Note: Applications for the 2023 Adventure Team are now open! We’ll be trekking the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming in August 2023. Apply to join the Adventure Team here!
After a three-year hiatus, the Connected in Motion Adventure Treks were back. Two teams of Type 1’s made the choice to do “hard things” this summer of 2022 in the Canadian Rockies. The teams tackled the Fryatt Valley trail in Jasper National Park.
I describe “hard things” as any activity that substantially gets you out of your comfort zone. For all participants of the treks, each with varying experience backpacking in the “backcountry,” everyone successfully navigated their personal “hard things.”
At the beginning of the trek, each participant brought their expectations of the difficulty of the endeavor – stamina needed, backpack weight, food requirements, sleeping arrangements, and especially how their T1D management would respond to the hardships of the trail.
After the first day of hiking to our initial campsite, adjustments were made to backpacks and low supplies. In camp, after setting up the tents, our guides began food preparation for the hungry trekkers. Did I mention that the food on the trek, carefully prepared, was outstanding and very filling?
What made the treks personally rewarding for me was to observe the various backgrounds and personalities of each trekker come together to tackle the treks as a team. Each Type 1 found their inner strength and persevered to tackle the “headwall,” a 700 foot steep ascent to the awaiting Canadian Alpine Club hut.
Once at the hut, the sub-alpine environment was pristine and visually stunning, excepting maybe the mosquitoes and a few porcupines, which took up residence in our outhouse. At the hut for two nights, we shared follies, sang songs, played cards, told scary T1D stories, and shed a few tears.
On trek #2, the team experienced a failed water purification system. We had backups of iodine tablets to purify the glacial meltwater that flowed downward toward the Athabasca River. But who wants to taste iodine when the glacial water was so cold and refreshing? The team developed a filter system from parts on hand and the problem was solved.
On the final night together of Trek #2, the team had a wonderful celebratory dinner in Banff, Alberta. After leaving the eatery, we headed to the town bus stop to return to our hostel. While at the stop, we saw a young girl with a Dexcom. Of course everyone on the team proceeded to show off their own CGM and insulin pump treatment platforms. Her eyes got really wide and her parents were beside themselves seeing that many T1D’s in the wild.
Her future will be bright and she will overcome her own “hard things” when the time comes. Communities of diverse T1D’s coming together – what an adventure!
