Build a relationship with nature that lasts a lifetime.
Learn to notice more, understand more, and become deeply connected to the plants, animals, seasons, and rhythms of the land you call home.
The Wild Path is a seven month journey through the seasons that will change the way you experience the natural world. By October, you’ll hear a robin’s alarm call and know a predator is near. You’ll recognize plants you can eat, make fire without matches, and read the stories written in tracks on the ground. Along the way, you’ll build a deeper relationship with the land you call home, develop practices that keep you connected long after the program ends, and share the journey with a cohort learning and growing alongside you.
7
months of connection
April – October 2027
3
gatherings on the land
5 days each
8
live mentor calls
2 hours each, between gatherings
Gather on the land. Return home. Practice. Notice what changes. Then come together again.
Three five-day gatherings at our 60-acre campus in the Cascade foothills give you time for immersive learning, hands-on skills, and connection with your cohort. Between gatherings, you’ll bring what you’ve learned home, where live mentorship and guided practices help you deepen your relationship with your own landscape as the seasons change.
By the time you return for your next gathering, you won’t be starting where you left off. You’ll arrive with new questions, discoveries, and stories from the land you’ve been getting to know.
What You’ll Learn
Over seven months, you’ll build a foundation of practical naturalist and wilderness skills while developing the awareness and routines that help you know your own landscape more deeply.
Naturalist + Wilderness Skills
- Bird Language — Listen beyond birdsong to recognize alarm calls and other patterns that reveal what’s happening around you.
- Wildlife Tracking — Identify tracks and signs and begin piecing together the stories animals leave behind.
- Edible and Medicinal Plants — Build confidence recognizing useful plants and learn to harvest and prepare them for food and medicine.
- Firemaking — Learn foundational fire skills, including traditional methods of friction fire and wild wood harvesting.
- Wilderness Survival — Develop practical skills rooted in the knowledge humans have relied on for generations.
- Naturalist Skills — Learn to observe, identify, question, and investigate the plants, animals, and patterns of a landscape.
Awareness + Connection
- Place-based Awareness — Get to know your local trees, plants, wildlife, weather, and seasonal changes until your home landscape becomes familiar in an entirely new way.
- Core Routines — Build simple practices you can return to throughout your life to stay connected to the natural world.
- Nature Journaling and Mapping — Create a record of your observations through field notes, hand drawn maps, plant and animal profiles, and reflection.
- Inner Tracking — Bring the same curiosity you develop as a naturalist to your own patterns, growth, and edges.
- Leadership and Purpose — Explore how your growing relationship with the natural world can inform the way you show up in your community and your life.
Seasonal Gatherings
Spring: The Art of Nature Connection
(4/7/2027 – 4/11/2027)
During our opening week in the heart of spring, you will learn foundational core routines to deeply connect and feel more at home in nature.
You’ll build awareness of nature and self through exercises, activities, and challenges, and begin to tend threads of connection with the natural world around you by observing the natural environment, listening and understanding birds and their language, and asking deep questions about your highest calling with a community of like-minded students.
Summer: Nature Skills Intensive
(7/14/2027 – 7/18/2027)
The summer gathering will be full of nature connection skills along with adventures in beautiful wilderness areas. All of our ancestors relied on traditional ecological knowledge to not only survive, but to thrive as human beings.
Learn the foundations of wildlife tracking, outdoor survival skills, edible and medicinal plants, firemaking, and naturalist training. Relearning these skills is not only practical; it can also deepen our understanding of our place in the natural world.
Fall: Walking the Wild Path
(10/13/2027 – 10/17/2027)
Our final week will offer a space for you to deepen your growth, find your edges, and set your gifts into motion in ways that reshape the path you walk moving forward. At the end of this session, you will feel empowered to continue integrating your new practices and tools at home.
Be prepared for a final rite of passage to galvanize the many lessons gained from learning to walk the Wild Path. You will leave with a rich constellation of teachings and practices to draw upon for the rest of your life.
Between the Gatherings
The real change happens at home, in your own woods, park, or backyard.
Between each seasonal gathering, you’ll bring the practices of The Wild Path home with you and continue learning from the landscape where you live. Through Sit Spot, nature journaling, tracking, and other core routines, you’ll spend time observing the plants, animals, weather, and seasonal changes around you. As the months unfold, these practices will help you become increasingly familiar with your local landscape while building habits of awareness and curiosity that can remain with you long after the program ends.
Live Mentor Calls
Eight live, two-hour calls provide continued teaching and mentorship while keeping the cohort connected between gatherings. Each call explores one of the patterns of the natural world drawn from the Eight Shields mentoring framework and offers new practices and areas of focus to explore at home.
Practice in Your Own Landscape
The time between gatherings gives you the opportunity to apply what you’re learning wherever you live. Your backyard, neighborhood park, nearby woods, or favorite natural area becomes a place to practice your skills and deepen your understanding of the seasons, plants, birds, and wildlife around you.
