When:
9/7 1:30 PM to 9/11/22 11:30 AMWhere: Sawbill Campground (View Map)
Fee: $775 ($505 Youth)
Description:
Join a group of BIPOC-only adult participants and guides on a basecamp style BWCA experience. Your group will camp on the edge of the BWCA in a National Forest campground with access to vehicles, vault toilets, picnic tables, designated fire rings/grills, and a drinking water spigot. During the day, you will take day-trips into the BWCA by canoe or on foot and return to your same campground each night. Since this trip is designed for folks of all abilities, you can expect your daily adventures to be accessible for every person in your group regardless of their camping or canoeing experience. All meals and group gear are provided, and you may borrow personal gear from Wilderness Inquiry for free.
Wilderness Inquiry Outdoor Leaders leading this trip:
- Asha Shoffner (She/Her)
Asha's Bio: Asha is a queer, first generation immigrant via transnational adoption, who lives and works in the traditional homelands of the Dakota people, Imnížaska Othúŋwe (Saint Paul, Minnesota).
She is the proud auntie of three nephews, a mediocre cat mom to Mouse Slayer “Slay” Shoffner, and the creator of BIPOC Outdoors Twin Cities. She loves to fish, canoe, run, hike, cycle, camp, sit by the water, take photos, eat food that someone else cooked, and be in community with BIPOC and queer folks.
While she loves to be active outdoors, she is not an elite athlete or an expert naturalist. Rather, her legs hurt when she walks with her “across the alley neighbor turned friend” each day. She catches small fish, not big ones, but finds herself at a body of water 6x a week May - October for the opportunity to slow down and connect with herself and the natural environment around her.
As a geriatric millennial who spends a lot of time in nature, Asha has found that this time is essential for her physical, emotional, and social well-being. It’s important to Asha that folks like her who have been historically and intentionally marginalized and excluded from the outdoors can connect to nature in ways that are meaningful, accessible, sustainable and empowering. It has become Asha’s life’s work to help make this happen.
- Andrew Moua (He/him/his)
Andrew's Bio: My name is Andrew Moua. I’m 33 years old, residing in Brooklyn Park, MN. I was born and raised in Eureka, California. My family moved to Minneapolis when I was 9 years old back in 1998. My family spent a lot of time in the outdoors during my youth years which I credit in helping to foster my environmental appreciation and values.
I was a student at the Minneapolis Public Schools and later attended at Gustavus Adolphus College, a private school in St. Peter, Minnesota.
On my spare time, I really enjoy garden related activities, hunting, hiking, and snowboarding down mountain tops. I also enjoy any opportunities to travel, new culinary exposure and new added experiences.
I have passions in public and community service. This has led me to working at Metropolitan Mosquito Control District (MMCD), a public service organization that does mosquito borne disease control for the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. Prior to MMCD, I have done environmental restoration work with Conservation Corps as well as working with bulk food and volunteers at Second Harvest Food Bank.
I have loved the boundary waters since my introduction to it as a student during orientation week at college. Sharing the love and enthusiasm for the BWCA was how I was introduced to it -- I hope to share such experience forward to those who have not yet had a chance to know what they've been missing.