The Wolf College

Wolf Camp

About the Wolf Journey

Home and Calendar
Mission and Staff Bios

Application Form, with our whole schedule listed, Driving Directions, Phone Number, and Email

Chapter Two - Fears & Hazards

Order a fine print - signed, numbered, limited edition on 6x9 or 8.5x11 of any of Joanna's Artwork you see.

Rattlesnake Story as experienced and told by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP. Octopus Song written and performed by Chrism to be uploaded ASAP. Meaning of Life music by Chris "Huck" Anderson to be uploaded ASAP. To listen to these audio files, you may need the free RealOne Player if it's not already installed in your system. Inspirational Artwork by Joanna Colbert and Nikki.

Introduction & Contents:
• Field Exercise 2A - Assessing Your Own Fears
• Field Exercise 2B - Assessing Real Hazards, First Half
• Field Exercise 2C - Assessing Real Hazards, Second Half
• Field Exercise 2D - Trusting Your Secret Place
• Chapter 2 Celebration

In nature, fear can be our greatest challenge, as well as the greatest teacher. Even in the absence of any real danger, our minds can create irrational fears that arise from stories and images we have experienced in the past. Though our culture is full of such myths about nature, many of them are untrue.

Who’s myths do you believe? I, for one, just give thanks that I am safe today – safe that no cars hit me on my walk home. The reality is that I am more likely to be killed or maimed while driving over to my friend’s house later this evening than I am to be attacked throughout my whole lifetime by the cougars roaming where I walk everyday.

But that is not the myth I grew up believing. My favorite childhood book was about a boy who loved to hunt with his hounds. At the end of this fictional tale, a cougar kills one of the dogs and the boy barely escapes with his life. The cougar is referred to as a “devil” and receives blame for the encounter.

But how many people have ever died as a result of a cougar attack in North America? From 1890 through 1995, there were 13 deaths and 59 non-fatal cougar attacks in North America. [Source: Paul Beier in a 1991 Wildlife Society Bulletin and follow up 5 years later.] From 1991-1999, the total number of attacks was 47, a handful fatal, but an increase we have to investigate before becoming hysterically afraid.

In comparison, how many times have I grieved over the death of a loved one killed by a motor vehicle? So many. Yet people are not hysterically afraid of jumping into our car, even though an average of 40,000 lives are lost U.S. in automobile accidents every year. That’s 120 per day, the number one cause of children’s deaths. We’re not generally afraid in cars because we are used to driving. But people are not used to nature anymore. Therefore, many are afraid of it.

As a rule, humans are not hunted in nature, and when exceptions to the rule occur, we can protect ourselves with some simple training, because our greatest enemy in nature is ourselves. Let us walk into nature with awareness, ever vigilant to avoid dangerous situations that cause falls and bonks. Let us use our superior thought capacities to know the risks associated with cold air and water. Let us prepare in advance to avoid excessive exposure, but trust that our bodies are indeed resilient in the face of challenges – as long as we remember the first survival skill: a positive attitude to replace panic.

Still, due to the myths we grew up with, we are still afraid of wild animal attacks. So we can mitigate that fear by educating ourselves. For instance, if we educate ourselves about cougars, the chance that we will be harmed by an attack drops dramatically. The reason for such a simple reduction in the danger is similar to why bear maulings have become less of a concern over the past decade: successful education of visitors to natural areas, such as the “don’t feed the bears” campaign in national parks.

Avoiding an animal attack depends not on staying away from natural areas, but in understanding the wild animals. First, never feed them. Second, don’t run away from animals that you can successfully fight if necessary, like cougars and black bears. In the case of grizzlies and polar bears, it takes a huge amount of training to control their behavior, so novices should be loud to avoid surprising them, and carry an effective weapon if sneaking around in their territories.

If you like jogging through trails, wear bells to alert cougars and bears. And people with bushy pony tails should tuck them in so that large owls (that are accustomed to snatching rodents from researchers hands) do not mistake them for rodents.

Except with grizzlies and polar bears in North America, we only really need to be concerned about small children in relation to wild animals. Even then, wild animals almost always run from children because they are not accustomed to eating human flesh. In the cases where children are attacked, it is usually because they are running around like unaware prey, and often not under direct supervision by adults.

