TuscaroraBorealis: "Really enjoyed the report; thanks for taking the time to put it together.
The Enchanted Forest portage into/out of Hanson is also one of my favorites.
Not meant as a criticism...but wondering what the dynamic is on guided trips you do/have done if you run across people who want to 'stop n smell the roses' (hiking, photography, fishing, cooking, wild life viewing, picking berries & mushrooms etc.) more than putting miles behind you? Do you have established routes that people sign up for or, do you allow them to plan it out or something in between? It would seem that you would occasionally run across some with a different tripping mindset (like your friend on this trip), unless you have some sort of filtering process? Seems you would need to be flexible in that respect. Anyways thanks for sharing. "
No and that's fair. I have learned a lot in the past few years. I was struggling to frame that well in this report, but this trip was a huge learning experience in that regard. I too have learned to really enjoy slowing the trips down, way more than I did two years ago even. As for guiding, I think part of the challenge on this trip was the fact that it was a friends trip. It was a friends trip where people specifically stated that they wanted to go far and see things and then we had to scale back. And also to be clear, my drive for mileage was/is never been about the mileage itself. It's always been about the destinations along the way. In this trip's case, it was because I knew what was in front of us and I was really excited to be able to share it. I knew about Agamok falls/Fishdance pictographs/Beaver Adams portage/ the island of old pines on Alice. Being so excited for those things makes it tough to slow down in between. And in some ways, that's one of the exciting ways I'm able to grow on a trip is being forced to stop and enjoy the little things along the way which there is so much of besides just the "big ticket" destinations.
On guided trips, I have really narrowed down a philosophy of how I lead. A lot of that for me stems back to group ownership. How do I help the group get invested in this experience. I accomplish this by offering up options. For instance, I could say, "we have this really tough portage in front of us, I already know it's been a long day. We could stay here and it might mean we don't get x thing in the future or we could push on and we would have to do this hard thing. Here's the rewards, here's the cost." That way, I have learned as a guide how to be part of pushing a group in a healthy way to challenge themselves and grow without being the taskmaster that's dragging a group to the point of not enjoying the experience or of getting hurt, because that's key. New groups definitely go through a rhythm too. The first day is always tough, the second day they start grasping it, and it's amazing what the third day brings. Since most of my groups have been youth group types, I don't usually disclose the whole route except to the chaperones and I rarely if ever repeated routes. But I know the options along the way, and try to help the group make decisions which let them leave with life-changing experiences in ways only the wilderness can provide.
And yah, I know I sound like quite the jerk in the trip report. Haha! I was trying to figure out how to accurately portray what I was thinking at the time, not all of it was good. But it was also a learning experience for everyone.
Thanks for the honest feedback.
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