I sat with anticipation in the field office in a northern Utah City not knowing quite what to expect for the next 8 days of my life. I knew I loved the wilderness and I like to share it with others and the magical lessons mother nature has to teach us. I have been intrigued for over a decade with the whole concept of wilderness therapy to rehabilitate youth with a variety of problems from drug dependance, defiant behavior, self-abuse and other things that would place them in such a program. I have friends who’ve worked in the industry and I have a friend who participated many years ago as a troubled youth in this program. I never suspected that they had problems like this as a teenager but they shared that with me in confidence so I have chosen not to reveal any names as I write my experience. I have also read many books about therapy and how nature can be a powerful tool in the process of healing. When the opportunity arose for me to apply for a job as a wilderness guide, naturally, I was more than interested. I was informed in a phone interview that there would be an 8 day interview in the wilderness, it was a two-way interview for me to accept the job and for the company to offer me a job. I am comfortable in the wilderness but I did not know if I would be comfortable working with defiant youth. So I sat there in the field office taking it all in, there were three other men applying for the job, all in their twenties, single, athletic, ambitious, recent graduates with various degrees. Then there was me, a farmer by heritage and a licensed massage therapist by training, a little overweight, 46 years old, gray hair, my right knee in Jeopardy of exploding, at least it feels that way sometimes. I didn’t know if I could keep up with the teenager’s on on the hikes we would be doing, carrying heavy backpacks. I had a month to prepare so I bought new featherlite equipment to keep my knee healthy. I rationalized that I wanted that kind of equipment anyway. I have always been a lover of camping equipment so that was no hardship and my wife was supportive and thought it was great because much of my camping equipment is old and tattered. When I travel a distance in the wilderness I ride a horse so hiking with these youth three or four days a week possibly covering up to 20 miles gave me concerns. I performed regular massage on my leg to help condition my knee for the coming week that is something I definitely know how to do! I was also told in the phone interview that my job would be to keep the kids safe and to help them with primitive projects they were working on of carving, sewing, and creating Aboriginal artifacts with materials mostly sourced from the desert. I am proficient at the hand arts, and I loved the concept of using them as a therapeutic tool so I knew I had to participate in this opportunity. I made my decision to take this job. I was confident they would offer me the position, which they did in the end. Never in my life have I been more qualified for employment. I gave my notice to my current employer that I would no longer be working there and I spent a month preparing for a career change. So there I was being trained as a wilderness guide for troubled youth. We learned about the philosophy of the company, we went over our equipment we had brought for the week to see if it was sufficient for living comfortably in the Utah January winter out of doors. We learned a few knots that I already knew, and used often from the rigors of farm work. The executive director gave us a rousing speech for a couple of hours informing us of some of the most important basics of the job. And soon we were among juniper trees and 3 inches of frozen snow setting up a training camp. Learning more details and the non-negotiables, and safety rules, and the company procedures that would be part of our employment for the next months or years of our lives. “The first thing a new student makes when they come to the program” our trainer told us “is a spoon” and she proceeded to walk around in the juniper Forest showing us branches that would make appropriate spoons. At that moment in time, I knew this was the place for me.
