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Home > Education Adventures
Education Adventures in San Juan Mountains
Ten Weeks of Outdoor Learning with Instructors and Gudy Gaskill. Offered by The Colorado Trail Foundation.
Each of these week long classes is a real educational opportunity. The classes are rewarding and fun. Sessions are taught by professional instructors and hosted by Gudy Gaskill, the program leader. They take place in an incredible mountain setting near Lake City, Colorado, at the CTF Education Center. Course credits are available for some of the sessions.
Click here to read more about these exciting workshops in an article published in the Durango Herald.
2008 SCHEDULE
Click on a class name below to view course description:
Service Work Crew
Kids' Natural World 1
Kids' Natural World 2
HIke and Climb with the Best
Oil and Watercolor Painting
Colorado Mountain Club Hiking
Learning Your Wildflowers
Geology of the San Juans
Plein Air Watercolor
Music in the Mountains
Service Work Crew
6/7–6/14
Help ready the Ed. Facility, above 10,000 feet, no cost –
Gudy (303) 526-2721.
This first week is not a class, but a chance to volunteer and help ready the education facility for the summer class season. There is no cost. All meals will be provided, an especially good thing because Gudy's such a good cook. This effort is limited to just a few energetic souls that wish to work at the elevation of 10,800 feet and assist Gudy with all the set-up chores. Gudy Gaskill is the Mother of The Colorado Trail - she coordinates this week in its entirety - so if you're interested please phone her at (303) 526-2721.
Kids' Natural World 1
6/15–6/21
Ages 6 to 11 with parent or grandparent, hike, fish, crafts, wildlife, exploring.
Parents or grandparents accompany their youngsters for mountain fun and learning. Crafts, games, wildlife study and exploration are oriented to the kids. Adults can choose to stay with the young ones each day, or concentrate on separate crafts and outings provided for the grownups. Everyone has a great time and returns with special memories.
Instructor: Polly Gaskill - Polly has a degree in child psychology and this will be her third year teaching at the CTF educational facility. She relates well to children and gives them her undivided attention. She is an assistant teacher, an outdoor enthusiast, and an old hand at children's activities.
Kids' Natural World 2
6/22–6/28
Similar to Kids' 1 but with different activities; you could join us for both.
This class has proven so popular that Gudy has added a second session again. This second week will offer different activities than the first week. There'll be songs and stories around the evening campfire. Plan to join us with your youngster(s).
Instructor: Polly Gaskill - Polly has a degree in child psychology and this will be her third year teaching at the CTF educational facility. She relates well to children and gives them her undivided attention. She is an assistant teacher, an outdoor enthusiast, and an old hand at children's activities.
Hike and Climb with the Best!
6/29–7/5
Fantastic peaks, expert leaders, safety, planning, pacing - come fit.
The San Juan Mountains are the best of Colorado. Experienced leaders will guide the hikes up spectacular mountains. Nearby 14ers include Handies, Redcloud, Sunshine, Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks, and there are loads of 13ers too. You'll learn route finding, safety and pacing. You must be in good physical condition to participate fully.
Instructor: Connie Wian - Connie is a tip-top athlete from Durango and has been hiking and climbing all her life. She is fun and provides patience and enthusiasm for all levels of ability. Connie is trained in first aid and has a mind for details and safety.
Oil and Watercolor Painting
7/6–7/12
There will be daily field trips to picturesque sites with individual instruction in color, focal point, and composition. Learn techniques of capturing high altitude color, plus secrets of washes, sketches, and shadows. This class is for beginning, intermediate and advanced students, with individual critiques daily. The week will include a Friday evening review and exhibit of all class paintings.
Instructor: Dr. George Callison - George has paintings in many galleries and has an eye for nature and nature's shape, color and form. He will provide careful critiques and hands-on demonstrations. Visit www.georgecallison.com.
George adds this:
"Hello,
I and the Colorado Trail Foundation thank you for taking our outdoor painting workshop. Painting is an enterprise that is greatly rewarded by informed practice. By selecting this course, you have taken an important step in the process of becoming a better painter. Painting from nature outdoors continues to bring me many personal rewards beyond painting itself; principally, I see and understand more about nature because of having become a painter. Outdoor painting is sure to do the same for you. Congratulations.
I look forward to working with you personally this summer. Following our arrival on Sunday afternoon, July 10, and after setting up our tents and beds we will have some social time to begin getting acquainted with one another. We will paint every day; if the weather is bad we will paint still lifes of natural materials under the shelter awning or landscapes from photographs.
During the week, I would like for each of you to complete at least 2 small paintings a day. We will critique them each afternoon. Even with this effort there will still be time to socialize and to explore this amazing high mountain valley. Painting is a fun and interesting way to experience the world and to include a bit of science is a natural association. Let's do it.
