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Adventure | Event gives attendees a chance to get hands-on
experience with various outdoor activities
Stopping a charging bear with a blast of pepper spray, driving a
four-wheeler and trap shooting were just some of the fun simulation
activities kids got to try at this year’s Outdoors Fest on Saturday.
Now
in its fifth year, the event at Montana Wild Education Center and
Spring Meadow Lake State Park, gives kids and families an array of fun
outdoor activities to try out, said Laurie Evarts, Montana Wild
education program manager.
Activities ranged from kayaking,
rafting and archery to trap shooting with a laser gun, mountain biking
and fishing. Altogether 70 volunteers and some 200 to 300 kids and their
parents got to play in the outdoors and try out some new adventures.
The
Off Highway Vehicle simulator is a fun way to get kids to think about
safety, said Tom Reilly, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks assistant
administrator. “Always wear a helmet,” he said, as he helped yet another
excited child into the driver’s seat of the OHV. Soon it would be
bucking down a back road as the child’s eyes grew larger and larger and
their hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Always wear boots,” Reilly
advised, “and always wear protective gloves.”
Across the parking
lot, another popular simulator was going full bore. Mark Matheny, a
grizzly bear attack survivor and the president of UDAP, which makes bear
spray, was demonstrating a new piece of protective equipment and also
his charging-bear simulator.
“We’re celebrating 20 years of being
in business,” he said. “I was mauled Sept. 25, 1992, just outside of Big
Sky when I was bow hunting.” His hunting partner happened to be a
physician and EMT, who got him to an emergency room and closed his
wounds with more than 200 stitches.
Matheny was mauled by a female grizzly with three cubs, he said. “When
my head was in her mouth, I had an out-of-body experience. I was going
down a white bright tunnel.”
But it turned out to not be his time
to die. “I got a message to go back and serve others,” he said, and he
began to make products to make people safer.
The latest product he
showed off Saturday is a bear spray pack that attaches to the back of a
backpack and can be deployed if a person is attacked from behind and
has a bear on their back. A push of a button on the backpack shoulder
strap releases a burst of pepper spray into the bear’s face.
His
new charging-bear simulator machine gives people an opportunity to
practice using bear spray on a “bear” racing at them at 25 miles per
hour.
“It gives you an idea of the actual speed bears can move,”
said Matheny. “They are faster than a race horse. People can be stunned
because of their quickness.”
For the younger set, like 4-year-old
Savannah Crumley, there were some calmer activities to try out such as
fish tattoos, the Wildlife Olympics, making leaf sun catchers and the
oh-so-fascinating tornado in a bottle.
Meanwhile, indoors at the Montana Wild Center, the laser-shooting simulator was a hit, drawing a line of enthusiasts.
Kids
and some moms tried out laser trap shooting under the watchful eye of
volunteers who showed them the correct way to hold the rifle.
The
simulator is also used for hunter education classes across the state,
where students learn about safe shots to take in the field and which
ones to pass up.
“It’s a way to teach shooting skills and
technique and it’s a confidence builder,” said Wayde Cooperider, FWP
outdoor skills and safety supervisor. “This is a safe environment to
work on shooting skills.”
Six-year-old Cheyenne Prater had just
scored six hits. “It’s a perfect score for a 6-year-old,” she said,
smiling at her mom, Kristy Brown.
“They’ve liked it all,” said Brown of the activities the family had tried. “But bear spray practice was the favorite.”
Original Article here
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