YEREN ASR COMMUNITY SERVICE REPORTS

YEREN ASR is team comprised of athletes committed to racing in endurance adventure sports. Our athletes and sponsors support the efforts of those individuals who organize events that enable us to experience what nature has show us and just how far we can push our bodies.

As a team, we are also committed to the community at large. Our team members are involved in a number of community service projects that relate to our theme as adventure sport athletes. These projects include but are not limited to working with local and state agencies together with Richmond Area – Midatlantic Off Road Enthusiasts (RA-MORE) to build and maintain the regional trail systems; youth orienteering groups to assure that the upcoming generation is able to experience and become excited about nature and what it takes to get from point A to point B with only a map, a compass and skill; providing and organizing local events for the purpose of generating interest in adventure sports and to expand knowledge and the skills it takes to go into the woods, find what you are looking for and come out of the woods to complete your journey.

As our team grows, so will our involvement in the community to promote a healthy body and the opportunity to enjoy nature.

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WMFC

Wilderness Medicine Field Course is a 30 hour certification course for Wilderness First Responder or an American College of Emergency Medicine accredited 30 credit Continuing Medical Education course to train the medical professional, wilderness adventurer, outdoor athlete or interested layperson in emergency medical care in an out of the hospital, outdoor environment…

Skills for hiking, orienteering, trail running, swift water rescue, flat water kayaking, search and rescue orienteering, navigation and mapping, cross country mountain biking, high angle rescue, climbing and setting anchors, rappelling, fire starting, water purification as well as medical topics such as woodland baby delivery, suturing, chest tube insertion, emergency tracheotomy and cricothyrotomy, orthopedic fractures and dislocations, abdominal and chest pain and trauma and more will be extensively covered. Lectures will be used to establish a baseline among the students and the majority of the course will take place on location of trail, mountain side, river and biking route. The course is appropriate also for coaches, teachers, search and rescue personnel, spouses, mature children over 10, canines and laypersons. For information or to enroll, contact instructor wildmedmd@comcast.net website www.wildmedmd.com 1-301-524-6911
Course taught by : developer and instructor Dr Ellen L. Smith

Orienteering Courses Coming to a Theatre near you

Hey there young navigators,

Happy Fall! This is one of my favorite times of the year and with the change in the weather comes orienteering season.

I am planning to continue our clinics with 3 meeting times over the next few months. There will be a slight change to the format though. Instead of meeting several times then completing an O-meet during the last class we will meet each time just before an O-meet at the park where the event is taking place. This way we can review the basics, learn new concepts, then go immediately and put them to use by competing in the meet. Some of our youth from the spring session are quite able to complete beginner to intermediate level courses so that will be our goal for the fall- to get all the kids that show up to gain the knowledge to complete a yellow level course.

We will organize groups from those that show up and no kids will be allowed to compete solo yet. The parents are welcome to join in the clinic and the meet. I am not running the meets so there will be registration, waiver signing and a small map fee at each event after our class. Please tell your friends about our group because we will also be offering beginner instruction. Remember to dress for the weather and bring plenty of fluids.

Time: We will meet at 11:00 am. All meets start at 12:00 should be finished by 1:30 or 2.

Dates:

Sun, October 5- Dorey Park- Henrico County

Sun, October 26- R. Garland Dodd Park at Point of Rocks- Chesterfield County

Sat, November 15- Harry G. Daniels Park at Iron Bridge- Chesterfield County

Clinic Cost: Free, donations go toward clinic materials.
Map Fees: usually $2-5.
Baseplate Compass Cost: $12
Sponsor: Please support our main sponsor, YeRen Outdoor Adventure. They can help with many of your orienteering and biking needs. www.yerenoa.com

Please email if you plan to attend. I look forward to seeing you all again,

Tim



Hey Folks

I have been busy with the young adventurers again lately. In the last three weeks- we held our second youth orienteering clinic, I directed a crazy kids' mountain bike race, I raced with my daughter and lead a trail ride for kids at the mountain bike festival.

Youth O-Club: 7 kids turned out for the 2nd of 3 clinics geared toward completing a white level O course. we again had good weather and a great time. The kids learned how to pick out basic map features, recognize map colors and symbols and even colored in a map of the area using the correct colors for the varying types of terrain or manmade features. After some compass instruction, we split into small groups and completed a simple 7 point O-course that I created using the map the kids had colored. Everyone did well and I look forward to the next get together at the O meet on May 18. Several of the kids are planning to complete more than one course that day.

