Wilderness Skills Schools, Part V:

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Learning to lead the "wild life" in comfort and safety

Waking to a bright sunny morning, I'm aware of something moving outside our rain fly. I sit up in my sleeping bag and look toward the stream. There, at the water's edge, is a large brown bear. Grizzly? I'm not sure, but I am sure that if my heart beats any harder it's going to break a rib.

Two people are trying to scare him off by banging on some pots, but this bear doesn't rattle easily. Instead, he heads straight for them. Not sure what to do, I yell "No!" which seems to do the trick. Now he's heading for me. In seconds he's closing the gap between us, and I'm helpless, frozen with fear. Then I feel the ice-cold water hitting me in the face.

I open my eyes. It's nighttime, quite windy, and rain is pouring off the tarp over my head and straight into my face. I've been dreaming. Heavy-duty nightmare.

Confused, I watch as someone in long underwear struggles in the downpour to secure our rain fly. Then it comes back to me. I left New York's Lower East Side three days ago. This is Wyoming, and I'm here—somewhere in the Shoshone National Forestwith 16 other campers for the National Outdoor Leadership School's Wilderness Skills Wyoming (NOLS-WSW) course—a two week backpacking expedition into Wyoming's Wind River Range. This is our first night in the mountains, the time is 3:00 a.m., and I've just learned some valuable lessons. First, our rain fly should be closer to the ground with a more gradual pitch. Second, this school is an around-the-clock experience. And third, wild country fosters some unbearable dreams.

Feeling the Impact

I'm up again at 5:30, this time with all three of my tent/cook mates. It's sunny, but the air is brisk, so we climb into wool jackets and wind pants before joining the gang over at our instructors' camp near Roaring Fork Lake. The time has come to get the 111B Hiker camp stoves burning. No fire, no coffee.

I think it's safe to say we have more babes in the woods here than seasoned backpackers, but that's O.K. After all, WSW is an entry level course to backcountry living and travel. Ranging in age from 26 to 54, we have quite a mixed batch—mothers, married couples, engineers, financial experts, teachers, writers, a computer programmer, a land developer, a Coast Guardsman, an attorney, a psychologist and two cardiologists. And while we all have our own personal reasons for being here, NOLS has a couple of goals of their own: 1) to educate us in outdoor leadership (the skills needed to take ourselves and others into the wilderness in comfort and safety) and 2) to give us experience in minimum-impact camping (techniques that allow us to enjoy the wilderness without tearing it up). Unlike other outdoor programs, the emphasis here at NOLS is not how to get out of survival situations, but how to avoid getting into them.

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