When encountering a wild animal, I always typically stick around so that I can observe it. But if you would rather it depart, then make yourself look as big as possible, keeping eye contact to assert your dominance, and back away slowly, taking care not to trip. If attacked, fight back, except with grizzlies and polar bears, in which case you should curl up into a ball. Animals do not like a difficult fight, and will run away in almost every instance.

There are many stories of hunters being stalked by cougars. In almost every case, the animal never actually attacked. From my interpretation, may have been curious or surprised that a human was being quiet and stealthy in nature. In many cases, however, the hunters aggravated the animals by throwing objects at it, which is not a good idea. It only aggravates the animal.

As a rule, humans are not hunted in nature, and when exceptions to the rule occur, we can protect ourselves by following some simple rules, like not feeding wild animals or running blindly away from them. While we need to console the tragic grief felt by families of the victims of wild animal attacks, we also need to train ourselves to understand the patterns of nature instead of allowing fear about such attacks control our behavior.

There are, however, several hazards in nature that we should consider a higher priority. The list of true hazards includes traveling, hypothermia, dehydration, cuts, falls, infectious diseases, poisoning, and the behavior of other humans, amongst other things. Let’s take a closer look at these hazards, and see how we can learn to deal with them.

The Eight Categories

The first step to begin isolating true hazards from our fears is to bear in mind what I call the “eight great hazards” of nature. We can take important steps to prevent these hazards from occurring, and learn to deal with them effectively if any come to pass. Later, we will begin to isolate and name our fears by questioning the “myths” that have a firm hold upon our psyches.

Number 1: Traveling There. You may think nothing of getting into your car and driving to your wilderness destination, but this is actually the most dangerous part of your adventure. Include the complications of inclement weather and darkness while driving, and you risk a hazard that is more severe than all the rest put together.

Number 2: Water Hazards & Hypothermia: Water makes you cold faster than anything, and hypothermia is the first concern while in the natural world. Drowning is, of course, another water hazard. In addition, many people have dived into shallow water, only to suffer often fatal head and spine injuries. A wilderness first aid course can teach you to recognize and treat hypothermia before it becomes fatal.

Number 3: Dehydration & Hunger. Another big danger involves your consumption – or lack thereof – of water, and next, food. Also, being well-hydrated helps balance your temperature, keeping you warmer in the cold and cooler in the heat, so drink water even if it's cold outside. When it’s hot outside, also bring salts or add the “electrolyte” supplements found in grocery stores to ensure hydration when drinking water.

Number 4: Falls & Strikes. These accidents especially happen when we are hurried, cold, afraid, tired, dehydrated, hungry, or sick. Always look around you to assess hazards, including upwards to avoid having dead branches fall on your camp. Always look around for hazards in nature at the same time as wildlife viewing, for it is your awareness that really helps you avoid problems. Again, to deal with injuries, a good wilderness first aid course is excellent in dealing with falls and strikes.

Number 5: Dangerous Objects and Activities. The dangers of fire are the first that come to mind for many of us. Personal tools such as knives or weapons can pose a hazard as well. The most common and important tool you can carry in nature is a good knife, but it can also be your worst enemy in case of an accident with it. Again, these are most dangerous when people are cold, afraid, tired, dehydrated, hungry, or sick.

Number 6: Infectious Diseases. Unfortunately, we need to purify water nowadays to avoid getting giardia and other water-borne diseases. Plus, there are “e coli” diseases from many foods, mad cow disease from animal products, the west nile virus from mosquitoes, the hanta virus from dry deer mice droppings; lime's disease acquired from the deer tick; rocky mountain fever from wood ticks, and rabies from being bitten by infected animals.

These diseases are rare, even if they are widely publicized, and sanitation should be your main concern, since it is the key to the prevention of most diseases. However, once afflicted by disease, including those transferred by animals, it is critical to exit the wilderness and have a physician treat the condition immediately.

Number 7: Plant & Animal Hazards. Never put any plant in your mouth if you aren’t 100% sure it is not poisonous, and watch your step around sharp plants such as the agave in desert areas, and learn to identify toxic plants like poison ivy and oak. Also, remember that animal attacks almost always occur because an animal is being heedlessly fed by humans, because it is sick, feels cornered by unaware people, or simply mistakes a person for common prey.

