Canton Air Sports, OH

Nine folks drove out to Canton Air Sports for a beautiful day of skydiving, coupled with viewing of an airshow across the runway field. Five students completed their first tandem skydive, and Alastair and Steve students proceeded through training for AFF levels 3 and 1 respectively. Mike and Greg successfully launched a horny gorilla from just below 9,000 feet, but only completed one jump that day. Due to shifty winds under 1,000 feet beginning during mid-afternoon, lift turnaround was significantly decreased--then halted temporarily--and for safety reasons, Steve and Al did not get to complete their AFF jumps. Mike, Greg, Steve, and Al will return to the dropzone on Wednesday to follow up, continue jumping, and expose more students to the thrill of skydiving.

-G. MacLean

Rachel Carson Trail Challenge

Rachel Carson Trail Challenge, PA

Ryan Miller and I hiked the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge together on June 21, 2008. This is a 34-mile annual hike to be completed between sunrise and sunset on the Saturday nearest the summer solstice. There are four well-stocked, cheerfully staffed checkpoints that each hiker must pass through along the way, and a fantastic barbecue at the end (which, this year, featured actors dressed in pioneer-style period costume and a talented young bagpipe player). This event would not be possible without the dedication of its dozens of volunteers--and it would not be as enjoyable either without the scores of spectators who show up along the way to cheer us on and offer refreshments to the hikers.

The trail itself is extremely varied. Aside from covering several miles of conventional woodland hiking stretches, the trail occasionally follows paved roads, gravel drives, ATV paths, and clear-cuts swathed through woods for high-tension power lines and gas pipelines. Parts of the trail require intense, fairly brutal ascents and descents, while others offer relaxing gentle-terrain strolls through woods, meadows, horse pastures, and even backyards. The trail stretches from Harrison Hills County Park (near Natrona Heights) to North Park, just south of Wexford. Each year, the direction of the challenge is reversed.

It was my third year doing the challenge and Ryan's first. We began at the official start, right around 5:20am, with several hundred other hikers. The purpose of this event is not to race, exactly, but Ryan and I (and many other hikers) set out to achieve the best time possible. As the day went on, the crowd of hikers spread out more and more. We tried not to spend more than five or six minutes at each checkpoint. Thankfully, the weather was perfect: neither too hot nor too humid, with just enough of a breeze throughout the day to offer sweet relief at just the right moments.

One could feel the excitement growing as the trail neared North Park. We both finished in about 9 hours and 8 minutes, putting us in the top 12% for finishing times among the 457 who finished before sunset. If I'm around Pittsburgh in June of 2009, I can't wait to do it again!

I encourage anyone who loves hiking to try the Rachel Carson Trail Challenge, or even the 18-mile Homestead Challenge. Read more about it
here:

http://www.rachelcarsontrails.org/rct

-M. Jehn

Summersville Lake, WV

Explorers members who went: Mahin and Josephine

We drove down to Summersville Lake, WV to join about a dozen scuba divers do night diving, 2 days of boat diving (cool Pontoon boats). We had barbecue, slept in camping tents and trailers. Freshwater scuba diving is harder to do than saltwater diving. Good place to do navigational and peak-bouyancy dives. So if you can dive freshwater, you can dive anything.

-J. Palencia

Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Ryan Miller, Glenn Willen, and I set out for Raccoon Creek State Park on Sunday to hike the beautiful loop trail that runs a perimeter around the main part of the park. The trail pinches together at the midpoint, near the visitors' center and park office, like a giant figure eight. This is quite convenient because it allows hikers to hike either section of the loop or the whole trail. The day was brutally hot and humid but thankfully breezy. Ryan and I hiked the whole trail mainly to train for the upcoming 34-mile Rachel Carson Trail Challenge, and Glenn was along for the first half for what turned out to be a vigorous hiking experience. (Glenn was very generous by allowing Ryan and I to continue, meeting up with him at the parking lot after the second half of the total loop.) Ryan and I stopped for a rest next to the lake and watched several dogs (as well as their masters!) play in the water. In that heat, not getting to jump in was truly torture, but some of the dogs shared the cool refreshment by shaking off right next to us. One of the dogs' owners offered us both a cold soft drink to keep us refreshed. It turned out that he's a skydiver who jumps at a dropzone that I and a few of my friends have been intending to check out for quite some time--so I'll probably run into him again sometime in the future! Throughout the day, discussions about Santa Claus, zombie movies, music, pest control, the oil crisis, and roommate experiences (both good and bad) kept us entertained. In terms of wildlife, we saw at least three toads along the trail, several very impressive ant mounds (as well as an "ant interstate" that followed the trail for a few hundred yards), and some birds. We heard more chipmunks than we saw.

-M. Jehn