Olympic National Park :: Backpacking Outdoor Education
Some classrooms don't have walls....
For decades, The Community School in Ketchum, Idaho, has included an outdoor education program into its curriculum. Starting in elementary grades, students begin learning how to travel through the landscape and as they progress through the years, they are challenged with longer adventures that test their knowledge and acquired skills until they are able to plan and accomplish multiple day trips.
One such learning experience which has been in the school's curriculum is their famed, "Coast Trip." Each year in October, the 10th grade class hikes roughly 25 miles of coast along Washington State's Olympic National Park. The students must work as a team divvying up shared equipment and food; they test their map reading skills; learn how to schedule hikes so as to make sure their group can pass by headlands that are only passable at low tides; all while carrying their own personal equipment.
This year, the group decided to make one of the tidal moves early in the morning. Alarms were set at 2am and the team was hiking by 3 o'clock. Navigating by headlamp until the sun rose posed a unique challenge--the world seemed to only exist within the 3 foot circumference of light emitted by their headlamps.
Some years the students enjoy beautiful weather, while other years the notoriously wet coastline lives up to its reputation. This year the students were treated to a mix of both. The rain fell in heavy amounts at the start and ended with a few beautiful afternoons and mornings of sunshine. All in all, these 10th graders performed incredibly well and overcame many of the challenges that stymie even the most accomplished outdoor adventurers!
