Bigfoot On Base

Bigfoot with Scouts at Minot Air Force Base!

Stopping in at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, the Leave No Trace e-tour got to talk about the outdoors with families who have hiked and camped everywhere from Germany to Japan to Kyrgyzstan. Working with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Cub Scouts, we got to talk about all the different principles of Leave No Trace, help cleanup a city park that had been hit by a flood last year, and share a cookout with Bigfoot himself! With an audience of all ages, we got to play some PEAK games including a heated game of Step On It! and an informative How Long Does it Last? The highlight of the evening was an awesome talk about how to poop outside, showing the group how to dig a 6 to 8 inch cathole and passing around a Go Anywhere Bag. Then everyone learned how long 200 feet really is when they had to race the distance while holding Clif Bars between their legs -- symbolizing when they had to go bad.

We had an awesome time with this group and think that everyone learned a lot about Leave No Trace. Without question, we loved our time being on base and wanted to thank all of these Air Force families for their service to our country! We want to thank the Air Force for welcoming the e-tour onto the base, it was a privilege to visit and share the Leave No Trace principles with the Scouting community on base. Thank you for all that you do, and we can't wait to get back up to North Dakota for another great event!

From the Barracks to the Backcountry,

Quinn & Frank

Klamath Falls Bonanza Blitz

Talking Leave No Trace with the US Forest Service & Fish and Wildlife!

The Leave No Trace e-tour was invited to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for a community-wide Leave No Trace blitz! The results? Awesome. After driving back into winter snow, the week kicked off with events at a couple of the city's elementary schools. In two days, we got to speak to eight different classrooms, making over 200 brand-new Leave No Trace experts! These students were dialed in on what to do with trash when they're hiking, fishing, and hanging out around their beautiful city. Trash Your Trash! We were incredibly impressed with how much some of the youth of Klamath Falls already knew. When talking about how to minimize campfire impacts, one third grader even mentioned that it was important not to build a campfire above the treeline! That's wild!

Rocking Gear from The North Face at Crater Lake National Park!

This part of Oregon, surrounded by the marks of volcanic legacy, has a wealth of National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and Crater Lake National Park. We spent a day with some of the top-notch personnel from the US Forest Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service. It was great to talk with them about some of the issues they are dealing with in the area and asked some tough questions of us. Chatting about interactions between different user groups, people making unauthorized markings on trails, and the ever-present human waste issues, we got to cover a lot of territory. Not content to just talk about the backcountry, this group was really focused on how to get this information to the frontcountry users they see throughout the area. Whether supplying outdoor information to new visitors or working backcountry Nordic ski patrol, they want to make sure everyone gets to learn about Leave No Trace!

Quinn teaches Girl Scouts about catholes!

No Leave No Trace blitz is complete without a little trail cleanup, so on Saturday we teamed up with a stellar group of Girl Scouts to help out at a local park. Before we grabbed our trash bags and gloves to put in a little service work, we talked about all seven Leave No Trace principles with a variety of games and demonstrations. One highlight was when the girls were really excited to learn about digging catholes! These young campers are going to be lifelong environmental stewards. After our cleanup, we all enjoyed some smoke-free s'mores -- graham crackers, Nutella, and fluff. An awesome alternative to having a campfire while still enjoying one of the most fun things in the outdoors!

Rogue River Ramblin',

Quinn & Frank

In the Zone in 'Zona

From Flagstaff to Phoenix, we spent the better part of this week working with youth from school groups to the Girl Scouts! In a state with such a wealth in public lands, it was awesome to see young people so excited about the outdoors and knowledgeable about how to protect them using Leave No Trace!

Quinn and Bigfoot drop some Leave No Trace knowledge!

Our first stop was with the Alpine Leadership Academy in Flagstaff. This innovate magnet middle school focuses on outdoor learning. All of their students know about Leave No Trace from working with the local Forest Service and even Northern Arizona University Outdoors. Every student there goes on at least one four-night trip with the school. They excelled at one of our favorite PEAK games, Step On It! The students battled over which surfaces were more durable for travel in three aggressive match-ups. After we left they even were planning on taking Leave No Trace and using it in a writing assignment the next day. Nice work team!

In Phoenix, we stopped by Orangewood School to talk to some high-achieving eighth graders. In their class they have talked extensively about trash decomposition and were old-pros when it came to figuring out how long items lasted in the outdoors. After school, some of these students are involved in a legendary environmental club. One of their activities is collecting trash on the school's outdoor basketball court every two weeks, categorizing it, weighing it, and graphing the results. Sounds like the kind of research that would be useful for the Leave No Trace Center in Boulder. What an epic crew of young researchers!

Girl Scouts learn how to keep a safe distance while viewing wildlife with the Rule of Thumb!

Finally, on Saturday we kicked it with the Girl Scouts from the Cactus-Pine Council for Thinking Day! This year, on the 100th Anniversary of the GSA, the theme for Thinking Day was Friendship Around the World. These girls and their adult leaders were psyched to learn about Leave No Trace for their many campouts. As an added bonus, there was a Bigfoot sighting at the event! Before he snuck off to find some shade in the Arizona sun, he posed for pictures with Troops, dished out highfives, and showed off some epic dance moves. Way to go, Girls!

Stompin' on Durable Surfaces Like a Boss,

Quinn & Frank

Eco-Camp

Last weekend we headed to Long Beach, California to meet up with local Girl Scouts for their Eco-Awareness Campout. We had a great time and spoke with over 200 girls about Leave No Trace. Held in an urban park, the Eco-Camp was a great opportunity to talk about the importance of preserving and protecting our Frontcountry areas from recreational impacts. Litter, wildlife impacts, and dog waste issues were just a few of the topics that we discussed during our presentation. We were really impressed by the attitude that these girls had towards Leave No Trace and environmental ethics, which is a good sign for the future of California parks!