Backcountry Horsemanship, Wilderness Skills, Field Biology and Natural History


“On Tuesday I believed that it was the best day of my life. We were doing new things, I was pushing my comfort zone, it was not an amusement park ride, we were not being entertained, we are learning and what we were doing was real. On Wednesday I realized that Wednesday was my best day, but today I realized today is. Thank you” Dakota

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Register Now

To register please email toni@noli5.com

General Information

Date

Return to Teen Summary Page for dates

Ages:

16 – 18

Max Enrollment:

8

Location:

NE Idaho Panhandle We will Pick up and drop off at Spokane Airport in Washington.

*Sessions, dates, prices, programs, location subject to change.

Type of Camp:

Teen Summer Camp, Primitive Camping, Total Immersion Skills Camp, Adventure, Horsemanship

Cost:

Material Fees

Some projects have additional material fees such as making a bow or making a fly rod

Activities:

Packtrain, Field Biology and Data Collection, Traditional Camp Activities, Wilderness Survival Skills, Rappelling Bush-Craft Skills, Horseback Riding, Backpacking, Specialties, Adventure, Shooting Sports, Primitive, Survival, Academics, Nature, Leadership

Specialties Available for Concurrent Camp Enrollment in This Camp

Prerequisite:

Skill Level:

Basic to Advanced

Register Now

To register please email toni@noli5.com

Description:

The teens will remember this camp for a lifetime. The first 2 weeks the teens will focus developing their backcountry skills including bushcraft, navigation, tracking, and may concurrently enroll in 1 to 3 specialty camps listed above.

Throughout the first week the teens will focus on the skills specific to being safe and competent in the backcountry and the biome of our basecamp, to riding, horsemanship, and packing with equine in the back country, as well as any specialty camps they are working on. By week two we will go deep into data collection and scientific analyses as well as pursuing their interests. The 3rd week professional packer, mule trainer, and packing instructor Casey Hufstader will take over instruction of the equine part of the camp and prepare the students in the essentials of being a packer and pulling with a string of packstock. The 8 participants will then head in with Casey, Brian King, and other NOLI instructors to the forest for a week of backcountry horsemanship and field research. This is a camp that your serious outdoor enthusiast teen will not want to miss!

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During the third week the packtrain trip will also be documented and will be added to the video and companion bound book that will be completed during the 3 week teen camp. As stated in the description of the 3 week camp the video and book are done in the same manner as our student’s capstone project in their senior year. This camp may also be used as part of the capstone project of our senior students. This video and book should be suitable for college or employment application purposes.

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macroinvertebrate sampling macroinvertebrate sampling macroinvertebrate loging macroinvertebrate loging

Natural History and Field Biology, Equine Science Academic Camp

Camp has a similar academic focus as our Alaskan Bush camp but focuses on the biomes and natural history of NE Idaho Panhandle with the addition of equine science. We will be using the student’s passion for horses, fishing, hunting, photography, or animal tracking, as well as their love for the outdoors and the sheer excitement of being in the backcountry of Idaho. One of the many research activities your teens will do is collect, identify, and document riparian macro invertebrates. The data is then used to quantify the stream health. The students will also learn to use chemical analyses to gather data on the water.

Beaver Creek Alaska

We will compare the data collected by the students in this camp to our following camp in Alaska and the data these students collect can then be used by students in other states to compare their water to the waters of both the interior of Alaska and Idaho Panhandle. We have done this in Salt Creek in Death Valley California and Fall Creek, and the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz California.

Nature Skettching

Yes the students will learn and practice methods used at the university but the teens should know it will not feel like school; there will be no classrooms, no lectures, just hands on learning. Will there be books? Yes field guides and hand books but not text books. There will not be worksheets to complete, exams, or essays but real data collection and real analysis, followed by group discussion. They will come home with a nature journal I believe they will treasure for a lifetime which can be used as a tool to enter other pursuits, be it the university or employment.

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The Arts

Being able to document and interpret through photography and drawings is important to us and is integral to sampling, data, and analysis. Sketching, rendering, and photographing with purpose raises the bar of awareness and connection. Some students may choose to focus here. Not only will students practice macro photography and drawing of still and stationary animals but also long lens recording of their gaits and tracks, flight and behavior. Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in showing detail shape, texture, depth, and motion of wildlife, water, landscapes, and procedures.

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For these with an interest in fly tying the students will be mentored in creating fishing lures that the fish see as the insects and other animals that they feed on or take aggressive action on.

The class time will be similar to graduate school field work and free time will feel like hanging out with a family of likeminded teens and mentors. The students will learn about the life and history of the packtrain and the importance of packtrains today from one who has spent his life living it.
We may have other guests come and share their interests with the students. Those that enroll early will have the opportunity to make suggestions as to what occupations they would like to hear about.

Topics Covered

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Free Time

We work hard but have ample time too for the students to follow their own personal interests in fly fishing, shooting, art, bushcraft and more. During free time fly fish, practice bushcraft, wilderness skills and survival skills, shooting, and going deep into wilderness photography and drawing, and learning the old ways from masters who have spent their lives doing what they teach.

elk moose

This Adventure is Full of Wows

Your NE Idaho Panhandle embraces a treasure of botanical diversity, and is home to incredible wild and scenic rivers, isolated wilderness, outstanding fisheries and wildlife resources, and breathtaking landscapes of mountains, meadows, streams, and lakes.

Learn From Masters

The teens will be working with mentors who are masters of what they mentor that will act as their core mentors. There will be others that may pop in and out to share their expertise with the students. They all have a love for the outdoors and a passion for what they do.

Casey Hufstader

Casey Hufstader

Casey is fourth generation rancher, packer, and Oregonian (Elmira, Oregon). He spends much of his year packing and guiding in the mountains of Oregon. He has honestly been in the saddle since birth and started helping his father and grandfather pull mule trains as young as he can remember; he has truly been in the saddle for 39 years and pulling mules professionally for most of those years.

Read More about Casey


Brian D. King

Brian King

Brian has spent his life teaching; much of it in field biology and natural history as well as wilderness survival, primitive skills, bushcraft, and shooting sports. In 2000, under his direction his students from Lone Pine HS helped develop curriculum, materials, and procedures for the NPS and taught students from other schools and states. In 2004 his students revised the material again teaching other students from other schools then presented their work to an international educational conference in China where they were honored as one of the best presentations. That curriculum is part of what is being offered in this academic camp.

Read More about Brian D. King

More to come

Podcast

Additional Resources for those Enrolled in this Camp

Additional Resources for Home-Scholars:

Here are some resources relating to this camp that the students may want

Literature

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Wilderness Safety

Awareness, Avoidance, Safety, and Tools

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Nature Connection

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"The untethered pack mules likewise grazed between the streams, the bell-mares - horses with soft-toned bells strapped to their necks to which the pack animals responded - were hobbled to keep the mules from wandering off in the night."
—Sergent H. J. Davis 1905
"Before night every animal was brought within, the horses tied to the picket-ropes, the animals with the few wagons, to their wagons, and the bell-mares of the pack-trains were hobbled."
—Brigader-General Oliver Otis Howard, September 1, 1877