Priest Lake State Park

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Priest Lake State Park in northern Idaho. On Saturday we set up our booth at Coolin Days, an annual festival in Coolin that features a parade and an arts and crafts fair. We spoke with quite a few locals and visitors about what Leave No Trace is all about. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, we had campfire programs for the campers at Indian Creek Campground. Several families attended and enjoyed learning more about Leave No Trace and participating in a few family friendly activities. We finished off our weekend at Priest Lake with a presentation on Monday morning for the park staff and volunteers, so they could incorporate Leave No Trace into summer programming.

Despite three days of near constant rain, we had a marvelous three days at Priest Lake! Thanks to Erin and Lonnie for inviting us!

All the best...

Agata and Jason

Picture of the Week 5/28/2010

McWay Falls, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Big Sur, California

Seattle & Portland Elementary Schools

On Tuesday, we visited two second grade classes at TOPS elementary school in the historic Seward school in Seattle. The energetic eight year olds kept us on our toes as we discussed the seven principles of Leave No Trace and went out side to find all the living things we could find within a circle of rope as part of the PEAK pack's Watch Your Step activity.


By Thursday we were in Portland to visit Lewelling Elementary as part of their Wild Things Day. We saw four classes of fourth and fifth graders who had a blast creating their own nature names for the day, learning the rule of thumb, and playing Minimum Impact Match.


We are off to Idaho!

All the best...

Agata and Jason

The Unofficial Start of Summer!

As we travel up north to the Adirondack Mountains to kick-off a new partnership with the Adirondack Mountain Club, we are also excited to be kicking off the unofficial start of summer! We have a busy weekend planned up at ADK, with staff training, trailhead outreach, campfire talks, and evening ranger programs. We are also going to be joined by Kate's family, who will be camping for the first time this season. We will be staying in an adirondack lean-to at the wilderness campground at Heart Lake.

For some of you, this will also be the first camping trip of the season. Make sure to check all of your gear before reaching your destination. Check the weather to ensure you have to appropriate clothing and gear. Also, be sure to make a reservation. This is a very busy weekend for many parks, so call ahead first! We want to remind you to practice Leave No Trace, wherever the road may take you this Memorial Day weekend, and never forget those who have died in honor of this country!

Happy Adventuring...Kate and Tracy

Trainer Course with Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. (RMI)

This weekend we traveled to Ashford, Washington just outside of Mt. Rainier National Park to instruct a Trainer Course for RMI's six newest guides. RMI has been guiding mountaineering expeditions around the world for over 40 years and is a proud partner of Leave No Trace.


The weather over the weekend was pretty typical of Washington with nonstop rain, but the guides were excited to learn ways to share Leave No Trace information with their clients over the busy summer.

In the first picture, David is taking a closer look at the Restop 2, designed to safely contain and neutralize human waste when facilities are not available and digging a cathole is not an option. In the second picture, Eryka presents her teaching topic on minimizing campfire impacts, and in the final picture Agata facilitates a round of campfire scramble.

Thanks to David, Mike, Eryka, Zeb, Mike, and Thomas for a great course and have a fun and safe summer on Rainier!

All the best...

Agata and Jason

Delaware Water Gap Trainer Course

This weekend we led a trainer course at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in PA for park staff and volunteers, as well as staff from PEEC- Pocono Environmental Education Center. We spent the weekend along the McDade Trail, as we explored the principles of Leave No Trace. All of the participants we excited to learn ways to positively communicate the Leave No Trace information to park visitors and students at PEEC.

In the above picture, the class learns about proper disposal of human waste in the backcountry and along river corridors. We also had a great discussion about the importance of leaving what we find and how to encourage children to enjoy the natural world, but also to leave the gift of discovery for the next visitor.

We would like to thank all of the participants for their thoughtful participation throughout the two days and wish them the best this summer!

Happy Adventuring...Kate and Tracy

Picture of the week 5/21/10

One of the 21 waterfalls we enjoyed at Ricketts Glen State Park in PA