Staying Found Student Logistics
Location
The Course will take place at the Highpoint Way/Lake Tradition Trailhead which can be found here:
We will be in the Education Shelter behind the bathrooms. As to the latter, bathroom capacity is limited and this will be a challenge all morning. Please try to arrive no later than 8:45 AM for a 9:00 AM start to the class. At 9:00 AM, everyone should be booted up and dressed for the day.
Parking and Carpooling
Parking will be tough. I encourage you all to carpool to the Trailhead if at all possible. You can use this email to look for people with which to carpool. If you arrive too late to park at the Tradition Lake parking lot to get parking spot, you can park down by the gate along the road, but it will take you 5 - 10 minutes' hike to get to the Education Shelter where we will be gathering. A Discover Pass is required for parking in the Lake Tradition lot, but not by the gate. So if you do not have a pass, but do not mind the hike that is an option. Please do not walk on the road! When you are at the gate at the end of the pavement, look to your left for a well-established trail that will take you to the parking lot. It is far safer and probably just a hair shorter than walking the road.
If you do end up in a carpool, we will be breaking up into smaller groups for the exercises and the hike. These groups will not necessarily arrive back at the trailhead at the same time so it will be helpful to get in the same group as your carpool mates.
Staying Warm
Experience has shown that the education shelter in which we will starting the day can be cold. Please bring your puffy jackets, woolie or fleece warmth layers, hats and gloves, rain gear and even a hot beverage if you like. I suspect the weather will be highly unpredictable. We will be supplying the maps for the day, but it might be useful for each of you to bring along a large Ziploc bag to keep it dry. We are all good Mountaineers, so please bring along your 10 essentials!
The first half of the day will be spent talking about the tools of navigation, practicing with a compass and planning for a hike. Then we will be hiking to our plan. The day will finish up mid-afternoon perhaps between 2 and 4 PM depending on how fast your group is. Please bring a lunch and trail snacks to keep you going throughout the day.
Declination
If you were able to obtain a full featured compass with adjustable declination, please take a look at the manufacturer's instructions for setting the declination. In the Seattle area we are at 16 degrees east. I have included a video for setting declination on the student materials page.
If you find that you really can't figure it out, we will have some instructors at the Education Shelter as early as 8:30 AM to help with that.