Should you need clarification or more information, please call or email me: George Callison dinobonz2@bresnan.net or (970) 243-9797 or visit www.georgecallison.com."
Colorado Mountain Club Hiking
7/13–7/19
Hike the peaks including nearby 14ers. Janet (303) 933-3066 or wildjc@juno.com.
Participants will hike some of the most spectacular mountains in Colorado. Nearby 14ers include Handies, Redcloud, Sunshine, Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks, and there are loads of 13ers too. This week of hiking and peak climbing is offered in partnership with the Colorado Mountain Club. A reduced fee applies. Janet Farrar, stalwart volunteer of both the CTF and CMC, will coordinate the registration and arrangements. Phone her for details at (303) 933-3066 or email her at wildjc@juno.com.
Learning Your Wildflowers
7/20–7/26
Nothing compares to the sub-alpine and high alpine meadows of the San Juan Mountains in late July, when the slopes are alive with a myriad of colorful wildflowers. Enhance your appreciation of these beauties, rare and common, by taking a wildflower identification class at the Colorado Trail Foundation Education Center near Lake City during peak blooming season. Hiking miles are few for this course; most of the days are spent sitting amid a field of color. Bring your cameras!
Naturalist Lori Brummer will help you sort out these high altitude beauties, even those “darn yellow composites,” by teaching you the basics of plant identification. The class will emphasize family characteristics and the use of simple keys. Most days are spent in the field in such outstanding wildflower areas as American Basin, Cinnamon Pass, Grizzly Gulch, and Burroughs Park, exposing students to a variety of habitats and plant species. In past years, the class identified almost 200 plants! Two teacher enhancement credits are available through Colorado School of Mines. Contact Lori Brummer, lbrummer@frii.com or 970-416-8971, for more class information.
Instructor Lori Brummer has worked as a seasonal biologist for several land management and conservation agencies doing vegetation inventories and conducting breeding bird surveys. She has taught plant identification and birding workshops for adults and children. Currently she is working as a volunteer at the CSU Herbarium and is a Regional Coordinator for the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas. Lori never passes up an opportunity to do a little birding, so you might want to bring your binoculars, too!
Geology of the San Juans
7/27–8/2
Rock hound adventures, field trips, glaciation, volcanism, geologic reality.
This workshop begins with a mini geology course. Participants are then treated to fascinating field trips, real rock hound adventures. Attendees must be in good physical condition to enjoy the trips to study areas of glaciation and volcanism. There's so much to see and learn.
Instructor: Dr. Pete Varney - Pete is an instructor at both Metro State and Colorado School of Mines. He has a passion for geology and the San Juans. His lecture on the geologic history of the San Juans may be the best in the field. The daily field trips are "hands on" with micro inspection of rocks and strata, and provide permanent understanding of geology.
Plein Air Watercolor
8/3–8/9
Learn how to capture colors in our high altitude, washes, sketches & shadows.
There'll be daily field trips to picturesque sites with lots of individual attention and critique. Learn techniques of capturing high altitude color, plus secrets of washes, sketches and shadows. The week will include a Friday evening review of all the class paintings.
Instructor: Marge Barge - Marge is a resident of Durango and long time art instructor in the city and at Ft. Lewis College. She has had many shows and her coveted paintings have brought high prices. Marge gives lots of attention to each student and each evening there is a critique of all paintings.
Music in the Mountains
8/10–8/16
Create a whistle or flute, receive instruction, practice – songs and hiking too.
This is a new offering this year. Participants will create their own whistle or flute and receive instruction on how to play great tunes. There will also be time for hiking, relaxing and enjoying the San Juans.
Instructor: Jon Achuff, Lakewood - Jon is an instructor of whistles at Swallow Hill. He composes music, directs a chorale, plays numerous instruments, teaches singing and will conduct evening campfire programs. He also has a degree in geology that will enhance the class' daily excursions.
To Sign Up
For information, phone Charlotte Briber, Volunteer Registrar, at
303-756-0787. Or, you can catch Gudy by email at gudyct@ecentral.com.
Registration is simple. Download and complete the Registration Form and Waiver and mail completed form to the Colorado Trail Foundation office at:
710 10th Street, Suite 210
Golden, CO 80401-5843
Cost
Most classes are $395 per week. Special price on Kids' Natural World sessions is $295 per adult and $150 per child. Fun is included plus all meals and instruction. There's a reduced fee for the CMC hiking week - make inquiry as indicated.
CTF Education Center
The secluded Education Center is surrounded by tall Aspens and Engelmann Spruce, open meadows and lofty peaks. You sleep in a tent, your own or one of our wooden-floor dorm tents. The education facility includes a small, quaint cabin, has solar lights, kitchen and a wood burning stove.
On cold mornings meals are served inside, otherwise you'll eat outdoors on the deck. A covered natural patio is used for classroom instruction and projects. You can heat water for showers in solar shower bags and there's a vaulted toilet.
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