Pacific or Mountain Time?

We've been in the Lochsa River corridor for the past couple of days.  First, we set up a table and talked to visitors at the busy Lolo Pass visitor center right on the MT/ID border.  This area is famous for two important historical trails.  The Nez Perce Trail and the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discover trail both pass right over Lolo pass and into the Bitterroot Mountains.  We traveled down highway 12 along the Lochsa to the Wilderness Gateway Campground for a campfire talk, and then went to a popular trail head that leads to Jerry Johnson Hot Springs to talk to Sunday hot springers.  The photo above is Warm Springs Creek on the way to the hot springs.  Did you know that Idaho has more hot springs than Oregon, Washington, and Montana combined!  Now we're back in Missoula and getting ready to head down to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho to meet Idaho State Advocate Paul Holle and his campers at Camp Perkins and Luther Heights Bible Camp.

Western Colorado Trainer Course

Recently, we spent a couple days with scout leaders from western Colorado on a two-day Leave No Trace Trainer Course. We hiked up to about 10,000 ft on Mount Sopris near Carbondale, CO and spent some time getting to know each other and talked about Leave No Trace. Six scout leaders joined us for some great views of Sopris and numerous fields of wild flowers. The scenery was great, the company was wonderful, and the training was a complete success.

If you are interested in learning more about a Leave No Trace Trainer Course click HERE. If you'd like to find courses in your neck of the woods check out our Community Page.

Acadia Climbing

After facilitating a Trainer's course on Donnell Pond we had the opportunity to explore some of what Acadia National Park has to offer.  The park boasts amazing coastal cliffs and sandy beaches, as well as big dome-shaped mountains, freshwater lakes and crystal clear streams.  On our first day off, the park was shrouded in fog as we made our way to the Precipice climbing area on the eastern side of the park.  As we ascended the central wall's, Story of O, the sun broke through the clouds to expose beautiful views of the ocean in the distance.  Our second day was spent climbing at Otter Cliffs scaling the sea-worn rock along the coast.  Both locations offered very distinct experiences within miles of each other.  Acadia is one of America's most amazing treasures and we hope to return and explore it further.

Happy Trails, 

Topher and Alexis    

Wyoming Safari

Wyoming was wonderful.  We spent five days in Grand Teton National Park and we miss it already.  Day one was spent with the park service trail crew and the Youth Conservation Corps. They spend long, hard days to maintain and create the trails that we all enjoy and we owe them all a big thanks.  Day two and three was a fun and scenic trainer course with six trail crew leaders. They took us up Death Canyon to one of the trail crew's backcountry cabins for the course!  Great discussions, great food, and great hiking sum it all up.  We learned quite a bit from these leaders. Most of whom had been working in the park for at least five years, but one trail dog legend named Burt has been working on the Tetons trail crew for 44 years!  We rounded out our five days with three big awareness workshops for the Grand Tetons Lodge staff.  These folks work with park visitors every day and have great opportunities to pass on important information about their national park and Leave No Trace. Thanks to Gina and Pat for taking care of us while we were there.  

Our drives through the Tetons and Yellowstone were like an American safari with countless sightings of elk, bison, and pronghorn, about a dozen moose, and one young grizzly on an evening prowl.  Now we're way up in Missoula, MT for some fireworks on the 4th and we'll head to Idaho's Lolo Pass and the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness tomorrow. 

Maine - Trained

Thirty-two hours after leaving Arkansas, we found ourselves in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Our two day trainer course was held at Schoodic Education & Research Center as well as Schoodic Beach, just a few minutes outside the park.  On the course we had a diverse group of participants, park staff, Friends of Acadia staff, a hiking guide, a sea kayaking guide, and a teacher from College of the Atlantic. The entire group was well versed in the outdoors & recreation, which offered great discussions and stories during our 2 days together. We saw a great mix of teaching styles and activities, and enjoyed a beautiful hike up Schoodic Mountain. 

Charlie Jacobi, the course host, is no stranger to Leave No Trace, this is his 10^th year hosting a  Trainers Training Course at Acadia.  It was a true pleasure to work with an individual with so much knowledge and passion for Leave No Trace.  Thank you Charlie for your dedication in training other staff members in Leave No Trace, and your continued support towards the Traveling Trainers.  

We wish the 10 new Leave No Trace Trainers the best of luck, for everything  you do to preserve the beauty of Maine! 

Happy Trails! 

Alexis & Topher 

HOW GREEN IS YOUR GRASS?

We spent most of last week in beautiful Telluride, Colorado for the 35th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival. It was a whirlwind of an event that began and ended with amazing views, sunny skies, and incredible music, of course. We were psyched to have Team West meet up with us for one day of the four-day festival. It’s rare that we get to meet up with the other Traveling Trainers and we definitely appreciated all their help and camaraderie!

Another BIG THANKS goes out to our friends at Chaco. In addition to being the official footwear outfitter for the Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers, they also generously donated sandals, t-shirts, belts, and hats for our Leave No Trace Membership Promotion, which helped us gain almost forty new members!!!

We also want to give a big shout out to everyone who participated in the HOW GREEN IS YOUR GRASS? CAMPSITE CHALLENGE. Campsites were judged on cleanliness, sustainability, and creativity. It’s safe to say the competition was super close. We wish everyone could have won, but that’s not the nature of competition, right? Anyway, the verdict is still out, but check back soon to see each of the four finalists and the overall winner. Again, thanks to everyone who entered. You all did a fantastic job and you’re all winners in our minds. You are an inspiration to festivarians everywhere!

Keeping Arkansas in a “Natural State”

“The Natural State”, is the state slogan, and we have been blessed to spend the past week at Lake Fort Smith State Park. Today we just wrapped up a 2 day trainers course with an awesome group of people. The mix of participants included Arkansas Park employees, local Forth Smith residents, and one Tennessee resident.  The group brought tons of outdoor experience to the table with lots of stories and knowledge to share, which made the 2 days priceless.  Everyone gave very informative and creative teaching sessions, and also taught us some new Leave No Trace rap songs .  We were also privileged as a group to go out on the new pontoon boat for the Interpretive lake tour, with Jay Schneider park Interpreter learning the history of Lake Fort Smith, and seeing some historic settlers sites from about the 1800’s.   A big congrats and thank you goes out to the 9 new Leave No Trace Trainers,  all the park staff, and the Schneider family for truly making us feel right at home at the Park. Best of luck in your future endeavors, and Happy Birthday to all 52 Arkansas State Parks on your 75^th birthday!

Now we are headed to Maine for a Trainers Training at Acadia National Park.

Happy Trails,

            Alexis & Topher