An Alaska Adventure, And Learning Experience, For Teens
Imagine you are a teenager from southeastern Connecticut, lugging a 45-pound backpack that contains all the food, clothing and camping gear you’ll need for a month in the Alaska wilderness – as well as carrying, most important, a holstered pepper spray gun to ward off grizzlies – and being handed a topographic map marked with two Xs.
The first notation refers to your present location; the second, a destination some 23 miles away, separated by lakes, hummock-filled bogs, tundra, mesas, mountains, drainages and other geographic impediments.
Your assignment: Lead a group of other teenagers to the second X on foot, and occasionally in a tiny, inflatable vessel called a pack rat that also must be hauled on the trip for river crossings. There are no trails to follow, no markers along the way. You must use the navigational and leadership skills you learned during the first three weeks of intense training.
This was the challenge Heather Boucher of Stonington faced a few weeks ago when taking a course run by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), an international organization recognized as the gold standard in teaching how to survive in the wilderness.
“It was amazing. I never thought I could do something like that,” the 17-year rising senior at Stonington High School said the other day, safely home after a month in The Last Frontier.
Chosen by her NOLS classmates to lead one group Heather said she was nervous at first – “There’s so much responsibility” – but quickly gained confidence after adopting a collaborative approach to decision-making.
Each morning she and her fellow would discuss itinerary options – how does everybody feel about a 10-mile day; would people prefer an easier but less-inspiring route or be willing to climb a mountain in order to enjoy the view – and then settle on a plan.
“It was a group effort. There were no conflicts. Everything went super-smoothly,” she said.
Heather also was aware, though, that these decisions were made in non-emergency settings.
“But in an urgent situation, you can’t take a vote. A leader has to make an executive decision,” she said.
Although the adult group leaders who trained the teens for the first three weeks would not be along on the expedition, they could be summoned by emergency beacon and if necessary, call in a rescue helicopter.
Happily, that was not necessary; the teens arrived on schedule, intact, with exhausted smiles on their faces.
Heather, who occasionally has accompanied her mother, Laura Ely, and stepfather, Rick Ely – both skilled athletes who compete in triathlons and other endurance events – on hikes in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and other outings in the Northeast, she has never considered herself much of an outdoorswoman until recently.
Both Laura and Rick were surprised that she expressed interest in the NOLS program, and are delighted that she completed the rigorous training.
Heather said she now would like to enroll in more advanced training – NOLS offers hundreds of courses and certification programs around the world in activities ranging from ocean kayaking to high-altitude mountaineering – with an eye to one day possibly working as a wilderness guide or instructor.
Heather was among six girls and eight boys ages 16 to 17 enrolled in the Alaska backpacking program, and during their month they covered more than 100 miles on foot over varied terrain, including an ascent through foot-deep snow up 9,039-foot Mount Gordon in the Wrangell range.
The mosquitoes at times were hellacious – called by native Alaskans the state bird – and nighttime temperatures usually dipped into the 40s, but by and large conditions were mostly ideal for outdoor activities, especially because daylight extends well past midnight in summer.
Daylight, of course, does not necessarily mean sunshine.
“We had rain or snow or hail at least a little bit almost every day,” Heather said. “You never went a day without getting your feet wet.”
And then there were the bears.
The group encountered its first grizzly on the second day of training, after a long hike.
The instructor grabbed his pepper spray canister just as the bear, which was a few hundred yards away, hustled off in the opposite direction.
“We were taught to yell, make a lot of noise,” Heather said.
She said the second bear also was quarter-mile or so off and it, too, ran away without anyone having to use their spray guns.
The group saw other wildlife, including eagles, caribou, moose and Arctic ground squirrels.
It was great fun spending time with kids from other parts of the country, learning new skills and gaining confidence, Heather said.
Mostly, she added, “It reassured me how much I love hiking.”
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