman Creek enters the
river (there is another site upriver nearer the creek at the
end of a road; don't use it; it's illegal and overused).
Ferry equipment across in the calm water above a small rapid
there (Warwoman Drop); then hike downriver to the campsite.
The drop is difficult to negotiate with gear. (Note: a
family of beaver inhabits the calm water above the drop and
can usually be seen at dawn and dusk. See p.91 for more
about beaver.)
™
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
FALL CREEK CAMPSITE
(Section III)
The take-out is at the bottom of Fall Creek Trail.
There is a steep walk about 1/4 mile to where the trail
meets a good gravel access road. This area receives little
use by the public, the road has little vehicle traffic and
is good for running, and the blueberries in August are
great. New campsites for this area will be determined for
the 1980 season and beyond.
ROGUE'S FERRY (THRIFT'S FERRY)
(lower Section III)
River access to this site is just above Keyhole Rapid
on the S.C. side of the river. Walk up the steep old dirt
road until it flattens out and a road branches off to the
right; this is just before the road meets Highway 76. There
are several campsites back along this road. Vehicle access
is easy from Highway 76, making this a good first or last
night campsite for rafting crews on the lower river. This
is a "designated campsite” outside the scenic river corridor,
so it is not necessary to move 1/4 mile back from the road
to camp.
Screeming Left
lass 4
38
HIGHWAY 76 BRIDGE
(end of Section III)
There is an old logging roadbed high above the river
on the Georgia side which can be used for camping. Follow
the obvious old dirt road north out of the old parking lot;
be sure to go at least 1/4 mile from Hwy. 76, and then find
a campsite at least 50' off the roadbed. Drinking water
must be carried in.
attooga RivagdiiermMetion Statior
Screeming Left
EY RASS 4
if FRock Jumble
Class 3
Woodall Shoal
WOODALL SHOALS
(Section IV)
On the Georgia side, there is a campsite just inside
the edge of the woods west of the large pool at the bottom
of the rapids. Gear must be ferried across; there is vehicle
access on the other side. On the S.C. side, there is a large
sandy camp at the bottom of the access trail from the road.
Anther site is down an old road (with a gate across it) past
the vehicle parking lot. The S.C. side is another "designated
campsite", so it is again unnecessary to move back a full
1/4 mile from the road.
F #2 Class3 y
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pond
Deliverance Rock Class 4
40
WORLEY'S CAVE
This is a very large and well-known cave (also known as
Morrill's Cave) which opens in a huge sink (3-4 acres) near
Johnson City, Tennessee. Until the early 60's, it was the
longest known cave in east Tennessee (since then, Cuyler Cave,
with a length of 6-7 miles, has usurped that distinction).
The cave is an excellent example of the Appalachian cave
pattern, in which floors and ceilings are inclined with the
dip, and passages follow the strike (see "Cave Formation",
p.68). The two levels follow the strike with only minor
deviations; the lower or stream passage has developed down
dip from the upper passage.
The cave received its name from John Morrill, a local
resident, who led many cave explorations near the turn of
the century. The more common "Worley's Cave" name comes
from E.S. Worley, whose signature and the date (1882) appear
on a rock in the Giant's Causeway.
The above information and the accompanying map are taken
from Barr's Caves of Tennessee. The complex system in the
back of the cave wasn't discovered until after Barr's book
came out; that part of the map was drawn from memory by Don
Haldiman and Mike Fischesser. This back area is probably the
true "Virgin Passage” rather than the main side passage nearer
the entrance which is commonly called the Virgin Passage.
NCOBS Use of the Cave
In 1971, Keith Evans secured permission from Mrs. Has-
kall Lowry, the owner, for NCOBS staff to enter Worley's Cave.
Don Haldiman,.Charlie Jones, and John Logsdon did a re-con
with Cato Holler (Flittermouse Grotto-Marion, N.C.). In
January, 1973, Peter Bryant and Arlene Ustin took the first
crew into the cave for three days, with John and Mike Fisches-
ser assisting. That summer, John Logsdon used the cave for
a 3-day training expedition and Mike used it for a 3-day
accompanied final expedition.
In the spring of 1974, NCOBS was informed that the cave
had been closed and no one would be given permission to
enter. Several re-cons. turned up no other cave nearly as suit-
able, and finally in late 1975 it was decided that the school
must try to persuade Mrs. Lowry to grant permission to re-
turn to Worley's. 6
After a conversation with George Sweazey, Mrs. Lowry
agreed to let crews use the cave, if a release was signed
and she was informed before each visit. 3 crews used Worley's
in January of 1976. and 2 more were there in January of 1977.
Mrs. Lowry died in 1977 and her husband granted permission
45
in 1978, but he said that the state a 4 buy the property.
This may mean restrictions on use in the future.
Public Relations and Parking
Directions to Worley's Cave are in the Driver's Direction
File, The people who live around the entrance don't own the
cave, but you do have to cross their property to get to it.
The Peters family lives in the white house beside the road;
ask permission to zo through their gate. . Often, they aren't
home or don't answer. In that case, leave a letter in a
sealed envelope at their door (see the sample letter below).
Sample Letter to Leave at the White House
The van left in front of your house belongs to the
North Carolina Outward Bound School; we've left it there
while we explore the cave with our students. It will be
there until . Please call the sheriff if you see
anyone trying to get into it before then.
We have permission from Mr. Lowry to enter the cave.
The folks at our base camp know when we are to return and
will come after us if we're late, so please don't worry if
we are not out exactly on time.
We'll try to be quiet as we pass your house, and we'll
make sure to fasten any gates we pass through.
Thanks a lot,
NCOBS
Some guidelines
- Pull the van off the left side of the road beside the
fence just beyond the Peters' house. . Get as close to
the fence as possible. The van should be headed the
wrong way on the wrong side of the road.
Other people have reported break-ins with their vehicle
so keep the key, don't leave valuables, and cover up
any gear left behind.
Act very civilized until you are out of sight and ear-
shot of the road and the house. Do not change clothes
around the car or make noise late at night.
Make sure you close all gates.
Never leave any garbage or used carbide anywhere in the
area. Carbide is poisonous to cattle.
41
.
46
42
- Bring the honey bucket back to base!
Orientation
The base camps are shown on the maps. Camp 1 requires
care, as it receives heavy use from OB crews. The steps up
the slope become slippery when wet, so a handline is neces--
sary; it can be anchored on a boulder to the right at the top
of the slope. Bring a shovel to re-shape the steps if neces-
sary, but carve only what is needed. Leave the honey bucket
in the corridor between the mudslope and the camp; this loc-
ation minimizes erosion of the slope by making it unnecessary
to descend to the stream to relieve oneself (see "Cave Ethics,
ny 169.
To the left of the slope and near the top, there is a
long narrow ledge about 60' above the stream. A fixed line
can be anchored at one end of a flake next to the slope, and
into a thread-through at the other end. This makes a good
group-solo site.
The stream can be waded its entire length, with the
exception of a siphon downstream from Camp 1. The water is
not safe to drink; crews must carry in drinking water.
A short trip could be to explore the Railroad Passage
and come back out. A longer day would go to the Virgin
Passage and return. A trip all the way to the back, assuming
no navigational errors and no side trips, would make for a
long, hard day.
SIPHON
CArTO'S CLiM&
TRAVERSE ROOM - REQUIRES ROPE WORK ——
Mud CLIME
BONE ROOM - SINK OPENING
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T> WHETHER OR NOT TO FPKLOCEED
SEYOND FEPER'S LEPGE. Evac-
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RECOMMENDED
ENTRANCE
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
CNCOBS Logistics )
YOU WANT IT WHEN ?!
46
Logistics is a support service; it provides most of the
materials to run an Outward Bound course: food, equipment,
and first aid supplies and transportation. The logistics
staff is dedicated to providing whatever is needed to in-
sure the best possible experience for the students. They
are not totally rigid, and will try to meet special re-—
quests whenever possible. They are not, however, infinitely
flexible, because they do not have infinite energy.
They can't do the whole job themselves, and therefore
need your cooperation. By following the procedural guide
below you will help logistics to run more smoothly. On
occasion, the logistics staff may ask you to help in other
ways. If something does not go well, please be patient;
they are doing the best they can, and will try to correct
it as soon as possible.
The information in this section will help you under-
stand the range of responsibilities the logistics staff
handles, and also the procedures they use to organize your
resupplies, food boxes, equipment bins, etc.
EQUIPMENT
GEAR ISSUE
Each crew has its own bin in the warehouse. Before
the course begins, the bin is stocked by the logistics
staff. Check it to be sure you have everything before the
students arrive; a checklist is included in this book. If
there are any discrepancies, see a logistics person to
correct them. At the same time, check the condition of the
equipment, especially:
sleeping bag zippers
compasses for fluid
pack liners (re-use only the good ones)
tarps and ground cloths for holes
carabiners for sticky gates
repair kit and first aid kit for completeness
stoves - make sure they work (see pp. 50-54) for more
on stoves).
RESPONSIBILITY
Students must be held responsible fpr the equipment
issued to them. One way to split up the financial responsi-
bility is to have the whole crew be responsible for all the
gear issued both to individuals and to the crew. This eli-
Minates the possibility of Billy taking Mary's spoon when
he loses his, or everyone giggling as John's sleeping bag
burns. An alternative is to have everyone be responsible
for group gear, and individuals responsible for personal
equipment. In either case, impress upon students the need
for proper care of equipment, and talk about responsibility
when you issue equipment. Students will be required to
pay for lost gear and damages due to negligence (i.e. burn
holes in sleeping bags, torn ground cloths, sat-upon com-
passes). The instructor will decide, with the logistics
chief if necessary. what is negligence.
Instructors take a share in responsibility equal to
the share each student takes--if there are 12 students and
2 instructors, each of them is responsible for the cost of
1/14th of the lost or damaged equipment. While students
must pay their 1/14th of the cost, however, instructors’
shares are absorbed by the school; they need pay nothing.
VALUABLES
When equipment is issued, each student is asked to put
her personable valuables in an envelope and seal it; the
valuables are stored for the duration of the course in
the safe in the warehouse. Encourage students to put
cigarettes in with their valuables; since they can not get
into their valuables until the course ends, temptation
for cigarettes (or anything else that may tempt them)
is eliminated. Personal duffle bags are stored in the locked
warehouse bins.
RESUPPLIES
Before you leave on an expedition, check all your equip-
ment again. Resupply your crew with first aid supplies,
fuel, parachute cord, and anything else you may have been
using up. Mobile resupplies will not generally include
equipment unless it is specifically requested in advance, but
will include fuel and limited first aid supplies--generally
moleskin, bandaids, tape, iodine, and other frequently-used
items. Be sure that you have the correct maps for any up-
coming expeditions, or that you have arranged for the logis-
tics staff to bring them to you,
CHECK-IN
On the last full day of the course, the instructor
and crew will check in all equipment (except sleeping bags
and camping equipment that may be needed the last night out)
47
48
with a logistics person at a set time. Have the crew thor-
oughly clean the equipment, especially the stoves; logistics
folks can tell you where to find Brasso, Ajax, sponges,
hoses, etc. At Table Rock, put the utensils through the
dishwasher.
The logistics staff cannot check the condition of e-
very piece of equipment each course, so it is important
that you check it and tell them what needs replacing or
repairing. Also, check to see that sleeping bags are
zipped up at least half-way before stuffing them into
laundry bags for cleaning.
Damaged and lost equipment is paid for at the store
on the last morning when the crew buys maps, t-shirts,
etc.
MAPS
The idea behind the present map policy is to encour-
age students to buy maps they used after each course, thus
enabling each crew to use new maps. If it is to work, you
must make sure your students take good care of their maps,
and encourage them in whatever way you feel comfortable to
buy maps.
Here's how it works: Maps are kept in a locked bin
in the warehouse, and are closely inventoried. Four maps
of each quad the crew will use, and 4 map bags are issued
at the beginning of each course or expedition. At the
end of the course, students may purchase their used maps
for $1 apiece (please decide before your time in the
store who is buying what). Maps which are not to be pur-
chased must be turned in, in good shape, with other gear.
Lost or damaged maps cost $1 apiece.
RRR
This is the equipment list that will be issued with
your equipment.
EQUIPMENT CHECK LIST
Please check to be sure that you have everything on the
individual list and that your crew has everything on the
crew list. The replacement cost is our cost plus 25% to
cover reordering, etc. There will be a charge for repairs
needed because of negligence, but not normal wear and tear.
Everyone in the crew should sign the back side of this
sheet, signifying that everyone has read this, received the
equipment, and understands that you must pay for the items
lost.
ITEM Cost ITEM Cost
pack $50.00 water bottle $ 1.00
sleeping bag 50.00 canteen cup 1.00
poncho 5.00 spoon 75
carabiner 5.50 pack liner me b
sling rope 3.00 stuff sack 1.50
compass 5.00 ground cloth 1.50
whistle 49 match case ate
iodine bottle 1.00
CREW
111B stove 45.00 shovel
123 stove 20.00 tarps
large pots 10.00 first aid kit
small pots 9.00 tree book
serving spoons 1.00 flower book
spatulas 1.00 cookbook
funnels . 30 expedition
spice containers 50 rope
frying pans 5.00 repair kit
water bottle : 1.00 stove pump
canteen for soap 1.00 griff ties
burlap trash bag afd candle
liner tape
fuel bottles 4.50 burner plate
journals stove wrench
stove cap
map cases
valuable envelopes gasket
candles
These are 1979 prices. Prices will vary yearly;
current ones will be printed on the sheet you are issued.
50
THE OPTIMUS 111B STOVE: OPERATION
To set up: Open the lid of the box so that it forms
a windshield and pull down the front part of the tank.
Put on the wheel. To clean the nipple, turn it to the left;
to shut it off, turn it to the right; for a full flame,
turn it to the center.
Filling: Use only white gas or Coleman fuel. Do
not fill the tank to more than 3/4 capacity. The tank
will not hold pressure if it is full (You cannot compress
a liquid with a pump).
CAUTIONS: FUEL SHOULD ALWAYS BE STORED A SAFE DISTANCE FROM
THE STOVE WHEN IT iS BEING OPERATED. CARE SHOULD BE: TAKEN
TO NOTE THE WIND DIRECTION IN RELATION TO THE FUEL STORAGE
AREA SO THAT FUMES CONNOT REACH THE FLAME SOURCE AND VICE
VERSA. ALWAYS FILL STOVES FAR FROM ANY SOURCE OF FIRE OR
FLAME.
Heating: Screw on the tank lid tightly. Give the
pump a few strokes with the stove turned off. Open the
spindle by turning the wheel a little to the left, letting
the gasoline ooze out through the nipple until the spirit
cup is filled almost to the brim. Turn the wheel back to
the right as far as possible (turning the stove off), and
light the gas in the spirit cup.
Lighting: When the gasoline in the spirit cup is almost
gone (not Before) open the spindle by turning it a little
to the left, letting the gas out through the nipple. The
gas should ignite. Give the pump 10-15 strokes. For a full
flame turn the wheel to the center.
Regulating the flame: Turning the wheel a little more
to the Fett wit] give a bigger flame, to the right, a
smaller flame. The flame should not be regulated with
the cleaning needle.
Extinguishing: Turn the wheel to the right as far
as possible and leave it in that position.
Cleaning the nipple: While the stove is burning, turn
the wheel as far to the left as possible, and then quickly:
back again. Keep a lighted match ready, should the flame
go out.
To replace the cleaning needle:
Take off the flame ring and screw out the nipple
with the wrench.
Turn the wheel to the left and take out the clean-
ing needle. Then turn the wheel back to the right
as far as possible.
Replace the cleaning needle with the cogs against
the cogs of the spindle.
Turn the wheel 1/3 turn to the left to let 3 or 4
cogs pass. While doing this, keep the needle
pressed hard against the cogs of the spindle so
that a click is heard for each cog passed.
Turn the wheel as far to the right as possible
and screw in the nipple. If the cleaning needle
is put in correctly, it should be visible in the
nipple hole after turning the wheel not more than
1/3 turn to the left from the closed position.
REPAIR
If the stove leaks: Be sure the valve spindle has been
turned all the way to the right, if. the leakage occurs while
the stove is not in use. If the cleaning needle is not
synchronized with the spindle, this may also cause leakage.
If the stove won't shut off, check to see if it takes more
than 1/2 turn of the wheel to bring the cleaning needle up.
If it does, follow the directions for replacing the cleaning
needle to reposition the needle. If vapor leaks out at the
regulating spindle, screw the nut in a little tighter.
If the flame is erratic or unbalanced: Clean the nipple
and/or reposition the Cleaning needle.
Yellow flame can be caused by: Insufficient pre-heating
(start over); low pressure (pump more); a loose nipple
(tighten); carbon or food on the burner (clean).
Low pressure can result from: a bad pump gasket (re-
place or put paraffin on); the tank lid on too loose
(tighten); a bad tank lid (replace).
If the pump does not work: the leather packing has
probably become dry. Unscrew the pump lid and take out
the pump rod. Soak the leather washer with paraffin or
vaseline and replace the pump rod, taking care not to damage
the washer. This can be done safely while the stove is
burning. There is a replacement pump in the repair kit.
52
If a small flame forms at the valve on the tank lid,
turn the stove off and allow it to cool. Too much pressure
has built up inside the tank. DO NOT remove the tank lid
until the stove is cool.
