Montreat College Embraces Leave No Trace

Outdoor Living Skills Class

Montreat, NC.  Traveling Trainers have had the pleasure of providing awareness workshops at Montreat College for a few consecutive years.  This year was no exception as we spent four days on their mountainous campus which is complete with its own challenging trail system. We had the opportunity to work with students from both the Outdoor Living Skills and Survey of Outdoor Education classes. Each class was filled with enthusiastic participants that were eager to learn about and discuss not only the 7 Leave No Trace principles, but also the ethics that accompany the program.  A special thank you to Andrew Bobilya and Ken Kalisch for providing future outdoor educators with a strong foundation of outdoor ethics.

Additionally, we also got to facilitate our 27th trainer course during the visit!  Five students from the outdoor education program dedicated their weekend to a backpacking Leave No Trace adventure.  We hiked along the Lookout Trail towards Buck Gap Shelter, where we would spend the night under the stars discussing ways to incorporate the Leave No Trace skills and ethics into all of their future outings.

Below, enjoy a slideshow from the course:

Thank you Bubbling Brook, Rapids, Mountain, Tree, and Changing Seasons for a memorable course!

Explore Responsibly...Kate and Tracy

Montreat College Outreach

Yesterday, we wrapped up our time in North Carolina with a visit to Montreat College. This small school nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside of Asheville, NC provided a beautiful setting to teach Leave No Trace. Past Traveling Trainers, JD and Emily, visited Montreat College last year and introduced the students to the program. We were asked to educate the students about more of the minimum impact techniques involved with Leave No Trace. In the above photo, Tracy demonstrates a mound fire.

In addition to minimum impact campfire techniques, we also taught the group about proper disposal of human waste in the backcountry. After learning about methods to pack out human waste, we went over the use of a cat hole. This led to an intense round of Cat hole Olympics! The above photo shows Dr. Andrew Bobilya, Co-Chair of the Outdoor Education Department, completing a 6-8" hole for his team. We had a great time working with Montreat students and are looking forward to visiting campus again in the future.

Happy Adventuring...Kate and Tracy