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GEO 393 ParticipationMariscal Setup

Thirty percent of your grade derives from the quality of your field participation.  This is a somewhat subjective evaluation, as there are various specific goals or objectives that student teams are trying to achieve.  Much of the participation score is simply common sense, given the circumstances of group travel over long distances into unfamiliar places.  The guidelines below clarify what we shall consider for this element of your course grade.   [BACK]

Excursions

We have planned, and you paid for, many major hiking trips at sites important to the course objectives.  These are walking trips ranging from one to ten kilometers miles (use the links below for maps).  They also will occur in very diverse landscapes.  Expect (for grade) that you shall 1) take all of these hikes (barring extraordinary personal circumstances), and 2) be prepared for them.  The mandatory major excursions are:

Preparation includes many things.  You must have appropriate clothing, provisions, and gear for conditions not only at departure, but also for any contingencies (e.g., weather changes, altitude, etc.) that are likely on our trail.  You also must have your research needs in order, such as proper stowage and practice with instrumentation and data recording materials.  Further, you should depart already familiar with your objectives, task assignments, and restrictions--attempting to gain such familiarity after departure is a recipe for an oversight disaster. 

Another very important element of fieldwork is courtesy.  Obviously you must cooperate with others in the party, but equally important is respect and compliance with the customs and requests of hosts and other visitors.  We may receive unusual privileges to visit places ordinarily closed to the public (e.g., private lands, Native American sacred sites).  At such sites you will adhere to ALL host instructions, lest we lose future opportunity by reputation as desecrators.

Timeliness and communications are essential in group excursions.  Although some flexibility is understandable, repeated individual tardiness impedes group objectives, and the party will quickly ostracize slackers.  While in the field it is also imperative that all persons remain in contact, not so much for the rare emergencies as rather for the likelihood of sharing interesting finds.  You should plan to be prompt, and in communication with others, at all times on all hiking excursions.

The person who chronically sits behind with the vehicles, takes knowing and unnecessary risks, behaves rudely, or (once pried onto the trail) refuses to communicate or heed should expect an extreme decline in their grade, commensurate with fellow student impact.  I have little sympathy for parking lot pariahs.  [BACK]

Camp Conduct

We shall communally camp most nights so as to keep your costs down.  As a result, we must tend to ourselves on issues of sustenance, hygiene, and privacy.   In a large group, cooperative sharing is a requirement, and we expect that you shall make your fair contribution to this. 

You will manage your own food, but other camp chores are inevitable, and so too will be your turn at them.  Regardless of conditions, we must all contribute to setting up, cleaning, tearing down, and stowing.  Nobody should become the "standing" servant for any task.   Onerous camp chores go faster, and thus leave everyone more time for another adventure, when we handle them jointly.  No person should handle the same or every chore all the time; everyone should expect to take on the drudgery at a regular rotation.   You will not receive easy acceptance as a shirker; plan to take your regular turn.

When it is your turn to handle water, you will ensure that you have washed thoroughly.   Inside tents and on the campsite you will remove all trash, especially as it may attract wildlife visitors!  Tentmates will not appreciate latenight visitors drawn by slob bunkies, but critters do!Camp raiders

The fellows you see above trashed a tent trying to get at three oranges and a chocolate bar deep inside a pack.  Compounding the damage was the insult of discovering one cold evening "evidence" all over a sleeping bag that at least one of these visitors was more than a tad incontinent.  Other raiders may include foxes, coyotes, cougar,  raccoons, or bears.   Never keep any food, cookware, rubbish, or cosmetics in a tent!  Store these items inside a vehicle or in Park Service facilities.  [BACK]

Bear Locker

Some camp equipment requires special knowledge or training for proper use.  If you do not have appropriate knowledge, do not use someone else's equipment (BUT, if you volunteer subordinate assistance you probably can learn...).  After long days, please do not irritate the "duty crew" with unsolicited advise--your turn is coming.

Be considerate of others' gear.  For example, heaving or jamming your untaped pack frame onto someone else's inflatable sleeping pad may generate some resentment from the fellow traveler facing nights of undeserved soreness, or it might produce damage claims from vehicle owners.  Always coordinate gear stowage with your peers, in tent or in vehicle.

Respect personal privacy whenever possible.  In group camping this is a challenge.  A co-ed expedition requires gender courtesy and discretion, but usually is not a big problem.  Medical, emotional, dependency, and financial circumstances also become potential privacy concerns at close quarters.  You must always treat confidence about such matters as a very personal trust, not open to further revelation unless a welfare impact on others is imminent.  Breaching such trust will destroy group cohesion faster than anything else. If you have another's confidence, maintain it.  Gossip kills trips.

