LDTC builds and rehabilitates trails in remote or wilderness areas, so, having wilderness first aid (WFA) training is a must have.
LDTC’s leadership is very proud of the crew and the way everyone embraces safety. We like to call it our safety culture. We have safety meetings in the parking lot before every crew outing, in addition to our lunch break, we take safety breaks and have a crew meeting in the parking lot after each outing to discuss the days work and safety issues.
Year after year the success of our safety culture is evident in the fact that no one on the LDTC has endured any serious injury.
It’s with this safety culture in mind and to learn / refresh / enhance our safety knowledge, many in the crew took this life saving course. This WFA course was specially designed so that all of the attendees were members of the LDTC. We got to hear and share each others thoughts and ideas and to understand each others strengths and weakness so we could work together efficiently during an emergency.
Our course leader was Joydeep Paul, (Paul) founder and chief training officer of Medserv Healthcare Solutions, LLC, Princeton NJ.
Paul and Peter Kubat (our medic) devised several test scenarios where multiple emergency situations were occurring simultaneously. With our crew already working well together in the field, these simulated emergency situations went smoothly and efficiently.
Our crew leaders said it best “Thank all of you for a highly successful training weekend. Everyone was fully engaged and worked to ensure that we learned and reinforced our skills and everyone has a high degree of confidence that they will be able to help each other (and be helped if necessary) if a medical "emergency" occurs. We all had the right mix of seriousness and fun and everyone put all they could into making the scenarios as meaningful as possible. "
Our sessions were held in Black Rock Forest Saturday March 10th. and Sunday March 11th.
Now a little crew outing info:
As with last year, the weather is not our friend. Our work site is still covered with snow with more on the way. There is no way the ground will be dry enough for the park to get their ATV up the mountain to our work site without damaging woods roads and trails, while transporting our tools to the work site.
So we have canceled our first scheduled crew outing 3/23, 3/24/2018. As of this writing our first crew outing of 2018 will start on April 6th 2018.
We will be continuing our work from last year, rehabilitating the Appalachian Trail on West Mountain in Harriman State Park NY.
The Appalachian Trail is always changing and evolving. All along the A.T., work crews, like LDTC constantly relocate and rehabilitate portions of the trail to protect nature and to enhance the Appalachian Trail hiking experience.
All of our projects take a lot of effort and as always, all done by volunteers. Our experience crew and crew leaders are eager to teach volunteers of all abilities the skills needed to build hiking trails.
Speaking of volunteers, not everyone can make it everyday and that’s OK with us. Some volunteers come out everyday while others can only make it to 1 or 2. Don’t feel that you have to commit to an entire project or even a weekend, any help is appreciated and being a volunteer you can come and go as you see fit.
We're a community of volunteers who build, protect and maintain hiking trails. We invite you to join us. You’ll be glad you did.
