Logistics Week, What’s That?

This month, after a busy summer of over 30 expeditions, our instructors and logistics team spent a full week - aptly named Logistics Week - taking stock of our gear and expedition materials and preparing for the spring season.

"Fall is the perfect time to care, clean, rebuild, and really get ready for the new year,” said POBS Logistics Manager Kendra Jordan. "Just as many animals prepare for winter and spring in the fall, the human animals here at POBS are doing the same!"

Dozens of staff members pitched in to help during this busy but successful week. Tasks included repairing pants, coats, and backpacks; cleaning tents, food buckets, and most of the gear; and organizing and inventorying all of our equipment and canoes. A much-needed project that was undertaken this year was building new canoeracks to make our canoes more accessible.

Through participating in Logistics Week our instructors are living the value of service, one of the pillars of Outward Bound programming. By preparing all materials for the spring, the instructors are helping themselves and future instructors for a smooth start to the next expedition season. 

POBS can provide every piece of gear an expedition participant would need.

We have 10 lockers of gear, each to serve a crew of 12 people: In each locker we have 12 backpacks, sleeping mats, whistles, bowls, spoons, water bottles, and cups. Lockers also hold 4 group tarps (each sleeps 4 people), 2 stoves, 2 large cooking pots, a cooking kit (utensils, cutting boards, spice kit, etc.), and a repair kit. We also have 25 4-person tents and a wide assortment of clothing, foot wear and rain gear.

In all we can serve 120 backpackers at a time (and we do!)

After a season of over 30 expeditions, many pieces of gear need a little TLC. Our team took the time to sew and repair raincoats, rain pants, and backpacks to be ready for our participants next season. Repairing gear is the sustainable way to keep everyone safe and dry.

These cans aren't home to Oscar the Grouch nor are they for trash. They serve as food containers used to transport our chow during expeditions. The POBS logistics team made sure to give them a deep cleaning!

Peace, love and chow!

Yes! These new racks will make our canoes much more accessible to the team. The beauty of holding Logistics Week in the fall is the extra time we have to take on larger projects like this one.

POBS' fleet consists of 30 tandem canoes (60 people could canoe at the same time), 60 PFDs, and other gear including about a zillion paddles of varying size.

All canoes were given a once-over and many were repaired, retouched, and generally made ship-shape. The canoes are used during our backpacking and canoeing expeditions in the Delaware Water Gap Recreation Area.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” - John A. Shedd