Kids' Bikin' Blast: Well most of us have heard about the controversy surrounding the bike races at Poor Farm a couple of weeks ago. At 9:45 on race morning, I was sitting under the main pavilion for the race registration looking at two of my kids wondering what was going to happen over the next few minutes. We had 0 kid registrants and I was definitely not running a race just for my two. I decided to let the kids decide what would happen, if enough showed up to start then we would race as planned. By 10:10 we had about 12 kids who had somehow convinced their parents to bring them out in the rain, so we adjusted the course a little to account for the conditions and sent them on their way. About 15 or 20 minutes later everyone was finished- no major crashes, no kids lost in the woods and every one of them had a big smile on their muddy faces. Thanks to a generous sponsor, all the kids were able to get trophies for their efforts.

Lil-Big Adventure Tri: My 9 year old daughter Shae and I competed in the spring addition of the Lil- Big adv. race which was held at Pocahontas SP this past weekend. The response for this race was the largest I have seen for one of these events with about 110 teams competing. We were in the 9/10 ages group with 20 other teams. After a strong start on the 1/2 mile canoe leg, we headed out on the bike course in second place. We returned from the 3.5 mile mountain bike section with several teams in front of us. Not sure what place we were in at this point but the main goal of the day, anyway was to have fun and bond with my little one. We had a strong run and picked up a few places; I was truly impressed that Shae had not only enough juice left to run the whole 1.5 miles, but she also sprinted the last 150 to 200 meters at a pace that I really had to work to keep up with her. We ended up 5th out of 21 teams so no podium but a great experience and we know what we need to work on for next year.

Later that day I lead a kids ride as part of the MTB festival that was also taking place at Pocahontas SP. There ended up being two ride leaders so I took 8 older kids down the fire road to the green trail for a little singletrack action. We rode in about 1 to 1.5 miles then took the bailout trail to get back to the fire road. There was a moment or two of confusion about which way to go at an intersection in the bailout path so my kids are convinced I was lost for a few minutes. There really is no way to get lost on the trails at PSP because they all loop around and bring you back out. I was just trying to find a way out without taking them on 2-3 more miles of trail. Oh well...we made it out of there and back to the start area after a 35 or 40 minute ride. It was fun and hopefully someone was turned on to mountain biking that may not have had much exposure to it before.

As always, I enjoy working with the youngsters and am constantly amazed at what they can accomplish.
Tim

Yeren Team Trail Work Day for Saturday, January 12, 2008.

We will be working in JRP....not sure of the exact location at this time.
For those looking to enjoy some java and grub.....meet Jimmy Mac at Crossroads on Forest Hill Ave. at 8:00 a.m.

All others....meet at Reedy Creek. We will depart Reedy Creek by 9:10 a.m. for the worksite.

For those choosing to sleep in a little Shocked I will be back with further info on the exact work site so you can locate us.


Please remember to dress appropriately....gloves, boots, layers....and bring your own hydration and snacks.

Thanks for your continued support.
Looking forward to seeing you out there.

Marianne		 YEREN ASR HITS THE TRAILS AGAIN

Thanks to all of the team members that came out and worked hard to improve the trail at Buttermilk Heights. As a team, we are acquiring a reputation for strength in numbers as well as hard workers…committed to our trail work/ community service.
Together with the other volunteers, we made tremendous upgrades to sections of BH that were in desperate need of work due to erosion, years of tires and feet passing over it and, in general, just plain old trail love.

ANDY NELSON
DEB KAHRS
BILL BASHTON
SUSAN MANES
BILLY MOFFETT
JEREMY KUHLEN
DANIELRODREQUIEZ-AGUDO
DWAYNE SAYRE
MARIANNE SWANN
BILL SWANN

Thanks again, team! GOOD WORK!





It’s obvious there is a demand for learning how to navigate in the woods to get to the finish line as fast as possible; that as evidenced by our team, YEREN ASR, clinic (open to the public) “Navigation for Orienteering & Adventure Racing”. A packed house attended this clinic at YEREN OUTDOOR ADVENTURE this past weekend where speakers, Tim Gilbert of the Quantico Orienteering Club and Chris Caul of Primal Quest, instructed the attendees on various techniques of navigation for these two fun styles of racing.
Some photos of the attendees and presenters show us working the maps, pointing out specifics and just focused on the task at hand.
Our thanks go out to all those who attended but also to those sponsors who donated goods:
YEREN OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
AR EQUIP.com
RACEIT.com
QUANTICO ORIENTEERING CLUB
PRIMAL QUEST