I do insist on one invasion of your personal privacy, however; but I also assure you that it will remain 100% confidential.  Although I have advanced Red Cross and Search and Rescue training, I can do you no effective service if I find you passed out and treat for bee sting when in fact you have gone into diabetic shock, or I begin high-altitude hypoxia therapy when you actually are having an asthma attack, etc.  YOU MUST INFORM ME OF ALL EXISTING MEDICAL CONDITIONS, AND THE LOCATION AND KIND OF YOUR MEDICATIONS.  [BACK]

Transit Conduct

Unavoidably (at least until Scottie's transporter room becomes available on university revenues), we shall have to endure two days van-bound each way.  During this cramped time please observe some basic courtesies.

  • WEAR SEAT BELTS (the driver does not deserve your ticket; I will ensure that YOU will pay it)

  • USE HEADPHONES (it is possible your neighbors won't appreciate fourteen straight hours of Korn dueting Cornball Billy's harpsichord and bagpipe chamber ensemble to play "Ted Bundy Disemboweled Donner and Blitzen In The Jet Engine Test Plant".  You get the picture...)

  • BRING OUR OWN ENTERTAINMENT DEVICE (avoid radio fights). I remove the knobs from van radios.

  • USE (AND SEAL) LITTERBAGS; do not landfill the back seat.  However, DO store camp trash in vehicles, but dispose of it at first proper opportunity.

  • Refrain from any unsolicited advice to the driver.

  • Stow your SMALL personal coolers near you.  Buddy-system with these, and CLEAN THEM regularly.  There is still a toxic cooler in a Flagstaff dumpster from a 2001 student expedition.

  • NO OPEN ALCOHOL BEVERAGES AT ANYTIME!  If you acquire our driver a citation, I am going to support their small-claims court restitution case. 

  • Minimize aromatics (no tobacco, perfume, lutefisk, etc.).  Do not open such items in a vehicle or tent.

  • KEEP THE COMMS RADIO ON (for directions).

  • Synchronize your bladder with the whole group.

  • Keep your meal times reasonable (1 hour maximum).

  • Observe motel & campground courtesy.

  • Load out and load in promptly, and on time.

  • Advise driver/instructors immediately of defects.

Campus Conduct

There are six criteria affecting your participation score on the UWSP campus:

  • Attend ALL pre-departure meetings:  Friday, 07DEC and Friday, 14DEC (also incl. drivers' on Friday, 30NOV if applicable).

  • Advise me [privately] of all medications and their location.

  • Park NO vehicles on campus during the trip.

  • Clean all UW vehicle interiors before returning them.

  • Return all UWSP equipment on time and in form.

  • Attend the final post-trip meeting (Friday, 25JAN08, 1 PM, Science D326).

Field Conduct  [BACK]

  • MEDICATION:   I have asked that you provide a list of health insurance, any medical conditions, and all medications; please be accurate.   However, I am neither nurse nor gossip.  Unless in dire disability, I expect you to properly administer your own prescriptions (and please keep them labeled at a location where I can find them for you in an emergency).  As we are in DEA priority areas, be sure that you have pharmaceutical labels on ALL prescription drugs.   I, in turn, promise you that I will NEVER reveal your medical data to anyone other than medical personnel, and I WILL destroy my listings immediately upon return to UWSP.  [BACK]

  • MEALS:   This has been a big problem in years past, but it will not be anymore.  You are all adults, and you know what you need and like.  IT IS SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ACQUIRE AND MAINTAIN ALL FOOD AND INGESTIBLES.  If you mis-plan, you will be stuck with whatever "low cuisine" that I can spare, and I warn you now that I am the inventor of the peanut butter-and-mustard sandwich, the spaghetti-and-oatmeal omelet, and the always popular cherry-covered French fries.  If backcountry cooking is unfamiliar to you, see the Provisions page for recommendations.  When we forage at Fort Stockton you should plan to acquire eight days worth of provisions.  There will be NO return trips, and the captive market prices at Rio Grande Village are necessarily steep. [BACK]

  • WATER:   We will be in desert and high-altitude country.  You probably will not realize it, but the average adult human body will expend daily some two quarts of water to climate under winter conditions--and more if you are making strenuous exertions (like 10-kilometer walks across Mariscal Mountain).  Always start the day carrying two liters of drinking liquids (NO alcohol, and electrolyte restoratives such as Gatorade are good additions).  Do not "plan" to borrow water; your "lender" will have the same bodily needs as yourself. 

