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Podcast Summary:
Have you ever wanted to experience the thrill of snowshoeing, learn how to build a campfire, or master winter hiking skills? In this special podcast episode, we take you on a journey to Fort Snelling State Park, where State Services for the Blind (SSB) partnered with Wilderness Inquiry to create an unforgettable winter experience for blind and visually impaired students.
Guided by experienced outdoor educators, students learned essential winter survival skills, from navigating snowy trails with snowshoes to starting a fire using only a spark and a cotton ball. They also discovered the importance of teamwork, problem-solving, and dressing for cold weather while exploring the winter landscape. And, of course, no winter adventure would be complete without enjoying hot chocolate and s’mores around a warm campfire!
Whether you’re interested in outdoor adventures or simply want to gain confidence in new environments, this episode will inspire you to step outside, embrace new challenges, and explore the world around you.
To learn more about the services available through State Services for the Blind and how they can support your independence, contact Shane DeSantis at shane.desantis@state.mn.us or call 651-385-5205.
Full Transcript:
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Singer: I’m breaking through these barriers. No time to waste. To find my independence. Gotta make my case. In a world that doubts me.
Jeff: Welcome to blind abilities, I’m Jeff Thompson. Have you ever wanted to experience the thrill of snowshoeing? Learn how to build a campfire or master winter hiking skills? In this special podcast episode, we take you on a journey where state services for the blind SSB partnered with Wilderness Inquiry to create an unforgettable winter experience for blind and visually impaired students. Here in Minnesota, February can be downright cold, but on this day, we are enjoying temperatures nearly 40 degrees warmer than what we had just two days before. Our original plans had to change due to an Arctic blast of cold and a lack of snow until six inches of snow fell a day before the event. That’s Minnesota for you. After a week of this deep freeze, some students weren’t feeling up to venturing outdoors, which is understandable. But the show went on and nine of us took part in an incredible learning experience.
Stu: My name is Stu, one of the staff members with Wilderness Inquiry.
Pip: My name is Pip and I use they them pronouns. And I’m also here with Wilderness Inquiry today.
Emma: Yep, I’m Emma. I’m here with Wilderness Inquiry. I use she her pronouns. I’ll be doing a lot outdoors.
Piper: My name is Piper. I also use she her pronouns and work at Wilderness Inquiry. I’m excited to be here with you guys today.
Sam: I’m Sam. Hi.
Stu: Hi, Sam.
Anes: Hello. My name is Anes, and I am. I’m being honest. I am, like, the second available student here today. He him pronouns. And I am 16.
Shane: I am Shane. Good to see everyone today. Thank you, Wilderness Inquiry. And thank Anes and Sam for being the two healthy students to join us today.
Jenny: I’m Jenny and I’m also from State Services for the blind. And I do O&M orientation and mobility. And I love being outdoors. So glad to be here.
Jeff: I’m Jeff. I am working with State Services for the blind to capture some moments and stuff from the event. I was with the group last fall when they did the canoe trip down the Saint Croix, and I’m not 16.
Jeff: We explored hiking with snowshoes, dressing properly for winter weather, building campfires, and understanding the science of fire. One of the highlights was learning how to start a fire with just using a metal striker to create sparks, students carefully scrape metal, sending sparks onto a cotton ball coated with petroleum jelly.
Emma: Oh, I would switch that around too.
So yeah, just like the sparks happen. Ooh! Oh! Whoa!
Emma: Oh, yes. Nice job.
Sam: Oh, oh my God. Okay.
Jeff: You’ll sleep warm tonight.
Piper: Oh, you got it, you got it, you got it.
Anes: Hey, hey, I did it?
Piper: Yeah.
Jeff: We learned about the essentials of fire, air, fuel and a spark and how materials like dried leaves and kindling help build a strong flame.
Emma: While we’re warming up by the fire, we can start talking about the concept of fire. You know what elements are necessary for making fire?
Sam: Air.
Emma: Oxygen is one of them. There’s three.
Sam: Wood?
Emma: Wood. Fuel. Wood and fuel. And then what?
Sam: I don’t know., flame?
Emma: Excellent. You do know you got all three of them!
Sam: Yeah.
