A Career on Trail

It’s hard to believe twenty years ago I went out on my first overnight canoe camping trip. Reflecting on it now, snapshots start to roll through my head of places, people and fun that I have had. Am I really that old to have this many experiences outside or have I just been that lucky?

It all started with that first experience being lead by my counselors up a small river which now I would call a creek. I had no idea what to expect, I was amazingly nervous about the whole experience.
Paddling up the Manito-wish River took all day, a route in which I may have repeated 100 times at this point. The teamwork to move around the dam, setting up camp and cooking over the open fire was all a foundational set of skills I have used countless times in my career. Even more important was the foundational experience in which I worked as a cog in the wheel of a team.

I loved these experiences going “on trail” in the summer, I never wanted it to stop. The next step was to change rolls and help lead these experiences. As a novice, I focused on the hard skills of paddling, navigation and camping. Looking back now I see how much I missed in my early leadership roles. I truly was a novice leader and had a lot to learn about communication and leadership. Through time and reflection, these skills too came along.

Summers passed, my college experience progressed. I could not get enough. Annually. at the end of the summer season, friends and I took off for personal trips to the Quetico and French River. This took fun to the next level. I was able to push my self harder, and start to understand my leadership potential. Finally at the end of college a good friend and I took off from Winnipeg on the train for Lynn Lake, Manitoba. Starting on Reindeer Lake we paddled to the head waters of the Seal River and descended the Seal to Hudson Bay and eventually Churchill. Writing this now, I still can't believe we did this trip. The logistical and terrain challenges were intense, not to mention we only had each other to depend on. We reminisced about this trip recently. I think we both agree, we might have been a bit crazy. Life perspective is an amazing thing.

I knew what I wanted to do with myself. I wanted to work, travel and lead outside. I jumped into teaching skiing, guiding sea kayaking and leading for the National Outdoor Leadership School. At twenty-three I had my dream job. I traveled and camped for more than half of the year. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to some of the most amazing places. From Canada's Yukon to the Kimberly of Australia paddling in a wide range of environments with some amazing people. Looking back at the most amazing and successful courses, it was the co-workers and the students that made them successful and memorable for me and not the location. I was able to learn from some of the best, and in turn lead an coach some of the future. I continued to develop my own leadership and teaching style. Spending the time to tweak and perfect things as I went.

At the beginning I had set some goals and about ten years later I had achieved them. I had accumulated over one hundred weeks working in the field. I had realized something was missing for me. I still loved being outside and working with people, but I had this desire to spend some more time at my home in Montana. I don't really know what changed, maybe it was living in an incredible place that made me not want to leave it. Maybe it was that I had just reached my goals. I spent my final full time summer managing NOLS' river base in Salmon, Idaho with my arm in a sling from a recent shoulder surgery.

Working hard through the summer to recover, I pulled a last-second slot on a Grand Canyon permit. The Main Salmon was closed due to forest fires, courses were canceled. Things lined up perfectly. I headed down with some new and old friends to Lee's Ferry. Personal trips, what an amazing thing. 16 days later we took out at Diamond. Wow!

It wasn't the canyon trip that sent me back to school, but a new set of goals. I returned to nursing school. I had my eyes on a lifestyle. Work hard and play harder. I now am a Nurse at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. I work 6 days on and have 8 off. I use my leadership and communication skills daily as a charge nurse. I truly believe my success in health care can be directly attributed to the leadership and communication skills I developed working outdoors.


I love “being on trail”. I took my Mother (Manito-wish Alum) down the Canyon a few summers back, what an experience to share. This, along with having my trip mate from the Seal, made it an amazing trip in an amazing place. For me now it is all about the people in whatever I do. The skills I have developed and gleaned from co-workers, trip mates, students and family all have made me who I am today. Maybe it was a few decisions along the way that got me to were I am now or just a few lucky opportunities, I don't know. Either way I am happy I was hooked with the first paddle into the wind on my way to “Upper Dam.”