Stay Connected with Your Cohort
A cohort thread provides a place to share observations, discoveries, and questions with the people moving through the seven month journey alongside you. The experiences of students living in different landscapes also offer new perspectives on how the season is unfolding beyond your own home.
Optional One-on-One Mentoring
Students who would like additional support can choose to work individually with a mentor throughout the program for an additional fee. These conversations offer space to explore questions, challenges, and areas of personal growth more deeply.
Who is The Wild Path For?
The Wild Path brings together people from many backgrounds who share a desire to deepen their relationship with the natural world. Some arrive with years of outdoor experience, while others are just beginning to explore nature connection. What matters most is a willingness to be curious, practice what you’re learning, and make space for nature in your everyday life.
This program may be right for you if:
- You long for a deeper connection to nature. You want to move beyond occasional hikes and outdoor experiences to develop a more meaningful relationship with the living world.
- You’re curious about traditional skills and natural history. You want to understand Bird Language, wildlife tracking, wild plants, and wilderness skills through direct experience and mentorship.
- You want nature connection to become part of your everyday life. You’re ready to establish practices that help you feel more grounded, aware, and connected wherever you live.
- You’re seeking community and mentorship. You value learning alongside others who share your curiosity and appreciate the encouragement and guidance of experienced mentors.
- You’re drawn to personal growth through time outdoors. You’re open to exploring how your relationship with nature can deepen your understanding of yourself and your place in the world.
Meet Your Core Instructor:
Richie Rivera-Booth
Richie grew up in the Cascade foothills of WA state, in the homelands of the Nisqually peoples near Mount Tahoma. He combines his love for nature with his gifts and talents as an experienced mentor and has been facilitating both individuals as well as groups in reconnecting with nature, community, and self for over 18 years.
Guest Instructors:
Laura Gunion
Laura believes that humans have tremendous potential, much of it hidden from our strategic and logical inquiries. As a mentor, guide, coach, and naturalist, it is both her privilege and responsibility to accompany others as they summon the courage to participate in these times from their true nature. Laura has spent over 20 years instructing at Wilderness Awareness School in various capacities.
Phoebe Reid
Growing up on the Olympic Peninsula to a family steeped in adventure, Phoebe found a sense of home amidst thimbleberries, salmon bones, wild rivers, and the smell of seaweed. Phoebe arrived at WAS in 2019 and discovered her love of crafting, archery, plants, wildlife tracking, friction fire, and being covered in mud.
Merilee Bradford
Born and raised in the wild beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Merilee’s childhood was shaped by the Puget Sound and deep forests, which sparked an early dream of building her own cabin and living off the land. With over 16 years of experience guiding and mentoring in the outdoors, she specializes in bushcraft, tracking, animal processing and hide tanning. Merilee is an avid hunter, birder, wildlife tracker and professional expedition cook.
Dan Corcoran
Dan Corcoran has worked with Wilderness Awareness School in many different roles over the years and he is currently our Program Director. He is a survival skills specialist; teaching a variety of wilderness survival and primitive living classes. His passions include wilderness survival, bowmaking, hunting, and raising his two sons.
Tuition: $4,950
Early Enrollment: $3,950 through January 31, 2027
Payment plans available.
How much time should I expect to spend on The Wild Path between gatherings?
Plan to spend at least one to two hours each week intentionally practicing what you’re learning outdoors. Many students choose to spend additional time exploring their local landscapes as their curiosity and skills grow.
Do I need access to wilderness where I live?
No. One of the central practices of The Wild Path is learning to find and build a relationship with nature wherever you live. A backyard, neighborhood park, urban green space, creek, or nearby woods can all become places for observation and practice.
Do I need to have experience with outdoor skills?
No previous experience is necessary. The Wild Path is designed to build a foundation in nature connection, naturalist skills, and wilderness skills while offering opportunities for experienced students to deepen their practice.
Is camping available for the in-person sessions?
Yes. We highly recommend you camp on our property Wednesday-Sunday, which is included in the price of tuition.
What are the facilities like?
Our Linne Doran campus includes Cedar Lodge, our indoor classroom and meeting space, as well as several outdoor classrooms. There are bathrooms, outdoor showers, and potable water on the property. Linne Doran has limited cell reception and no internet access.
Are meals included during the gatherings?
Yes. Starting with breakfast on Wednesday and ending with lunch on Sunday, food is provided for this course. We will offer three nourishing and delicious meals a day.
The Path Continues
Two paths diverged in a wood, and I—
I took The Wild Path,
And that has made all the difference.
a nod to Robert Frost
Long after the final gathering, the path will continue wherever you call home. The birds, plants, wildlife, and changing seasons will offer endless opportunities to learn, and you’ll carry with you the practices and relationships that make nature connection a meaningful part of everyday life.
Ready to take the first step?
The Wild Path isn’t just a program—it’s a commitment to seeing the world through new eyes. If you’re ready to join a lineage of trackers, observers, and storytellers, we would love to have you join our circle.