Emma: So you need a spark. Oxygen and fuel in order to have a fire. And so there’s different shapes that you can have for making a fire. One is a log cabin. So if you like, put both of your fingers and overlap them. Yeah. It’s kind of like…. A log cabin is my favorite form of fire, because it doesn’t really fall down. The other way is a teepee where you stack all of the wood together. So it kind of forms like a cone or a triangle or a teepee shape,
Anes: a teepee?, What’s the difference between a teepee and a tent.
Emma: Well, in our case, I guess you could call it like a tent shape of fire. But the difference between a teepee, a tent, I think is like teepees are from native people. So I think you have to define it as a teepee. You have to be using like sort of animal skins. And it’s more traditional in practice, and they’re faster to put up and take down, I think. And they’re warmer.
Sam: Yeah. Aren’t they taller?
Anes: So those are the teepees. Even though it was like as cold as negative ten degrees out?
Emma: Their teepees can be really warm. And so teepees is also like referred to as a bonfire. And different shapes of fire have different purposes. So that log cabin one which is more flat and low, it’s also wider. So it’s best for if you want to do any cooking over the campfire because it distributes the heat more evenly, whereas the teepee form is far brighter. So it’s good for if you have a party and you’re trying to have like a lot of light and it’s also a bit warmer. But I personally like to do the Log cabin version. And then we kind of talked about this earlier. But there’s three different kinds of fuel. There’s tinder, kindling, and then fuel itself.
Jeff: The temperatures hovered around 20 degrees as we prepared to head out. But before strapping on our snowshoes, the team from Wilderness Inquiry, a nonprofit dedicated to outdoor education, walked us through proper winter layering. They then explained how snowshoes work and guided us in securing them to our boots.
Piper: …By hand, so that you can kind of feel what I’m doing.
Stu: the straps and everything. If you want any help to feel what it feels like.
Anes: They kind of feel like shoes. Except the shoes. Wow. What are all these squares and rectangles on those? Are those to help it on the snow?
Emma: Yeah, that’s. That’s right. Traction. So you don’t slip and slide on the ice. So like, it has more grip.
Anes: Yeah. Oh okay. So let me try this out then.
Stu: So if you want to feel, this is the bottom of it. This is the bottom.
Anes: Oh wow.
Stu: So that’s a lot of traction.
Anes: Very cool.
Stu: And now I’ll flip it over. So now the straps are out because your shoe has to go inside these straps.
Anes: Very cool.
Emma: I had somebody like, you know, if you’re walking in deep snow. These are practical to help you stay afloat on the snow so you don’t sink down to your knees or your waist.
Anes: Yeah. I was, once in third grade, and I was playing in the snow. And this is where the snow was so deep that I could barely stand.
Emma: Yeah, yeah, that’s when you kind of like an animal, too. like animals that can run through snow really fast and don’t, like, have to trudge through it.
Anes: And how are those animals able to run through snow really fast without these cool snow shoes?
Emma: It’s because we’re kind of replicating how they have their feet, where it’s like their weight is distributed, like their paws. Animals who can do that? Their paws are really thick.
Stu: Like a snowshoe hare.
Emma: Yeah. So that’s how snowshoes maybe get their name is from snowshoe hare, or vice versa. I don’t know. But do you want to feel these gloves and how warm they are? Because we have more. We have kind of like this.
Anes: Ooh.
Emma: Do you want to try those? We have plenty. We brought them just for you.
Piper: Wanna try Big Boy mittens?
Anes: What are Big Boy mittens?
Shane: Mittens that you can put on top of your gloves.
Emma: Mittens. They’re just really large.
Jeff: for added stability. Students learned about the altering cane, which functioned much like a ski pole. Helpful not only for balance, but also for detecting obstacles along the way.
Emma: All right.
Jeff: Off to the races.
Jenny: So it’s up to you if you want to try this. And again, if you’re going to kind of use it a little bit like a hiking stick, you can keep it lower. But yeah, I’ll show you. You can go on the snow. Yeah.
Sam: Yep.
Jenny: Make it as high as you want. So you being a skier. It might be like second nature to have something.
Sam: Yeah.
Jenny: But there are lots of picnic tables around here, Trees.
Sam: I think it’s cool.
Jenny: yeah.