Number 8: Other Humans. People can be prone to act irrationally. If you do encounter an aggressive human while in nature, create a safer encounter by not showing fear. Treat aggressive humans like an aggressive black bear. If forced to, fight back unless a gun is involved, and exit the area as soon as safely possible.

Other hazards that do not necessarily fit into any of the above categories include: dirt being blown into your eyes by wind, getting blisters from new or tight shoes, or getting loose clothing caught on something that would pull you into danger. Parents should teach every child to never blow dust or other small particles (such as salt) without closing their eyes; break in shoes before taking them on a long hike; and never have loose, dangling clothes or straps, etc., because they often cause gruesome accidents.

Dealing With Fears

Once we have educated ourselves about the true hazards in nature, the next step is to learn to cope with our fears, however real they may or may not be. The key to coping with fears may seem difficult, but really there is only one thing to do: breathe deeply. When people become afraid, their breathing becomes shallow, and they panic.

Panic is a killer during wilderness emergencies, and the origin of panic is fear. When people panic and start breathing shallowly, less oxygen reaches major organs, making them colder, and causing them to loose the faculty of thinking. So if you want more oxygen to the brain to stay calm and have greater thinking abilities in the event of an emergency, simply begin breathing deeply.

Outdoor author Tom Brown suggests three ways to deal with a hazard: ignore it, fight it, or accept it. He often tries each of these in succession, until he comes to understand the hazard, whereupon it abates. When breathing deeply, your own “fight or flight” instinct will probably guide you well, maybe even giving you other alternatives between these two extremes.

In the final field exercise of this chapter, you will start to prepare a plan of action for each real hazard that you could potentially encounter. Name each hazard you need a plan for, and for each, note that plan. Perhaps the plan will be to use your first aid kit, or to call 911. You should also take a wilderness first aid course, such as that given by the Red Cross or wilderness medicine organizations found on the Internet.

But let's not consider fear a bad thing. Fear may be the greatest challenge and yet, the greatest teacher for many people in nature. Even in the absence of any apparent danger, our minds create irrational fears that arise from stories and images we’ve experienced in the past. Our cultures are full of fearful myths about nature, and you will discover many of them to be untrue.

Perhaps you will like the rain once you actually let it fall on you, even though people often refer only to sunny days as “nice” in our society. Maybe you’ll discover that “wild animals” will not attack you under most any circumstance. Maybe you will even grow accustomed to the beauty of insects all around you.

Disliking such natural things is simply fear and separation from what the Creator made here on earth, and visiting your secret place regularly begins to teach you a love for all creation in place of fear. For it is wonder that replaces fear and becomes our most fruitful attitude at our secret place.

Wonder means being full of openness and reverence. Reverence for nature means treating all of Creation as sacred. Each plant, stone, stream, and animal deserves respect when we are seeking answers in their domain. The results of being full of wonder and reverence are beautiful, magical. In Chapter Three you will practice exercises of awareness to develop your sense of wonder, but first, get your fears out on the table here in Chapter Two.

I strive to be reverent while walking in nature as well as in society, and I find that this means loving everyone and everything unconditionally while setting boundaries of what I tolerate around me. You need to consider your level of comfort toward what you may face at your secret place, and set boundaries as a result.

With boundaries up, still you can love nature. Call it tough yet unconditional love, and know that though you are reverent in nature, you can maintain your own boundaries in the face of true hazards. Explore the myths of nature, and find its truth so that you may express love there more safely.

It is good, however, that we are instilled with some fear to help keep us safe, but we should also be empowered with real solutions so that we walk in nature with confidence. The foremost danger is simply that our bodies must do things differently in nature. Your body may overreact to the environmental stresses in a place where you don’t yet know how to find the comfort that is there. But the more you know about the truth of hazards in nature, and about your fears, the safer and more successful you will be when visiting your secret place.

