| 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. |
Kosher Hikes
Choose no longer between wilderness as the place of 40-year isolation and wilderness as BaMidbar or "place of speaking." Like the topography of the Sinai, the rugged wilderness of Olympic National Park holds many Harim (mountains) offering special places where Biblical stories of Jewish wandering may be illuminated by such wild experiences. Take advantage of American protections to these natural places by hiking, backpacking, and mountaineering within the constraints of Halachah. National Park Service regulations allow for parties of 12. Take advantage of this to put together your own MOUNTAINS MINYAN (10 men) in the high country.
Time for DAVENING AND LEARNING is embedded into the schedule. You must provide a gabbai, shaliach tzibur, and baal kriah.
All food has hechshers demonstrating approval by the Orthodox Union. Kelim (utensils) are stored in a location set apart and sealed from all non-kosher products. All food is either MILCHIG OR PARVE to altogether avoid the issue of basar b'chalav; NO FLEISHIG FOOD IS USED IN THE STANDARD HIKE. If fleishig food is desired for some unique reason, then special arrangements must be made, supervision obtained, and additional kelim secured for the event.
Halachic interpretations are determined by your rabbi or beis din. Your guide is qualified to judge terrain--not judge halachah. At additional expense, a satellite phone can be carried by your guide to contact these authorities.
A MECHITZAH can be constructed to your standards by your guide if you desire one.
Your SEFER TORAH can be packed into the mountains at additional expense either by your guide or one of the local horse or llama packers.
A SUKKAH may be constructed from dead and down materials for SUKKOT IN THE WILDERNESS.
Backpacking trips are also available. An ERUV may be constructed for a Shabbat or Yom Tov in the wilderness.
