When I signed up for the Montana Afoot and Afloat course last winter, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting myself into, but two months of backpacking and kayaking through Montana while getting a semester’s worth of credits sounded exciting enough for me to apply. I figured I would get to see a lot

The wind swept in as we opened the van door to rolling hills of Montana farm land. Round bales speckled the landscape, still fresh and intact just after summertime hay season. The sun felt amazing on our faces after so many days of sleet, snow, and snizzel. Across the ridge we could see the beautiful

The wind was blowing, the freezing rain felt like continuous stings against my cheeks, my feet had gone numb over an hour ago. So numb now, that they felt as though fire was running through my veins from my heel to my toe. We were only about half way into our three mile hike at

The plan was made. No more than four miles and we would be that much closer to the views from the top of Great House Peak. Today was the day. I was well-rested, ate a good breakfast, and was more motivated than any other day on this backpack so far. One hard day, and then

Greetings, readers! Our expedition began at Coal Banks Landing on the Missouri River where we met Jim and his wife, Martha, who have been floating the Missouri together for 23 years! Since retiring, they have volunteered for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as camp hosts and educators. I have very rarely met anyone as

A low rumbling bellow echoes across the expanse of rolling prairie until it is swallowed by the deep recesses and waterways of a fen. The sheer volume of noise is enough to pause the conversations of the 13 members of WRFI’s Montana Afoot & Afloat 2018 course and our host, Dylan DesRosier. A lone cow

At first glance, these toothpick forests of the Scapegoat Wilderness in Montana want to invade me with fear and loneliness and hang me out to dry in the sun under identical trees across the hillsides. Their haggard branches reach weakly into the air before sloping downward into submission. They unsettle me with their lifeless stature,

Silence. Lichen spreads between my fingertips like spider webs as the callousness of rock scratches against my hands. It is the first day of WRFI’s Montana Afoot and Afloat course, and I just met my classmates for the next nine weeks. Giddy yet apprehensive about what was to come, I sat on a rock beside

With frozen toes and tired eyes I tread up the hill that rises high above our camp at Halfmoon Park in the Scapegoat Wilderness of Montana. My body is in a great amount of discomfort from the past four days of backpacking, and the fact that it is 6:00am doesn’t do much to relieve that.

In all of my 16 and a half years of education, it wasn’t until I started taking adventure classes in college that I realized how rarely we are asked to problem-solve in our everyday lives, to put ourselves out there and do something truly challenging. Sure, we ask kids to figure out how to score