Master Educator Course participates in Bigfoot Challenge!

These Bigfoot Challenge Takers show off their "big feet"!

Hey Leave No Trace!

We took the Bigfoot Challenge to pick up trash along the trail during our Leave No Trace Master Educator course hosted by Landmark Learning. Seven Master Educator students lead by two trusty instructors reused grocery bags to collect everything from the little corners of granola bar wrappers to metal oil drum lids in Pisgah National Forest as we backpacked and learned about Leave No Trace. The trash got heavy to carry as the course progressed and we found more and more of it, but the pain turned into pride when we were finished and looked at all the trash we removed from the National Forest.

Along the way, we decided to leave the forest better than we found it by cleaning up some heavily used campsites and restoring established but bombed out campfire rings. We cleaned four campfire rings - one for each night out on the trail! And picked up gobs of trash. We put the trash on display at the end of the course for visitors to Grandfather Mountain to see which gave us a chance to share the message of Leave No Trace with them. We also handed out dozens of Leave No Trace hangtags and promotional materials while at Grandfather Mountain.

We are proud to have taken the Bigfoot Challenge and hope our story encourages others to do the same! We never knew being like Bigfoot could be so easy! Thanks for all your support and we look forward to carrying on the Leave No Trace message as Master Educators!

Jon Lowrance,
Instructor
Landmark Learning

Course Participants:
Jon Lowrance (instructor)
Laura Bonner (instructor)
DJ Hoessle
Katie Coley
Mandy Harrison
Hal Petzold
John Shryock
Christine Moyers
Sarah Banks

Leaving a site better than they found it.