In the summer of 2017 I spend a season working with North Cascades Institute’s Youth Leadership Adventures (YLA) program, co-leading 8-12 day backcountry canoeing and backpacking trips for high school students in the North Cascades Mountains. As a YLA instructor I worked with students from economically and racially diverse backgrounds–many of who had never been on an overnight camping trip before. Lessons I taught or co-taught on the trail included topics in natural history, leadership, environmental science, and backcountry outdoor skills.
Dates: June – August 2017
Location: North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker National Forest, WA
Sampling of lesson topics: Trees and Keys, Social Change, Public Lands, Naturalist Skills, Mountain Poetry, Amazing Insects, Hidden Biases and Assumptions, Backcountry Water Filtration, Backcountry Cooking.
Nick Engelfried 