AK Youth Hiking & Wilderness First Aid Summer Camp in Alaska

A week of hiking and exploring our favorite trails while learning valuable wilderness survival skills.

What We'll Do:

Alaska outdoor science and education for Alaska kids! Our youth summer camps focus on learning foundational outdoor skills, environmental science, and wilderness safety. Our Hiking + WFA (wilderness first aid) youth course will give youth the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills, building an overall solid foundation in wilderness survival and safety skills. A perfect course for Alaska kids to take so they can feel confident and knowledgeable while out enjoying our beautiful and rugged Alaskan wilderness.

In this course, we typically divide our group into a beginner cohort and a more advanced cohort so that participants can meet challenges at an appropriate level. In our advanced cohort, we may spend a day going for speed and distance and do a mix of mountain running, scrambling, and fast hiking up to class 3 hiking trails.

In our beginner cohort, we’ll go up to class 2 trails and focus on building foundational skills in hiking, going on less complicated or challenging terrain than the advanced cohort.

Led by passionate counselors, our small group camps provide a cozy environment for making new friends, understanding the importance of sustainable use of our outdoor spaces, and enjoying outdoor adventures together.

Details

Max. Enrollment: 20 participants Min. Enrollment: 6 Participants

Cost: $465 Deposit: $116.25

Where We’ll Go

Drop-off and Pick-up: Kincaid Sand Dunes Park Trailhead [8200 Jodhpur St, Anchorage, AK 99502]

Field Visit Days: 3-4 days/week we will load up in the van and spend the day hiking and exploring a different type of trail within the Chugach State park, Hatcher Pass, or one of the segments of the National Historic Iditarod Trail (Crow Pass, Johnson Pass). Where we decide to go is up to instructor discretion and depends largely on environmental conditions and the makeup of our group.

Field visit days, we will leave promptly at 9:30am from the parking lot and return between 4:30-5pm. Our instructors will communicate with families on which days we’ll be doing a field visit to a climbing spot, and where we are going, and text when we return, via our “remind” communication app.

When

Camp Dates: Session 1: June 3-7, 2024 Session 2: June 17-21, 2024

Days: Monday-Friday Drop-off Time: 9-9:30am Pick-up Time: 5-5:30pm (early drop off available from 8-9am, $15/day)

Daily Itinerary

8-9am: Early drop-off 9-9:30am: drop-off 9:30: morning meeting, depart in van for trailhead, or prepare to play/explore the park 12-1:30pm: lunch time/we eat typically when we’re hungry, but we make sure to take breaks during the day. 1:30-5pm: continue with outdoor lessons/hike or other activities, return to Kincaid parking lot pick-up spot. 5-5:30: pick-up

**Lesson plans and itineraries are subject to change based on group needs and other factors out of our control, like environmental conditions. The only times that are fixed are drop-off and pick-up; all other times are flexible and up to instructor discretion. **field-visit days will follow a similar schedule but will adjust to account for the driving times and corresponding logistics.

Weekly Itinerary

Monday: Wilderness First Aid skills intro on group hike. Cohort 1: easier hike; cohort 2: more challenging hike.

Tuesday: Wilderness First Aid Practice: Cohort 1: Outdoor Classroom at Kincaid Park Cohort 2: On the trail/hiking area

Wednesday: Wilderness First Aid Practice: Cohort 1: On the trail/hiking area Cohort 2: Outdoor Classroom at Kincaid Park

Thursday: “Challenge” hiking day - each group chooses a hike that will pose an interesting challenge, trail choices provided by our guides: Cohort 1: easier hike; cohort 2: more challenging hike.

Friday: Final day! Group debrief and discussion, what are the next steps? Final WFA scenarios. Fun and camaraderie: kids will make their own play for our “Theater in the Woods” and act out what they learned over the last three days.

What we’ll learn:

Every summer camp includes education in wilderness skills, including but not limited to wilderness first aid, gear management and personal organization, personal and group outdoor leadership and teamwork skills, and of course, bear and moose safety skills.

Our hiking and WFA curriculum has a two-fold set of goals: hiking skills and fitness, and wilderness first aid skills. Hiking in Alaska can range from easier, gentle terrain to advanced scrambling and more precarious situations. Our hiking curriculum focuses on the safety aspect in addition to tips on clothing and gear, what to pack, food and hydration, dangers and risks to look out for, and the local geology of the trail that should inform our personal and group risk assessment while hiking.

The WFA (wilderness first aid) component of this course is designed to give kids the opportunity to learn valuable life-saving skills in Alaska’s wilderness setting. What do you do when you have an injured leg, ankle, or other type of physical or medical emergency in Alaska’s backcountry?

At Into the Woods AK, we help kids work on creative problem solving and developing critical thinking skills in the outdoors setting. Part of this is allowing them to overcome challenges and failure, rather than just giving up! Please support your child by letting them pack their own bag, know what is in it, and take ownership over their learning. Most importantly, please allow them the opportunity to experience set-backs, learn from them, and overcome them.

Gear and Clothing - What to Pack:

Inclusions: -Curriculum supplies for learning (wilderness first aid learning supplies) -Water and some snacks -Transport on field visit days to and from trailhead

What to Pack: See our website for a full packing list. We are outdoors all day - please have your kiddo come with appropriate outdoor shoes and clothing for the day.

Water, extra clothing layers and appropriate outer layers, big lunch with lots of snacks. A backpack the size of a school backpack or an 18-30 liter day hiking backpack are good sizes.

All participants are expected to wear appropriate clothing for conditions. We will send out a packing list and “what to wear and how to wear it” guidebook to all participants prior to camp start date.

Need gear or clothes? We may have equipment and clothing to lend out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Participant Requirements

Who is it for? This program is offered to ages 10-13; we may divide into smaller groups during the day per the discretion of the instructors.

Enrollment requirements: -Must be able to follow directions from instructors and listen respectfully to instructors during outdoor classroom lecture sessions. -Participants must arrive ready to go with appropriate gear for the weather conditions of the day, with adequate food and water. -We expect all of our participants to be safe, kind, and respectful to themselves, their friends, and the environment.

A note on special needs and Into the Woods AK: Our summer camps programs are not ideal for kiddos that require 1:1 instructor:student ratio Please keep in mind that we are not trained as special needs educators, and while we can accommodate many different learning styles, we are not well equipped for children that need a 1:1 guidance. If a child runs away, is non-verbal, has difficulty differentiating safe situations/actions from unsafe ones, and/or has trouble adhering to safety instructions from instructors, we are not the best-suited program for your child.

We strive to provide a fun, engaging, and of course safe environment for all kiddos at our camps. Some youth may not have as much fun if they need a lot of structure and consistent activities and transitions throughout their day - for example, sometimes our snack times or lunch times may not happen at the expected times, coming across a mama moose and calf on the trail will change our route and lesson plan itinerary, or our instructors will recognize that the group needs to play more, or relax more, or to move on to something else, or will make a call/quick adaptation to the plans for safety or environmental reasons.

Please Note:

This itinerary and what we learn each day is subject to change based on environmental conditions and our unique groups' particular logistics and needs. Our focus is to have fun, play, and make friends - and hopefully learn some solid wilderness skills and inspire youth to learn to be advocates for our beautiful wild spaces along the way!

This program is 100% outdoors! On rainy days we may have a shelter where we can hang out, however, we also use “bad weather” to teach youth how to manage gear and even have fun with the rain!

Prohibited at all of our tours, programs, and courses: alcohol, drugs, tobacco, e-cigarettes or vaping-type products, firearms or weapons of any kind.