If the flame comes out of the tank at the pump, TURN
THE STOVE OFF IMMEDIATELY and do not use it. You cannot
fix this in the field, and using it in this condition can
be dangerous.
—Support for
pot
protective ~<
shield —7
tank lid
pump rod
piston
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
o6
THE PEAK 1 STOVE: OPERATION
To set up: Open up the three legs on the bottom of the
stove and set it up on a level surface.
Filling: Same as for Optimus 111B stove. Move the red
lever to the OFF position (see Fig. 1),
Pumping: Make sure the tank lid is on tight and the
red lever is still in the OFF position. Turn the pump knob
to the left one turn. With your thumb over the hole in
the pump knob, pump 25-50 strokes. Then close the pump
knob back to the right.
Lighting: Move the black lever to the HI position
(see Fig. I). Hold a lighted match at the burner cap
and move the red lever straight down to the LIGHT position.
(see Fig. 1) As soon as the stove lights, pump ict several
more times until the flame becomes stable. After two
minutes, or when there is no more yellow flame, move the
red lever to the RUN position (See Fig. 1).
peguiating the flame: Move the black lever between LO
and HI,
Extinguishing the flame: Move the red lever to OFF.
Sometimes it is neces_ary to blow the flame out.
Cleaning the orifice: While the stove is burning, move
the black lever from LO to HI several times.
REPAIR
If the stove leaks at the levers: tighten the packing
nuts that hold the levers in place.
If the flame is erratic or unbalanced: clean the orifice
and/or pump more.
Yellow flame or low pressure: may. be repaired as
the 111B stove, except that there is no nipple to tighten
in the Peak l.
If the pump does not work: Remove the clip from the
pump Cap (see Fig. 2). Turn the pump knob counter-clock-
wise several turns to disengage the air.stem; then pull out
the whole pump assembly. Work several drops of oil or
vaseline into the pump leather. Replace.
THE PEAK 1 STOVE
Figure l
black lever red lever
Off <
Ns
. |
High €% Low Light
—
Figure 2
cup
Pump Leather
Air stem
TRANSPORTATION
DRIVING POLICIES
Driving is one of the highest-risk activities that
Outward Bound is involved in. Mountain roads, the unknown
of the other driver, and having’ 15 people in a van can
combine to create a disaster. The safe operation of the
vehicles is vital to the program.
To maintain driving safety, we have the following
procedures:
- You must have a valid driver's license, and pass the
NCOBS driver's test, before you can drive any school
vehicles.The driver's test is described on p. 57.
MAXIMUM speed on gravel mountain roads is 15 miles
per hour.
In order to monitor safe driving, we need feedback
from you on others' driving. Please don't consider
this to be ratting on your colleagues. It is hard
to criticize another's driving, but we need to know
who is and who is not driving safely. Please speak
to anyone you feel you can: the individual who is
speeding, course director, logistics staff, whoever.
‘Please provide us with feedback on inconsiderate
driving or poor judgement as well.
If you damage a vehicle through negligence, you may
be asked to pay part of the damages. An investiga-
tion of the accident will be conducted by a-committee
of persons involved, the logistics staff, and other
senior ‘staff. Please notify the logistics staff of
any damages, no matter how small.
On rare occasions, the use of personal vehicles is
unavoidable, and we may ask you to use your own vehi-
cle for school business. You, of course, have the
right to refuse. You will be reimbursed at a rate
consistent with costs at the time. Please report
Mileage to the logistics chief for reimbursement.
Driving probation is a possibility for staff who
have been found to be driving unsafely.
NEVER LET A STUDENT DRIVE A VEHICLE.
GAS
Each vehicle has a Texaco credit card in the glove
compartment. Keep a record of the gas and oil you put in,
the mileage, and any suspicious sounds or behavior of the
56
vehicle, in the record book in the glove compartment. Try
not to bring a vebicle up the mountain with less than half
a tank of gas.
EMERGENCIES
- A vehicle first aid kit is located under the front
passenger seat: Contents are listed on page 171.
- The tire jack and lug wrench are located under the
driver's seat (under the hood of the pick-up truck).
A vehicle emergency kit is located in each vehicle
with emergency items for break-downs. Contents are:
SHELL Emergency Repair manual, flashlight, duct tape,
wire, paper clip, pliers, screwdriver, resistor for
the electrical system, flares. In the winter, a
sleeping bag is also carried.
DIRECTIONS
A Driver's Direction File is in the glove compartment
of each vehicle. If directions are missing for where you're
going, please make a note of how you got there so the
file can be updated.
IF YOU NOTICE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE VEHICLES,
TELL A MAINTENANCE OR LOGISTICS PERSON.
DRIVING QUALIFICATION ‘EST
POSSIBLE POINTS
Check and adjust mirrors 5
Adjust seat to reach pedals if 5
necessary
Fasten seat belt - check passenger 10
belt aiso
Start engine, put in gear, release 5
emergency brake (check order of
operation)
Clutch control - come to a complete
Siop in middle of ascending hill--then
begin up hill again.
a. use of low gear
b. use of clutch with brake - rolling
backwards
c. changing gears smoothly
Use of horns at curve
Keep to right whenever possible
Execute a three point turn - control
in reverse
Sneed control--15 mph a must!
On-coming vehicle adjustment
Use of brake--brake before curve, then
accelerate
Total points
Fewer than 80 points - Fail.
FOOD
FOOD BOXES
Before each expedition or activity, your crew will be
given a food box containing, for example, 3 breakfasts,
3 lunches, and 3 dinners. The food will not be divided into
meals in the box, however, nor will the crew be given a menu;
they must decide how to ration the food through each day.
A book of recipes, specifically for the foods used, is
issued with the rest of the crew's equipment. Your crew will
undoubtedly come up with recipes of its own, some of which will
be better than the ones in the recipe book, and others--
well--different.
When you°-are planning your course, you will need to
get together with a logistics person to tell her how many
meals you will need for each part of your course. In order
to insure variety, your meals will be planned over the entire
course (so you won't get mackerel for dinner 5 times).
For each day, you'll get 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner, 1
snack, and additional items rationed, over the length of the
expedition. These include flour mix, cocoa, brown sugar,
and similar items that can be used in many different meals.
Food boxes will be waiting for you outside the food
hut at whatever time you request them from the logistics
staff, as long as you give them 2 or 3 days advance notice.
Each box will contain a bunch of food plus a food list. The
foods checked off on the list are the ones in the box: the
ones for your crew for your next expedition or activity. Each
check mark indicates 1 serving for the entire crew (i.e. 14
apples, 4 cans of mackerel, 2 lb. of noodles). The initials
of the person who packed the box will be at the bottom
of the sheet. Save a list of the items which were missiny
(packing errors), or of which you did not have enough (plan-
ning errors) so the logistics folks can maintain some
quality control. Sometimes substitutions must be made, so
if you get filet mignon instead of mackerel, just take it
in stride. If your crew is carrying more than 5 days' worth
of food, freeze-dried items will be substituted for some
of the fresh ones.
Empty food boxes should be returned to the food hut.
Leave plastic food containers, rinsed out, inside them for
re-use.
IN-CAMP FOOD
Crews at Table Rock may choose to eat breakfast and
dinner in the dining hall, in which case their food boxes
while in camp will contain only lunches and snacks. Stu-
dents should be reminded not to keep food boxes in cabins,
as they attract critters. Crews at Green Cove, where there
are no kitchen facilities, or crews at Table Rock choosing
to "eat out" will receive full food boxes for in-camp
meals. If the food lists in these boxes indicate fresh
eggs, bacon, ground beef, hard-boiled eggs, salami, or other
fresh foods, these will be in the kitchen refrigerator and
must be eaten within an hour after their removal.
FINAL EXPEDITION FOOD
Your crew can use one of the lists it receives ina
food box to plan their food for final expedition. The food
prices and budget per person per day will vary with the
economy; check with a logistics person on prices for your
course. The price given for each item is the price for
a serving of that for a whole crew (i.e. 65¢ for 2 lb. of
noodles, $1.70 for 4 cans of mackerel). Please arrange to
deliver your final food list to the logistics staff 3-4 days
in advance of when you will need it ready. As usual, the
staff reserves the right to make substitutions.
Occasionally, during the off-season, it is possible to
let a crew pack their own final expedition food. See a
logistics person if you would like to do this with your crew.
SOLO FOOD
Each student receives:
- 1 roll or equal amount of crackers
- 1/2 1b. cheese
- 1 cup nuts
1/2 lb. dried fruit
l orange
This is designed to be light-weight and non-perishable
so it can be carried throughout main expedition, if necessary.
It provides students with about 2,000 calories over the three
days. With the option to fast, and without a special off
solo meal, remind students that it is important to begin, at
-least the night before solo ends, to eat. Suggest they eat
the fruit to break fast, then, throughout the night and
60
next morning, nibble on the rest of the items. They should
continue eating small snacks through the solo debrief, and
by dinner should be able to eat a small portion. Drinking
water aids digestion. An easily digested meal for the
off-solo feast is a soup with fish, vegetables, potatoes,
etc. This should help them cope with the quantities and
bulk of final expedition food.
Instructors have the option to receive any or all of
the following:
loaf- bread 1c. noodles
lb. cheese tuna
c. peanut butter tomato paste
1b. snacks soup mix
1b. nuts onions
1b. drinks veggies
c. rice 2c. fleur
c. potatoes 1 1b. margarine
1 1b. sugar
raisins
. granola
milk
oatmeal
applesauce
cocoa
pkg. cookies
lb. M & M's
ead dl
eh he
You will be given a sheet to fill out, indicating which
of the above you would like, when you plan your food boxes
with the logistics staff. Treated gently, these folks are
very good about trying to accommodate special requests, as
long as you don't request anything too outrageous or
expensive, or thatthe health department says needs to be
refrigerated.
This FOOD PACKING GUIDE shows how much of what is
planned for each of 5 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 6 dinners,
plus the possible snacks and ext:ras.
BREAKFAST
oatmeal 1§1/2 1b.
- granola 3 1b.
. bulghur 2 1b.
powdered eggs 1 1b.
cheese 1§1/2 1b.
pancakes 2 lb.
LUNCH
- peanut butter mix 2 1b.
apple butter 2 lb.
tunafish 8 6§1/2-0z. cans
sardines 3 15-0z. cans
cheese 3 1b.
hard-boiled eggs 28
cheese 1 lb.
- bologna or salami 2 lb.
cheese 1 1b.
beef jerky 1/2 lb.
cheese 1 lb.
SNACKS
1§1/2 1b. of
figs
apricots
dates
mixed fruit
raisins
peanut and soybean mix
DINNERS
1. ground beef 3 lb.
or TVP 2 cups
noodles 2 lb.
or potatoes 1 lb.
. tuna 8 6§1/2-0z cans
noodles 2 lb.
or
rice 2 lb.
Plus the following:
miik 3 ib.
wheat germ 1 lb.
bran 1 lb.
margarine 2 lb.
raisins 2 lb.
brown sugar 2 lb.
Pius each day:
1 loaf of bread or 1
lb. of crackers
14 oranges or apples
1 gallon fruit drink
DINNERS, cont.
bulghur 2 lb.
split peas/lentils 1 lb.
carrots 2 lb.
mackerel 4 14-o0z. cans
potatoes 1 lb.
chicken 50 oz.
Trice 2 is.
corned beef 4 15-o0z.
cans
cabbage
potatoes 1 lb.
FOOD PACKING GUIDE, cont.
In Addition to Dinners: -
tomato paste 24 oz.
onions 6
dried onions 2 c.
dried peppers 2c.
dried celery 2c.
dried peas or combination veggies 2 c.
2 1b. carrots
applesauce nuggets 2c.
bacon bits 2 c.
flour mix 2 1b.
cocoa 3 lb.
S620 2G.
puddings 2
tea
soup bases-mushroom, minestrone, chicken
cheese 3 1b.
matches
extra bags
toilet paper
gumbo, onion
This FOOD PLANNING list is the list you will receive
in each food box:
This list should be used to plan final food. It must
be in the hands of the logistics person 3 days before the
final expedition. The whole crew must have the same menu;
the budget is $1.60 per person per day. We reserve the right
to substitute items which are unavailable.
MEAT FISH
ground beef $3.16 mackerel
corned beef 3.88 tuna
bologna 2.20 sardines
chicken 2.88
beef jerky 4.50
GRAIN PRODUCTS FRUITS
bulgur oranges
wheat germ apples
bran figs
flour mix apricots
bread raisins
noodles dates
rice mixed dried
oatmeal apple sauce
granola
crackers
OTHERS SPICES (no charge)
margarine salt
tomato paste pepper
bacon bits oregano
matches thyme
soup bases _ chili powder
TVP curry
extra bags cinnamon
toilet paper garlic
FOOD PLANNING list, cont.
DAIRY PRODUCTS LEGUMES
powdered milk $1.35 split peas
1 1b. cheddar cheese 1.49 lentils
1.1b. muenster cheese 1.49 peanut butter
1 1b. lappi cheese 1.39 peanut and
hard-boiled eggs 1.42 soybean mix
powdered eggs Lael
VEGETABLES, freeze-dried VEGETABLES, fresh
peppers carrots
onions onions
potatoes, diced cabbage
potatoes, flaked ; potatoes
peas
combination
BEVERAGES SWEETS
tea « 30 apple butter 45
cocoa — 3.00 brown sugar .70
fruit drink 1.00 pudding 1.00
These are 1979 prices. They will vary each year; cur-
rent prices will be printed on the food lists in your food
boxes.
The
Course
Environment
GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS
The Appalachians are among the oldest mountains in the
world; some geologists believe they are the oldest. 3000
million years ago, the Pre-Cambrian foundations of these
mountains were being laid. In ensuing years, these sediments
and volcanic deposits were so changed by heat and pressure as
tc make their origins unrecognizable. They were twisted and
tilted, cracks were opened and filled with sediment or lava;
everything was shoved around. This was all before the begin-
ning of life on earth, so these rocks harbored no fossils, and
since these ancients make up so large a portion of the Appal-
achians, there are few fossils in these mountains.
2800 million years later, towards the close of the Pale-
ozoic Era, pressure from both sides pushed these rocks up like
wrinkles in a rug, into a set of spectacular moountains about
the size of the present-day Alps. Then the rivers went to
work eroding, and within a few tens of millions of years, the
mountains were gone, except for a few low hills. There fol-+
lowed a long, slow uplifting of this plain, with the rivers
carving gorges and ridges as fast as the uplift occurred.
The Blue Ridge to the east was the most impenetrable of the
ridges; hence it became the eastern continental divide, al-
though the Smoky-Unaka-Unicoi-Bald-Stone Mountain chain to the
west eventually became higher.
These periods of uplift and erosion were repeated at least
twice, with the softer rocks washing away down the gorges
and the hardest remaining as lofty peaks. The rivers chose
to cut a confused series of cross ridges between the eastern
Blue Ridge and the Western Smoky chain; the highest peak
in the East, Mt. Mitchell (6684'), sits on one of these. The
erosion, of course, continues today, but for now we are left
with 43 peaks over 6000' and 82 over 500@' in North Carolina
alone ~~ far higher, on the average, than any of the ranges
in New England.
PLEISTOCENE ICE SHEETS
A more recent event--the coming of the ice sheets of the
Pleistocene Epoch--accounts for the great variety of plants
in North Carolina. While the ice sheets did not actually
reach this area, the cold climate they pushed south brought
many new plants, which found themselves adequate homes on lo-
cal mountain tops. When the climate changed again, many of
these plants, like many a southern mountaineer, decided it was
nicer to stay. Meanwhile, the old sub-tropical vegetation
returned with the warmer climate, and Carolina formed the odd
meeting place of the sub-tropical with the sub-Artic.
CAVE FORMATIONS
The majority of the caves in this area date back to the
Pliocene era, making them about 3950 million years younger
than the mountains out of which they are carved. Most of
them occur in limestone, or Karst areas, characterized by
dolines (sinkholes), limestone outcroppings, shallow holes
into which surface stream water runs and disappears, and
rolling hills.
The chief constituent of limestone is calcium carbonate
or calcite (CaCO.), which is soluble in carbonic acid (H,CO,).
This acid occurs” commonly in nature when carbon dioxide
(cO,) in the air or soil dissolves in water. When this acid
comés into contact with limestone, the CaCO. goes into the
solution as bicarbonate (HCO,). Chemically” speaking:
carbon carbonic
dioxide water acid solution
co ¢ fo = s 3
2 2° <= a
—= H"+ HCO
Glee
H+ WOO, ct att. «Fes 3NC0.”
oe 3
solution calcite calcium bicarbon-
ate
Most caves are formed by this slow solutional process,
not by the action of streams and erosion as is the case on
the surface, though erosion may cause some enlargement of
caves.
It is believed that these caves formed at a time when
the limestone of which they are formed was under the water
table. Water worked its solutional powers in the limestone
along bedding places, faults, and cracks. The angle formed
between a bedding plane (or stratum) and the horizon is
called the dip, while the line is called the strike. Caves
of the Appalachian pattern extend along the strike, with
floors and ceilings inclined with the dip. Worley's Cave,
for example, looks like this in a cross-section:
stratum B
stream passage The strike extends
is "down dip" ® into the sheet
from upper Q ‘of paper in this
passage. ipn%e diagram.
s
The temperature of limestone caves remains stable
throughout the year at the average annual temperature of
the area the cave is in--here about 55° F. The relative
humidity in most caves is right at 100%.
