Leadership School

Field Camp Outdoor Leadership School

Field Camp Outdoor Leadership School – Basic

We had another great year at our third year of Field Camp Outdoor Leadership School.  We kept busy during the first week with a hike in the St. Mary’s Wilderness area, a shake-down campout in the Shenandoah, and many hours of lessons and discussions in outdoors skills and leadership principles.  During the second week, we hiked roughly twenty miles on a southwestern Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail.  Highlights from our hike included summiting Mt. Rogers (5,720 ft), seeing wild ponies, and crossing some beautiful mountain meadow terrain. 

Based on last year’s experiences, we decided to cut back our daily hiking time in order to free up our evenings for more leadership instruction.  This change worked well for us and helped the group to bond through discussion and other fun activities besides the physical challenges of each day’s hike.  Our group of campers included strong leaders, excellent athletes, and highly entertaining storytellers.  They became supportive friends on the trail, looking out for each other’s safety and comfort, cooking for each other at camp, and always laughing together.  We look forward to more adventure next summer…!

We anticipate a similar program for Leadership School in 2009.  The curriculum and goals will remain much the same, though the routes and destinations may change.  We encourage boys and girls ages 13-16 to apply.

 Please click here for the application form. 

Past Leadership School participants with instructors Meredith Montague (foreground), and David Montague (far right).