2010 CAMPER VS. WILD -PA

PENNSYLVANIA
Boys & Girls Ages 12-17
5:1 Ratio
Week 7: 7/18-23
Sun-Fri
Cost: $895 

About Backpackin CLS: Forget Bear Grylls! Fred has been leading our backpacking program for years, and his passion lies here! The team will practice tracking, off-trail orienteering, live trapping, fire building, and shelter building. Expect to see deer, wild turkey, grouse, hawks, black bear, and salamanders, among other critters. During the five days in the backcountry students will experience a true rugged camping experience. Our showers will be swimming in creeks and our bathrooms will be the beautiful natural setting of the Elk State Forest. This course is designed to teach self-sufficiency and backpacking skills. NOTE: The last native elk in Pennsylvania was hunted in 1867. Realizing this loss, the Pennsylvania Game Commission worked between 1913 and 1926 to introduce 177 Rocky Mountain Elk in the Elk State Forest near Emporium, Pennsylvania. Since then, this herd has been nursed back to a viable size of 600 animals. With our new found tracking skills, we should be able to spot some of this reclaimed herd over this vast wilderness of 200,000 acres.

2010 CAMPER VS. WILD ITINERARY:

  • Sunday: Meet at Riley's Lock at 9am and drive to Elk State Forest. Once we arrive we will get geared up and say goodbye to our bus for the week. We will go for a short hike to our first campsite and get used to the fee ling of having our packs on. During that first night in the backcountry we will talk about primitive camping skills and LNT.
  • Monday: We will get up early and determine our route for the week, mainly planning this around the Elk migration. Once we have figure out our route we will discuss expectations for the week. Along the trail we will talk about backcountry orienteering and tracking techniques.
  • Tuesday: The morning well be spent practicing our tracking techniques seeing if we can local the elk heard. In the afternoon we will change gears and turn our search skills into finding a swimming hole on our way to our next campsite. If we are able to find a swimming hole we will spend time talking about the importance of water pools and ponds.
  • Wednesday: After breaking down our campsites if we still haven't seen any elk we will hike to some likely spots to see the heard. In the early afternoon we will find a campsite and learn to build LNT shelters that we will be sleeping in.
  • Thursday: After enjoying our night in our shelters we will break them down so that no one can tell we were there. By now hopefully we have spotted the heard because today we have to spend time day hiking back to our orginal campsite. That night we will have a big fire and debrief the week.
  • Friday: We will wake up very early to hike back to the bus. On the way home we will drive along the scenic Elk Trail which is the best possible place to see Elk. We will arrive back at Riley's Lock at 6pm to drop off with the parents.

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