A speleothem is a cave mineral deposit. Most are formed
by a single basic method; in essence the reverse process
of limestone solution. CaCO, can be formed out of solution
just as it can be dissolved.” Water in a cave holds a certain
amount of dissolved CaCO,. As the Co, in the water escapes,
CaCO. is released. This* results in déposits of calcite; de-
pending on how this is deposited, various formations grow.
Since deposition is controlled by release of CO, (not eva-
poration of water: it would be hard for water t6 evaporate
in an atmosphere that approaches 100% humidity), deposition
can occur only in well-ventilated parts of the cave, and
speleothems rarely develop deep inside.
Stalactites hang down from the ceiling. They are
tubular, like a straw; hence the common name soda straw
for the smaller ones. They are formed as calcite-bearing
water drips from cracks in the ceiling and loses its CO,,
leaving anever-lengthening calcite deposit. The growth of
a stalactite is variable from 1/100th" to 1/10th" a year,
depending on the amount of calcite in solution and the
acidity of the water.
Stalagmites are formed when water drips onto the cave
floor. Here the CO, is not released until the water hits the
floor, and the calcite deposit is thus left on the floor.
When a stalactite and stalagmite flow together, one rising
from the floor and one growing downward from the ceiling, a
column results.
If calcite-bearing water flows down the walls of a cave,
a sheet of calcite may result, called flowstone. Sometimes
these flowstone formations may be deposited over a clay or
gravel wall which is later washed away, leaving curtains of
flowstone. Curtains also occur where many stalactites grow
next to one another into a wide sheet.
Rimstone dam formation has not yet adequately been ex-
plained. The best theory is that water flowing over the lip
of the dam is agitated slightly, causing a release of CO,,
with its concommitant calcite deposit. This occurs more“at
— —) which accounts for the development of the wall of
the dam.
70
Helectites are rare speleothems about 1/4" in diameter
and several inches in length which seem to defy gravity
as they twist up and down and straight out of cave walls.
A theory about their formation is that they have a small cen-
tral canal through which water is forced, but the flow is so
slow that no drop of water that is formed on the end can be
affected by gravity.
HISTORY
THE FIRST INHABITANTS
The first inhabitants of these mountains came here to
hunt game about 12,000 years ago. They were nomads, hunters
and gatherers who had no permanent settlements.
About 5,000 years ago, they settled into the arable
valleys east of the mountains and began to raise corn, beans,
squash, and melons (these are still the most common sub-
sistence crops in these mountains). They developed use of
the bow and arrow and fashioned pottery out of the clay,
or kaolin, which is still mined here. Eventually, the
group in this area became known as the Catawba Indians.
Meanwhile, the Cherokee Indians migrated down from the
mid-west, and began to squabble with the Catawbas over who
had the rights to which land. Legends tell of a major war
near the end of the 17th century, which ended in an agree-
ment that the Cherokees would stay west of the French Broad
River and the Catawbas east of the Catawba River, with the
land in between becoming a common hunting ground.
THE FIRST EUROPEANS
The first Europeans to come into the area were gold-
seeking Spaniards from the south: Hernando de Soto in 1540
and Juan Pardo in 1566. There is still evidence in the Toe
River Valley of ancient mines which these Spaniards may have
dug; the earliest white settlers found them there more than
200 years later, and the local Indians had no tradition
which explained their origin. In any event, these explorers
were gone within a few years, driven out by unfriendly
Indians and unproductive mines.
It was 100 years before Europeans invaded the mountains
again: in 1673 Abraham Wood, James Needham, and Gabriel Ar-
thur penetrated the Blue Ridge from the east, and may have
gone as far as the Great Smokies. This opened the way for
the development of a lucrative trading business--Europeans'
guns, knives, and powder for the Indians' furs and skins.
THE FIRST SETTLERS
Early in the 18th century, there were few conflicts
between the few settlers and the Indians‘of the western
mountains. The settlers had little use for the mountainous:
Cherokee country, and the Catawba on the piedmont were
friendly. European diseases, particularly smallpox and
alcoholism, wiped out many of the Indians: by 1784 there were
71
74
72
only 250 Catawbas left in the valleys. An outbreak of small
pox in 1738 cut the numbers of Cherokees in half--from 16,000
to 8,000.
By the 1760's, however, the ever-increasing numbers of
settlers were beginning to encroach upon Cherokee lands in
the mountains. Reports of raids, scalpings, and skirmish-
es became ever more frequent. Two of the better-known
victims were William Linville and his son, who in 1766 were
killed and scalped by Cherokees in the gorge which has since
been named for them. The king did not wish to displace the
Cherokees, as he had found their presence a handy buffer
between the English settlements and the French in Louisiana
during the recent French and Indian War. So the mountains
were closed to settlement in 1763, by royal edict.
While this stopped the flow of settlers from the east,
it did not slow those who were coming down from Virginia and
moving into the headwaters of the Watauga (near Grandfather)
and Nolichucky Rivers (near Mt. Mitchell and the Roan).
These were the Scotch-Irish (Scots who had settled in Ire-
land, not a national or racial mix) who had been taxed and
regulated out of their homeland, and had come to the new
world to escape the edicts of the British crown. If they
knew of the ruling against settlement, they paid it no heed.
Some of them did, however, buy their lands from the Cherokees
when they arrived.
THE REVOLUTION
In 1778 the royal edict was lifted, but by then it did-
n't matter, because the crown had lost control of its Amer-
ican states forever. At the outbreak of the revolution, the
British Indian agent in North Carolina persuaded the Cher-
okees to fight with the British against the settlers, since
the crown had, after all, protected Cherokee lands, and the
settlers were antagonizing the Cherokees by trading rum to
their youths. There followed another series of raids and
scalpings, which was quelled by General Griffith Rutherford
and 2400 troops in the summer of 1776. Leaving their head-
quarters at Old Fort, they marched along “Rutherford's
Trace" into the area around Green Cove and north, destroying
36 villages along the Oconoluftee, Tuckaseegee, Hiwassee and
Little Tennessee Rivers. In the July 20, 1777 Treaty of
Long Island (Holston River), the Cherokee ceded all their
lands east of the Blue Ridge and lands in, the Watauga, Noli-
chucky, Holston, and New River valleys. At this early point
in the war, the Cherokee took the brunt of British losses
in this area.
THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN: THE "OVER-THE-MOUNTAIN
BOYS" PIONEER NCOBS EXPEDITION ROUTES
The war continued on the coast and piedmont, but did
not again reach the mountains until 1780, when the British
Colonel Ferguson sent word to the mountains that he would
burn the homes of all settlers who did not swear allegiance
to the crown. Over a thousand settlers (called the "Over-
the-Mountain Boys") gathered in Elizabethton, Tennessee
(near Worley's Cave) and marched to King's Mountain, South
Carolina, where they let Ferguson know that neither alter-
native was acceptable; they killed him in a resounding de-
feat of which their descendents are extremely proud.
Their route will sound familiar to anyone who has ex-
peditioned out of Table Rock: from Elizabethton they went
over the Roan, camped at Bright's Spring, and headed down
Roaring Creek and the Toe River to Spruce Pine, where they
camped on Grassy Creek. From there, half went down Turkey
Cove to camp near the junction of North Cove and Armstrong
Creeks, while the others went up North Cove and Honeycutt
Branch, Skirting south of Linville Mountain, they took
the Yellow Mountain road down Paddie's Creek to the Catawba
River, and reunited in Quaker Meadows, where K-Mart and
Food World now stand.
te
Le
INDIAN REMOVAL
After the war, the country was again opened to settle-
ment, a land office was opened, and speculation began.
Soldiers were paid off for their service in land, and John
Dillard (whose progeny started the Dillard House) was among
those who staked their claims in the Little Tennessee Valley.
Many settlers moved into what was still, by treaty,
Indian land. This caused sporadic fighting in which the
Cherokee were repeatedly defeated. After a while, the Indian
leaders determined that their people should be put on a par
with the settlers, which they hoped to accomplish by adopt-
ing the settlers' culture. They set up their own industrial,
educational, and farming systems, set up a Republican gov-
ernment and adopted a constitution (modeled on the U.S.A.'s),
and one chief, Sequoia, invented an alphabet for the Cherokee
language. In the early 19th century, more Indians than
whites in the region were literate. ‘
It was all to no avail, however. In addition to the
white demand for farmland, pressure on the Cherokee shot
up when gold was discovered in the mountains in 1828.
73
76
74
President Jackson determined to remove all the Cherokee
once and for all, to "Indian Territory" where they belonged,
in what is now Oklahoma. This surprised and disappointed
the Cherokee, since they had fought with the U.S. in the
War of 1812, and one chief, Junaluska, had saved Jackson's
life at the Battle of the Horseshoe. Davy Crockett, Daniel
Webster, and Cherokee Chief John Ross all fought the removal
in Congress, but this path of lawful resistance did the Cher-
okee no good.
General Winfield Scott, with a regiment of artillery
and 4000 volunteers, began to round up the Cherokee in the
spring of 1838. The removal took place over the winter,
leaving the mountains in October and arriving in Oklahoma
in March, 1839. Of the 20,000 Cherokee who started the
march, at lease 4,000 died along the way: their trail is
called "The Trail of Tears".
TSALI
A large group of Cherokee refused to leave, hiding in
the coves and caves to escape Scott's troops. The leader
of this group was Tsali, or Charley. Since Scott couldn't
catch the fugitives, he made a deal; if Tsali and his sons
surrendered, the others could stay in peace. Tsali agreed,
and when he, his brother, and two sons surrendered, Scott
had them shot. The remaining fugitives have grown into the
present eastern band of Cherokee, who were finally given a
reservation in the Smokies in 1876. By 1969, their number
on this Qualla Reservation was about 6500.
MORE SETTLERS
With the Indians removed, settlement could continue in
earnest. But the land was no less harsh and isolated than
it had been before the removal. One native said later of his
claim, "This is good strong land, or it wouldn't hold up all
the rocks there is around hyur"*+. Another described travel-
ing from Atlanta to his home in Rabun County (south of Green
Cove in Georgia): "One day by railroad, the next day by horse
and buggy, a third day on horseback, a fourth day on foot,
and then on all fours until you climb a tree, and when you
fell out, you'd be in Rabun County"”. Learning, literacy,
and knowledge of the outside world degenerated. Men might
travel once a year to the county seat for "Court Week'', when
the trials of local criminals provided entertainment; women
rarely left home at all. This isolation’ continued well into
the 20th century, enabling the settler to grow into the le-
gendary “mountaineer” or "hillbilly" (neither is a native
term) that we know from "'HeeHaw", ''The Beverly Hillbillies",
and Timberland Shoes advertisements.
SCIENTISTS
Throughout the 19th century, however, the region at-
tracted eminent scientists, who were drawn by the diversity
of plants and minerals. William Bartram, a colonial botanist,
explored the Green Cove area as early as 1774. Andre Michaux,
a famous French botanist, explored the Roan and Big Yellow
Mountain in 1794 and again in 1804. It was Michaux who first
informed the early settlers of the value of ginseng, a medi-
cinal plant which is still dug and sold in this area. Ar-
nold Guyot, a Princeton geologist, came in 1856 and again
in 1358 to measure and map the Smokies. And Asa Gray, a
Harvard botanist, toured the Unakas, the Roan, and the Lin-
ville Gorge country in the 1880's.
By far the most famous of the scientists in this region,
however, was the geologist Elisha Mitchell, who first came
to the Black Mountains in 1844. By 1857, he and Thomas
Clingman* were having quite a dispute over which was the
highest peak in the Blacks. In June of that year, Mitchell
headed off into the mountains to make measurements. When
he failed to meet his son two days later as planned, a search
was started for him. Ten days later, Big Tom Wilson* found
Mitchell's body perfectly preserved in the cold waters of
Sugar Camp Creek, into which Mitchell apparently had fallen.
By then Mitchell had made sufficient measurements to deter-
mine that Black Dome was the highest peak in the Blacks, and
it was renamed Mt. Mitchell in his honor.
THE CIVIL WAR: BUSHWHACKING IS BORN
While the state of North Carolina officially seceded
from the union, the mountain region itself was split on the
question of secession, and many families had men fighting
on both sides. The blockade on the coast made the poor
and hungry region even poorer and hungrier; salt, in particu-
lar, was scarce, and without it meat could not be preserved,
The scourge of the area was "Kirk's Raiders," led by
Union Colonel G.W. Kirk. They thrashed through another
NCOBS expedition route: down Jonas Ridge to raid the Con-
federates' Camp Vance, 6 miles from Morganton, then back over
"Winding Stairs Road" across Ripshin Ridge.
""Bushwhacking' became the scourge of these
last years (of the Civil War). Both armies
‘earned conventional lines of battle did
75
76
not work for mountain fighting....
At first bushwhackers fought under pre-
tense of military discipline. But as
both armies resorted to living off the
land, all rules went out the window. They
degenerated into predatory outlaws warring
against anyone who had provisions...."
It almost sounds familiar
EXPLOITATION
After the Civil War, wealthy industrialists of the
northern and eastern cities began to discover the natural
resources of the southern Appalachian region. Although
early reports of gold and silver proved to hold little pro-
mise, it became profitable to mine for the mica, feldspar,
and kaolin that was found instead. Coal to fire northern
industries could be cheaply strip-mined. The Clinchfield
Railroad, the sound of which is still heard from across
the gorge at the Chimneys, was built to carry coal from the
Kentucky coalfields to the main-line railroads of North
Carolina. It was considered an engineering miracle when it
was built through the "impassible" mountains in 1899-1908,
at a cost of over 200 workmen's lives.
Lumber companies felled whole forests between 1890
and 194). The earliest took only the best, largest trees;
later, everything went. The villages of Edgemont and Mort-
imer, near Wilson's Creek, were major logging centers for
the Ritter Lumber Company of Columbus, Ohio, and the
Globe Lumber Company of Lenoir. Another company, the Hutton
and Bourbonnais, worked lower down the Wilson's Creek Valley
and along Craig and Harpers' Creeks. Narrow gauge rail lines
ran up Lost Cove, Rock House, Wilson's, Craig and Harper's
Creeks to transport logs out to the main line of the Central
and Northwest. Railroad at Mortimer. In other areas, wood-
en flumes (like the one at the Green Cove dip pool, only
larger) filled with creek water floated logs down to the
villages. The area was logged from 1916 to 1935; then all
3 companies moved on.
The rail lines were taken up when the companies moved
on, to be used in other areas. The railroad beds remain,
however, and often prove tempting to bushwhacking crews.
There are several ways to tell an old railroad bed from an
old logging road. Since trains couldn't turn as sharply
as trucks, railroads had much wider curves, often cutting
through the backbone of a ridge instead of going around it.
A railroad bed might come to an abrupt stop at the edge of
a deep hollow, then continue on the far side. At one time
79
a log trestle would have carried the train across the hollow.
Not far from Green Cove (at a place marked "Natural Bridge"
on the Scaly Mountain quadrangle), a huge boulder spans a
tributary of Shoal Creek; this was once used as a railroad
trestle. Occasionally you will find an old section of rail
or a spike, and sometimes there are "tie-scars": depressions
from which the old chestnut ties were removed or have rotted
away.
The whitewater of the region was quickly recognized
as a cheap source of electricity. Duke Power Company
dammed the Linville and Catawba Rivers in 1919 to form Lake
James. The Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) built many
dams to provide power to process aluminum. By the 40's
and 50's, when the major sites were used up. ALCOA built a
number of "vest-pocket" dams on tiny sites. One of these
forms Queen's Lake on Queen's Creek above the Nantahala
River near NOC. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was
created in 1933 to oversee the multi-purpose development of
the entire Tennessee Valley Watershed, which includes the
Green Cove area. Under pressure to produce power to make
aluminum for the Second World War, the TVA built Fontana Dam
in the early 40's. The story of that dam is much the same
as it has been for many other projects of the much-maligned
TVA: families were displaced; good bottomland was flooded,
yearly flooding with its renewing topsoil was lost, and part
of a scenic river was lost. But, folks had jobs for a while
building the dam, industrial growth was nurtured, wasted power
was harnessed, and disastrous floods were controlled.
The problem was and is that little of the wealth from
these resources remained in the region; it was siphoned off
to industrial cities in the north, while the southern Appal-
achians remained poor. Kephart quotes a lumberman who told
him, "All we want here is to get the most we can out of this
country, as quick as we can, and then get out"’. FDR's New
Deal set up many relief projects, among them a Civilian
Conservation Corps reforestation program. If you see pine
trees in rows, they were probably planted as part of this
program. The number of whorls (3 or more branches coming
out from a point) tells their age; if they are about 40
years old, they are very likely CCC trees.
But the region still remained poor, as John Kennedy
discovered while campaigning in the late 50's. Once in of-
fice, he appointed the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)
to see what to do about it. It did nothing until a New
York Times article in 1963 brought the plight of Appalachia
to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. Then it
put together what would eventually become the Appalachian
77
SO
78
Regional Development Act (ARDA) of 1965. This act appro-
priated over a billion federal dollars for use in Appalachia:
over 3/4 of it went for new roads; what was left was divided
among reclamation of strip mines, reforestation, water qual-
ity control, erosion control, sewage treatment, vocational
schools, and health facilities.