Stewart Chumbley has led trips at both Camp Manito-wish YMCA and the National Outdoor Leadership School. He now lives in Gallatin Gatewar, Montana

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An Introduction to Experiential Education

As a leader, I define myself as an experiential educator. Often, when I initially try to define experiential education for others, I received blank stares or looks of confusion. Sometimes I receive comments such as, “Do you mean hands-on learning? or “Oh, you mean that ropes stuff.” While experiential education does involve an active, “hands-on” approach to learning and can use challenge (or ropes) courses as one tool to achieve its educational outcomes, there is a lot more to it than that.

The Association for Experiential Education offers the following definition:

Experiential education is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values (The Association for Experiential Education, 2010).

Closely examining the combination of words in this definition helps to clarify its meaning even further. AEE chooses to refer to experiential education as both a philosophy and a methodology revealing the strong connection between the merging of theory and practice. It is both; not mutually exclusive but rather working in concert to create this educational approach. The words “purposefully engage” signify the intentional nature of the educator’s work as creating intentional learning processes as well as their active role within the educational environment. The use of the word with may seem like a small choice; however, it reveals a powerful idea concerning the interaction between educator and learner.

As a leader, I am concerned about how experiences inform us to learn to become engaged citizens in the world. I use experiential education as a medium for opportunities to examine how learning can become applicable beyond one isolated experience. To understand the process of learning, we can refer to David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle. Kolb (1984) developed this cyclical model offering signposts for the process of learning. He argues that students must have an experience, reflect on that experience, make broader generalizations from their reflections and observations and then find ways to apply the new meaning to other aspects of their world.

Often, we can get caught in the trap of offering an experience and letting it speak for itself. When we do this, we miss about three fourths of the learning process an intentional experiential educator strives for. While the “hands-on learning” and “ropes stuff” might be beneficial on its own, it is within the reflection and application stages of experiential learning that we can engage in meaningful experiences that inform us as leaders and active citizens within society.

Marin Burton, Ph.D, is the Director of the Team QUEST program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Article originally published at the Leadership Launching Pad blog, October 2010. Used with the author's permission.

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It's Conference Season!

This is the time of year when many professional organizations hold their annual conferences. Why is this important? Well…for me this was my way into the Outdoor Education field. I found that it was a great way to gain a sense of what professionals are talking about, what the current trends are, and more importantly, this is where you make connections that grow into future opportunities.


Here are a few things that are on the horizon. Some of them I have attended, some I am attending this year and some I know due to word of mouth.

What: T.E.A.M. Conference (Teachers of Experiential and Adventure Methodology)
Where: Northeastern Illinois University
When: February 3-4:
I have attended this conference every year since its inception (except the very first one…so 22 years). It is great conference and the place that really gave me my start in experiential education. There is a real family feel with some of the industry giants in attendance including Laurie Frank, Chris Cavert and Karl Rohnke. Even if you are not a teacher, you will find a lot of useful tools here. In addition, it is relatively inexpensive.

What: A.C.C.T. International Conference (Association for Challenge Course Technology)
Where: Boston, MA
When: February 9-12
This is an organization that was originally developed to represent companies and individuals that build and inspect challenge courses. The organization still has that as a focus, but has turned their conference into something bigger; a focus on best practices in the adventure and experiential education world. There is something for everyone at this conference, from workshops on technical climbing, zip line, challenge course gear and gear research for all you gear wonks, as well as facilitation workshops taught by the top practitioners in the world. It is a more expensive conference then TEAM but well worth it.

What: N.C.C.P.S. (National Challenge Course Practitioners Symposium)
Where: Boulder, CO
When: February 23-25
This is often called the “un conference” in that it is an open concept symposium with no set workshops. It is an idea orchestrated by Tom Leahy, a noted practitioner in the field. It works like this: people show up and offer to teach on different subjects related to challenge courses and facilitation and if other attendees sign up to attend, you run a workshop. Several Manito-wish staff attends every year and say that it is amazing. It has great energy, lots of good people and loads of information.

What: A.E.E. International Conference (The Association for Experiential Education)
Where: Madison, WI
When: November 2012
AEE is the organization responsible for building this industry into the respected profession it has become. Their regional conferences are usually relatively inexpensive and are full of great workshops on everything from wilderness therapy to teaching games. They are also, due to their local focus, great opportunities to network in your region.

There are obviously more professional organizations and conferences, depending on your interest. The key is to do the research, make a choice…and go!

Mark Zanoni is the Leadership Program Director at Camp Manito-wish YMCA