At remote camps our water supplies (which we must carry; there is no clean environmental water available) will be finite.  We must apportion whatever we have in the containers for 1) drinking needs for the entire group, 2) cooking needs, and 3) cleaning (mostly of cookware; you can forget bodily, laundry, or vehicles).  For cleaning water I have a pretty good solar system for hot water, if the daytime weather is sunny.  However, for whatever use, please do NOT ask for more than your "ration" lest someone else go without, and the whole group later suffers delays and impediments.  I will deny such requests.  Your daily backcountry "ration" will be two gallons, inclusive. inclusive. [BACK]

  • TENTING:   Most (12) nights we will sleep in tents.  Some of these may be loaners, and if so we must be careful not to damage them.  Of more immediate concern will be our tent occupancy; in cold weather (which we must expect) a tent is more heat efficient when we fully occupy it, but concurrently we must leave room for personal gear, and nothing must touch the tent walls (lest they leak).  Winter camping requires extra gear, and therefore space.  My own guideline is to divide the advertised tent occupancy rating in half, then add one person.  In other words, Bring NO tents less than "three-person".  [BACK]

  • PARTY SIZE:  In Wilderness there cannot be more than eight persons in a traveling group.  Therefore, on some excursions we shall have to split the class to comply with this rule.  We can comply by timing separate parties along trails, or by alternating visit days between groups.  Anytime we have multiple parties in the field, FRS radio monitoring must be continuous.  All radios must have extra AA batteries. [BACK]

  • DATA:   All raw data (handouts, measurements, photographs, summarizations, etc.) are joint class property available to everyone, regardless of origin or condition.  For this there will be a departmental server repository at \\geog\classes\gg393w\2003\.  Data Collection[BACK]

  • INSUBORDINATION:   Like it or not, the instructors of this course bear responsibility for the safe conduct and academic performance of all participants.  Therefore, any instructor's demand, on any matter during this trip, requires obligatory and immediate compliance. and immediate compliance.   While we shall attempt to minimize our exercise of this, when it does occur there is no exemption.  Again,  there is recourse against anyone disregarding conduct instructions, and violators will find them extremely costly in dollars and course grade.  In twenty years of teaching I have never yet had occasion to exercise this option; please keep it this way. [BACK]

  • SECURITY:  In years past we had little reason for concern about this, other than the time I left my University credit card sitting at a cash register in Gallup NM (Diane got it back).  However, times have changed.  While the prospect of trouble is small, we must anticipate several security issues.

    • 1. Theft or "planted" contraband is a potential problem for unlocked vehicles, untended luggage, and visible valuables.  Lock all vehicles and conceal luggage and valuables inside whenever none of our party is present, including backcountry stops.  Label all of your personal items with permanent marker, and record serial numbers.  For small items (cell phones, cameras, etc.) I have a lockable hidden cabinet in the baggage truck.  KEEP ALL BANK CARDS, KEYS, MEDICATIONS, AND PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES!  Never keep large amounts of cash or jewelry visible.

    • 2. Always use a "buddy system".  Just like the Scouts, you should always have at least one other member of our party within voice range.  For greater visibility, please wear the "garish" colors that we will provide you, and one of your party must carry an FRS radio anytime you are away from our vehicles in the backcountry.  If it is night, you and your "buddies" should EACH have a working illumination device (flashlight, glowstick, lighter, etc.).  Advise an instructor immediately of your location and situation should you observe any suspicious individual.

    • 3. Comply IMMEDIATELY with any Border Patrol, Park Ranger or Host, military, or any other law enforcement officer.  These people are present for our benefit (unless you are a miscreant), and you should be certain that they will be observing us.  For example, on one trip an unmarked Texas Ranger "tailed" us for over forty miles.  Law enforcement's job is to ensure that legitimate visitors have safe and satisfying experiences, but they must also  watch for narcotics or other domestic security threats.  However, the armed officers do not know any of us personally, and may respond "forcefully" if they detect any dangerous or evasive actions.  If they stop you, be courteous and compliant, ask them for official identity, and request permission to contact one of the course instructors.  KEEP YOUR HANDS VISIBLE AT ALL TIMES!  In all likelihood, they will accommodate your request for contact, as it provides them an opportunity to acquaint with our entire party and purpose.  Should they direct us to leave a location, we shall do so ASAP (it is likely for our own good).  Do not become uncooperative or offensive, lest you and/or the rest of us spend the night at a local "hospitality suite" (the kind with bars).  Should that happen, I will personally place you onto the next plane at the nearest airport AT YOUR EXPENSE AND COURSE FAILURE.  [BACK]

Heywood [email] maintains this page, last updated 23NOV07.   We monitor our cell phone from 6 to 8 PM CST when in range.  That number is (715) 459-8181.