Week of June 28, 2026 – July 4, 2026
by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator
Happy Birthday!
Yep – Today is my birthday (and if a camper asks I am now 8,730 years old.) Every year I do a reflection of where my life is and what I have accomplished this year – and I want to share part of this reflection with you this year.
Over the past year my biggest joy at Baltimore Woods has been our Bushcraft Teen Trail School Program. Every week these six kids came together in a new place to all of us… we made a quinzee (snow shelter), we learned and practiced ethical foraging, we practiced our carving skills… They bonded as a group and practiced one of the hardest skills of working with others – communication. Through challenges and tasks these kids solved any problem we threw at them.
Jeff Devine and I were leaders of this program and spent the year observing their skills, and we really got to know and understand these students. With all of this time with them – we gave them names that stood out to us as who they were in the program.
- Our Storyteller – Our creator of tales, this student would always be crafting adventurous tales and when we were doing crafting projects or sitting around the fire he would weave stories that often included what we were learning about.
- Our Fire Keeper – The creator of Cornelius, what they named every fire, this student shined in creating fire and would often be helping others learn to find and process down their tinder to get a fire started.
- Our Encourager – Our support, this student would always be ready to help and learn with others. Anytime we built something he would be both physically helping, and giving words of encouragement and guidance.
- Our Tracker – You let this student into the forest and he WILL find the tracks and traces of animals left behind. He could trail the animals and had the patience to be quiet to observe the life of the forest around him.
- Our Forager – If you could eat it, this student would. He came into trail school with a knowledge and literal hunger for the plants. When we had the younger siblings of the group visit – he showed and helped them collect and try cattails!
- Our Pathfinder – Our leader. This student was eager to learn. He would always be the one to help push the group forward into learning more, asking questions, and be the first to apply skills. I also know that this student would definitely practice the skills we taught them outside of trail school and was always excited to tell us what he was working on.
Now don’t let the teenage boys fool you – They did get emotional when Jeff and I presented these names to them. We did as well. Every challenge they faced, or skill they would learn, or absolutely horrible weather, they took in stride.
I don’t think I could have asked for a better group to kick off this new program. I am so grateful to have had these future leaders learn and grow with us this year – and I know Jeff and I learned a lot as well. We are all looking forward to continuing (and growing) this program next year, and we’ll be hosting an open house in early July if you want to learn more (Registration will also open soon if you have an adventurer who would like to join us – Click here to learn more about Teen Trail School). Until then, the fire has been lit and now we continue to tend to it.