OHMVR Division Outreach Team Education Programs Roll Out

R/C Course Photo

The OHMVR Division Outreach team presented a campfire program, interpretive hike, and information about wilderness preparedness to participants attending the annual Jeep® Jamboree held at the Rubicon Trail August 2-3, 2013. Participants were greeted by OHMVR Outreach staff on Friday at Loon Lake and received a packet of materials including maps, Tread Lightly!® literature and other safety information. In the evening after dinner at the Rubicon Springs, the team presented a traditional campfire program on black bears, beginning with camp songs and followed by S’mores near the campfire. The highlight of the campfire was a visit from “Brian the Black Bear” who taught bear safety in a skit with audience participation.

Photo of the Stone Cabin at the Rubicon TrailThe fun continued on Saturday as interpreters led a half-mile hike for 30 participants to the “Stone Cabin” built in 1940. The hike, through alpine meadows and an area inhabited by beavers for years, included information about Sierra plants and butterflies, and culminated with a visit to “the Mansion,” a cabin where a black bear had been hibernating beneath the floorboards and trying to claw his way inside.
 
In the afternoon, the children filled out a sheet teaching Tread Lightly!® principles as their “ticket” to drive the R/C Jeep course. Slowly crawling the R/C Jeeps up the granite faces of the natural terrain, they practiced in miniature what they had experienced as passengers the day before. Impromptu, they began spotting for each other—disappointed when their new friends accidently went over vegetation or at the wrong angle through the simulated streambed—and cheering when someone successfully completed the course. While they waited for a turn, staff had a lesson on what to pack for wilderness preparedness and taught how to make a paracord bracelet as a way to carry cordage needed for the safety pack.

Making bracelets photoIn addition to presenting great programs, the Outreach team was also able to talk to participants during meals and breaks. As they were packing to leave, one of the boys said, “Are you coming back next year?” They replied, “If we are invited!” “Don’t worry,” he said knowingly, “I know some people… I’ll make sure they invite you.”