Trailpatrol

As National Mountain Bike Patrollers in the upper Midwest, we've been doing first aid (etc.) for over 20 years now, including 21 Chequamegon Fat Tire Festivals and 17 Twin Cities Marathons. As a Wilderness Medical instructor, almost everyone in our patrol came in through our WFA/WFR classes, but it seems to stop there. Backcountry Lifeline seems to have done an exceptional job at motivating riders to take these MTB-specific wilderness first aid/CPR classes. That's the part we have not had much success with. It's hard to even get people to pay attention to a 10-minute talk on compression-only CPR, let alone train them what to do, (or NOT to do) if someone is hurt on the trail. We patrol the CAMBA Trails in NW Wisconsin, and work very closely with local EMS and rescue. Our friends on the Cuyuna Lakes patrol at IMBA's Silver Level Ride Center, Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, are actually sponsored by the local ambulance service. There are wilderness medical resources available out there from Red Cross, and various emergency medical training providers, but they are not all geared to our sport. We are really looking forward to Backcountry Lifeline publishing their curriculum, so we can adopt and adapt it to our needs here in Minnesota and Wisconsin.