| Day Hikes Day hikes are a safe, easy way to gain the skills you will need to stay safe in the wild--all while learning about the natural and social history of the area. You will learn about the 10 Essentials, map and compass, trip planning, risk management, and staying found. Your Guide will lend you a kit with some of the Ten Essentials, and you will hike +/- 7 miles while learning about Olympic National Park. Trips do not leave every day, so Reserve Your Spot Today! |
Backpacking Backpacking sweeps the backpacker into the wild world of wilderness with all its grandeur and intensity. Backpackers can hike for almost as many days and almost as far as they want: for example, from Staircase in the southeast corner of the park to the Grand Valley in the northeast, from the Dosewallips in the east to Quinault in the west, or from Elwah in the north to Sol Duc in the west. Consider these routes for your ultimate wildnerness experience. Then Reserve Your Spot! |
| Leave No Trace (LNT) Trainings Leave No Trace is the national standard for outdoor recreation ethics from a conservation perspective. The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics has established two main basic trainings in LNT: Awareness Workshops and Trainer Courses. Awareness Workshops last only a couple hours and offer little or no outdoor training. Trainer Courses are an intensive overnight experience with some backpacking. Reserve Your Spot for the course that's right for you. |
Scouting Guide and owner Jason Bausher is an Eagle Scout, Vigil Honor recipient, and is Wood Badge-trained. He can advise your troop about 50-miler hikes, the Leave No Trace Awareness Award, and merit badges such as Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, and Climbing. Jason can also serve as a liaison with the National Park Service to organize work parties or service projects in Olympic National Park. PLUS: Grays Harbor Boy Scouts receive FREE TRAININGS! Reserve Time for Your Program. |
| Service Tourism on the Olympic Peninsula will only last if we work to conserve the resource by doing trailwork, raising money for political action, and by teaching wildness to the generation to whom we hand over the earth. Sign Up Today to do or give what you can for the preservation of our children's earth. Where are your talents? Clearing trails? Educating National Park visitors about Leave No Trace ethics and practices? Raising money from friends, family, and business associates? Leading Boy or Girl Scouts? YOU CAN HELP!!! |
Mountain Seminars Do the mountains, rivers, and glaciers of Olympic National Park merely form one big playground, or is wilderness essential to our Being as embodied Beings in the world? Jason Bausher works on questions such as this in his environmental philosophy, and he shares his research in mountain seminars. He received his master's degree in theology from Yale University and is finishing an M.A. while in a doctoral program in philosophy. Check out a few of the seminars. Don't see your burning "big questions" being asked on this list? Email Olympic Mountain School for a custom program. |
Harbor History Project
The Harbor History Project is an oral history endeavor about Grays Harbor begun in 2002 by Jason Bausher as a follow-up project to his 1994 Eagle Scout project with the Mariners' Monument. Many of the bricks in the compass rose of the Mariners' Monument are inscribed with names, and Harbor History 2002 was an effort to hear about some of the people whose names are engraved in the bricks. Several hours of recorded narratives were taken to be put together in August of 2002 as Harbor History 2002 on VHS and made available through a local video store, Video Tonite. This video records stories of people from the Harbor's sometimes colorful past as well as capturing a few faces and stories about folks in the present.
The Harbor History Project is ongoing, and Jason Bausher invites anyone with a brick in the compass rose on the Mariners' Monument to tell his or her story on camera for collection and a later release. Stories currently recorded include those about the brothels in downtown Aberdeen, the heydays of logging on the Olympic Peninsula, boom times for the log mills on the Chehalis waterfront, the burning of Aberdeen, and recent changes to the area resulting from globalization.
If you have not already purchased a brick, you can do so by filling out the COMPASS ROSE BRICK FORM to see your name and the names of your loved ones on the Mariners' Monument. The bricks also make a long-lasting gift for a memorable occasion.
Call Jason Bausher at (360) 581-3936 or email him at jason@olympicmountainschool.com to set up a time to record your very important story about our Harbor History.
