Trail Tales: WI Trail Staff Memories

This week we’re featuring some favorite memories from our Wilderness Inquiry trail staff. From hilarious encounters to creative solutions, our trail guides have seen it all! Read on to hear about some of their favorite memories from their time at WI.

Old Town River

On a trip to Namekagon last summer, the teenage participants sang the National Anthem so many times in a row (just to be annoying) that the leaders begged them to return to singing “Old Town River,” the canoeing parody of “Old Town Road” that was created – and practically trademarked – on that trip.

Getting Creative

We had a participant who needed additional back support while sitting in the canoe. We quickly came up with a solution that involved a throw ring, some para-cord, and a couple of NRS straps. Our custom Crazy Creek worked pretty well, but I think the participant’s dad enjoyed the back rest even more than she did!

We need some more pushers…

It was my first trip with WI. Myself and two others were heading down to Austin, MN to meet the rest of our group for our first day of programming. That’s when I receive a call from our primary, “Hey are you close? Our rig is stuck, we got a little rain last night…we could use some more pushers.” While it wasn’t something we planned for, it wasn’t a challenge we couldn’t handle. We joined the rest of the group, put our heads together, and got the rig dislodged from the muck. We even made it to programming on time!

Climb Every Mountain

On a Boundary Waters Family Trip four trail staff accommodated a teenage boy with brittle bone disease by physically carrying him in his wheelchair up and down Oberg Mountain. It was an amazing example of teamwork and going above and beyond to serve our participants!

Footloose

A volunteer from a nature center was doing a presentation on biodiversity. They had historic items, pelts, animal skulls, and also a goose foot to demonstrate animal adaptations. However, there also was a Canadian goose sitting on the grass near their presentation area. It was coincidentally missing a foot. Nothing we said could convince the kids we got the foot from a science supply store and didn’t just harvest it off this living goose thirty feet away.

Glacier Shower

We were on a Glacier National Park trip with the St. Paul Public Schools AVID program. It was a trip tradition that the day ended with a swim in the lake. The lakes in the park are all a glacier fed – meaning the water is shockingly cold, even in August. Getting everyone in for a quick swim to rinse off the sweat and trail dust was a challenge. It came down to our last night in the park and one of the students made it a group challenge: “We all go in and get our hair wet, together.” After lots of coaxing and false starts, the impromptu challenge got nearly everyone in for a rinse!

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