Archive for August, 2009

St. John’s Ambulance Standard First Aid Course with Level ‘A’ CPR ~ September 12-13, 2009 

Location:  DeGraff’s Eco-Camp Resort, Gull Lake Alberta.  Telephone: 403-782-2193; cell:  780-920-3677

This first aid certificate is the one needed in the workplace to meet the requirements of the government.  Minimum age is twelve.

The Standard First Aid with Level ‘A’ CPR course requires a minimum of 13 1/2 hours, we plan to run this course as a 15 hour session.    

Saturday              8 hours 8 – 12; 1 – 5

 Sunday                7 hours 8 – 12; 1 – 4          

  TOTAL (before coffee breaks):

   15 hours – (4 x 1/4 hr. breaks) = 14 hours.

The cost of the course, not including camping, will be:   $150 + GST  ($157.50) per person

BONUS OFFER:  anyone who attends this course and then registers for one of Fred Tyrell’s Wilderness First Aid courses within the next 12 months will get a 25% discount on the cost of the wilderness course (excluding facility and meal costs).  This is not transferable.

 *  Please contact Connie or Ingo at #403-782-2193 or #780-920-3677 or info@wildbynatureadventures.com if you have any questions or wish to register for this St. John’s Ambulance Standard First Aid Course on September 12-13, 2009

The Red Deer Junior Forest Warden ‘Woodchucks’ Leaders were very focused and excited for this Paddle Canada Whitewater Course and Canoe Tripping Course on the North Saskatchewan River.   The two courses were very intense; they were loaded with essential river tripping and whitewater paddling skills including the Paddle Canada IntroductoryWhitewater Canoe Skills Certification Course requirements, and the Paddle Canada Canoe Tripping Skills Certification Course requirements.  The Whitewater course focused on all the skills necessary to successfully paddle a canoe on a Class I river, while the Canoe Tripping  course focussed on everything involved in planning, organising and implementing a successful, safe and fun canoe trip including: trip preparation & gear, packing boats, safety and rescue concerns/techniques, and a very wide scope of camping skills including: campsite selection, tarp shelters, axe, saw and knife use, wild animal awareness and protection.  The list goes on, suffice it to say our JFW leaders gained a great deal of knowledge about how to properly prepare themselves for a safe river adventure.   They learned about the river environment, how to safely travel through this environment, and how to respond and react to emergencies on a river trip.   

The JFW leaders had considerable previous camping experience, but the depth of this course still surprised them.  They put their prior experience to good use, and assimilated the additional  information and skills required for the Paddle Canada Canoe Tripping Certification.   Congratulations to the Red Deer JFW Woodchucks Leaders on their quest to continue to improve their skills and knowledge base in lifetime outdoor activities.

Friday August 14 almost 50 Junior Forest Wardens made the trek from Bragg Creek to Rocky Mountain House for a river canoeing experience with Wild By Nature Adventures.  The crew set up camp at Twin Lakes Campground just west of Rocky, and most of the younger wardens got onto the water on Twin Lakes Friday evening to practice their canoeing skills.  Saturday morning the whole club hit the lake for a final practice session to prepare for the river adventures to come.  Saturday afternoon thirtyfive club members climbed into 15 canoes and the entire armada headed off down the mighty North Saskatchewan River from the Brierlies launch site to the Riverview Campground at the Highway 11 bridge.  Several rescue boats were set up with fully qualified instructor/guides, but no rescues were necessary.  All the hard work from the two lake sessions paid off; the club members had practiced their river paddling skills on the lake and had no problem applying those skills to the river.  All 15 boats safely negotiated the Class One rapids, riffles and bends on this stretch of the river, and practised river skills like eddy turns and forward ferrying wherever the opportunity presented itself.  The armada pulled into the Clearwater River confluence, and paddled a short distance up the Clearwater before continuing down the North Saskatchewan.   Everyone  pulled out totally under control at the Riverview Campground at about 5:30 pm on Saturday. 

Sunday morning a “hard-core crew” of  Bragg Creek JFW paddlers hit the North Saskatchewan River at the Blue Bridge launch site, about 4 km upriver of the Brierlies.   The stretch from the Blue Bridge to the Brierlies provides a lot of opportunties to test whitewater canoeing skills, and our hard-cores did just great.  First they paddled through the one meter standing waves of the Greer Rapids, and eddied out river left just below for their first bailing session, then we had a lot of fun hitting the great waves along the rest of this route, including the curling waves at the Lower Fishers.  Everyone had a total blast, nobody tipped, but there were moments where there was quite a bit of water in some of the canoes.  The hard core crew was having so much fun that they were disappointed to see the Brierlies launch site…this meant the best whitewater section was over for the day.  Another crew of club members joined us at the Brierlies, and the entire group paddled to the Highway 11A bridge without incident, playing in the rapids and practicing their river skills along the way.

The club shuttled the canoes and paddlers back to Twin Lakes for a late lunch, then everybody headed over to the National Historic Site to experience the “living history” diplays staffed by Parks Interpreters in era costumes.  After a very informative session at the Historic Site, the club said their farewells and started off on the long trek back to Bragg Creek. 

It was a great weekend of fun on the river (and the lake).  The club members really improved their lake and river paddling skills, had a great experience paddling down a river that played a vital role in the fur trade, and learned more about the fur trade at the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.  This was a full on Canadian Experience, and the Bragg Creek JFW Bald Eagles made the most of it!

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Kayaking Rocks!

July 22 to 24 the McKernan Child Care Society held their annual campout at De Graff’s Eco-Camp Resort, where Wild By Nature leaders Ingo Hentschel (aka Sponge Bob) and Connie Gottselig (aka Surf) taught lake canoeing, sea kayaking, environmental awareness, outdoor leadership, team building, eco-games, and a lot of camping and wilderness survival skills.  The participants were very eager learners, proving once again that city kids are very much into learning more about being active in the outdoors.  The WBN leaders were totally impressed with the great attitudes these children and their McKernon staff supervisors demonstrated throughout their stay at DeGraff’s.  Everyone is looking forward to another great experience next summer at the 2010 McKernan Campout.

We are off to teach canoeing for four days (August 5 to 9) at the 16th Annual Outdoor Women’s Conference at Alfred Lake Conservation Education Centre for Excellence.  This conference is incredible….lots of outdoor skills to learn and tons of fun!  Check it out at www.aheia.com

Over the last couple of weeks we paddled through some wild rapids on the historic North Saskatchewan River, between Horburg and Rocky Mountain House, with the Lacombe 4-H Outsiders and Red Deer Junior Forest Warden Clubs.  We all had a total blast and the participants were able to improve their river paddling skills.   Both groups now feel comfortable running Class 1 and 2 rapids in open canoes and many were also able to practice their river rescue skills.  Both clubs collected garbage along the river banks and the Red Deer JFW’s helped us (and the Paddle Alberta Environment Committee) dig a new outhouse hole on Devil’s Elbow.  This outhouse is extremely valuable in terms of environmental impact, as the Devil’s Elbow is the most heavily used camping area along this section of the North Saskatchewan river.  Wild By Nature Adventures and the Red Deer JFW Woodchucks are very proud to have been involved in helping to protect this environmentally sensitive area, and they also had a lot of fun repeatedly running the Devil’s Elbow wave trains and lining their canoes back up again.