Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Leave No Trace Master Educator Course


I’m in!  For three glorious weeks in June I will be camping (with Kenai!!) in the Great Smoky Mountain Nat’l Park for a Master Educator Leave No Trace stock course.  The first week will be spent in the northeastern part of the park at Big Creek and the following two weeks will be in the park near the Appalachian Trail.

I’m super pumped.  I’ve always dreamed of big camping trips that involved horses, but when I finally tried to put one together last summer realized there are a TON of logistics that go into it that I 150% do not understand.  Now I’m going to gain the opportunity and experience to do something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid!  Whoop, whoop!

My meals will be provided in the fee for the course, as will any horse or mule I may need.  All I need to bring is camping equipment and enthusiasm.  Eeee!  By far, one of the most exciting things for me is being able to bring Kenai.  It thrills me and scares me to take him.  More thrill than scare.  The only reason I’m frightened is because it’s a really, really big, wild area far away from home and I hope he won’t run off.  He’s been A LOT better as of late.  He did run off for 10 minutes during his *FIRST* real trail ride this past weekend (causing me to freak out like the spastic mother I would be if I ever had kids), but seriously, he does really well.  I’m just going to have to really work on his recall and obedience between now and June.  Make him bomber and ready for it.

The drive down there is gonna be 7 hours (ew) so I will definitely need to square away some audiobooks for the drive.  I have all the Harry Potter ones, but hearing something I’ve read multiple times doesn’t keep me quite so riveted.  I’ll need to find something new.  Suggestions?  Anyone?

3 comments:

  1. Woot! Mind you camping for three (!!!) weeks leaves me terrified for other reasons... lol

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  2. EEEK! I'm excited for you!

    Now, audiobooks...hmmm...I read Water for Elephants over break and it was amazing. I've heard Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is really good. If you haven't read anything by Amanda Hocking, I would suggest any of her books - they're sort of younger literature, but still really good. Kind of like how The Hunger Games are, but not quite to that level with some of them - The Trylle Trilogy was the first series I read by her, and I loved them. I see that Amazon has Wicked - I have all of the Wicked Years books, and they're very good. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on there as well - I haven't read that series, but I've heard it's pretty good. Enough ideas for you? :)

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