Wilderness Skills Intensives
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March Break Nature Retreat – Earth Mentoring
Empowering Ancient Ways
Intro to Wilderness Survivals & Ancient Living Skills
Tale of the Track – Intro to Wildlife Tracking
The Art of Fire Making – Adventures in Friction Fire
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March Break Nature Retreat – Earth Mentoring
- A Nature Retreat for Teachers, Parents, Educators & Nature Lovers-
This retreat will offer you a chance to rejuvenate in nature’s beauty, deepening your connection to, and understanding of, the natural world. We will be expanding our awareness & knowledge, while exploring some of the many uses of nature’s gifts. Come learn new skills to bring back to the classroom or integrate into your life outside of work.
Activities Include:
- Studying Wildlife through the Eye of a Tracker
- Snowshoeing and Camp Fires
- Basket and Container Making
- Wilderness Awareness Games/Activities
- Story Telling
- Wilderness Crafts with Natural Materials
- Intro to Earth Based Mentoring (coyote mentoring)
- Good Food & Good Fun
- And Much Much More
When: March 15 – 18, 2011 (March Break)
Where: Wolf Den Bunkhouse, Oxtongue, ON, 8 min West of Algonquin Park. Each participant will sleep in a beautful log cabin.
Food: We will provide healthy, wholesome dinners.
Participants bring & prepare thier own lunch & breakfast in the Wolf Dens communal kitchen.
Price: $360/person – Includes 3 nights accomodations,
3 dinners, course materials, snow shoes extra if required
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Empowering Ancient Ways
– Deepening our connection with nature through
Ancient Wilderness Living Skills -
This program is run in partnership with Sticks & Stones Wilderness School. Please also view their web page for more information: http://sticksandstoneswildernessschool.com/
The core skills of this course have been brought together after much preparation and introspection as to how to incorporate the most well-rounded and universal wilderness wisdom and teachings into one week-long experience. This course provides the ingredients to enrich the life of anyone who lives on planet Earth, from the most seasoned wilderness guides to wildlife biologists, busy professionals who yearn for the sanctity of the wild, or anybody interested in being thoroughly introduced to wilderness living skills.
Our Passion to teach has evolved from our experience as passionate students, learning to integrate the wisdom found in pure wilderness, and emulating that firm sense of connection. Our approach has evolved out of learning to help our students to create intentful routines from the skills that have lasted through all time. We set students up for success by helping them to become aware of the wilderness that surrounds them all the time. Here begins the journey to understanding the difference between Wilderness Survival & Wilderness Living. The choice is yours, when you make it.
Course Topics Include:
- Shelter, Water, Fire, Food
- Wildlife Tracking
- Bird language, concentric rings and base line symphony
- Stone, bone, and antler tools and usage
- Tree and Plant Fibers- Harvesting, Processing and Preserving
- Tanning and Preserving Hides and Animal Skins in various ways
- Stalking, Natural Movement, and Camouflage
- Stewardship and Caretaker Ethics Emphasized
- Empowering our ecological footprint (your tracks)
- Traditional cooking and food preservation
- Container making, and More!
Student Testimonial
“My experience at Empowering Ancient Ways really helped to clarify the direction I want to take in my life. The awareness skills and sit spot exercise helped me acquire my summer job last year and reinvigorated my interest in pursuing post-graduate studies at university. The teaching and support given by Skeet and the rest of the crew was incredible and really helps you strive for success. The bow drill was personally the most difficult skill that I succeeded in performing and gave me the greatest sense of accomplishment I’ve had as far back as I can remember. The people that you meet there are great and the sense of community that develops exceeds the duration of the courses. I would highly recommend Sticks and Stones Wilderness School to anyone who loves the outdoors, wants a challenge or wishes to experience something new. I am definitely looking to take more classes.” ~ Chris Deduke, student
When: April 25 – May 1, 2011
Where: Sticks & Stones Wilderness School Farm House, Honeywood , ON
Cost: $650
Includes: Instruction, 3 hearty meals/day, materials for duration of the course.
Also Visit: http://sticksandstoneswildernessschool.com/
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Intro to Wilderness Survival & Ancient Living Skills
Join us for a few days of getting back to the land and reconnecting with the ancient ways of our ancestors. Throughout the days we will touch on the essentials of survival and how to accommodate them without modern day implements in a wilderness setting. Topics wil linclude: natural shelter building, water purification, friction fire making with the bow and hand drill, and a introduction to local ecology, plants & survival trapping.
When: tba
Where: tba
Cost:tba
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Tale of the Track
- Intro to Algonquin Park Wildlife Tracking & Studies -
Join Chris Gilmour of Earth Mentorship Programs for an interactive evening of exploring the deep and ancient art of tracking. Come learn to turn lifeless depressions in the ground into living stories of the past, present, and future and interpret the many other signs left around Algonquin Park and your backyard.
This workshop will interest the novice outdoors enthusiast and the seasoned naturalist as we learn to deepen our understanding of the natural world and learn what the forest is doing when we are not watching!
When: TBA
Where: The Wolf Den Bunkhouse, Oxtongue, ON, Hwy 60 (8 min West of Algonquin Park)
Cost: tba
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The Art of Fire Making – Adventures in Friction Fire
When: TBA
Where: Algonquin Park
Join us as we explore the ancient arts of fire making. Learn about efficiant all weather fire lighting techniques with only natural materials, make fire by friction with the bow drill and hand drill, learn about the different burning properties of different woods and learn all about natural tinders.
For more info and registration see: http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/programs/workshopcalendar2010.pdf