High Sierra Topix

After many years of guiding being on the bucket list, this summer I somehow found myself getting PAID to run around in the beautiful Sierra! (with a gaggle of kids in tow).

I was hired by Camp Tawonga, a 100 year old ostensibly Jewish summer camp based on 160 acres just outside Yosemite’s west gate. One of the camp's (many) traditions is youth backpacking and hiking trips in the surrounding areas. Tawonga is the biggest commercial user of Yosemite, sending around 1000 kids and teens into the park each summer, and as such has a very smooth system for doing so. I was part of the 20-person wilderness department fully equipped with a massive gear garage (imagine a room with 100 kid-sized osprey packs hanging from every wall, 90 bear cans with about 82 lids, dozens of gravity filter setups and everything else to gear up a 10-15 year old). Man, I love a good gear room.

For safety, camp paid for me to get my WFR (absolutely incredible high-quality experience with nols) and LGT ahead of the summer and then added additional case studies from past years and a satellite phone. We also had a fleet of 30 brand new Jeep SUV's with trailers to ferry kids and packs to trailheads in Yosemite, Stanislaus, and Emigrant.

The trips were 1 or 2 nights with myself, 12 campers and their 2 dedicated counselors ( neatly hitting the park's max permit size).
Older kids get more challenging destinations like Ten Lakes, Ostrander Lake, and Rancheria Falls in Hetch Hetchy.

The majority of the kids had little to no wilderness experience and we did our absolute utmost to instill best LNT practices in them.

I hope there are more details to follow this intro post

How many kids cried? Did you see any bears or other interesting animals? (probably not given group sizes) What was the general reaction of the kids, like it, hate it, meh?

This is great! As long as it continues. Hey Aidan, we've been waiting to hear how your summer of youth guiding went. Did you have luck (good-bad?) with wildlife? Were you ever packed in with horses? Climb any peaks? Did you have any dramas? I once had to restrain a big young guy who had had enough, and decided to leave! We were great friends in the end. How did you like the experience Aidan, and will you be doing it again?
Cheers, Ian and Lizzie.

Wow, that is really cool. I'd love to hear more about it as well!

Wow, thanks for sharing this! I'd love to read more stories from you about what went well on these trips, challenges, and anything else.

90 bear cans with about 82 lids

LOL. Having worked in several outdoor programs and boy scout camps... this is relatable.

I worked a summer at Camp Tawonga as well. Not a great experience from my end, but I did love taking the kids on backpacking trips. But you must have been there long after me. We weren't required to get any specialized training for the work, although I did have to hike one kid out after the first night of a two night trip because he was having real problems with altitude sickness. Since half the kids there were on scholarship, it was quite a mix of campers, some quite wealthy, others with very little. They all loved the backpacking.

And this was long before bear cans!