Here are my personal suggestions for getting into trouble when in nature:

• Don’t tell anyone where you are going.
• Pack less than the basic essentials for survival and navigation, including a knife, a waterproof sleeping shelter (tarp/tent/debris hut), sleeping wrap and pad, wool or synthetic or leather hat, gloves, pullover, long underwear, socks, real sturdy and comfortable boots, water purification tabs or filter, and a bottle, satisfactory food, first aid kit, map and compass, matches in waterproof container and fire starter/candle or camping stove, and a wilderness survival guidebook with pages that burn.
• Don’t register at the trail head.
• Follow trail signs that are left by previous expeditions going somewhere other than your destination.
• Eat withered wild greens that are vaguely familiar.
• Don’t drink water until you “really need it”.
• Cross rivers and arroyos and stay on the other side when it’s raining hard. Cross back during a flood.
• Keep walking even if you don’t know where you’re going so trackers have a longer and harder time finding you.
• Go along steep inclines and up loose banks instead of traveling the safe way around an obstacle.
• Never look behind you.
• Let your pride stop you from admitting you’ve made a mistake.

Here are my suggestions for getting out of trouble:

• Breathe deeply and slowly to calm yourself down. There is always an answer, a way out of any situation.
• Throw away that macho pride instead of just insisting on seeing what’s around that next edge. Go back to a safe place.
• Backtrack familiar ground. Check the map, compass: 21&Mac251; east of north on the west coast of North America. Check the map again, look around, map, look around, sight landmarks, backtrack there, map, sight ...
• Look for shelter and stop well before dark. Stay visible. 3 shouts periodically.
• Stay warm and secure a dry shelter – bivouac until morning.
• Okay. Survival order: shelter (warmth) then water (boiled, or disease free if you have iodine or a filter) then food (energy). Fire would be good, but catching your shelter on fire is a hazard. Be careful of soil that has a lot of freshly decomposed debris if it is dry, or a fire may start underground.
• If this is an emergency, throw out those low impact camping rules about not trampling plant life and saving deadwood habitat snags. Use what nature has to offer when necessary. Do take the precautions you can, such as after camp is secured, to do things like prevent giardia from spreading into the environment. Put poop 10 inches underground and well away from water. Burn your toilet paper if you have some extra matches, and while you’re at it, keep your soap away from trickling water so the suds can perk before entering the watershed.

- Chrism

Field Exercise 2A – Assessing Your Own Fears

After reading the introductory essay on hazards, and listening to the introductory stories about fears, think about a book, movie or campfire story about nature that may have scared you as a child. See if you can find it and experience the story again. For example, my favorite childhood book was Where the Red Fern Grows. Great story, but I thought it was for real.

I couldn't understand well into my adult years why the cougar was the only animal in nature I feared. I always imagined what I would do if I encountered one. In my fantasy, the cougar would always attack, and I would try to kill it in various ways.

You can imagine how upset I was when I finally re-read Where the Red Fern Grows, and I understood what the book had done to me. Look at the statistics on cougar attacks compared to those of almost any other animal, and you will see how irrational my fear was.

After you have experienced your own frightening childhood story about nature, take some time to relax, eat a good meal, get some rest, and prepare to go to your secret place in order to face your fears. There's a huge list of potential hazards that I'll be asking you to research in your next field exercises, but for now, just plan to discover your own fears, and find out later if they are really significant hazards.

If you don't think you are afraid of anything at your secret place, do something to push yourself, like going at night. So when you are ready, use the bathroom, get a drink of water, review your outings checklist, gather up your materials, and head out.

Identifying Fears At Your Secret Place

When you reach your study site boundaries, again assess the hazards that may be there today – people, weather, falling limbs – just like you should every time you visit. Flow gently into your secret place. Breathe in the smells, and exhale fully your stresses and worries. Breathe deeply, and take a drink of water. Close your eyes for a moment, and don't open them until your breathing and heart rate have settled into a restful pace.

Think about the scariest thing that could happen at your secret place. Don't make a big drama of it in your mind right now, for that will feed your fear. Instead, think about the fear, and name it, such as "animal attacks" or "being misunderstood" or "falling" or "freezing", etc. Once you've done that, remember how afraid you are, because you're going to have to think about it again after you get home.

One by one, think of all the other things that scare you when you are in nature, or that would scare you if it were dark outside. Do the same thing as with your first fear – name them all and with each, note how afraid you feel when thinking of them, so that you can journal accurately back home.

Turning Fears To Wonder

After you've remembered all your fears, breathe in the smells, and exhale fully your stresses and worries. Breathe deeply again, and take another drink if you like. Close your eyes, and see if your mind is still thinking about those fears, and whether your body is tense. Get up and move around if want, but stay at your study site until your breathing and heart rate settles into a restful pace.

