The Avid Adventurer

EP16: Camp Blue Sky - What You Need to Know From Our Assistant Director

Joe, the Assistant Director at Camp Blue Sky, offers valuable advice for first-time campers: “Come with a lot of positive mental attitude because it’s going to be a great summer.” He highlights the importance of bringing comfort items to camp to ease homesickness and maintain a positive mindset. For those worried about making new friends, especially shy campers or those arriving without familiar faces, Joe reassures them with tales of the camp’s welcoming atmosphere and engaging icebreaker activities that connect everyone from day one.   He provides a sneak peak into a typical day at camp, bustling with activities such as bouldering, kayaking, and themed evening programs suitable for all ages. He also discusses specially tailored backpacking trips that offer fun and appropriate challenges based on camper age.   Joe encourages future campers to embrace the summer with enthusiasm and an open mind, ready to dive into new adventures at Camp Blue Sky.   Quotes * “If it’s your first time outside of your home, if it’s the first time that you’re staying outside, bring your favorite stuffed animal, bring your favorite toy, bring your favorite pajamas, your favorite blankets… If you’re shy or anything, don’t worry… All of the people here are going to be really, really great for you and really fun people to talk to… And I’m really sure that you’re going to like every single activity, every single meal. So yeah, it’s just a really great time. So try to come with a great sense of positive mental attitude so you can enjoy every single day here at AVID. (02:04 | Joe Lievano)  * “My best recommendation is just be yourself. Talk about things you like. You’re going to meet a lot of people with common interests. (03:05 | Joe Lievano) * “It’s always a little bit overwhelming to come to a place where you don’t know anyone. But it’s always really rewarding. And it has been one of my favorite experiences of my whole life.” (03:58  | Joe Lievano)  * “It’s just going to be a great experience. Come with a lot of positive mental attitude because it’s going to be a great summer.” (12:14 | Joe Lievano)   Links Learn more about Camp Blue Sky: https://avid4.com/mt-evans-camps [https://avid4.com/mt-evans-camps]   Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com [http://www.avid4.com/] Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure [https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure] Email the host:  podcast@avid4.com  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm [http://hivecast.fm]

EP15: From Harvard School of Divinity to the Cattleman's Land Trust - Finding the Common Threads That Bind Us All Together

“I needed to practice at hearing other people better, and how they engage with the same landscapes that I love, on their terms,” says today’s guest Owen Yager. Learning about and working to represent other people’s stories is the common theme that unites the seemingly disparate elements of Owen’s story. Once he realized that people’s religion and traditions are the ultimate form of story, he went from an English major in undergrad to studying at Harvard Divinity School. As a land steward with Colorado Cattleman’s Land Trust, he works to help create conversations and collaborations between what have historically been oppositional relationships between the agriculture and conservation spaces, and between landowners and the rural citizens who have been traditionally sidelined.    All parties—from private landowners to guides to recreationalists—share the same hopes and goals for the land. Owen works to engage them all to ultimately form a shared vision for cultural and land management of the American West.    On today’s episode of the Avid Adventurer, Owen and host Dave Secunda discuss leading rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold and whether they are the new Emerson and Thoreau, helping to translate the divine in nature to a new generation.    Quotes * “Those great novels that you read in English class, you’re thinking about the storytelling. And you’re thinking about what fuels you in that story, and religion is that to an extreme. It’s the stories that actually make people do things. It’s the stories that make you go and spend three hours of your morning every Sunday, reflecting and meditating, that make you say grace before you have a meal. Whatever it might be, people take those stories, those traditions and build lives around them in really powerful, really beautiful ways.” (7:22 | Owen Yager)  * “People care about what they think, what they believe, what fuels them. I had this deep-seated sense that I wasn’t good enough at hearing their stories yet. That’s what brought me… to Harvard Divinity School, was this sense that I needed to practice at hearing other people better, and how they engage with the same landscapes that I love, on their terms.” (12:48 | Owen Yager) * “Part of where I’m coming from is a deep love of that space, of engagement with land and animals and an engagement with working land as a space of realizing personal fulfillment. I love the people that I’ve gotten to know in those spaces as good, fun, honest, hardworking people that make incredible partners.” (23:38 | Owen Yager) * “All these people who had power over their landscapes, and deep engagement with their landscapes and deep love for their landscapes, all these people weren’t getting powerfully engaged in conversations that I was seeing. And I really wanted to help with that and to help those folks get heard and help those folks get engaged as equal footing partners not as people to be told what to do but to really empower them in their landscapes.”(25:42 | Owen Yager)  * “There is this shared sense of want for what land management and the concurrent cultural management of the American West should look like. Everybody who’s a stakeholder wants to have healthy wildlife; everybody who’s a stakeholder wants to have a healthy watershed.” (31:02 | Owen Yager)    Links You can find more information on the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust’s working landscape conservation work at ccalt.org [http://ccalt.org], and Owen be reached at owen@ccalt.org [owen@ccalt.org]   Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com [http://www.avid4.com/] Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure [https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure] Email the host:  podcast@avid4.com  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm [http://hivecast.fm]

