Appalachian Gathering 2012: Staying Healthy in Hot Weather

Where in the Appalachian Bioregion are we going?

Where in the Appalachian Bioregion are we going? The consensus was for the White Mountain National Forest (in the Northeast), or the Appalachian states of Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia. Spring Council selected a site in North Eastern Tennessee.

If you're not familiar with the gauntlet on the road into the gathering, and want to avoid a mandatory court appearance ticket click here.

For the Howdy Folks and directions to the gathering, click here. For the United States Forest Service Incident Command website with groovy maps and updates, click here.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Staying Healthy in Hot Weather

Please family, this is a warm gathering and looks like it might be getting warmer. In order to stay hydrated, please plan on drinking a gallon of water per 24-hour period. If you are not peeing at least every three to four hours, you are not drinking enough. If your urine is brown, you are not drinking enough water. Electrolytes beverages when used in moderation can be helpful, but please focus your liquid intake on H20.

Dogs get dehydrated as well. To help keep your dog hydrated, bring beef bullion cubes and dissolve them in filtered drinking water at the ratio recommended on the package. Dogs love the taste and that encourages them to drink.

Because the journey from your car to where you set up your tent is going to take two to six hours depending on how far away you park and how quickly your group can hike, plan on hauling in at least one gallon of water per person (two gallons per person if you have the means to do so). This will make sure you have good drinking water for your first 24 hours and will give you time to get settled in and oriented to sources of filtered or boiled drinking water before you run out of what you carried into the gathering. Plus, you can use the one gallon jugs as refills while at the gathering. Also a good idea to leave some water in your vehicle so when you hike back out, everyone in your group can drink.

Please do not drink unfiltered water. The water may have been clean yesterday, but there's a lot of dogs running around and one dog pooping on the water line and .... well you get the picture.

If you are not peeing a few times a day or haven't pooped in five or more days, please go directly to CALM.
Heat stroke and dehydration can kill. Don't be a dead body, drink water.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Getting into the gathering without getting a mandatory court appearance ticket

Getting into the gathering without getting a mandatory court appearance ticket
Every year the United States Forest Service Law Enforcement (USFS) Incident Management Team (the cops) attempts to write as many tickets to family coming home as they possibly can to justify their presence. They give out tickets for broken tail lights, failure to use a turn signal in a deserted parking lot at 2 AM, lack of seat belts, controlled substances (even just a trace amount), beads hanging from your rear view mirrors, prescription medications if the label doesn't clearly have your name on it and you can't prove who you are, dogs off leash, a vehicle missing a front license plate even if you live in a state that does not issue a front license plate and a lot more violations of the letter of the law.

However, these tickets are not the type of citation you would probably receive for any of these issues in your hometown. These are mandatory court appearance tickets. There will be special court dates set up just for us, so we can go to the local courthouse, fire station or visitors center and go before a magistrate. In the past, charges have been reduced, fines were often minimal and the court has allowed people to make payment plans ranging from 90 days to pay $75 to 18 months to pay $25 depending on the hardship cases people have expressed.

If you do not show up for your mandatory court appearance on the date indicated on your ticket, a Federal Bench Warrant will be issued for your arrest. Then the USFS LEOs will come into the gathering looking for you. If they find you they will arrest you and put you in jail until the next court date. If this happens on a Friday afternoon, you will be in jail until Monday. If they do not find you at the gathering, the next time a law enforcement officer for any reason stops you, your ID will be run through the database and you will go directly to jail.

Of course, everyone is free to manage this situation as they wish but I strongly recommend you go to your court date. I have seen people charged with crimes that could potentially result in a six years sentence walk out with a $500 fine and three years’ probation. Keep in mind that every year the dynamic is different and these results may not always be available. There are lawyers at the gathering (I am not a legal expert) who attend the court dates and will assist as best they can although I recommend you catch up with them before your court date to gain a better understanding of your specific charges and strategies to get the charges dropped or reduced. If you do not know these people personally, go to INFO and let them know you received one of the magic tickets and you need legal assistance.