Jeff: We set off along the trails along the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. A beautiful area where deer roam freely. The guides described the deer in detail for those unable to see them, thus making the experience more immersive. I’d estimated we hiked about a mile and a half before returning to shelter, a The Pavilion, where Warm Fire welcomed us. Throughout the adventure, we learned about hiking, safety and survival skills, sparking great discussions. Unexpectedly, we even got into a discussion about cannonballs. That’s ironic because we were at Fort Snelling, a historic site strategically located where the two rivers meet, so cannonballs made for an interesting and relevant history lesson.
Stu: Flaming arrows?
Stu: Okay.
Emma: I’m not an expert of flaming arrows, but I think that you, like, attach something that’s like flammable, like tinder to like the front of the arrow, set it aflame, and then, like, set it out via your bow.
Anes: Like the medieval version of the cannonball.
Emma: Right!
Sam: Yeah, but how does a cannonball use fire? What is a cannonball?
Emma: Is like a big heavy metal ball that’s inside. Sort of like a hollow cylinder with an explosion. So it has gunpowder at the back and a fuse, and you light the fuse that lights the gunpowder, and then that projects the cannonball forward. At Fort Snelling. At a different part of this, very state park…
Jeff: one particular engaging activity was creating a tactile map using a Velcro based mapping device. This allowed students to explore the area by touch, identifying key landmarks such as the shelter, the river, picnic tables, and the open spaces around us.
Anes: So this is where we are at.
Jenny: exactly!
Anes: So, tell me if I get this correct. This is where we are, and this is the area where snowshoeing in, uh, these are all the picnic tables. This is the river lying outside of everything. And this is the trail. And these are the toilets, right?
Jenny: Yeah. So snowshoeing is in front of you or behind you?
Anes: Yeah. Okay. I think it’s in front of me.
Jenny: Exactly. This is where you are.
Jeff: After our snowshoe trek, hot chocolate was in order. But before we could truly relax, the students had one last challenge. Starting their own fires to roast marshmallows for s’mores.
Emma: I’m going to hand anybody who wants to try something called a ferro rod. And there’s one half that at the end has a metal sort of cylinder coming off of it, and then on the other end it’ll have a really flat piece. So the way that you use this is you push them against each other to make a spark and try to scoop away from you and push really hard and almost flick your wrist, and you can make a spark.
Jeff: Of course, no campfire is complete without storytelling. As we gathered around the crackling flames, we shared stories, laughed, and shared the moment that the fire.
Jenny: Yeah.
Stu: Oh, you have to put it a little bit more forward. It’s about two feet in front of you where the pit is. Give it a little bit of a toss forward.
(Anes tosses the kindling.)
Stu: . Almost.
Anes: It’s almost like a game now.
Pip: Yeah.
Stu: All right a little bit more projectile going forward.
Anes: . Keep it low because yeah there’s a good they’re low. And then keep it forward. 3, 2, 1.Move it forward closer.
Sam: So close.
Stu: Like we’re playing horseshoes. But you got to really launch it going forward.
Anes: Okay, I’ll try it like a cannon ball.
Piper: Yep.
Stu: Yeah. Bingo.
Jenny: Nice!
Jeff: Going into this moment, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was there to capture moments for this podcast. But I walked away with a much deeper experience being outdoors, away from screens and the monotony of daily routines. Gave us a chance to connect not just with nature, but with each other. We learned about wildlife survival skills and the possibilities that open up when we step outside our comfort zones. I had never started a fire with just a spark, nor had I snowshoed in the wild using modern equipment. This event was both educational and empowering, proving that when we learn the right techniques, there’s so much we can accomplish. I feel fortunate to have attended this winter adventure, just as I did the late summer canoeing trip on the Saint Croix River with wilderness inquiry and state services for the blind. So if you want to stay up to date on events like this, be sure to check out State Services for the Blind’s website and take advantage of the incredible opportunities that they offer. To learn more about how state services can support your independence. Contact Shane at Shane.DeSantis@state.mn.us. That’s Shane dot D e S a n t i s at state dot mn dot us. Or, call Shane at (651) 385-5205. He’d love to hear from you.
Jeff: Be sure to contact your state services for the blind, your Voc Rehab and find out what they can do for you. Live. Work. Read. Succeed.
[Music] [Transition noise] –
When we share-
What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities