Week 2

This week I planned a camping trip for me and some of my friends. When we were driving over to the campsite we all had the directions on our phones, however, as kids raised on technology we forgot that there would be no cell service near the campsite. Once we were about 4 miles away our directions stopped and we had to start reading signs. We ended up driving up and down the windy road a few times until we finally spotted the hidden campsite. We ended up at a beautiful spot that was full of lush forest and had a great time, but always remember to print out a map or the directions! After planning my first trip I learned a lot about communicating effectively and efficiently to make sure we were all on the same page. I think it's really helpful to make sure you are checking the weather forecast and packing accordingly. I would also recommend splitting up different supplies among the people coming on the trip to make it simpler. For anybody interested in going on camping trips of their own, I would recommend watching the REI and Leave No Trace youtube videos. REI does a great job talking about the different gear that you need and Leave No Trace teaches helpful survival skills and how to camp sustainably. My three main goals from last week were to be independent, build community, and be sustainable outdoors. I worked on my independents by planning my trip all by myself, researching the campsite, testing gear, and making a packing list. My second goal was to create community outdoors, I worked on this by bringing three other friends with me on my trip, communicating accordingly so that we all were prepared, had gear, and were ready to have fun. My final goal was to be sustainable in the outdoors, to work on this I read a ton of articles on the leave no trace website and learned that the 7 principles for having a sustainable trip are planning ahead, traveling on durable surfaces, disposing of waste properly, leaving artifacts where they are found, minimizing fire impact, respect wildlife, and be considerate of others. To learn more check out the Leave No Trace website, https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/. Thinking back to what I learned in Evobio about humans' natural brain wiring, I wonder how going on these trips will affect me?

The first photo is the view from our campsite, the second photo is the river that ran alongside it(it was a little rainy the first day!)