Wilderness Backpacking Quests
As integral parts of nature, we are all a piece of the lineage of this living planet. Just as the Earth experiences the cycles of life, death, and rebirth, we too undergo many important transitions and transformations. Initiatory rites serve as a means to mark, celebrate, and find insight within the great mysteries of Being. Guided by the mirror of the natural world, you will go alone into the vast heart of the wilderness to meet the deeper truth of your own becoming.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
This 9-day wilderness rite serves as a ceremonial container to explore the transition or transformation you are approaching through the framework of the 3-stage rite of passage model: Separation (the severing from the old), Threshold (the crossing into liminal space and the solo fast), and Incorporation (the reintegration of the individual into community with their gifts).
3 days of severance — shedding what does not serve, grounding in community, clarifying intent.
4 day, 4 night solo — entering the threshold of solitude and deep listening in the wild
2 days of incorporation — sharing stories, receiving mirrors, and integrating what has been found
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THE TRIAL OF THE TRAIL
You walk to the edge of the unknown, with all you need to sustain yourself on your back. The weight and rhythm of the trail is an integral part of the ceremony. The steep climbs, open ridges, the quiet steps through forest mirror the inner terrain of transformation. Each footfall, each breath, is an act of devotion. A prayer of belonging between Body, Earth, and Spirit. Prepare to be tested and challenged. The trail strips away what is no longer true until only the essential remains.
THE ROLE OF THE GUIDES
As guides, we are not acting as ceremony leaders, but rather as creators and maintainers of the ceremonial container in which each participant will create their own ceremony. This journey is just as much guided as it is be co-created by each participant and the emergent properties of the group. We will share practices such as council, breath work, sit-spots, song and story, along with story mirroring and guidance for self-generated ceremony to help weave meaning from the experience.
FOOD & GEAR
Participants will arrive with what they need to live self-sufficiently on the trail while providing (most) of their own food and gear. We will provide three communal meals (First Evening Dinner, Post-Fast Meal, and Closing Dinner). We are happy to help with food and gear suggestions (including rentals).
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The average mileage per day will be determined by the needs of the group with space for additional medicine walk opportunities. We will be backpacking deep in the wilderness and participants need to be able to carry a minimum 55-65 liter backpack for several days.
SMALL GROUP
Space is limited! This journey will form an intimate community with a small group of no more than 5 individuals. We will ask for an enthusiastic commitment and a deposit so we can prepare most effectively.
TUITION | DEPOSIT
$555 - $5,555 | $50 - $100
Cost should not be a barrier to participating in a rite of passage. Financial Aid is always available. Please contact us letting us know what needs to happen for you to be able to say yes.
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE
We welcome all cultural identities as well as all gender identities and expressions to this ceremony.
Our modern culture is uneasy with change, we avoid endings and rush past beginnings. Yet change is the root of life not a mistake; it’s the living rhythm of being human. To sit down in the raw uncertainty of transformation, to ask what is truly ours to carry, and who we are now becoming is essential work. Beneath the noise and speed of the modern world lives something ancient in us — a knowing that we belong to the land, to change, and to one another. Even if we’ve forgotten the language of initiation, the pull to remember who we are and why we’re here is innate. {something else
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
This 8-day basecamp vision fast serves as a ceremonial container to explore the transition or transformation you are approaching through the framework of the 3-stage rite of passage model: Separation (the severing from the old), Threshold (the crossing into liminal space and the solo fast), and Incorporation (the reintegration of the individual into community with their gifts).
2 days of severance: arrival, shedding what does not serve, grounding in community, clarifying intent
4 day, 4 night solo: stepping across the threshold into solitude and mystery
2 days of incorporation: sharing stories and beginning the path of integration
꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜꩜
ROOTED IN STILLNESS
This basecamp based rite is an invitation to stay put, to root into a single patch of earth and let it work on you. (More here more here more More here more here mr More here more here mr More here more here mr More here more here mr More here more here mr More here more here mr More here more here mr)
THE ROLE OF THE GUIDES
As guides, we are not acting as ceremony leaders, but rather as creators and maintainers of the ceremonial container in which each participant will create their own ceremony. This journey is just as much guided as it is be co-created by each participant and the emergent properties of the group. We will share practices such as council, breath work, sit-spots, song and story, along with story mirroring and guidance for self-generated ceremony to help weave meaning from the experience.
FOOD & GEAR
Participants will arrive with what they need to live self-sufficiently on the trail while providing (most) of their own food and gear. We will provide three communal meals (First Evening Dinner, Post-Fast Meal, and Closing Dinner). We are happy to help with food and gear suggestions (including rentals).
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The average mileage per day will be determined by the needs of the group with space for additional medicine walk opportunities. We will be backpacking deep in the wilderness and participants need to be able to carry a minimum 55-65 liter backpack for several days.
SMALL GROUP
Space is limited! This journey will form an intimate community with a small group of no more than 5 individuals. We will ask for an enthusiastic commitment and a deposit so we can prepare most effectively.
TUITION | DEPOSIT
$555 - $5,555 | $50 - $100
Cost should not be a barrier to participating in a rite of passage. Financial Aid is always available. Please contact us letting us know what needs to happen for you to be able to say yes.
YOU ARE WELCOME HERE
We welcome all cultural identities as well as all gender identities and expressions to this ceremony.
Basecamp Quests
Curious about participating?
LET US KNOW YOU ARE READY!