If you are having trouble not being afraid, or if you are already calm and relaxed, place the word "wonder" in front of your mind. Now, wonder about the natural area around you. Focus on its beauty, and its mysterious patterns that you will come to know better with each visit. If you can, bring yourself to a feeling of reverence for your area. After you haven't thought about your fears for a moment, give thanks for your health and safety, and return home.

Starting with a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish, write your experience as it happened, and remember to name each fear you came up with. For each, note how you felt when thinking about it at your study site compared to how you feel about them now. Also for each, note where you might have gotten that fear, whether it be from your parents, peers, television, or books, etc. Remember to label the field exercise, write the date and time, and journal the weather, plants and animal sign you witnessed.

I'd like to note here that in Tom Brown's adventure stories such as The Quest, he talks a lot about fears, or "demons of distraction" that faced him in nature. He says that you can deal with them by either ignoring them, fighting them, or loving them. I noticed that in his stories, he always tried dealing with them in that order, and nothing ever worked until a feeling of love welled up in his heart toward the fear. Perhaps you will find the same to be true, and you will come to know the truth of that which you fear; how to deal with them as a hazards, and to discover the gifts they have for you.

Field Exercise 2B – Assessing Real Hazards, First Half

Now it's time to find out if your fears are really significant hazards, and to find out about other hazards you may not have considered. You will be doing most of this field exercise at home, so be prepared for a little bit of desk work.

Read the list of hazard categories below. Then write a thorough response for each in your journal. Consider that you or someone else may want to read your entry in the future, so be sure to restate each question as you journal, or make it obvious what you are writing about in your responses.

You may already know much about these hazard categories, which is great, but if not, I would like you to spend some time researching each category. You can find answers in a variety of sources, or by discussing the questions with an experienced naturalist.

I.Travel Hazards: Your biggest danger is traveling to your study site, especially if you use roads. Name as many hazards as you can that have to do with travel, how to reduce your risk for each, and how to deal with a crisis in case of each hazard. Include in this list the hazards of weather problems when you are traveling, but notice that things such as hypothermia and windfall are mentioned below. Label this category "Travel Hazards" in your journal.

II. Water Hazards & Hypothermia: Your next biggest danger revolves around water. Water makes you cold faster than anything, and since hypothermia is the first concern while in the natural world, name as many hazards as you can involving water, including drowning, how to reduce your risk for each hazard, and how to deal with a crisis for each hazard if it happened. Start with a "Water Hazards & Hypothermia" label in your journal, and make sure you find out what the first signs of hypothermia are, and how you safely reverse the situation. Cite any sources you use.

III.Dehydration & Hunger: Another huge danger involves your consumption – or lack thereof – of water, and next, food. Think about all you'll need to learn to attain safe water and food from the natural world, and name as many hazards as you can involving natural water and food sources, how to reduce your risk for each hazard, and how to deal with them.

Tom Brown, Jr. likes to say that the best place to store your water is in your stomach, since he has tracked people who ended up dead from dehydration who had a full water bottle lying next to them, probably thinking that they'd "save the water" for when they "really needed it."

Also, being well-hydrated helps balance your temperature, keeping you warmer in the cold and cooler in the heat, so go ahead and drink that water, even if it's cold. Be sure to talk about the first signs of dehydration, and how can you safely reverse the situation. As always, cite your sources.

IV.Falls & Strikes: Right there in the top 2 or 3 dangers are falls, especially when you are hurried, cold, afraid, tired, dehydrated, hungry, or sick. Think about what would be the safest way to move in nature without hurting yourself, and name as many hazards as you can involving your movement, how to reduce your risk for each, and how to deal with a crisis for each. Include the dangers of stepping on things and having things fall on you.

V. Dangerous Activities: Let's think of more ways you could hurt yourself, since this is so common, especially when people are cold, afraid, tired, dehydrated, hungry, or sick. The dangers of fire are the first that come to mind for many of us. Having tools, like knives or weapons boomerang on us, is another way to hurt ourselves. As a matter of fact, the most common and important tool you can carry in nature is a good knife, and it is important that you train yourself in its proper use and maintenance.

