Welcome 2024 WTC Long Beach / South Bay Group 3 Students!

Hello New and Old Friends,

Welcome to Group 3 of the Long Beach / South Bay area of the Wilderness Travel Course. Hopefully your 1st night wasn’t too overwhelming. We cover a lot of ground in trying to get you the broadest and most well-round instruction we can in the time available. With the weekend before us there’s a couple things I want to touch on:

This week’s homework – Get the right boots for the course: We reviewed the range of boots available and what’s needed for the course, and also what’s not acceptable. I’ve attached the boot lecture notes in case you need a review. This is a safety issue, we’re teaching what’s needed for safe 4-season wilderness travel. Lisa also stressed the need for a boot that can be waterproofed. What you will find is that many boots come with a “Goretex” waterproof liner as part of the boot. When you talk to the sales people they may say that any of those boots are already waterproof. That’s usually far from true. While the Goretex fabric itself may be waterproof (initially) it has to be sewn together and into the boot. That means it’s full of holes. IF the manufacturer seam tapes the sewn Goretex liner then you’re relying on them to have covered all the seams and holes, smoothly. And Goretex breaks down over time and flexing. So you need to ignore when a manufacture or sales rep says any of these boots are already waterproof. You will definitely need to waterproof your boots. Even if the Goretex liner is waterproof (initially) that would only keep the water from getting to your feet, not from soaking into the leather/fabric. Leather breaks down and fails more quickly when it repeatedly gets soaking wet. And if you go to sleep at snow camp with wet boots you’ll wake up to “bootsicles” in the morning. Not exactly what you want to slide your feet into on a cold morning. So solid leather boots, or similar “high-tech” composite boots in that price range are what you’re looking for. I’ve attached a file on boot waterproofing that you might find useful. I’ve also attached a file on blisters; cause prevention & treatment. These can also be found in the Lectures > Week 1 section of our Group 3 website which should be up and running before our next class.

All boots need some use to break in. Some people are lucky to have tough feet, or feet that are average and fit certain brands well. Most people will need to harden up their feet as they break in and form their new boots. Blisters can be an issue, particularly during break-in. I’ve attached a file that covers blisters; cause, prevention and treatment. It can also be found in the Lectures > Week 1 section of our Group 3 website.

Over the next three weeks we cover navigation (among other things). You will need to have a compass by week 3. If you have not bought one from WTC then follow the directions Joan provided in her email or wait until we describe the features to look for at next Wednesday’s class. The compass we sell is the benchmark for a compass and we’re passing it on at our wholesale price. While there are cheaper compasses that are perfectly acceptable for the course, they’re also less functional and not necessarily that much cheaper.

Our WTC Spring Newsletter will be published before the end of the course and it will contain >50 outings over the coming season that you can join. Check our past season newsletters to give you an idea of what’s to come. And what we do in our “off time”. They can also be accessed from bookmark 1.2 on the Group 3 website along with lots of other useful bookmarks.

And don’t forget conditioning, conditioning, conditioning. A good objective for the coming weekend would be 8-10 miles with 2000 to 3000’ gain. It’s a beautiful weekend to be outdoors.

Cheers, Neal

“It is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves.” Sir Edmund Hillary