A mountain guide or trailside bandit? Cloth mask courtesy of Burgeon Outdoor. We didn’t dress this way other than for the photo but we were ready.
We met outdoors and kept a good distance — at least six feet. So if either of us had viral matter to give to the other, we weren’t going to make it an easy exchange. We said hello then we whipped out a… what is that? A gun?! A blowdryer? Oh, it’s just a touch-less thermometer. We grabbed our guest’s temperature with their permission. This was followed by checking their blood oxygen saturation levels using a pulse oximeter. A low oxygen level can be indicative of a greater problem. This we followed up with some screening questions before we checked our guest’s personal protective equipment (PPE) and hiking gear. We then went over the plan,
Redline Guide Mike Cherim taking lead on this test. Surely it was a grand plan what with all this preparation. Surely we didn’t do all of this for a half day hike on the 2726′ Iron Mountain (one of the
52 With A View). Or did we? It might just be
the new normal as hiking guides so we had to test it out. The result? It worked splendidly. Distancing was easy to maintain, no masks needed to be worn throughout, although we were all ready, able, and willing. We drove to the trailhead separately, but that’s not uncommon for us anyway. More testing to follow shortly, but it looks like we are as ready as we can be to carry out
our own phased re-opening. That said, the
classroom offerings will be delayed a bit more.
All in all this was fairly easy to do because for us it’s more straightforward. We’re grateful for having a situation that is ultimately manageable. Some companies have seemingly insurmountable challenges ahead. Anyone with a normally packed indoor venue is particularly affected. On our end we are able to plan and prepare, then we question (and answer those same questions of ourselves), and top it all off with special gear we now carry such bag valve masks (BVMs) for something as simple and as uncommon as providing CPR rescue breaths safely on mountain.
A lovely day in a lovely place. We will see three people and two dogs all day.
First outlook (not counting the actual trailhead).
Post summit tour of the ridge. Happy times!
A quiet and pretty section of forest. We highly approve.
Iron mine tunnel? Check!
And a nice restful lunch on the famed outlook ledges before reversing direction. Awesome!
Well done, team. Nice to see us out there a bit.