In 1980, the ARC remains active and continues to view
roads as the key to the region's development: 2/3 of its
1980 budget will be spent on new highways. Per-capita income
in Appalachia has risen from 78% of the national average in
1965 to 85% in 1980. The trend of young people to leave
the region reversed in the 1970's; more people are moving in
now, and the energy crisis promises to fuel the coal economy.
MOUNTAIN INDUSTRIES
The roads, especially, have begun to change the face of
the backwoods and the folks who live there, but some things
remain the same, or are even experiencing resurgences.
Ginseng, which has been collected and sold by mountain
folks for 206 years, is riding the crest of popularity of
natural medicines; you can sell it to Bumbarger's in Mor-
ganton. At one time the woods were full of it, but since it
drew a good price, it became rare, and patches of it used to
be guarded with rifles. Now it remains rare, but folks can
still make a little money "yarbing", which is the term for
collecting it.
"Gallacking" is the term for collecting galax and other
evergreens for Christmas decorations Growing Christmas trees
and other ornamental shrubs is a new form of this industry
which requires only that the enterprising gallacker trans-
plant the pines, spruces, hemlocks, laurels , and--yes, even
rhododendrens from the woods into her garden,
The John C. Campbell Folk School in Cherokee City, the
Penland School for Crafts in Penland, and the Foxfire move-
ment have all served to increase the value put on mountain
handicrafts such as quilting, weaving, carving, furniture-
making, and musical instrument construction. Mountain folks
can make these at home and command a fair price for them
through hundreds of outlets (many are on the road north to
Boone) which capitalize on the tourist trade.
Names with asterisks (*) are referred to in the "Origins
of Names" section of this manual.
8]
Notes
1. Kephart, p. 36
2. Brewer, p. 85
3. Brewer, pp. 166-167
Sources
Brewer, Alberta §& Carson, Valley So Wild;A Folk History
(Knoxville, 1975).
Caudill, Harry M., "O, Appalachia!" in Voices from the Hills
ed. Robt. J. Higgs & Ambrose N. Manning (NYC, 1975).
Clark, Larry, An Archaeological Survey of Burke County, North
Carolina (Morganton, 19/6).
Xephart, Horace, Our Southern Highlanders (Knoxville, 1976).
Krevor, Henry H., "A Report of the Region", AppalachiallII .,
3 (January-February 1980), pp. 1-15.
Lefler, Newsome, North Carolina (Chapel Hill, 1954).
Mull, J. Alex., Tales of Old Burke (Morganton, 1975).
The News-Herald, No. 83, 14 January 1952.
Phifer, Edward W., Jr., Burke-the History of a North Carolina
County (Morganton, 1977).
Pomeroy, Kenneth B., §& James G. Yoho, North Carolina Lands
(Washington, D.C., 1964).
Sheppard, Muriel Earley, Cabins in the Laurel (Chapel Hill, 1935).
Toynbee, Arnold J., "Scotiand,Ulster, § Appalachia", in Robert
J. Higgs §& Ambrose N. Manning, Voices from the Hills
(NYC, 1975). }
Wiggonton, Eliot, ed., The Foxfire Books (Garden City, New
York , 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977
Wilson, Douglas The Flood of July, 1916 & It's Effect on the
Wilson Creek Area of Western North Carolina (unpublished
paper, 1 April 1954), ’
THE WILDERNESS ACT
This 1964 congressional act created the National Wilder-
ness Preservation System, which included 54 extant wilderness
areas, and directed the Forest Service to inventory all road-
less areas of more than 5000 acres (Roadless Area Review and
Evaluation: RARE). By definition, these areas were to have
no motor traffic nor development of any kind: they were to
appear as though they had been affected only by the forces
of nature.
Of the 54 original wilderness areas, only 3 were in the
East, and 2 of these: Shining Rock and Linville Gorge, were
in North Carolina. Prior to 1964, the Chief of the Forest
Service had the power to designate "Wild Areas" and the Lin-
ville Gorge had been so designated since 1951. Before then,
several owners since the 1890's had intended to turn the gorge
and river into a hydro-electrical development; fortunately
this never happened. Fritz Hossfeld Jr., who owned the gorge
in the 30's, built trails into the area and started charging
admission to tourists. The Forest Service bought the land
from Hossfeld's daughter in 1952; the purchase was made poss-
ible by a $100,000 gift from John D. Rockefeller, who gave
the land to the National Park Service.
Ironically, the Linville Gorge, which is the only "wild-
erness" in which we travel, is probably the worst littered
and over-used area we use. Its very designation as a wild-
erness attracts folks to it and requires that restrictions be
put upon it; other wilderness areas all over the country
have suffered similar fates. Our best use of it might be as
a teaching tool, to help folks understand how much care is
necessary if an environment is to remain in its natural state.
Another expedition area, The Harper's Creek watershed
east of HWY 181, has been set aside for study as a possible
wilderness area under the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1974 and
RARE II (an extension of the original RARE effort). FRAMCO,
a French-American corporation, has been exploring this area
for uranium for several years; roadcuts along 181 are said
to be ralioactive, and the water in this watershed contains
a relatively high proportion of radioactive isotopes. The
Wilderness Act permits mining prospects, but as of now it
looks doubtfui that this area will be mined.
HUMAN PHENOMENA
Deservedly or not, there are a few things for which the
southern Appalachian region is famous. One of them is blue-
grass music, another is moonshine whiskey, and another is
83
is family feuds and murderers. Whether or not we are natives
of this area, we end up representing it because we are in-
structors here, and it behooves us to know a few of the facts
behind our image. Besides, some of this stuff is pretty in-
teresting.
Moonshine is the term the Foxfire books use for illegal
whiskey; Kephart says it is called "blockade liquor"; more
often around here you'll hear "white lightning". It's white
or clear because it isn't charcoal-filtered like darker whis-
keys you can buy legally.
Making it is not an easy way to get rich. You've got
to hide your still in some god-awful rhododendron thicket
and crawl to it by a different route each time so you don't
make a path. You've got to sprout your corn, then grind it,
and wait 8-10 days for this "sweet mash" to ferment to "sour
mash" while protecting it from hogs and cattle, who love the
stuff (horses hate i and won't drink water tainted with it;
through this some stills have been discovered). This mash
must then be boiled off and condensed to make whiskey, and if
this isn't done at just the right temperature (which the
blockader generally has to guess), you end up with alcohol
instead. Then you've got to bottle it, get it out of the
rhododendrons, sell it before it's discovered, and move your
still before it's discovered. Still, the liquor from a
bushel of corn can bring a mountain family 2-3 times the cash
that the same barrel of corn could buy as a vegetable, and
often there is a closer, quicker, market for the liquor.
Prohibition was welcomed by blockaders because it ended
a lot of their market competition. During Prohibition,
local sheriffs were responsible for arresting blockaders,
and since they were generally friends of the blockaders, they
rarely went hunting for stills. If one was reported, they
had to go after it; if the blockader was discovered red-
handed (which is rare; they generally have pretty good warn-
ing systems), the sheriff would simply ask him (women were
rarely blockaders; they were more often the good warning
system) to dismantle the still and report to post bond when
it was convenient. Invariably the blockaders did this, paid
their fines as a reasonable consequence of the risk they took,
and wént back about their business. Blockading was not con-
sidered a crime, merely a breach of a rather arbitrary law.
82
Since then, the quality of moonshine has gone down, as
some folks saw Prohibition as an easy opportunity to make a
fast buck. Federal agents now actively stalk illegal dis-
tillers, and some folks in the region think this is just as
well since the quality of the product has gone down so much
that it is actually dangerous to drink. But the tradition--
and the trade--continues: in 1967 it was estimated there
were 750 illegal stills in Georgia alone’, and it's reasonable
to assume that the mountains of our region harbor just as
many.
Feuds and murderers: Kephart explains that, in a wilder-
ness, courts are feeble, and in their absence one turns to
her family for security and protection. Similarly, she de-
fends her family and its honor above all else, including the
law. Toynbee ties the habit of feuding, in a rather contro-
versiai article, to the Scotch-Irish blood of many of the
settlers. In any event, the bloodshed has been limited
specifically to the families involved; it is not an ex-
cuse for mass murder. A man gets shot in a row over women
or hogs, his brother takes revenge, and it keeps going til
a whole family is either wiped out or moves away. There is
no evidence of recent active feuding.
The Howard-McGhee feud is the most famous one near here:
it took place on the lower Little Tennessee River. The anim-
Osity began when Tom Howard eloped with Alva McGhee, then
only 13, and Alva's brothers didn't approve. Joe McGhee
(Alva's brother) shot Ernest and Henry Howard (Tom's brothers)
as they were walking home on day in 1898. After several
interim scrapes, Charles Jones (Alva's uncle) was the next
one killed in a general affront between Jones's (now fight-
ing with McGhees) and Howards at a hotel in 1900. Two years
later, a few more Jones's shot Tom Howard. Other major fig-
ures fortunately died of natural causes or accidents, but
descendents can still get stirred up at one another. Both
families were leaders in their community.
Of local murderers there are more tales. One murder took
place at the Cebe Miller mine just below Flatrock in the
Toe River Valley, where the road curves between Spruce Pine
and Bakersville. A dispute over the ownership of the mine
led Ed Ray and W.A. Anderson to kill 4 others who were working
the mine. Ray and Anderson were captured on Fork Mountain
and jailed, but they escaped and were never re-captured.
Another story tells of George Feller, who lived on Buck
Creek near Marion with his asthmatic wife, Kathy. One night
Kathy had a severe attack, and George alerted the neighbors
to go for help, but. by the time the doctor arrived, Kathy was
85
dead. A man on horseback met the funeral procession on the
road the next day and told those present that he'd seen in
a dream that the woman in the casket had been murdered. An
investigation in the Fellers' house turned up a strap with
strands of blond hair caught in it, and an autopsy showed
that Kathy had been strangled. Confronted with the evidence,
George broke down and confessed. He was the last man to be
hanged in McDowell County, and the noose didn't break his
neck--it strangled him.
By far the most famous murder in these parts was Fran-
cie Silver's butchering of her husband Charles just before
Christmas in 1831. This gruesome event took place in their
cabin at Deyton Bend on the Toe River, not far below the
campsite at Mile 17. Francie complained to her neighbors
that her husband had been gone for several days and she
didn't know what had happened to him. Suspicions were a-
roused when someone noticed that the fireboard and mantel
in her cabin had been freshly chipped with an axe (Francie
had done this to rid it of spattered blood). Further
searching revealed blood under the cabin floor, and bits of
bone amidst the ashes in the firep’ace. Outside, hidden in
a hollow sourwood tree; were parts of a body that wouldn't
easily burn.
Francie Silvers stood trial in Morganton and was sen-
tenced to death by hanging--the only woman in North Carolina
ever to be sentenced to death.
Bluegrass music got its name indirectly from the state
of Kentucky (the Bluegrass State), but its roots are in the
southern Appalachians in general. The music of the mountain
region came, like its settlers, from the British Isles. Be-
cause the settlers were isolated, their music remained much
the same until their region made its belated entrance into
the 20th century in the 1920's and 30's. "Old-timey" string
bands, playing southern dance music on banjo and fiddle,
became popular with that emergence. Record companies sent
scouts into the mountains and made on-the-spot recordings in
local hotels. The Carter Family got its start this way in
Bristol, Tennessee, in 1927.
The influences of Negro music and urban jazz gave birth
to the first modern bluegrass music in the late 30's. That's
when Earl Monroe, a mandolin player, formed a group called
"The Bluegrass Boys" to sing "a new kind of country string
band music”. They set the style and gave'it a name. When
Earl Scruggs popularized 3-finger banjo-picking in the early
40's, bluegrass had arrived.
84
The sounds of its southern Appalachian roots are still
evident in bluegrass music. The high-pitched leads are an
outgrowth of the style in which British ballads are sung.
The close harmonies and the solo-and-chorus form are remnants
of mountain church singing, reflective of the manner in which
itinerant preachers taught the local folks to sing, hoping
to save them from the sins of, among other things, secular
music.
Note
1. Wigginton, p.304
NATURAL HISTORY
The purpose of this section is to provide basic, non-
technical, easily-used information about the living things
in the course environment. More complete information is
available in the Master Tree Finder and Flower Finder car-
ried by each crew and in the reference works in the NCOBS
staff library.
COMMON TREES
Conifers
Pine: an evergreen with needlelike leaves, usually borne
in clusters or bundles of 2-5. The cones, usually longer than
they are wide and tapering to a point, are the hardened woody
scales of flowers. There are two types of pine--soft and hard.
We have only one soft pine, the Eastern White Pine. Needles
are long and a soft bluish green, coming in bundles of 5S.
The cones are long and curved. Hard pines have needles in
bundles of 2 or 3, darker-colored wood, and cones armed with
spiny tips.
Spruce: dense crowned, tall tapering trees that have
"buttresses" at the base. The bark is thin and scaly. Leaves
are evergreen needles that spiral around the branches, ex-
tending out on all sides of the branch. Needles are 4-angled
(flattened on some) stiff, and sharp. Cones (which hang
down) are egg-shaped, with thin woody scales.
Fir: a small-to-medium tree with needles on two sides of
the branch. The needles have 2 silvery-white bands on the
underside. The cones, rather than hanging down, sit erect
on the branch and have scales that are wider than they are
long.
Hemlock: has a definite fragrance--like Christmas. For
a positive identification, just crush some of the round-
tipped needles and smell. The needles are short, marked on
the lower surface by two pale lines, with their stems growing
from rounded, dark-orange woody pads on twigs. Cones are
oval, with scales as wide as they are long. This tree is
very tolerant to shading. Its top is tipped over like a
long stocking cap; all other conifers have erect tops.
Deciduous Trees
Deciduous tree leaves are either: J
Simple--not made up of leaflets or Pe
Eeepeuns - “meee up of several leaflets.
Sometimes they are
Lobed--with deeply indented margins. (23
Compound Teaves may be
Palmate--leaflets attached at one point on the stem$W
or
Pinnate--leaflets attached at several points along
the stem.
Pinnately compound leaves may be
Alternate--leaflets attached singly along a stem,
alternating sides, or
Opposite--leaflets attached in pairs along a stem.
Only 5 native trees in this area have opposite leaflets:
maple, ash, dogwood, horsechestnut, and buckeye. These may be
be remembered with the mnemonic: MAD HORSES BUCK
Oak: a decorative shady tree with alternate leaves and
the familiar acorns. Twigs usually have clusters of buds at
the tips. White oaks have leaves with rounded lobes (white
mans' bullets). Their acorns are not bitter and are hairless
inside. Red oaks have leaves with pointed lobes that are
often tipped with bristles or spines (red Indians' arrows).
Hickory: Leaves are compound, alternate, and odd-pinnate
(with a terminal leaflet). Each leaf has 3-17 roughly oval,
pointed-toothed leaflets that are aromatic when crushed.
Flowers are 3-branched, slender, drooping catkins. The
fruit is an edible nut with a smooth shell between ridges;
the bark is a smooth gray that becomes very rough and scaly
on older trees, and often seperates into long strips.
Ash: has opposite leaves, each having 3-11 leaflets
with toothed margins. The fruit is a single-winged seed,
born in clusters on slim stems. The bark is thick, furrowed
or scaly, and usually ash-colored on the branches.
Maple: has opposite, simple, palmately-lobed, toothed,
long-stemmed leaves. In a few, the leaves are pinnately
compound. The sed has a pair of wings in a U or V shape.
Mountain magnolia: has probably the largest leaves you'll
see in the forest(10-12 inches). They are oblong with a
narrow lower end. A small tree with wide-spreading brittle
branches, it is found in rich coves and on cool slopes.
Tulip-poplar: has a long very straight trunk, sometimes
clear of branches for 80 feet. The bark is light gray, some-
times brown. Flowers are tulip-like with yellowish-green
petals that are marked with a reddish-orange band near the
base. Leayes are lobed (the outside 2 have square ends)
dark green in the summer and bright yellow in the fall.
Sassafras: leaves are the most distinguishable feature.
Each tree has both entire (not lobed) and two- and three-
lobed leaves. If you see a tree that has several differently
shaped leaves, one of which looks like a mitten, smell the
stems. If they smell good enough to eat, it’s sassafras.
American holly: spiny, wavy-edged glossy leaves ‘a-
long with bright red berries. Looks like Christmas. Us-
ually 40-50 feet high.
Sourwood: the bark is thin, light gray, and divided
into narrow shallow ridges. Leaves are 2-5 inches long,
simple, alternate, very acid to the taste. Flowers are
small, white or cream colored, in panicles from 5 to 10
inches long on the end of twigs.
Dogwood: small trees, loved for their beautiful white
blossoms in springtime. The bark is dark red-brown,
dividing into small scaly blocks on older trees. Leaves are
opposite and have curving symmetrical veins..
Sycamore: easily recognized because of its multi-
colauee mottled bark, which looks like a jigsaw puzzle.
Whitish bark that covers the trunk and branches of the
upper part of the tree falls off in irregular patches, ex-
posing brown, green, and gray bark underneath.
Locust: Leaves are 8-14 inches long, each made up of
7-19 oval leaflets alternate on a long slender stem. White
flowers are fragrant and hang in clusters. Fruit is in
brown flat pods, bearing kidney-shaped, dark orange brown
seeds. Bark is deeply furrowed, dark reddish-brown and
scaly.
