Individual Mentoring For Youth and Adults
Learning coyote gaits
If you are interested in learning tracking and naturalist skills on your own time, we offer individual mentoring customized to your interests and pace. Individual mentoring participants will work one-on-one with an instructor to progress on the learning path of tracking and naturalist skills. This option offers the ultimate in flexibility and allows participants to pursue studies with the help of a supportive and skilled instructor. Lessons can be tailor made to fit the interests, age and personality of the student. This is a great option for teens who have a budding interest in the outdoors. Depending on the student, class could consist of trailing elk until we find them or analysis of cougar kills; stalking and observing wildlife or understanding bird language. These things and much more are possible through study in our individual mentoring program.The core curriculum with which we build or mentoring program consists of the following:
The Six Arts of Tracking
Identification – Learn how to identify the tracks and sign and answer the question who?
Interpretation – Learn to interpret movement and behaviors through track patterns and gait studies.
Aging – Learn the art of determining fresh live trails from older trails, and how to place events in a sequence.
Ecological Tracking – Learn what draws animals to an area, and use the landscape and ecology to predict where you will find certain animals.
Trailing – Learn to follow an animal to find it, and learn to predict where you will find them.
Empathetic tracking – Learn to put yourself in the animal's skin. Imagine how it is to be this animal.
Awareness Training and Developing a Quiet Mind
A quiet mind is important to moving subtly across the landscape, to observing wildlife and to tracking. It allows you to heed your senses when they pick up subtle disturbances; it allows one to be open minded when interpreting track and sign, and allows one's intuition to flow smoothly. We will learn techniques for quieting the mind, sharpening our senses, and moving invisibly across the landscape through:
Awareness Exercises
The sense meditation and moving meditations
The routine of invisibility
Listening to and learning about bird language
Developing the Knowledge of a Naturalist
When are bucks in the rut? How do skunks spend the winter? What are the breeding habits of snowshoe hares? What do bears eat in midsummer? When do the serviceberries ripen? Through this class you will gain a larger picture of animals in their context. You'll learn why the animals are doing what they are doing and how they are using the landscape. In this Seminar you will develop your naturalist skills through focused journaling, readings, class work and independent study.
Instructor: Gabe Spence
To apply or for more information contact Gabe Spence at (509) 997-7169 or methowschool@yahoo.com
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