Discipline yourself to sit whenever cutting, or stand over a table, and never cut near anyone else. Stow your knife when someone walks by. Never cut toward yourself, and learn ways of cutting that make the process more efficient and therefore much safer. Never cut into the ground. Dry the knife and learn how to sharpen it with a whet stone after each use.

Think of all the other dangerous activities that aren't mentioned in any of the sets of hazards listed above (or below - take a look ahead), and for each of these hazards, show how to reduce your risks, and how to deal with a crisis for each.

VI.Infectious Diseases: Now think of the many ways to get sick from being in nature. If you haven't already mentioned the risk of acquiring giardia from water, list it now. Describe its symptoms and how to prevent getting and spreading the disease.

Next, list diseases like the hanta virus acquired from dry, airborne droppings of deer mice; lime's disease acquired from the tiny deer tick; rocky mountain fever acquired from the larger wood tick, and other common diseases in your area. Find out that rabid animals are dangerous, but that you can only get rabies from being bitten by a carrier such as bats (don't be alarmed by bats now, they only bite you if you attack them), canines, skunks, and few other mammals.

If you touch recently dead animals without proper sanitary precautions, or if you eat them without proper cooking, you risk other diseases. Lice and fleas can also be a hazard, so learn what they look like and how to rid yourself of them if you ever get infested. Through your research, you will find that your risk for these infectious diseases is extremely low if you know how to prevent infection. Note that sanitation - especially keeping your own body (particularly your hands) clean, may be a part of almost every answer.

Most disease is transferred from other humans, not as commonly from animals, even for people who spend most of their time in the natural world. So think about this, and add this set of disease-carriers to your list as you name as many hazards as you can involving infection, how to reduce your risk for each hazard, and how to deal with a crisis for a hazard if it materialized. When you are finished with all this writing, reward yourself by visiting your study site with no agenda but to enjoy it with wonder, then return and complete a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish.

Field Exercise 2C – Assessing Real Hazards, Second Half

VII. Plant & Animal Hazards: Continue to journal the hazards in these categories as you did with those in the previous field exercise. You probably mentioned poisonous plants back in roman numeral V, and you may have noted that hunting involves many hazards. However, note that most every animal attack on a human occurs because an animal was sick or it felt threatened.

Many plants, like nettles or thorny berry bushes, have great gifts for us, but if we are not respectful of them, they become "hazards." So guess what the response is to this danger? Just increase your awareness and sensitivity for nature. Chapters 3 and 4 focus on increasing such awareness skills, but for now, name as many (real, not hollywood) hazards as you can involving plants and animals that you haven't mentioned yet, how to reduce your risk for each hazard, and how to deal with the hazards if they occurred. Then cite sources you used.

VIII.Human Animals: There is a set of hazards which are unpredictable and which involve a particular animal who tends to act irrationally, because it is the only species which has a majority of individuals who no longer follows nature's original instructions. Name the animal and think about its potential presence at your study site. Name as many hazards as you can involving the animal, how to reduce your risk for each hazard, and how to deal with crises they could cause during visits to your study site.

Since you are one of the species in this category, think next about all your beautiful, loving traits, and think about all the gifts that an individual of your species could give you if you encountered one in your study site. To start, think about this question: If you were to encounter an unfamiliar person in nature, what are some of the things you could do to create a safe encounter with them? Journal your responses.

IX. Miscellaneous: Now, add as many more hazards to your list as you can, and for each one, think about how real the hazard is, whether it's more of a fear than a real hazard, or if it's more of a hazard than you previously thought it might be. Other hazards that don't necessarily fit into any of the above categories might include: dirt being blown into your eyes by wind, getting blisters from new or tight shoes, getting loose clothing caught on something that would pull you into danger, etc.

X.Naming Myths & Dispelling Fears: Compare what you learned today with what you wrote in Field Exercise 2A on fears. Write about how justified your original fears were, and then set a goal for how you plan to deal with any unjustified fears that remain, such as assuming an attitude of wonder, or breathing deeply.

XI.Plan Of Action: Finally, make a plan of action for each real hazard that you are worried about or that is probable to happen at your study site. Name each hazard you need a plan for, and for each, note that plan, whether it be to run, hide, fight, negotiate, use your first aid kit, or call 911. When you are done with all this writing, reward yourself by visiting your study site with no agenda but to enjoy it with wonder, then return and complete a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish.

