Wilderness Camping Trip for Boys

WILDERNESS CAMPING TRIP
FOR BOYS, AGES 13-18
in the Rocky Mountains near Estes Park, Colorado

Sponsored by Men's Leadership Alliance

GUIDED BY
Jeffrey Duvall
Gene Dilworth
Eamon Duffy
with support from John Davis

We offer a four-day, three-night wilderness camping trip for boys ages 13-18. This trip uses a format we have used with youth for over a decade. We set up a camp together in the mountains outside Boulder, Colorado, teach basic wilderness camping and safety skills, practice respect for each other and the land, and introduce important elements of rites of passage. We offer a half-day solo to the boys in the spirit of our ancestral rites of passage. A ceremonial context and supportive respect for each boy surround the solo. We also have fun, play games, learn tracking and other wilderness skills, eat well, and tell fantastic stories around the fire.

Coming of age -- making the transition from childhood to adulthood -- is confusing and difficult, and keeping the adult heart and soul alive and well is a life-long practice. Our ancestors recognized it as one of the most critical times in a person's life and as a crucial step for the entire community, and they marked the coming of age time with rites of passage. Most of these rites of passage used wild nature as the crucible and essential support for coming of age.

The purpose of this trip is to prepare young men for their own rites of passage as well as offering a time for connecting with the wild world of adolescent boys-- within each boy, in the group, and in the wilderness setting. This trip will help develop some of the capacities needed for a rite of passage, introduce some of the practices central to rites of passage (such as ceremony, time alone in nature, and listening to each others' stories), and awaken the innate framework -- the archetypal imprint we each carry -- for navigating life transitions.

The wilderness affords an ideal opportunity for adolescent boys to learn and grow. The lessons it teaches are natural and uncontrived -- cold, sun, rain, stars, silence, elk, finch, challenge, comfort, and fascination. This trip will teach the boys some of the ways of the wild -- both internal and external -- giving their own wildness a chance to emerge in a healthy and spacious environment.

The guides bring together rich professional backgrounds in wilderness rites of passage and vision fasts, youth work, wilderness therapy, soul-based men's growth and healing work, ritual and ceremony, group process, psychotherapy, healthy adolescent emotional development, natural history, environmental education, the arts, and teaching.

FOR CURRENT INFORMATION ON DATES AND COSTS,
go to the Men's Leadership Alliance site.

Location: We will drive and walk to a wilderness campsite on private land surrounded by national forest between Lyons and Estes Park, Colorado. It is beautiful and secluded land offering a profound sense of wildness and homecoming. Details on where to gather will be sent upon registration.

Jeffrey Duvall is a father, facilitator of soul-based men's leadership trainings, author, and wilderness guide since 1988. As a staff member of the School of Lost Borders (a training facility for wilderness rites of passage guides founded and guided by Steven Foster and Meredith Little), he leads youth vision quests and trains youth vision quest guides. Jeffrey is the author of Men, Meaning, and Prayer: The Reconciliation of Heart and Soul in Modern Manhood (Four Directions Press). He lives in Eldora, Colorado, with his wife and son. For calendar and book information, go to www.jeffreyduvall.com.

Gene Dilworth, M.A., is an environmental educator and wilderness guide with more than twenty years experience leading groups in nature-based pathways to self-discovery, wholeness, and community. He is an adjunct faculty member in both the Environmental Studies and Transpersonal Psychology Departments at Naropa University, with extensive training in ecology, ecopsychology and wilderness rites-of-passage. Gene is committed to facilitating deep encounters with the more-than-human world, and to incorporating the gifts of true nature into contemporary culture. He nurtures his own sense of wonder by exploring the Boulder foothills with his young daughter.

Ed "Eamon" Duffy has been involved with men's work, ritual passages, personal growth, and empowerment for over 12 years. A mentor to his 3 nephews and 2 nieces and many others, he is strongly committed to supporting youth. Eamon is an aspiring musician and writer currently working on his first book and CD.

John Davis and Jeffrey Duvall began a series of wilderness camping trips for youth in the mid-1990s. Their purpose was to prepare pre-teens and younger adolescents for a more in-depth rite of passage marking their movement from adolescence to adulthood. They realized that even younger youth benefit from marking their growth and changes, so these trips became useful in and of themselves, and not simply as preparation. Besides, bringing children and youth into direct contact with the wild world is healing and growthful on many levels. To do so in the company of caring and mature adults is even more powerful. John teaches psychology, ecopsychology, and wilderness therapy at Naropa University and is a staff member of the School of Lost Borders. John is the father of three children, and the younger two benefitted immensely from these camping trips.

To register or for more information, contact:
Jeffrey Duvall, 303-258-0670, jpd@peakpeak.com
John Davis jdavis@naropa.edu

For information on a rite of passage program for youth, ages 16-21,
visit the School of Lost Borders website.

Go here for an article with more information on
WILDERNESS RITES OF PASSAGE.

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