Knowing that I would be leaving the university this spring, I decided that as soon as I was free of that responsibility, I would volunteer for the Custer County Search & Rescue. Doing so would have several benefits:
• Giving back to the community
• Meeting other outdoor-oriented people
• An incentive to stay in shape by hiking, mountain biking, etc.
• And, very likely, having some experiences worth blogging about.
Well, no.
I called the S&R number and left a message. Yesterday, while I was at the vet's office with Jack (bladder infection), someone called me back, leaving a message on the answering machine:
"We have a full complement of volunteers."
That sounds too much like, "Don't you call us, we'll call you." Why do I feel like I've been rejected by the cool kids? (Does anyone ever outgrow high school?)
So evidently I won't be the one finding the lost mushroom picker or Alzheimer's patient.
I renewed my WFR last spring with the Custer SAR folks. The seemed like a pretty genial lot, like they'd be fun to work with. That said, such a reply would have bugged the hell out of me. Can you really ever have enough folks trained and on call? It wasn't that big a group that made it to the WFR class; if a third of them happened to be unavailable, that's not much manpower for a serious operation (WMI recommends a minimum of 18 able bodies for a litter carry of any distance). From what I see on the mountaineering boards, seems like there's a pretty decent demand for search and rescue services in the Sangres.
ReplyDeleteNot just the Sangres but the Wet Mountains too, where a couple of hikers have disappeared for good in my memory.
ReplyDeleteI thought that my living in the Wet Mountains might be an advantage in terms of response time, but evidently that is not a desideratum.