Wilderness Year

Jump into the adventure of a lifetime with a series of paradigm-shifting weekends in the wilderness! Wilderness Year is made up of four seasonal courses that can be taken individually or together for a full 12 months of outdoor adventure.

WILDERNESS YEAR is designed for individuals seeking to deepen their knowledge of earth skills and nature awareness in a supportive learning environment.

The Spring and Fall sessions each include four meetings with two overnights while the Summer and Winter sessions include two meetings with one overnight meet-up.

The year-long weekend format of this series offers diverse tastings from all that our local bioregion has to offer, paired with the secrets of wilderness survival, served up in four courses, taught by seasoned outdoor educators who bring over 30 years of field knowledge to the table.

Are you ready?

For over ten years Primitive Pursuits trained adults seeking to deepen their connections to nature and improve the health of their community through nature mentoring. Participants have included parents of youth participants, school teachers, recent college grads, retirees, city folks, country folks and all kinds of people looking for meaningful ways to implement stewardship and environmental leadership in their lives. Read their testimonial below. For the first time, we are now offering a weekend format to make these experiences even more accessible!

THANK YOU for envisioning and providing the environment and experience that I got to be part of this weekend. It surpasses my expectations on so many levels.”

Weekend Participant

Upcoming dates to be announced

Wilderness Year includes twelve monthly weekends, divided into four seasonal courses:

Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. Each course season may be taken separately and offers skills and experiences that are unique and relevant to the season. They are all appropriate for both beginners and experienced outdoors people: there are no prerequisites. Whether choosing one season joining us for all four, participants of all experience levels can expect to gain skills that are both personally and professionally valuable.

Participants will also receive a certificate upon course completion.

Instructor Team
Wilderness Year weekend adventures will be led by Wren Anjali, Jed Jordan and other special guests. Wren and Jed bring over 30 years of combined field teaching in both youth and adult outdoor programs. As with all of our programs, having a team-teaching approach will allow us to pack a lot of content into each weekend while also meeting participants where they’re at, offering individualized instruction when needed.

What to Expect
Each day at Wilderness Year you can expect to have an adventure in the wild with a supportive group of peers learning and facing challenges together. We’ll follow nature’s lead while practicing core routines of awareness, discovering our strengths and learning how to observe and respond to changes taking place in the natural world. We’ll step out of our daily routines and into the unknown, to experience wonder and to feel uplifted in gaining new competencies in the outdoors.

“In this adventure we see ourselves as Stewards: to the land and its resources, to ourselves and each other. Inner as well as outer tracking are key elements to survival. Stewardship supports self-connection as well as contribution, tying this moment to a greater good. Through the cycle of the seasons we commit to growing and developing as leaders, mentors and decent human beings.”

Wilderness Year is a great experience to have in tandem with a seasonal apprenticeship or a casual volunteering position with Primitive Pursuits. It’s also a great resume builder for getting into the outdoor education field. And, as a member of our community, we hope you will join us for other related educational and outreach events throughout the year.

The longer sessions of Spring and Fall are $850 each and the shorter sessions (Summer and Winter) are $450.

I am so grateful for this course and how much it has sharpened my awareness and curiosity. I am truly grateful for the hours we spent together, for the baseline, the camouflage, the sit-spot, the fire, the talk, and the listening. Thank you.”

Just to be in nature, to sit, pulls my whole week together. This weekend truly connected me with the knowledge that I have been searching for. It is great to realize I don’t need to travel far to gain this amazing knowledge and experience.”

Thank you all so much! What a wonderful time that was and brought a lot of good stuff to the surface for me to work on making a change in my life to get that fire going! I’m so grateful that you imagined this program and brought it so beautifully to life. I’ve had folks asking me all week how it was and I keep saying, “More amazing than I even imagined.””

What you have created is a haven and an opportunity for people to get back in touch with their true nature. I was glowing during and after the program, and felt myself harnessing a path of truth.”

“I have had the most beautiful and life-changing adventure. I cannot even begin to thank you enough for reawakening my curiosity, fueling my desire for adventure and introducing patience and so much beauty to my life.”

I recognize so many trees and plants here that I learned about in my time with you and have been passing on my fascination with fire to many people since I arrived. This program has watered a seed in me that wants to grow tall and strong for the rest of my life.”

This program was one of the most inspiring experiences I have had to date. It has actually propelled me to want to further pursue wilderness education to deepen that connection within myself and share with others.”

Each basket we weave has its own journey, from the mineral-rich ground that held the seeds, to the sunlight that provided their nourishment, to the water that flowed through them, to animals that sought them for refuge, to the appreciation with which they were harvested and then the intentions they were crafted with.”