Back In Action After The Boundary Waters

After two weeks in northern Minnesota, paddling and portaging in the Boundary Waters Wilderness and exploring the area, I'm back in Flagstaff and ready for more Search & Rescue.

Sounds like there's been some activity while I was away, which I know because, as soon as I was in cellphone range again, I received all of the call-out messages there had been--searches for missing hikers, litter-carries, a downed plane. There were messages about technical rescue practice too. And some of my teammates helped with road blocks at the Grand Canyon during President Obama's visit. There was also another death from dehydration at the Canyon--another young man, 18 years of age. So sad ... and so avoidable.

Anyhow, last night I got back to practicing my technical skills and I'll be doing more practicing tonight and tomorrow night, if there's no call-out for a mission. The proficiency testing is going to be starting soon--possibly this weekend, I heard. Two weeks feels like a long time to be away from practice, especially when many of the skills still aren't well-ingrained. But if last night's practice was any indication, it'll come back pretty quickly.

And now I leave you with some photos from our Boundary Waters trip. If you'd like to read a bit about it, I wrote an article with some more pictures here.