As a wilderness guide in New Hampshire, Kyle Macdonald often took kids and adults on their first camping and canoe trips in the White Mountains.

"At the end of the trip I’d say, 'I hope you enjoyed it and that it makes a difference in your life, give me a hug,'" said Macdonald, now a Bay Area resident. He said he rarely saw them again and never knew how experiencing the wilderness affected their lives.

He created Bay Area Wilderness Training in 2000 with the help of the Earth Island Institute, a Berkeley-based organization that sponsors start-up environmental groups. Bay Area Wilderness trains youth agency staff to lead kids into nature. It provides gear, transportation, funding and support to make trips fun, safe, inexpensive and well supplied.

“Our philosophy is, first you have this experience with a trusted adult, and then the experience percolates,” said Macdonald. When guides are teachers and youth workers kids see every day, he added, kids stay more connected to the experience which leads to more interest in the outdoors. Macdonald said he believes being in nature gives kids a broader sense of themselves and their world.

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Bay Area Wilderness staff train "front country" guides at Mt. Diablo, Henry Coe State Park and the Presidio for car camping and day hikes. Wilderness guides are trained more intensely for longer backpacking trips in the back country of Yosemite. New guides are taught to plan, pack, set up camp, cook, team build and how to be safe.

“Wilderness guide training is the heart of the program”, said Macdonald. “This level of backpacking and camping sets the bar really high for the guides.”

The training is hands on. Guides carry everything on their backs; there are no roads, no other people and no toilets. They learn the basics plus navigation, time-management, group dynamics and environmental ethics. The group also offers advanced courses in first aid and navigation.
 
Once trained, guides have free access to all equipment needed for trips including boots, snow shoes, clothing, backpacks, walking poles, sleeping bags, tents and cooking supplies, all donated by the sponsors. Bay Area Wilderness has enough gear to outfit 350 people. It’s housed in three locations, Oakland, Milpitas and San Francisco. Macdonald said staff and volunteers spend most of their time maintaining, cleaning and making sure the gear is safe and ready for the next trip.

Macdonald said transportation costs are kept low through a partnership with City CarShare. Trained guides receive discounts on cars and priority access to two minivans (fondly called the BAWTmobiles). The group offers $250 grants to help with expenses.

Jeff Houston, a Bay Area software engineer, shifted his focus from trying to convince adults to save wetlands, open spaces and forest they’d never seen to leading kids into wilderness so they’d learn to appreciate it and become adults who would protect it.

He trained as a wilderness guide in 2005 and has led his daughter’s Girl Scout troop on three backpacking trips to Pt. Reyes or the Sierras every summer since. He also takes Daisies, 5-year-olds in the Girl Scout program, on one-day hikes.  He uses the group’s vans and equipment regularly.

Houston said it’s hard to get some of the girls out on the first trip. They’re afraid, he said. Their parents don't encourage them to get outside because they don’t have outdoor experience.  But once they make that first step, Houston said, they always want to come back.
 
“Carrying the weight on their backs is a confidence booster," he said. "As the days go on, the packs get lighter. The girls are often struggling at first, then they get used to it. By the end of the trip, they’re impressed with themselves.”

When they unplug from the clutter and noise of the city, texting and TV, he added, kids, like adults, experience something new.

“You stop listening to what everyone is telling you to listen to,” Houston said. “You get a better understanding of who you are, not who you’re supposed to be, not who you’re being told to be and you gain more confidence in yourself.”

Staff at Barack Obama Academy took wilderness guide training in 2007. David Hicks, a teacher at the small East Oakland middle school, said the school’s vision was to incorporate the outdoors into the curriculum.
 
They use the discounted vans and gear for one-day mountain biking trips, four-night campouts and several one-day hikes throughout the year. Hicks said he appreciates meeting like-minded people at Bay Area Wilderness and sharing ideas.

“Kids can’t always go out in their neighborhoods because they aren’t safe," he said.

When they get in nature, Hicks said, they’re like different kids. Their self worth grows and they experience joy. He uses examples of what they’ve accomplished outdoors, to help them achieve in the classroom.

“I’ll ask them,” said Hicks, “Remember when you were mountain biking and you didn’t think you could ride down the hill, but you did, screaming all the way? Now, you’re saying you don’t think you can take the test, but you can. And they’ll say, 'Oh yeah, I remember.'”

He said taking kids outside helps develop trust and gives students and teachers a chance to know each other on a deeper level, which can lead to greater success in the classroom.

Bay Area Wilderness Training just celebrated their 10th year in business. The group recent moved into a new office on Broadway in Uptown Oakland after operating at Earth Island for about nine years.

Macdonald said he has ambitious plans for the next 10 years, including more education in public schools on the importance of connecting kids to nature.

“I want the school districts to say this is important enough that you must have a couple of wilderness trained guides at every school,” he said. “And then all these kids get into nature. I know they will not all become big huge outdoors people. But if they don’t know it exists, then their lives are smaller. “

Discovery Sessions are held the third Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.  For more information on the March 17 session, click here.

To learn more about Bay Area Wilderness Training click here, call 510-452-2298 or email.

To learn about Climbing for Kids Fundraiser, click here.

Bay Area Wilderness Training is located at 2301 Broadway, Suite B, Oakland.