From August 12, 2013

Back in Tennessee, I got a chance to escape and go camping with three of my best friends from high school. We hiked up to Max Patch, a bald along the Appalachian Trail just over the North Carolina state line. After so much time away from these hills, it ended up feeling like a necessary therapy.

From July 29, 2013

The wildfires in Yosemite that ended up being covered so heavily in the news were still outside the park boundaries while we were hiking. Nevertheless, on multiple days thick smoke made the normally clear views less so. A different kind of beauty.
Photo taken by Kyle Ryan

From July 30, 2013

Here we are with one of the poor souls we accosted for information. We approached individuals in five different areas of the park to ask if they would participate in our study. While also conveniently located along our backpacking route, surveying in these varying areas was critical in our attempt to capture a full range of visitors to Yosemite. One measure of how much visiting is worth to someone is how much they paid to get there: their travel costs. We also asked how much those travel costs could have increased by for them still to have come, establishing a conservative minimum for what a park visit is worth. One of our findings was that visiting Yosemite was worth almost twice as much to backpackers as it was to non-backpackers. I'm biased, but my takeaway from that is that more people ought to try backpacking.
Photo taken by Kyle Ryan

From July 29, 2013

Two of my friends from Tulane worked with me to submit an application for a research grant from the university this past Spring. Our plan was to estimate how much a popular national park was worth to its visitors. The question of funding for the National Park Service has been especially present in the national conversation this year in light of the federal funding sequester and more recent government shut down. We were happily surprised to have been awarded the grant, but because our study involved interacting with humans we had to overcome the indescribably arduous process of approval by the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research. I don't think it was until we got into the backcountry in Yosemite National Park that we were positive it was worth it. This is my co-investigator Mark Myers walking with me down the north side of Cloud's Rest, one of a few peaks we summited on our five day hike.
Photo taken by Kyle Ryan

From July 6, 2013

Before heading home, I spent a few more days on Eleuthera, where we were hosting the Bahamas' Conference of the Methodist Church's annual summer camp for the local kids. On our day off between the two weeks of camp, I went with some of the other interns to one of the island's blue holes. A blue hole (described more thoroughly here) is essentially a vertical cave that, when inland, makes a fantastic swimming hole. This one was a ways into the bush; it was neat walking through the trees and then seeing the ground drop down to glittering, clear blue water.

From July 2, 2013

The last volunteer groups I worked with were in Nassau, the capitol of the Bahamas. Nassau is the destination for most tourists visiting the country. Tourism is critical to the Bahamian economy, but I worry that too many visitors don't get the chance to see this other side of Nassau. We were working on the lot in the background, cleaning it so a new home could be built for the woman who lived there with her five kids. This boy lived next door, and this is his basketball court. The hoop was overly reinforced with scrap wood to support dunking, and under it is painted "Lakers Court." Nearly all Bahamians are fans of the Miami Heat, who are essentially their hometown team, but Garvin liked the Lakers.

From June 21, 2013

On our last night on Andros, we had a service down by the settlement's "creek" and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. This was the end of my three fast-paced weeks of helping to lead groups. Just as coming to help out in the Bahamas is a step outside of the volunteers' comfort zone, this time was an unfamiliar step for me. I think that I grew from it, learning from myself and the people I was lucky enough to work with.

From June 11, 2013

This is Ena, a spunky widow plowing her way through her seventies. My first week on Andros we did the electrical work in her home, giving her lights and electricity for the first time in her life. She is an expert in cooking "bush medicine," an art she learned as a girl from her grandmother. Andros' CrabFest was the coming weekend and several people coming into town had placed orders with her for medicine. While the medicine will "make anyone feel strong and powerful," she said its primary use was as a fertility aid. She said: "Many children come into the world because of Ena, you know, but only did one of them ever get named after me."