Local Tree Terms
Leucothoe is called hemlock
Hemlock is called spruce pine
Spruce is called he-balsam
Balsam is called she-balsam
Laurel is called ivy
Rhododendron . called laurel
USEFUL PLANTS
Be sure that you know you know these plants. Often,
your nose is your best identification tool.
Acorns: though edible, some are not necessarily tasty
until roasted.
Dandelion: one of the most widely used plants, as so
wany of its parts are edible. Roots may be boiled for 5
minutes and buttered (much like a parsnip). Eat the crowns
cooked or in a salad. Use the greens (the rosette at the
base of the plant) as you would use any green. The blossoms,
when still inside the crown, may be plucked out and Cooked
for 3 minutes. They are also used for making wine and cof-
fee, but the process is lengthy.
Eastern hemlock: Tea is made of the light young need-
les, which are rich in Vitamin C. The smell of the stripped
leaves is quite strong and a good way to positively identify
the tree.
Ginseng: Found in cool dense woods, and used for emer-
gency food and tea. It is also used in the mountains for
diarrhea and dysentery. Leaves can be made into a tea, and
the parsniplike roots can be eaten cooked or raw. The over-
collection for sale as a medicinal herb has made this once
common plact quite rare.
Huckleberry, blueberry: Eat these right off the bush in
July, August, and September.
Jewelweed: The young shoots (up to 6 inches) may be eat-
en after boiling in water for a total of 10 minutes, changing
the water twice (don't drink the water). Washing with raw juice
from the crushed stems and leaves soothes nettle stings and
prevents poison ivy rash.
May-apple: In late summer, the fruit can be eaten (just
as the plant begins to wither and die). Juice can be added
to lemonade. Warning: the roots, leaves, seeds, and green
fruit are strongly cathartic and should not be eaten.
Mints: If a plant smells like mint, it probably is.
Check to see if the plant has a square stem and paired
leaves. Use it for teas, flavorings, jellies, sauces,
dressings, drinks. Steep in water for 5 minutes. Good with
trail lemonade, too.
Rock tripe: are the common gray or olive brown "flaps"
of lichens that can be simmered for 1 hour and added to soups.
Sassafras: for tea; wash the roots, chop into small
pieces, boil until the tea is a pale reddish color, sweeten
and serve.
Sweet birch: (also called cherry or black birch) twigs
and bark smell like wintergreen. To make a tea, boil a hand-
ful of twigs. Nibbling on the twigs while hiking will al-
lay thirst.
Wild ginger: is a little plant with heart-shaped leaves,
dark green above and light green below. A good "second"
seasoning for tea. It is also used as a spice, medicine, and
candy. If you tear the plant leaf and smell it, the odor will
by very pleasant.
Wild strawberry: looks like common strawberry, only
smaller. Use it as you would the cultivated variety. The
leaves make a nice tea.
Wild onion: If a plant smells like onion or garlic, it
is probably safe. Growing from basal bulbs, the leaves may
be either tubular or flat. Use it as you would any onion.
Wood-sorrel: is a cloverlike plant with heart-shaped
leaves that often fold along a central crease. It tastes sour
and is rich in Vitamin C. Use it in salads, or for cold
drinks: steep leaves for 10 minutes in hot water, let cool
and sweeten.
COMMON MAMMALS
With a large group, it is often difficult to spot ani-
mals, but there are many signs of their presence you can spot
as you hike.
Black bears:
- Have four toe marks; the little toe claws don't show
up in the footprint.
Leave hair on trees after rubbing them, along with
claw and tooth marks.
Strip the bark off pines, spruces, and firs.
Tear up berry patches--look for branches stripped
of twigs, fruits, and leaves.
Eat ants and beetles; hence they will tear up old logs
and turn over rocks. There will be prominent diggings,
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90
with big holes, flung dirt, and claw marks.
- Leave uniform scats, consisting of grasses, roots,
wood shavings, berry seeds, and sometimes hair. The
scats are in disjointed segments.
If a bear notices you and rears up on its hind legs, it
is only trying to get a closer look and smell. Bears are very
near-sighted. If it goes on all fours and roars and growls,
you have cause for worry.
Deer (white-tailed):
- Feed on low-growing succulent plants, and, in hard-
wood forests, acorns.
Hold aloft their white tails when fleeing (you may
see a "flash" in the woods).
Cries out "whiew-ew-ew" when alarmed.
Track looks like this:
Se ON
~ ee
- Will eat anything--small mammals, birds, eggs, insects,
fruits, carrion, and garbage.
Seek shelter in the dens of other animals, in crevices,
under rocks, and in hollow trees.
Oppossums
}Track: On the hind foot
/ | the big toe slants in-
a j ward, and the 3 middle
toes remain in a grouping
seperate from the others.
Raccoons:
- Wash their food because they have no salivary glands.
- Are fond of wet places and hollow trees.
~ Live in trees. Look for a downward sloping trunk with
a hole about 6 inches in diameter, and grayish-black
hairs and scratches in the bark caused by their power-
ful front feet.
93
If no trees with holes are in the area, look in hol-
low logs ur clefts in rocks.
Like to eat crawfish, corn, and whatever you have in
your pack.
Leave granular scats, even in circumference, contain-
ing berry seeds. They can be confused with those of
the skunk. They are usually deposited on logs or
bigger branches of trees.
Have tracks that are usually paired, with left hind
foot place beside the right forefoot.
Raccoon
Track
Muskrats:
- Build a dome-shaped lodge of sticks, roots, and stalks,
which bulks about 3 feet above the surface of a shallow
pond. Nearby is one like it, only smaller, which is a
feeding chamber. Inside the dome is dry. A small pile
of vegetation back from the bank hides the entrance.
Have hind feet that are much larger than the fore and
are partially webbed. They also drag their tails, so
tracks are easily recognized.
Skunks:
- Shoot a spray about 15 feet, but the smell can carry
for a half-mile if the wind is good.
Dig small pits in the ground about 2 inches deep and
4 inches across to look for insects.
Usually use natural holes or abandoned burrows for
homes. The entrance may have hair and a faint smell.
Leave droppings of berry seeds and the indigestible
coverings of many types of insects.
Beaver:
- Make a slap-plunk sound with their tails at dusk and
during the night. Sounds like someone is slapping
the water very hard.
Build dams and lodges of logs, branches, stones, and
mud, which have underwater entrances. The dams keep
the water level constant, protecting the lodges.
Have valves in their noses and ears that close when
they submerge.
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COMMON BIRDS
The folowing are birds that you are likely to see or
hear in this area. The ° means that you are more apt to
hear than see the described bird.
Birds of Prey
Turkey Vulture: larger than a hawk, more abundant than
eagles. You can often see them either roosting in large num-
bers, or around roads looking for dead carrion and garbage.
When in flight, they roll and sway from side to side, holding
their wings (which span about 6') upward in a shallow vile cacti
The head is red and featherless. |
Hawk: smaller and faster in flight than turkey vultures.
It feeds on small birds and ammmals. Many are seen soaring
high in the air.
Sharp-shin: long, square-cut tail, short rounded
wings. Voice: sharp kick-kick-kick, and shrill squeel.
Broadwinged: black and white tail, brown body, crow
size. Hunts from perch instead of soaring. Voice:
thin whistle, sounds like pweeeeee!
Red-tailed: dark belly with broad fan-shaped reddish
tail (ranges from pink to reddish brown), long,
slightly rounded wings.
°-. Red-shoulder: most common in eastern North America, with
red shoulders both under and on top, also having long
slightly rounded wings.
- Osprey: or "fish hawk". You're likely to see it on
. Section III of the Chattooga. This species was
“ heavily affected by DDT, which caused shells of the
eggs to be soft, more easily broken by prey. It is
making a comeback since DDT was discontinued. The
wings are white underneath with black markings, and
are carried in an arched position " ~~~",
Ospreys feed only on fish, which they grab with their
talons while flying low over the water.
Owl: in this area it is usually nocturnal. It has a
large round head with a disk-like face. If you hear an
eerie call at night, it is probably some type of owl. Dur-
ing the day, it can be spotted roosting quietly in a tree.
- Screech: small (about 8") with prominent ear tufts.
Eyes are yellow; body is reddish brown or gray. Voice:
a wail, soft purrs, or trills. ws ae
- Great horned: largest of all in this area. It is
2° high and has ear tufts. Voice: 4-7 low and
95
far-carrying hoots; hoo-hoo-hoo-HOO HOO (second
and third notes shorter than the others).
Barred: large and stocky, no ear tufts. There is a
pair living at Green Cove. Voice: sounds like “who
cooks for you",
Barn: crow size, with a very distince heart-shaped
face. Likes hollow trees, has a strange habit of
lowering its head and moving back and forth. Voice:
a soft ascending wheezy cry. If around its nest, it
will hiss. You will be lucky to see this one, but it
is one of the most beautiful of owls.
Eagles: are very rare in the mountains and only slightly
more common along the coast. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser-
vice has no records of sightings in this area in several
years. If you see one at all, it is likely to be hunting the
high grassy balds for small mammals for food. The mature
bald eagle will be familiar from the presidential seal; the
golden eagle looks like a very large hawk with ruffled legs.
Others
° Whip-poor-will: jay size, leafy brown colored with a
black throat. At night, lights will cause its eyes to re-
flect ruby red. It hides in leaves during the day to sleep.
Voice: Repeats its name over and over -- "whip-poor-will".
° Ruffed Grouse: Size of a small chicken, fan tail, cam-
ouflages itself well. While hiking (especially bushwhacking)
the lead person may flush or scare one of these, which will
create quite a commotion and probably scare you worse. It
is a very capable runner, and forages the ground for seeds.
This is the bird that you hear flapping its wings, thumping
first slowly then very fast on a hollow log. The male at-
tracts the female in this way.
° Kill deer: about 8" tall with a short neck, white breast,
short rust-colored tail, and 2 black neck bands. It is
nick-named "the ham", for when a predator approaches its
nest, the adult fakes an injury, dragging a wing as if
badly wounded. After this lures the oncomer away from eggs
or young in its nest on the ground, it flies away, Voice:
very loud and distinct kill-DEEE.
Kingfisher: about the size of a pigeon, its head looks
too big for its body, and it always looks like its hair for
feathers) is messed up. You can often see groups of them
perched on telephone wires. It flies above water with one
or two strong wing beats, followed by a short glide, catching
water-life in its beak for food.
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96
94
° Woodpecker: It looks like Woody the Woodpecker. A
piliated woodpecker lives at Table Rock, and just before a
rain, its pecking noise echoes throughout the woods, sound-
ing very hollow.
Raven: larger than a crow and shaggier. Soars like a
hawk and looks like it has not combed its hair. Voice: Its
wooden sounding "wonk wonk" is not as grating as that call
of the crow.
Blue Jay: blue with white on wings and tails, and a
distinctive crest on its head. It's noisy before a rain or
when squawking at a predator (You may be the predator!).
° Mockingbird: about the size of a robin. It is a gray
bird with white patches on its short wings and tail.. It has
a slender bill, is very territorial, even attacking its
own reflection. Voice: Beautiful song, often imitating
other birds for hours.
° Meadowlark: looks like it is wearing a yellow v-neck
sweater with black trim. Voice: clear mellow whistle. See-
you SEE-yeeeee.
° Sparrow: about the size of your hand. A small common
brown By d th
rd that seems to be everywhere.
° Tufted Titmouse: size of a large sparrow, colored gray-
ish with some blue/gray tint to the head and a distinctive
crest like a blue jay.
° Chickadee: a little smaller than a sparrow, with a black
Cap and a black bib or beard.
Indigo Bunting: sparrow-sized bird of brilliant blue.
So brilliant = ek: know when you have seen it. Short
stocky beak.
SOME TIPS ON SPOTTING WILDLIFE
- A blue jay constantly cailing can mean it has spotted
a predator. Look out for a fox.
- A flock of crows cawing angrily and milling about
might mean they have a bird of prey (the traditional
enemy of the crow) up a tree. Look for an owl or a
hawk. ;
Look for horizontal lines against vertical trees,
rather than an entire animal. Also, look for parts
of the whole: corner of the head, tip or the tail, etc.
- If a large animal jumps in front of you while trav-
eling in a van at night, don‘t swerve. Instead, dim
your lights. That momentary flash of darkness will
unmesmerize it and allow escape.
Sources
Buil, John and John Farrand: The Audobon Society Field
Guide to North American Birds (New York, 19/77).
(New york, 1962).
Gibbons, Euell: Stalking the Wild Asparagus
Important Trees of Eastern Forests, U.S. Department of Agri-
culture (Atlanta, 1968).
Murie, Olaus: A Field Guide to Animal Tracks (Boston, 1954).
Peterson, Lee: A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants (Boston,
1978).
Wiggonton, Eliot (ed.) Foxfire 2 (Garden City, NY, 1970).
KR
NATURAL PHENOMENA
Some local legends to fill the eerie silence of rest
Stops on all-night bushwhacks--
Brown Mountain Lights: These mysterious shimmerings
over Brown Mountain, southeast of Table Rock, are supposed
to appear on moonless nights in midsummer or early autumn.
They usually rise from somewhere below the crest, then hover
in the air over the ridge. Some Say they drift slowly, fad-
ing and brightening. Others Say they sometimes appear to
whirl like pinwheels, then dart rapidly away. Theories
have been advanced that the lights are caused by escaping
methane from swampy areas near the crest, moonshine stills,
or phosphorescence. Because the Brown Mountain Ridge is be-
low the horizon when viewed from Jonas Ridge or Wiseman'ts
View, other theories strongly suggest that the lights are
simply from cars, trains, or houses and villages in the dis-
tance beyond the mountain. '
One U.S. Department of the Interior study discredits
all mystery and flatly states that "about 47% of the lights
were due to automobile headlights, 33% to locomotive head-
lights, 10% to stationar and 10% to brush fires".
have t thermals (warmer air)
ike Brown Mountain can pro-
n viewed from certain an-
counted for in this study;
n part of the legend of
pearance of automobiles,
Geraud de Brahm, a German engin-
eer who was the first white man to explore the region in
1771, mentioned the mysterious lights in an account of his
travels. They are part of local mythology as well.
The discovery of uranium in the area has fueled new
theories in the search for a plausible answer to the pheno-
menon. One geologist has said that he has seen Similar
lights on other mountains rich in uranium, but other experts
have stated that this is impossible. Such dispute is typ-
ical of the Brown Mountain Light mystique.
Maybe Scotty Wiseman had it right in his old bluegrass
song abont the legend; Maybe it's the lantern of a slave's
ghost who endlessly searches the mountain for his master
who was lost while hunting many years ago.,
Whatever the case, there are a heap of folks who hope
the mystery is never solved,
Burntrock Ridge lies northwest of Green Cove in Graham
County. Around the turn of the century, some bear-hunters
made camp there, built a fire, and fell asleep. When they
awakened, the fire was still burning, but the wood was gone
and the flames were eating right into the earth. The hunters
took off in a hurry, which was fortunate since the fire kept
burning for days. Smoke filled the valleys as far away as
Tusquitee Creek. Folks thought the world was about to end
and spent a lot of time praying. After 7 days, the fire went
out of its own accord. On the ridge at its site, there was
nothing to suggest what had fueled it--only burnt rocks.
Mountain Music was a term coined in 1878 for a snapping
hum that came from one of the glens just below the summit
of the Roan. At that time there was a very fashionable ho-
tel called "Cloudland", on the bald, andtourists out for
mountain strolls heard the music every summer. It was loud-
est during thunderstorms and was thus thought to be an elec-
trical hum that was caused by the meeting of differently
charged air currents in the glen. In 1903 the hotel,
losing money, was torn down; since then interest in the
"mountain music" has waned.
98
NATURAL SIGNS OF TIME AND DIRECTION
- Polaris (North star) is always due north. The line
formed by the two stars which form the lip of the Big
Dipper pvointsto Polaris, and it is the end star of the
handle of the Little Dipper. It never moves, and all
Stars appear to revolve around Polaris.
Stars rise in the east and set in the west (as do the
Sun and moon), except the stars around Polaris, which
never set.
Venus can be seen in the west three hours after sun-
set. Except for several months out of the year, it
is first to appear in the evening and last to dis-
appear in the morning. The non-appearance months
vary from year to year.
Meteorites (falling stars) are very cold inside (-459°
F--the same as the temperature of space). The light
and heat around them comes from the compression of the
the air that cannot get out of the way as they fall.
When a meteorite hits the earth, there is frost in
the area of impact.
To tell time with a compass, orient the compass to
north, place a thin stick upright in the center of
the compass and mark the degree number where the
Shadow hits. Each 15° off North is an hour before or
after noon. Add or subtract accordingly from North
(12:00). If the shadow read 330°, for example, sub-
tract 330 from 360 = 30 degrees or 2 hours. 12 - 2
= 10:00 a.m.
To determine direction with your watch, point the hour
hand at the sun. South is halfway between that hour
hand and twelve. Remember to compensate for daylight
Savings time.
TELLING TIME BY THE MOON
"I wouldn't set my watch by it, but it does have some
practicel applications, i.e. you want to get started
before dawn, but don't want to give your crew a watch,
and don't want to have breakfast at 1:15 a.m. thinking
at is 5:30" - John Logsdon
A list of facts
The full moon rises at sunset, is "overhead" (ac-
tually due south) at midnight, and sets at sunrise.
The moon rises 50 minutes later each day than it
did the day before.
A waxing moon rises before sunset.
A waning moon rises after sunset.
A full cycle of waxing and waning takes 28 days,
14 days for each.
To tell time
lst. Estimate the number of days until it will be, or
since it has been, a full moon (Facts 3,4,5).
2nd. Multiply that number of days by 50 minutes (or
1 hour if you feel laz;) (Fact 2). This is how
much earlier or later the moon rose than a full
moon would have riser.
Figure out at what time the moon will be or was
overhead (Facts 1 and 2).
Using your familiarity with telling time by the
sun (it travels 15° of are per hour, as does the
moon), estimate how long it will be until, or has
been since, the moon is/was directly overhead.
Sth. Subtract/add the time from the 4th step from/to
the time from the 3rd step to get the present time.
xample I
lst. The moon was up before sunset--it's waxing (Fact 3).
It looks like this: Knowing it takes 14 .
days to go from new to full (Fact 5)
you estimate it to be three days until
se 48 full.
‘3 (days) x 50 minutes = 150 minutes = 2 and 1/2
hours.
The moon rose 2 and 1/2 hours earlier tonight than
it would if it were full (Fact 2); hence, it
reached a point directly overhead 2 and 1/2
hours earlier than a full moon would reach the
same point. Since a full moon would be overhead
at midnight (Fact 1), this moon was overhead
2 and 1/2 hours before midnight, or 9:30 a.m.
The moon is at this position in the sky:
OvVERHKAD ZENITH)
G
WesT MeRIZON £4$8T
sO you guess it has been three hours since it was
overhead (it travelS about 15° an hour).
You add the time from the 4th step to the time
from the 3rd step: 9:30 p.m. + 3 hours = 12:30
a.m.
Example 2
lst. "It was darker than a thousand midnights down on
the Cypress Swamp while you were bushwhacking up
Pond Ridge. Now the moon is up, you are cooking
dinner and wondering what time it is." The moon
is waning (Fact 4). It looks like this:
You figure in 3 days it will be a new moon, so it
has been 11 days since it was full (Fact 5).
11 days x 50 minutes = 550 minutes = 9 hours, 10
minutes.
The moon rose 9 hours and 10 minutes later tian
a full moon would have, or at 9:10 a.m.
The moon is at this position in the sky:
We 4 ee
ST folsren EasT
At 15° of arc per hour, you estimate it will be
4 hours until the moon is overhead.
It is thus 4 hours before 9:10 a.m. 9:10 a.m. -
4 hours = 5:10 a.m.
"You should be having breakfast, not dinner!"
Story line, and in fact entire explanation, courtesy
of John Logsdon.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
BACKWOODS ETHICS CODE
Wilderness areas in many parts of the world are suffer-
ing from overuse, misuse, and abuse. Western North Caro-
lina is unfortunately no exception. Overuse might be con-
trolled through designation of more and larger wilderness
areas or through permit systems, but misuse and abuse can
only be dealt with through education. We at NCOBS are in
a unique position not only to care for our natural envir-
onment, but also to teach large numbers of folks how to
care for their home environments once they leave us. In add-
ition to following the guidelines in this section, you can
tell your crews about the Wilderness Act (see p80) and the
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (see p.33), instill in them
a consideration for other folks' needs for wilderness, and
encourage them to write their congresswomen about environ-
mental concerns.
"We don't go to the woods to rough it. We go
to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home."
Anonymous
Fires
Wood fires should only be made where there is plenty
of wood and where decay is evident. Dead and decaying wood
is needed to build nutritive soil for vegetation and to pre-
vent erosion; this in turn provides for animal life. There-
fore, wood fires should be considered a luxury which can
be afforded only under ideal corditions; these might exist
in a seldom-used area where dead wood is abundant. Where
an existing permanent fire pit is available, consider the a-
mount of wood available before building a fire. Chances are
that if there is a permanent fire scar in a popular campsite,
most of the deadfall will already have been used. During
winter courses, you should teach fire-building as a cold wea-
ther skill, and in rare cases it may be necessary to build
one as an emergency measure. In general, though, you should
plan on not being able to ‘ave 4 wood fire; carry a stove
and know how to operate it sarely.
Site selection: Pick a site away from trees, brush,
and overhanging branches or boulders. This will prevent
damage to branch and root systems and the irreversible and
unsightly scorching of boulders and rocks. Avoid fires
against reflector rocks; they will cause permanent scarring
of the rocks and exfoliation.
101
104
102
Site preparation: Gently remove all vegetation, in-
Cluding root systems, and clear an area several times larger
than the proposed fire of forest litter and duff. The veg-
etation, litter, and duff should be placed in a defined area,
away from the center of activity, for later replacement. If
the plant matter is to be out of place more than 24 hours,
water it occasionally. Continue clearing down to the mineral
sOil. Teach the difference between forest litter, duff, and
mineral soil; by recognizing this difference, students will
better be able to judge the placement of fires for minimum
hazard and impact. Do not rim the fire area with rocks, un-
less you are willing to scrub them off afterwards.
An alternate method is to spread several inches of
mineral soil on a flat rock or on several rocks to make
a flat area; build a fire on top of this. This mineral
soil prevents the rocks from being scarred.
Fuel collection: Take firewood first from loose branch-
es and sticks on the ground, only secondly from downed
trees. Don't take any limbs or branches from living trees,
whether or not the branches appear dead. Often it is dif-
ficult to tell dead from living branches, and snapping
twigs and branches from standing trees exposes these trees
to damaging insects. Similarly, take no wood from dead
standing trees (squaw wood); this results in unsightly scars
and an unnatural appearance. Do not use axes or saws on
trees.
Safety: Make sure your fire is always attended, and
dousing materials are always handy in case the fire gets
out of control. Keep a small fire and sit close to it,
rather than building a big bonfire. Lj
clean ye: Make an effort to burn all wood completely.
7
Any partial burned wood should be doused and then widely
scattered. Water waste (such as dishwater or cooking water)
may be poured along the perimeter of the fire; this-helps to
prevent damage to nearby grass, root’, and other vegetation.
Scatter ashes when they have cooled. Then replace the lit-
ter, duff, and plants that you originally removed.
REMEMBER! WHEN YOU LEAVE THERE SHOULD BE NO
EVIDENCE THAT YOU WERE EVER IN THE AREA.
Fire policy in solo areas: Discourage fires to avoid
"soot holes" aa to lessen the impact on solo areas, which
are used over and over again. If students must have a fire,
as on winter courses or for preparation of hot drinks, it
may be only a very small (6'"' diameter) twig fire, and then
only after they have been carefully instructed in fire
building. A good policy would be to limit the size of their
fire wood to sticks no larger in diameter than their fingers.
How to build a fire in the rain; Occasionally it be-
comes necessary to get a fire going when all the wood seems
wet and the rain is still pouring down. Several times in
the past, turricanes coming up the coast have caused 2 or 3
days of non-stop rain. This might be one of those emergen-
cy situations in which a fire is justified.
Lighting: 1. Find s~™: sort of shelter under which
to start the fire. A large overhang is ideal;
otherwise, pitch a tarp about 6' high.
2. Gather large amounts of fine twigs,
finger-diameter kindling, and larger limbs, and
strip off the wet bark.
3. Try to find resin (pine sap) that may
have oozed out from an old scar; this is an ex-
cellent starter. Pine knots are also a good
source of resin; look for them at the bases of
limbs in dead pine trees on the ground.
4. Ancient chestnut wood will be dry under
the surface.
5. A sheath knife may be used to split kind-
ling if pounded with an improvised mallet.
1. Don't spend so much time being overjoyed
that you started it that you neglect to maintain
it. Used good, peeled logs, and remove the tarp
only when the size of the fire becomes a hazard
to it.
2. Keep a close eye on students and their
equipment as they attempt to dry it out; excessive
zeal is common and often results in tragedy for
socks, mittens, sleeping bags, etc. Remember that
nylon has a low melting point.
Camp Sanitation
Latrines are shallow pits or trenches into which human
solid waste is deposited. They are dug ho deeper than 18
inches, depending upon the depth of the humus or duff. Waste
must be far enough below the surface that animals will not
dig it up and yet high enough above mineral soil so that it
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104
can decompose and not leach out. This allows bacteria and
oxygen quickly to decompose the waste, while it is hidden
from human view and protected from insects. After each use,
the waste is covered, landscaped, and compressed with the
user's foot. If the user is bothered by using her foot, she
hasn't done an adequate job of covering up.
A latrine should be located off trails and away from
camps, on sloping ground if possible. Most importantly,
it should be away from surface water sources. While a loc-
ation a good distance from camp should provide for natural
privacy, whistling or singing while using the latrine will
ensure privacy. Having a latrine far from the center of
camp will also ensure that popular camps don't become crowd-
ed with former latrines, which coulda lessen their popularity.
If you use toilet paper, burn it after use (unless the
woods are so dry that this would be a fire hazard). The
use of toilet paper is encouraged at NCOBS for hygienic
reasons: people are usually able to do a better job with
toilet paper than with leaves. Snow is a similarly salutary
wiping material.
Encourage people to wash their hands with soap and
water after using the latrine.
Urinating is also done off the trail and away from
water sources, preferably in an area with a thick humus
later. This will hasten decay, absorb the liquid, and a-
void quick run-off. Avoid areas where runoff into streams
will take less than 2 hours. It takes about this long for
the nitrogen in urine to oxidize; this is a good measure of
the complete treatment of the waste.
Soap: Don't use soap in lakes or streams. Clean
clothes, hands, dishes, etc. in cooking pots away from a
water source. Bathe yourself by first dipping in the water,
then lathering on shore far away from the water, «aud rinsing
off completely by pouring cans of water over your body.
This allows the soap to be filtered by the soil and to de-
grade quickly. Use biodegradable soap only.
Garbage: Plastic, paper, tampons, and food waste may
be burned if you have a fire; otherwise carry them out.
Plastic, paper, and tampons go in the burnable waste at
camp; food waste goes in the compost. Cans, bottles, and
tin foil should be carried out and put in the appropriate
recycling bins at base camp. Waste water should be poured
in a sump hole; fill this in when you leave camp. DON'T
BURY ANYTHING--animals will dig it up.
Encourage crews to collect as much litter as they can
carry, aid leave it at the nearest roadhead with one of the
school, litter tags attached. The tags read: "This trash
was picked up in the woods by the staff and students of the
North Carolina Outward Bound School and we don't have room
for it in our packs. Would you please take it to the nearest
dump? Thank you. NCOBS"
Campsite Locations
Beauty spots: Don't locate your camp in a beauty
spot, such as a lush meadow or the edge of a large rock
Outcrop, lake, or stream. These areas are usually sus-
ceptible to damage because they contain delicate soils and
plant life which would not easily recover from the impact
of a camp. Camping adjacent to water sources cuts them off
from wild animals, who are afraid to come in for water while
you are there, and may even stay away for days after you have
left.
Groups of campers: Avoid Camping with other groups.
If you must camp near others, choose yusr site so that the
terrain forms at least a partial barrier. ;..'s will ensure
privacy, cut down on noise, and help keep the area from be-
ing overused.
Overused Campsites
An overused or poorly concealed Campsite has at least
some of these characteristics:
- partially burned wood in evidence
- scorched rocks and trees
~- broken branches within an arm's reach of the ground
(no squaw wood)
fire areas in evidence
exposed mineral soil and areas bared of forest litter
and duff.
trampled and/or dead ground vegetation
broken bottles, flip tops, beer cans, and potato
Chip bags
All of these things lead to degradation and spoilage, but
an overused campsite can be revitalized and restored, at least
partially, to its natural condition (this' would be an ex-
cellent service project). To clean up and camouflage an
overused campsite:
- Burn all partially burned wood and scatter its ashes
when there is no heat left in then.
105
106
Clean all scorched rocks and boulders with bio-
degradable soap and a brush; then scatter them
(at least the rocks).
Replace all forest litter and duff at denuded places.
Tear down all man-made appurtenances; scatter logs
and beams; carry out all synthetic materials.
Make safe those areas where previous campers have
taken squaw wood and left sharp branch stumps on
which to gouge their eyes and otherwise skewer then-
selves. Cut tke stumps off flat with the tree and
treat the scar, using either commercial tree paint or
mud.
Carry out the broken bottles, flip tops, beer cans,
and potato chip bags.
Parks and campgrounds are areas where even more effort
is needed to preserve the natural effect. In addition to the
efforts listed above, it will be necessary to:
Import or manufacture litter and duff to recover
those areas where the mineral soil is exposed. You
might shred the partially burned wood if you have a
shredder available.
When distributing forest litter and duff, you may
need to construct erosion barriers to keep the mat-
erial from washing away.
Restore natural plant life in denuded areas. This
could be discussed with a neighborhood government
expert on the matter.
Encourage users of the property to spend time res-
toring the area as a service project.
To manufacture litter and duff, you may:
- Collect leaves and natural debris from yards and
streets; then chop them up (if you use a lawn mower,
feed only leaves into it).
Shred branches and dead trees collected by a mun-
icipality.
Use material from thatched lawns, salt hay, corn-
stalks, etc.
The material will shortly decompose and be unnotice-
able anyway, but if you want it to look more natural:
- Hide it with a covering layer of native material.
- Chop the material up more.
- Work the material into the soil with hand tools or
a rototiller.
Minimum Impact on Other Users of the Backcountry
Most backcountry users expect to have solitude during
their visit. An encounter with an OB group of 12-14 peo-
ple is not necessarily an agreeable part of their exper-
ience. Large groups tend to be more offensive than small
ones, and a study has shown that encounters near campsites
or deep in the woods disturb others' experience more than
encounters on trails or near roadheads. While we cannot
control where we run into folks, we use these policies and
practices:
- Plan routes to avoid heavily traveled trails and
heavily used areas.
Avoid having two groups traveling in close proxi-
mity. Travel and camp a mile or more apart (see
», 403).
Make sure your group's state of dress or cleanliness
won't offend others.
If the folks you meet appear interested, explain the
purpose of the OB group's visit. Offer a brochure.
Avoid popular areas on weekends: Mt. Mitchell, Table
Rock, fishing creeks, Cape Sable, Worley's Cave, etc.
Give others' campsites a wide clearance when traveling.
Do not plan expeditions which use long sections of the
Appalachian Trail. Use it only as a connector.
Never stay in a trail shelter along the AT. They are
for "end-to-enders".
Keep a tidy campsite. Don't leave equipment, food,
or litter strewn about.
If you do camp close to other folks, give them as
much privacy as possible.
Always wear a swimsuit while swimming; nudity of-
fends a lot of people.
Remember that your appearance and actions represent
the whole school.
Minimum Physical Impact on the Backcountry
One of OB's aims is to give each student an understand-
ing of the importance of wild areas and of their fragility.
We expect each student to develop a personal commitment to
minimize the physical impact of her visit to the backcountry.
In addition to adhering to the previous camping rules,
use the following travel procedures: :
- Use existing, trails when available; do not cause
erosion by cutting off switchbacks.
If a section of a trial is muddy, consider making
a drainage improvement rather than bypassing the
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108
muddy sections and creating a new trail.
When bushwhacking or traveling crosscountry, leave
no markers, cairns, or blazes. Allow others the
same pleasure in navigating trailless country that
you had!
Travel quietly; avoid clanging pots and cups hang-
ing from packs. The noise will lessen the chances
of seeing wildlife and disturb. others.
Take no souvenirs: flowers, rocks, hones, etc.
Leave these for others to enjoy.
Observe animals and birds from a distance. Respect
their need for undisturbed territory.
Dogs and other pets must not accompany groups. The;
may disturb wildlife and their noise may offend
others.
Pick up litter you find along the trail. Keep one
pocket just for trash.
Consider clecring brush from an overgrown trail or
repairing deteriorating tread. If extensive, note
for a future service project.
When passing horses on a trail, step off the trail
and stand quietly until the animals have passed.
Horses have the right-of-way.
The Art of Bushwhacking or Off-Trail Hiking
The term "bushwhacking" has an awful connotation; it
sounds as though bushes are the enemy which must be subdued
with a machete to make a trail. The term "off-trail hiking”
is preferable and far less violent.
Every OB course should include a hellacious bushwhack
through an impenetrable rhododendron thicket. Add a down-
pour on a steep hill with heavy packs at the end of a long
day and you'll probably get some good group interaction.
But the success of the bushwhack often depends on the at-
titudes instilled by the instructors. As safety briefings
are necessary for rocks, ropes, and rivers, so should they
be for "off-trail hiking".
- Caution crew against jabbing their eyeballs out
on a limb and being slapped in:the face by a branch
for following too closely.
Move slowly and deliberately at well-spaced intervals.
Choose routes that offer the least resistance by con-
Stantly looking for openings ahead.
Part limbs with your arms and shoulders instead of
heaving body and pack against horizontal limbs,
which are more difficult to pass.
- Avo:d breaking off limbs. Some bushwhacks are used
more than once, and you rob others of the feeling
of wilderness if they know people have been there
before. Broken limbs are aiso dangerous.
Emphasize to the crew to leave as few signs of their
passing as possible. The same is true for walking
through delicate fern or flower areas,
"Goin' up, you can might nigh stand up straight §
bite the ground; goin' down, a man wants hobnails
in the seat of his pants." (local saying)
CAVE ETHICS
Since our winter programs include camping in caves, it's
important for crews to follow these guidelines to keep
NCOBS' impact at a minimum.
- Do not touch any cave formations (speleothems);
the oil on your hands will affect their growth.
Do not remove any speleothems, even if they are
already broken.
Do not dump any carbide in the cave or around the
entrance. It is poisonous to cattle. Bring it
back to the school for disposal. Add water to the
bag it is in to complete the chemical reaction; then
dump it in trash cans.
Do not collect any plant or animal life.
Do not mark cave walls with signs or arrows. Feel
free to remove any unnatural or non-historical af-
fiti from the cave walls by blotting it out with
mud (This might be a good project on the way out
after the crew has developed an appreciation of the
Cave).
Bring a few extra burlap sacks for carrying out litter.
Set an example and encourage students to bring out
anything unnatural.
Human waste will decompose very slowly, if at all,
in the cave, so carry out all fecal matter in a
10-gallon bucket (honey bucket) lined with 2 heavy-
duty garbage can liners. The bucket serves as a
toilet while the crew is in the cave. Put onl
fecal matter and toilet paper into it. It has a
lid which forms a tight seal for transport out of
the cave. Bring the fecal matter back to the school
and dump it into the sewage treatment’ plant (this
job is more pleasant if you let the stuff frecze
first). Urinate into the stream or onto the mud above
109
112
110
it where urine can run off into it. Urinating in the
dry part of the cave should be avoided, as it creates
an unpleasant odor that takes some time to dissipate.
It is important that the food area is kept clean, as
mold will grow on any leftover food residue. Use an
extra ground cloth as a table cloth to collect the
food spills which are bound to happen. Wash cooking
pots and utensils in the stream upstream of the urin-
ating area. Sterilize all utensils and pots, as the
stream may be polluted.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR WINTER
In the winter, it can be impossible to find soft
ground for a latrine, so latrines must be dug in snow.
Site considerations are the same as for summer latrines,
with the additional necessity of locating the latrine in an
area of as much snow as possible. As the snow melts, the
feces have a chance to decay, wash away, and filter through
the soil; the more snow there is in the latrine area, the
‘more effective the spring decay. There is no reason for
a crew's waste to be deposited en masse. Since digging
winter latrines is easy, most instructors have their
students make personal holes as needed. Snow should be
kicked over urine stains to prevent the "yellow snow"!
effect. Do this far from camp so that bad snow isn't scooped
up for melting!
Camp sites should be selected away from trails and bodies
of water. All snow kitchens should be filled in, so that
after a 2-3 inch snowfall, a campsite is undetectable.
Cover any accidental stains on the snow. Dig a sumphole
in the snow for dishwater to prevent unsightly stains on the
snow.
Litter is especially difficult to check in the winter,
when dropped items can be lost in the snow, so it demands
special attention. Keep a careful eye on food wrappers,
twist-ties and the like. Candle wax can be caught in a cup
and then put in a litter bag.
THE LITTER THAT LINGERS
These figures come from Outside magazine, which asked
a waste-disposal expert to estimate how long it would take
some common materials and objects to degrade past recogni-
tion under trailside conditions. The times will vary, of
course, according to climate and other factors. Generally
Shorter times apply for conditions- of direct sunlight; long-
er times for shady environments. If you leave some of the
items listed below behind in the wilderness, this is how
long they'll stay around for the other folks to look at
(unless some OB crew comes along and picks them up!).
Alumninum cans and flip-top tabs: 80 to 100 years (longer
if submerged in fresh water).
Vibram sole: 50 to 80 years.
Plastic Clorox-type containers: 50 to 80 years ninimun.
Leather: up to 50 years for a crew.
Nylon fabrics, including ripstop: 30 to 40 years.
Plastic film: 20 to 30 years.
Plastic bags: 10 to 20 years.
Polyurethane: 10 to 30 years.
Milk cartons or other paper containers with plastic coating:
5S years.
Wool socks: 1 to 5 years.
Human body: 1 to 3 months.
Paper containers: 2 weeks to 5 months.
Fecal matter: i to 4 weeks.
Orange peels: 1 week to 6 months.
Plutonium-239: Its half-life is 24,390 years.
KEK
ze WEATHER
The key to successful forecasting is to base your pre-
dictions on several indicatcrs instead of just one. This
section will provide you with basic information about wind,
pressure systems, and frontal and cloud progressions, which
in combination will enable you to make basic weather predic-
tions.
WIND
Weather generally travels from the west at about 500
miles a day, traveling on the prevailing westerly winds. A
look at the sunset in the west, then, will give you clues
about the weather to come:
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
Red sky at night, sailor's del:.gnt.
The sun is setting through tomorrow's weather; dry air
refracts red light. Wet air and rain on the way will cause
a yellow or gray sunset.
Rainbow in the morning is a warning, at night,
a delight.
Rainbows are caused by the sun striking the wet clouds. They
shine opposite the sun. An evening rainbow in the east is
snining through weather already past: a western morning
rainbow highlights wet weather yet to come.
If the wind is not out of the west, other winds will
bring uther weather, as shown in the chart below. With rain
coming, aspen and maple leaves wiil show their undersides to
the wind bringing .t.
Wind Direction Pressure weather
E to N Low, falling fast Severe gale, rain
E to N Low but rising Cold wave
S to E Falling Storm, clearing
in 24 hours
S to SW Rising Clear soon, sever-
al good days a-
head
SE to NE Falling Rain for 1 or 2 days
E to NE Falling Rain in 24 hours
S to SE Falling Wind, rain in 18
: hours
SW to NW Steady Fair for 2 days
SW to NW Rising fast Fair, rain in 2 days
Going to West Rising Clearing, colder
BAROMETRIC PRESSURE
This is the pressure of the weight of the air on the
earth's surface. Since wet air is lighter than dry air, wet
weather is associated with low pressure systems, and fair
weather is with high pressures. Lacking a barometer, here
are some signs of low or dropping air pressure:
- Birds are not flying or flying low. (Low pressure,
thinner air, is hard to fly in).
Smoke curls downward and lingers.
"When ditch and pond offend the nose, look for rain
and storm blows." Smells are very distinct because
the low pressure is allowing captive odors to release
--a patch of galax smells very strong before a
storm.
FRONTS
A front is the wall of an advancing air mass.
A warm front usually covers 800 miles or more and slants
forward. It moves very slowly, providing a long warning (24
-43 Lours) of rains; to come. However, rains will last long--
maybe days. Warm fronts are indicated by thin high wispy
cirrus clouds, lowering over a period of 1 to 2 days into
sheets or a veil-like covering. This cloud cover will con-
tinue to lower and darken, resulting in precipitation.
When you see a mackerel sky, expect rain within a day.
The clouds of the mackerel sky are part of an advancing warm
front. .
A look at the night sky might provide early warning of
a coming warm front. A halo around the moon is caused by
forming cirrus clouds--the first sign of a warm front.
These irregularities may also be indicated by twinkling stars.
Cold fronts cover 100 miles or less, slant backward
and move much more quickly. They bring little warning, a
fast, hard rain, and leave clear, dry, cold air behind them.
Moving at 20-30 miles an hour, they begin with high cotton
Clouds, which will lower to form layers of strato-cumulus
Clouds, bringing rain.
Cold front Clouds are cumulus
wey
Ka, =
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to
“é a?
C3 A gb” GO ee (4)
D ‘an ¢o" 3
/ rd >
LOWERING c* s. : Va ra f CUMULUS
CumuLus EGeuncltitncs €3)rracro-cumutus
oS — ——
Warn <front Clouds 2re stratus
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C/IRRO-STRA igi NIMBO“STRATUS MIST AND
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——
i Mc
—_
OOOO
——— y
a Cold ifront rain
IS HARD and SHORT
BECAUSE LAE FRONT
IS SHARP-ANGLED
and FAST-MOVING
——SS
aWarmifront rat's SLOW 42nd LOWG-LASTING
Dew is a sign of fair morrow. On a clear night, without
cloud particles, moisture releases itself from air and collects
as dew. No dew at night, rain by morning. No dew at morning,
rain by the next day.
Fog at morning is simply damp air condensed by the cold
of the night. It will burn off with the heat of the morning.
Fog at night or late in afternoon is more often the result of
cold rain or snow falling through warm air on which it con-
denses; this indicates a coming storm.
Animal sounds: woodpeckers and bluejays are always very
noisy before a storm. Insects stop making noise.
115
Temperature: Rhododendrons are thermometers:
At 20°, the leaves are ~ightly curled.
At 30°, the leaves a:e curled.
At 40°, the leaves are drooped.
At 60°, the leaves are spread out.
Or you can tell the temperature by listening to crickets:
1. Count the number of chirps per minute.
2. Subtract 40.
3. Divide the result by 4.
4. Add 50, and you'll have the temperature in degrees.
Lightning
Our program areas and activities repeatedly place our
participants in areas of likely lightning discharge. This
demands that instructors and crews alike have a basic under-
Standing of lightning and how to avoid it.
Physics of lightning: Warm, moist air, when thrown a-
loft into cold heights by violent updrafts, will Slowly over-
charge, then discharge with an instantaneious "BANG", The
violent updrafts repeatedly break raindrops into smaller
drops; each time this occurs, their negative and positive
charges are seperated. The negatively charged air molecules
rise on the updrafts, while the positive and neutral water
molecules are heavier and remain below. By repeated split-
ting of the drops, enormous e’ectrical charges are made a-
vailable within the cloud (See Figure 1).
se bcc alae °C,
Efe te a a ee n
+ cet ABEL, 4. 2 :
-- Fg
“MN
* ne +
SPLIT CP WW
7H/S ARE4
ay -/0
i Ty Gt ce ARE
MM! [1
—~SE O/RECTIONW OF STORM
Air is normally a good insulator (poor conductor), but
in the presence of these large electrical charge differences
air molecules will conduct electrical currents quite well.
The lightning "flash" is the flow of these seperated positive
and negative charges back together again along ionized air.
117
118
Figure 2 illustrates the possible types and probable occur-
ences of this lightning discharge.
CHART: SHOWING: 6- FREQUENT LIGHTNING TYPES:
WUMBERED i ORDER OF AVERAGES
77
1
"GLOW
DISCHA RGE
INTO Alf2.
—_
seth
CHARGED -OBJECT
a DISCHARGE ‘INTO
ff i ae r _ POSITIVE
ene
(“FREQUENT GROUND STROKES _
We are concerned with the cloud to earth type of discharge
as illustrated by #4, Figure 2. The primary dangers associ-
ated with this discharge are a direct hit and ground current.
Dangers from direct hit: The potential electrical charge
differences are greatest near high and relatively sharp
points: mountain summits, sharp ridges, minor summits or
pinnacles at the end of a ridge, and trees or standing per-
sons.
Peas | eee oe
FREQUENCY OF STROKES
Figure 3
MOUNTAIN PROFILE
FAQ red
Ee" ss @aecdse
j
FERTILE RLY
43 Ps BWA Pe
ae
| thee’
. @
ws F
Protection: The best idea is to be completely out of
the area of likely direct hit(i.e. off the mountain, ridge,
etc.) but this is not always possible. If caught in an area
where a lightning strike seems possible, take advantage of
the presence of a nearby pinnacle or likely spot of direct
hit. Lightning will tend to hit the pinnacle rather than
the person near it, if the pinnacle is 5 to 10 times or more
the height of the person and the horizontal distance from
the person to the pinnacle is about half the pinnacle height
(Figures 4 and 6).
Figure §
UNSAFE
- If the potential victim gets too close under
the peak, her body may be an alternate path
to that of the ground for the very strong
ground currents (Figures 5 and 6).
If the person moves far from under the pinna-
cle (more than its height) the direct hit might
just as likely strike the person as the pinna-
Cle (Figure 6).
Figure 6
120
If the crew is in an area of high lightning danger,
individuals should not wait out the storm huddled together.
The survival of one person whose heart or breathing has
stopped may depend on prompt action by companions. It is
quite unlikely that all of a group of seperated persons will
be knocked unconscious Simultaneously.
Danger from ground current: The current which flows in
a lightning bolt does not dissipate itself at the point of
the direct hit; it tends to flow along the easiest paths of
electrical conducticn on the surface of the earth. These
may include wet, lichen-covered rock, cracks and crevices
filled with water, natural fissures and chimneys, wet ropes,
cables and the like along the ground, and "spark gap" areas.
When the ground current takes a short straight path through
the air, rather than a longer path around through the ground,
this is known as the "spark gap" effect (Figure 7).
Protection: The natural inclination in a heavy storm is
to seek shelter, especially if rain is driving down. Unfor-
tunately, this is the wrong thing to do unless you can find
a dry cave which gives you at least 10' head room and 4' to
either side. However, such caves and
hollows «wre often local expansions
of cracks and fissures, which are like-
iy conduits for ground currents, es-
pecially if they hold water. By shel-
tering in them, you are offering your-
self as an alternate "easy" path for
the spark gap (Figure 7). So even <—
a cave of adequate dimensions is highly
suspect as a safe area; SPARK
it should be used only : GAP
ef it is: best of
available options. The same argument
applies to sheltering under large boulders (Figure 8).
Figure 7 /
With reasonable waterproof equipment, remaining dry for
the short duration of a storm should not be a major problem.
It is much safer to sit it out in the open, crouching to min-
imize the distances from one body part to another. The feet
should be close together and the hands kept off the ground.
Crouch on dry insulating material if possible (See Figure 9).
Figure 8
Sheltering under large
boulders
Figure 9
Special hazards: climbing: Rappelling when lightning
is imminent should be avoided, A large current could be
passed along the ropes from the anchor into the body. Even
a minor shock could be indirectly fatal, if it caused the
rappeller to fall out of her rappel. It may be a valid
calculated risk if it speeds descent and escape from a "dan-
ger zone", but only if the hazards of remaining would be
121
122
greater than those of rappelling.
A climber may find herself "exposed" in the climbing
sense of the word, yet at the same time moderately safe
from lightning hazard. She could still experience a minor
shock that would cause a fall, so it may be advisable to tie
into an anchor. This tie-in may be a conductor, so it should
lie across rather than along possible "easy" paths of ground
current. It should not go to a chest sling which would pass
current through the climber's heart and spinal cord. When
on a ledge, crouch near the outer edge, hopefully at least
four feet from the rock wall. Tie-in if necessary using the
previously mentioned cautions.
Contrary to popular belief, metal objects (climbing
hardware, pack frames, ice axes, etc.) do not attract
lightning. In the immediate vicinity of a strike however,
metal in contact with the body may present hazards from "in-
duced currents". These currents are quite small, but when
added to ground currents may mean the difference between life
and death. Thus, it is best to set aside all metals if poss-
ible, but to keep them close by. Climbing gear may well be
needed later for a retreat after the storm. A metal pack
frame or ice axe might be positioned to provide a more at-
tractive path for ground currents beside and past one's
body.
Warning signs of lightning: Any or all of the following
may indicate the sossibiite of imminent lightning discharge:
- Crackling noises or buzzing coupled with small
sparks given off around metal objects (caused by
the 1onization or breakdown of air molecules a-
round a potential "target").
Blueish glow or corona around objects, commonly
t
known as - Elmo's fire.
Hair crackling or standing on end.
Cloudburst of enormous raindrops, monster snowflakes
or huge hailstones indicating the overhead pre-
sence of a cumulonimbus "thundercloud".
Sudden rush of cold air indicating a strong cold
front associated with possible lightning.
The distance of approaching electrical storms may be
calculated by timing the interval between the "flash" and
the following thunder. Because sound trayels about 1/5 of
a mile per second, count.the seconds after you see a flash
and divide by 5 to findthe distance.
~~
Physiological aspects of a lightning strike; Electri-
cal currents passing through the body may cause burns, muscle
spasms, heart stoppage or fibrilation, brain malfunction,
and cessation of breathing. The extent of injury depends
on the amplitude and duration of the current and on the
path of flow through the body. When a person is struck
directly, the current is apt to be so large that the results
are fatal no matter what the path through the body. Ground
currents are weaker and the particular current path through
the body makes a significant difference. For example, cur-
rent passed from hand to hand will pass through the heart,
spinal cord and vital organs, yet the same current from
foot to knee of the same leg is not so bad. This is why the
crouch is the best position for preventing injury.
Sources
Ferber, Peggy, ed.: Mountaineering, The Freedom of the Hills
(Seattle, 1974).
Langmuir, Eric: Mountain Leadership
May, W.G.: Mountain Search and Rescue Techniques (Boulder,
1973).
Sloane, Eric: Eric Sloane's Weather Book (New York, 2952).
CActivities
126
MORE INITIATIVES: ACTIVITIES AND TALKING GAMES
The Instructor's Handbook lists the different initia-
tives set up at each base camp and several mobile initiatives.
Here is a collection of other things to try, culled from
various folks' memories and experience and the various oth-
er OB schools in this country.
ACTIVITIES TO BUILD COOPERATION
- Build a sauna of tarps over a lashed stick frame.
Be sure you are in an area where you can do this
without leaving a trace of your activity, and
be careful not to burn anyone!
Have the crew figure out a way to cross a large
creek (one you would usually wade) staying dry.
Stage a mock search to find lunch.
Have a trust walk in which the whole crew is blind-
folded except the leader, who can't talk. You
lead the leader over stumps, under logs, through
rhodos, etc.
activities:
Pair off, with 1/2 of each pair blindfolded. The
seeing student leads the sightless one to a spec-
ific tree. The sightless one has 2 minutes to be-
come as familiar with it as she can. Then she is
led away, takes off-her blindfold, and tries to
find her tree.