Field Exercise 2D – Trusting Your Secret Place

The chaotic messages that confront us in society make it difficult to trust our senses, due to the people who mask their true intentions. In society, our minds must often compensate where our innocent gut is deceived. But in nature, all of creation follows its original instructions, and there, your mind can trust the gut instinct. How we respond in nature should be very different from how we respond in society.

In Chapter 3, you will learn to fully engage your senses, and your senses will always tell you what to do when confronted with a challenge of survival. You will immediately sense the best decision, but knowing the hazards, you must consider all possible consequences.

Today do all things you normally do to prepare for a study site visit, and then go out with nothing. Today your goal is to do the exact opposite thing that you did in the first field exercise of this chapter. Go to your secret place, and instead of bringing all your fears, put yourself into a mindset of total innocence, of total trust like a child with its parent.

Wander the perimeters of your site with complete trust, for you are well aware of the many hazards there. Make an inventory in your mind of all the beautiful things you see. Get down on your hands and knees and look between the blades of grass to find beautiful things. Look upside-down at things to discover more beautiful scenes.

Make it a goal to memorize as many individual things of beauty located in your study site as the age of the oldest person you know. See if you can recall all these beautiful things whenever anyone asks you what it's like there. Number those 90 or so things in your journal when you get home, and remember where they are because you will need to map many of them at the end of this chapter.

If you cannot walk with complete trust yet, keep breathing in the smells, and exhaling fully your stresses and worries. Breathe deeply again and again, and drink some water. Close your eyes, and don't open them up until your breathing and heart rate have settled into a restful pace.

Follow your heart to the place or places which call you. Perhaps you will find a bird's nest, or a weathered bone, see a lovely plant, or a beautiful stone. Enjoy yourself, and come to discover what you think it means to trust the beauty of nature. Write about that after returning home and completing a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish, remembering to transfer your mental "list of beauty" into your journal, and add new things to your wall map if you feel confident about where they should be depicted.

Chapter Two Celebration

Now you must remain vigilant throughout the rest of your life as a naturalist, to prevent hazards from occurring. I wish you blessings and offer prayers of safety as you become more and more intimate with the natural world.

Prepare to go to your secret place as you normally do, and visit it with an attitude of wandering with wonder. Make a new map of your study site. I would expect more detail on your map than the one you did in Chapter 1, especially now after you have listed almost a hundred things of beauty within your study site. Map as many of those points of beauty as possible by noting at the correct location on your map the corresponding numbers from your Field Exercise 2D, using your list of beauty as a key to the map. Also, now that you’ve given lots of thought to the hazards that exist at your study site, have your map reflect the presence of many of the hazards. Make a key for the hazards, and letter as many as you can from A-Z on your map.

Return home and fill out a Journaling Cover Page - Word Version or cover page of your own design, and supplement/replace it with the Wildlife Recording Form if you wish, then complete a written Thanksgiving Address journal entry as described in Chapter 1. Review the goals you set for yourself on the first page of your journal, and at the end of Chapter 1. Rewrite the goals here at the end of Chapter 2 and make any changes which are necessary.

Write a short reflection about Ingwe and compare it to another book you’ve read in the past that manipulated characters in nature, such as when the mountain lion in Where the Red Fern Grows seemed to cause the hounds to die. How have stories effected your experiences in nature?

Good work! It's time to move on to the fun Chapter 3 - Sensory Awareness.

Wolf Journey is available complimentarily online, though we suggest donating $1.00 per chapter or set of recordings you utilize, with checks payable to Wolf Camp, 1026 14th St. SW, Puyallup WA 98371. Books and other resources which you will need for successful completion of field exercises throughout Wolf Journey can be purchased through Granny's Country Store or by calling them at 406-287-3605 to order. You can work through Wolf Journey independently, but we recommend this book series as part of our Correspondence Course, Academic Year Class Series, In-Depth Apprenticeships and Summer Training Camps, but if you would like an instructor from your own area to guide you while studying these skills, we recommend clicking on PrimitiveSkillsLinks.Com to find an earth skills specialist near you who can personally review your field exercises and journaling work, which you can keep track of on your Student Transcripts. Other schools and outdoor instructors who would like to use this curriculum for their own programs are free to do so. We would appreciate donations, or having your students donate as described above.