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Department Feature
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Taking GPS to the Oregon Trail, by Meredith Newhouse
- Published in: Update - Issue 3 - 2009
- Listen to Article
Photo caption: Sarah (front left) and me (2nd from left in back) pose with the ‘frontier’ group.
This past June, Sarah Johnson and I were invited to participate in a trip down the Oregon Trail in Wyoming. As Orientation and Mobility instructors for Leader Dog, our goal was to find out if a Trekker Breeze GPS could be programmed to allow a person who is visually impaired to follow a recreational trail on their own.
We joined a group of nine kids and one counselor from Discovery Trails, an organization that runs adventure experiences for the visually impaired. The group was reenacting the Donner Party experience by living the pioneer lifestyle, eating wild game and listening to historical stories from local guides.
After meeting up with the group, we said our “Howdy-do's,” and headed west to the base camp. We were immediately thrown into the pioneer life - putting up tents, fighting off red ants, eating a dinner of moose stew and cabbage - fun stuff.
The next day, after lots of coffee, we headed out to go rock climbing. It was a once in a lifetime adventure to be visually impaired and to go rock climbing, the kids truly felt like pioneers (so did I). Next, we hiked the Continental Divide where we emptied our canteen and watched half our water run to the Pacific Ocean and half to the Atlantic.
Finally, it was time to return to the 21st Century and make our own history by using the Breeze GPS system to blaze the unknown environment. Sarah and I got out the Breeze units and showed the group how to use them. The kids picked up the technology quickly and were soon out-hiking us. The counselors were amazed at the independence the kids displayed and how well they used the GPS in the rough environment. At this point the trail was a fairly defined path with slight bends in the road and sage brush that went on for miles. The kids were adapting so easily to the GPS that they needed to be reminded to use their canes to guide them along the path. Neither mud puddles nor the soggy shoes that they caused stopped the kids from exploring the trail as far as we would let them.