Spend a day or a night or cook a meal in a tree.
Have the crew all climb the same tree as the waters
of a flash flood, or a hungry alligator, or some
fast-growing poison ivy nips at any part of them
less than 6 feet off the ground.
Have the crew make a chalk mark at the highest
point on a tree they collectively can reach.
up in order of:
Size, each crew member being an animal whose ident-
ity you've whispered to her. She can make only the
sounds of that animal.
Height, with all crew members blindfolded and
ecaethiées.
Name, listed alphabetically. Try first names first,
then middle, then last, then first again without
speaking. Good introductive game.
Number, which you've whispered to each crew member,
while standing on a log and not speaking.
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- Have everyone sit in a circle, blindfolded and
speechless, and take off 2 items of clothing (a
sock and a shoe, maybe) to put in the center of
the circle. Mix up all the clothes. Then every-
one must find her own clothing and get someone
else to put it back on her.
Have the crew form a polygon, such as a square,
right triangle, isoceles triangle, with
their expedition rope, while blindfolded.
These activities must be carefully supervised to
make sure they are safe. Many will require spot-
ters, and sometimes you will have to call off at-
tempts that could knock out a few teeth or break
an arm.
Variations:
Many of these activities can be done with any nun-
ber of variations as follows:
- Do it silently.
- Do it speaking only a foreign language--try out
your high school French, for example.
Do it blindfolded.
Do it carrying a pot full of radioactive water
from Three Mile Island.
Do it with a time limit.
Do it with mittens on.
Do it with everyone's thumbs taped to their hands.
These variations can make everyday tasks into ini-
tiatives, too: break camp and start hiking sil-
ently, or with mittens on, or set up tarps blind-
folded. Another good variation is: don't do it
for yourself--someone else has to feed you, pack
your pack, put on your boots, etc.
TALKING GAMES
Talking games are essentially forms for discussions
or means of getting them started.
To help evaluate a day or activity:
- Keep a crew journal. Have the writer for the day
read her entry each evening.
- Ask the crew to decide on one word that describes
the day or let each person have one word.
- Have a "Rite of Passage"; formally turn over the
responsibility for leadership to the crew at the
beginning of Main, for example.
- Ask the crew to make up a song, poem, or skit a-
127
128
128
bout their experience. Each person could add a
rhyming line to a poem.
To help students look at themselves:
- Ask each student to say one thing she likes and
one thing she dislikes about herself.
- Have each student draw a shield:
Life symbol
What do I do best
Greastest success of
What am I trying last 12 months
to get better at \
Greatest failure
My favorite
possession 1 > words that describe
me
Unrestrained by money
and commitments, what 3 words that I would
would I do in the next like people to use to
12 months? describe me
To help students understand their roles in the group:
- Have students write down a fear thay have about
the course (or whatever). Put the "fears" in a
hat, shuffle them, and pass them back out. Have
each person role-play the fear she receives.
Present a situation such as "Our crew is caving
when a landslide starts to block the entrance.
We have time for 7 people to get out. Who will
get out?".
Present a situation where everyone is trapped,
marooned, doomed, etc. Write 12 role-types on
Slips of paper (e.g."Comforting Carl - you want
peace in the group and will do anything to main-
tain it" or "Linda Leadership - you are the or-
ganizer, recruiter, doer of the group") and pass
them in a hat. Each student is to role play the
type she draws and together the crew must "solve"
their situation.
Draw a large circle on the ground. Have each stu-
dent place her shoes (or herself) in a position
in the circle which fits her role in the group.
Have each one explain the positioning and ask if
she'd like to change it. Ask other crew members
if they think the positioning is correct.
To help students understand how they are seen by
others:
- Have each person choose 3 volunteers to speak on
her behalf; then let the whole group affirm them
(a Cheyenne initiation rite from COBS).
Have each person request a strike (constructive
Criticism) from another crew member and then a
stroke (praise).
Hot seat--each person has a turn at receiving
whatever feedback the crew is ready to give.
Have the crew members role-play one another--they
mizht draw names from a hat.
In conducting these games, be sure to be sensitive
to when the game is played out and it's time to
call a halt. The last two, in particular, should
be tried oniy with a crew that you know to be rea-
sonably sensitive and compassionate. Afterwards,
talk haus the games--how new roles felt, what
folks learned, what was frustrating, what was great.
THINGS TO TRY WITH OTHER CREWS
Have a potluck dinner.
Have a monster race. Each crew must form into a
unified monster, with no more than 1/3 its total
legs (and any number of hands) on the ground. A
monster that falls apart in mid-race must re-assen-
ble before continuing.
Play hug tag. IT can't get you if you're hugging
someone, but you can't hug for more than 3 seconds
at a time.
Play "people-to-people". IT yells out "nose-to-
elbow", "knee-to-navel" and one or two other simi-
lar connections that you must make with your part-
ner. Then IT calls "people-to-people" and you must
find a new partner. If you don't you're IT.
Have your crew invent an initiative for the other
crew and vice versa.
SOLO ACTIVITIES: for mini-solos or the real thing.
- Have each student write a letter to herself
mailed 6 months later.
- Have each student write feedback for each of the
others in brief notes; you collect and distribute
these on cairn checks.
- Have students draw names and make gifts for one
another.
¥
NIGHT ACTIVITIES
In case your crew doesn't schedule its own all-night
bushwhack, here are some activities to keep them from
sleeping too much.
Bivouacs: ridges and peaks on clear nights are great
for these. If you get rained off your Table Rock day, you
might be able to walk up the mud chute to Lunch Ledge, bivy
there, and do the last 2 pitches at the crack of dawn be-
fore another crew gets up to you. Or you could try the "air-
plane crash" approach where your crew has been able to res-
cue 6 sleeping bags, 2 flashlights, 3 candles, 1 pot, 2
ponchos, and a ball of string (or whatever) from its downed
craft before it exploded. Or give your crew a list of 20
items and let them choose which 5 to take.
Watch the LB on pp.98 you will find how to tell time
by the moon and directions by the stars. Try a short
bushwhack traveling only by the stars. Have everyone keep
watch for an hour throughout the night; then have the last
person awaken the crew before dawn for an early start.
Day activities at night: Do the zip at night; have a
lantern at either end and watch your students disappear into
the dark. Get a jump on your expedition by hiking out the
night before. Try a silent walk to increase your awareness
of night sounds.
Sneak around: Do something (nice) without anyone know-
ing it was your crew: empty the compost, bake a cake for the
cook, clean out all the vans, fix an eroded spot in a trail,
etc.
The Seton Watch and mini-solo ( p.129 ) are good night
activities as well; so are virtually all the Talking Games
ig Pe ys one
CAVING ACTIVITIES
Blind leading the blind: The crew is roped together in
a safe passage. No lights. Each person takes a turn lead-
ing. The stream passage is ideal.
Situation or simulation: Stage a mock rescue through
crawlways, large passages (wet or dry) and up or down walls.
Initiatives: Ones that might be easy outside, but diff-
icult in the dark.
Scavenger hunt: Be careful not to disrupt the flora
and fauna in the process.
Group solo: The group is set out on a ledge, all at-
tached to a fixed line with carabiners and slings, for 8-24
hours. No lights. If the group will be out "overnight", let
them take a few sleeping bags.
Mapping: Ask your crew to map a section of the cave,
using the standard symbols shown below and on the following
page.
CAVE MAPPING SYMBOLS
Vertical drop
Entrance abet (hatches point toward
lower floor)
Passage @®
e—
as
section Ceiling height
change
oer
Stream
an a
"Oia 33
Mud Slope 2
Flowstone on Rimstone Dam
Floor
CAVE MAPPING SYMBOLS, Cont.
i y
Stalagmite Stalactite Column (sm) Column (1g)
Malu
Soda straws
Bedrock
Breakdown (lg) Breakdown (sm)
SIMULATIONS
A SUCCESSFUL SIMULATION DEPENDS ON:
- Imagination and ingenuity: Create a situation where
this injury could have happened.
Make-up: Using your knowledge of the various types
of wounds and their nature, simulate the wound as
Closely as possible.
Staging: Realism can be achieved by placing the
victims in positions in which they would ordinarily
be found following an accident, and by arranging
props to indicate the cause.
Acting: The victim should know the nature of the in-
jury and something about the symptoms. She should
be able to respond in a manner indicative of her
injury. Select your victims very carefully.
Start them on small things first. Give them as much
consideration as possible. They will be uncomfort-
able; try to minimize this as much as possible given
the situation.
Debriefing: After a simulation, students may be in
shock and feel tricked. An effective debrief will
help them to understand why you staged a simulation
and how it affected their feelings and actions.
Lacking a good debrief, a simulation can be a disas-
trous experience (see the Instructor's Handbook,
p. 97, for more on the purpose of simulations).
PREPARATION OF MATERIALS
Making Blood:
Thick blood: fo simulate coagulated blood, mix 1/2
part vaseline with 1/2 part vermillion grease paint (if
lipsticks are available, they may be substitued for ver-
million grease paint). Add to this a chunk of dark blue
stick grease paint about 3/4" in diameter and 3/8" long.
Melt the entire mixture in a double boiler and pour it into
a jar to cool.
Thin blood: Mix one quart of Zippy liquid starch with
1/4 oz. of red food coloring. Shake well (Note: Zippy has
proved to be the best starch for this purpose).
Preparation of Bone:
Get a large bone form the cook (preferably a leg bone).
Boil, boil, boil, boil, and then boil again. Allow it to
air dry. Smash it with a hammer and use the chips.
133
134
Moulages:
Moulages are plastic simulated wounds, They are either
tied or taped on; some of the smaller ones can be applied
with spirit gum. Although they are not as realistic as the
made-up wounds described below, they do allow for very rapid
make-up and, in many instances, far less cleaning up after-
wards. Some moulages contain a blood reservoir and pump
to use for sucking wounds, open fractures, and crushed limbs.
MATERIALS FOR SPECIFIC INJURIES
Burns: lst degree - lipstick or vermillion grease paint
2nd degree - vermillion grease paint
vaseline
Saran wrap
for small blisters, white candle
drippings
3rd degree - vermillion grease paint
vaseline
burnt cork
black powder
restorative wax
Open fractures: glazing compound
matching powder
thick and thin blood
cotton
bone fragments
possibly, blue or black liners
Shock: white grease paint or powder
blue liner
glycerine
To portray vomiting: A small amount of cooked cereal
can be held in the oath and expelled when the opportune time
presents itself. Cooked oatmeal, cream of wheat, Farina,
or softened graham crackers may be used to simulate vomit.
To portray frothing at the mouth: Make effervescent
capsules by putting Fizzerin in size 00 gelatine capsules.
A capsule can be held in the mouth until needed, then chewed,
giving it a chance to mix well with the saliva and then al-
lowed to dribble out of the mouth.
To portray wounds: A thin layer of putty should be
worked into the skin covering the area desired, and the
edges blended into the skin. Color this with powder to match
the victim's complexion. For a laceration, make a jagged
opening in the putty with an orange stick (or spatula)
giving it the appearance of tcrn flesh. Put coagulated
blood in the opening with an orange stick or palette knife
and squirt liquid blood on the wound. for a puncture
wound, press the blunt end of a pencil or other object
in the putty, line this hole with thick blood, and apply
liquid blood.
EXAMPLES
The Snake Bite Simulation
This should be done only at the base camp by someone
who handles poisonous snakes.
Place a snake (of any kind, but a timber rattler is
most effective) under one of the higher student cabins,
where students can see it instantly and the handler can
re-catch it easily. As the crew comes into the area, have
the handler/victim scream bloody murder and thrash around
on the ground. She should scream just as the crew is near-
ing her so they can all arrive at the same time, and should
make sure she screams out the snake's location before they
arrive (if the snake has any sense at all, it will stay un-
der the cabin). The victim should over-react. Should the
snake leave the cabin, the simulation can be stopped at the
handler/victim's discretion.
The victim should become very sober if the crew decides
to cut and suck.
To prepare the victim: Apply a small mound of morti-
Ccian's wax at the bite. Make two fang punctures, pack
with cotton strands, and dab on a few drops of blood.
The Electrocution-Burn Simulation
This scene is for when the sterilizer is set up in
the kitchen. It is probably one of the easiest for which
to prepare, and still provides maximum effectiveness.
Make sure the entire crew is in the dining hall doing duty.
The victim must come quickly in the back door with her
back towards the kitchen, turn around, and grab hold of
the cool part of the sterilzer with her right hand. Have
a large, precarious pile of cans, pots, etc. stacked up
beside the sink so she can knock them down as she gets
electrocuted. This adds nicely to the confusion. She
should flap like a flag while holding onto the sterilizer,
136
convulse like mad , and scream at the top of her lungs. Then
she should drop off the sterilizer, hit the floor convulsing
(practice first) and hold her burnt hand up in front of her
so they will see it. The scene can be modified for different
places.
To prepare the victim: Spread a thin layer of morti-
Cian's wax (or vaseline) on the inside of the right hand.
Sprinkle ashes in it from the fireplace. Close the hand
and open it again. Now add blood to the third degree burn.
Add a drop of blood coming out of the ear canal and chew
up a piece of blood-soaked tissue paper in the mouth.
RF
TYROLEAN TRAVERSE
A Tyrolean Traverse is used to move a person across
a river or gorge without having to wade or climb down and
back up again. Across a river, it can be set up between two
trees; across a gorge, from one lip to another, anchored on
boulders or thread-throughs.
1. Set up and tighten two load lines across the gorge.
A transport knot (See Appendix 2) is a good way to
tighten them.
The student puts on a seat sling and carabiner, as
for a rappel. Her carabiner is clipped to another
locking biner which is clipped over two load lines
(see illustration).
The student has 2 belays, so she ties into two ropes
with bowlines around her waist. 3-4 feet from each
bowline, she ties a figure 8 knot which is clipped
into a carabiner clipped over the load lines. One
goes to a belay on the side where she starts; the
other to a belay where she ends up. The belays
should have anchors seperate from those of the load
lines.
LOAD LINES
LY
PLA AY SS SS be ED Oe, a eR am, we |
>
Siintitninc. <8
ese
Lit ee
Student clips
into this carabiner
Student ties into belay
ropes with a bowline
Belay rope around the waist Belay Rope
2 © SP ER Oe ee i oe ie ee
138
MORE ABOUT THE ROPES COURSE
The Instructor's Handbook, pp. 139-141, has procedural
and safety guidelines for the NCOBS ropes courses. Here is
some more information about them.
GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
Presently NCOBS is using two high (30'-70') ropes courses
with similar events, but each with a unique design. The west-
ern base camp, Green Cove, has a circular design, with the
entrance and exit being the same vertical net tube ascending
into a horizontally-suspended cargo net. To keep people from
climbing up and possibly getting hurt when the base Camp is
not in use, the vertical entrance/exit tube is hauled up
and left lying in the cargo net. The main base at Table
Rock has a "Z" shaped design that goes higher and higher be-
tween three trees, The entrance is the same as the one at
Green Cove, but the exit is a thrilling ride on a giant swing,
which eventually dies down only three feet off the ground,
PHILOSOPHY OF DESIGN
A safe ropes course is a work of art. It takes a good
imagination to design one that frightens participants and yet
that they can complete once they overcome their initial hes-
itancy. If it is too frightening or difficult, it will des-
troy self-concept instead of building self-confidence. Op-
tions can be devised to challenge the more physically fit,
but the trees shouldn't be cluttered up with a mass of con-
fusing events. The course should instead require a great
deal of mental commitment. A good ropes course is Clean,
simple, safe, and scary. It tries to put all of the parti-
Cipants "in the same boat" by making. the events harder psy-
chologically than they are physically. At the same time, it
requires a physical effort: they must bend, balance, crawl,
climb, squeeze, stretch, pull, lift, lower and think their
way thru the circuit. The events are laid out to give them
the greatest feeling of security at the beginning, with a
progression of greater exposure as they become more comfort-
able in the trees.
The courses were designed to try to eliminate maintenance
(as much as possible), vandalism, belays, and time spent on
the ground instead of in the air. The construction of such
a course is a major project, taking from 1-3 weeks depending
on experience, man-power, materials, weather, imagination,
the height of the course, and the types of trees in which it
is built. The higher it is, the more effective it is--safe
size of tree diameters may be a limiting factor.
Advantages
The design allows for most people to be up in the
course at one time instead of being on the ground watching.
This enables them to get used to the height while waiting
on versons ahead of them, and allows group members to be
nearby to offer encouragement to one another. There is
also room for two instructors to observe participants and
come to their aid (this is rarely necessary, given the self-
rescue techniques explained below). It takes an average of
about 4 and 1/2 hours to complete for a group of 14, with
each person in for about 1 and 1/2 hours. The time varies,
however; it may take anywhere from 3-8 hours depending on the
crew. It can be plugged in to take the place of another act-
ivity which has been rained out, such as rockclimbing, or it
can be used at night by moonlight or with a Coleman lantern,
after having been done in the daylight and at the instructor's
discretion.
Disadvantages
One drawback to the design is that the trust factor is
lost since belays are not used. Another is that having
everyone clipped into a safety cable at all times might
lessen the fear of falling, but lack of fear never seems to
have been a problem.
SATETY SYSTEM
Over most of the events there is a 7/16 inch steel
safety cable, onto which the participants Clip for protection.
Before leaving the ground, participants are instru
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