Wilderness Trip

The week-long Wilderness Trip is an opportunity to explore interdisciplinary connections, develop wilderness living skills, and increase self-awareness through group living, solo time and connection with the natural world. 

Students learn about the ecology and history of the area they are hiking in, and discuss writers such as John Muir, Edward Abbey, and Henry David Thoreau that use wilderness as an entry point to talking about democracy and America’s values.

The Wilderness Trip happens at the beginning of the semester, and is an important time for the students and faculty to bond as a group. The solo time on the trip is also a first for many students, and provides a kick-start to the intense personal growth and self-awareness that occurs during the semester.

Previous trips have been hiking along the Yuba River, a Wild and Scenic River in Woolman’s “backyard”; backpacking the Lost Coast along the Pacific; and snowshoeing and winter survival skills at a winter hut in the Sierras.