EP14: Camp Windy Peak - What You Need to Know From a Seasoned Camper

Advice to first-time campers? "Try everything," says Kendra, a seasoned adventurer at just 15 years old with over 15 camps under her belt. "Because even if it seems scary at the moment, 99% of the time it's actually really fun." Kicking off a series of advice for new campers, Kendra shares insights from her experiences at Avid Adventure’s quintessential sleep-away location, Camp Windy Peak in Bailey, Colorado. She describes a typical day in the Rocky Mountain camp packed with diverse activities, from relaxing yoga and baking to adrenaline-fueled rock climbing and whitewater rafting. She also expresses her fondness for evenings spent playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) at camp.   Her guidance for newcomers is both sincere and practical—seize every chance to make friends and try out new activities, even those that might initially seem intimidating. Kendra reflects on her own early reservations and the supportive camp community that helped her push past these fears.   Looking at the lasting effects of her camp experiences, Kendra acknowledges how they have boosted her social skills and aided her in setting personal goals. She emphasizes that the positive mindset cultivated at camp has been key to her personal development.   Quotes * “Some advice I would give is definitely to try and make friends. Because my first year of camp, I was super shy. And I'm like, ‘I don't want to talk to you.’ But everyone there is really nice. And I've actually never had a bad experience. Also, I would advise that you try everything. Because even if it seems scary at the moment, like 99% of the time it's actually really fun. And if you don't do it, you might regret it.” (02:44 | Kendra Ritchie)  * “I personally love bringing a deck of cards because a lot of people there know how to play card games. And if you don't, then it's a conversation starter.” (04:08 | Kendra Ritchie) * “One word that I'd give all of my instructors that I've had is fun. I love all my instructors.” (05:05 | Kendra Ritchie) * “Whenever I'm tree climbing, every single year, I always try to reach a different part of the tree because I cannot climb trees. And that's also like it for rock climbing. So it's just like setting little goals and having a positive mindset. I feel like I've taken a lot of that.” (06:41 | Kendra Ritchie)   Links Learn more about Camp Windy Peak: https://avid4.com/windy-peak-camps [https://avid4.com/windy-peak-camps]   Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com [http://www.avid4.com/] Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure [https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure] Email the host:  podcast@avid4.com  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm [http://hivecast.fm]

EP13: The Art of Risk Management And The Path to Become the Czar of Stoke

“I get to do something for others and I get to do something for myself,” says Stephen Allen about the balance he strikes in his life as a housing case manager in Boulder, Colorado from 9-5 and rock climbing in his down time. His lifelong love of the outdoors is so infectious he has been dubbed by Avid 4 Adventure campers and their parents as the “Czar of Stoke”. On today’s episode of The Avid Adventurer, he tells host Dave Secunda how he earned his title, including a hilarious story of misunderstanding with one parent in particular. Just as important as getting campers excited for the outdoors is putting them at ease. Stephen explains how he builds trust with his campers by honoring their fear and hesitation.   There are a lot of similarities between outdoor sports and therapy, Stephen explains, and campers work on issues such as goal setting, stress management and others. He talks about the benefits of adventure therapy, and the importance of encouraging campers to learn to live with risk, recognize the benefits, and make the best choices for themselves.   Quotes * “I love going to the climbing gym after work because I have time to. It’s such a fun way to, after really being in my brain a lot, to drop down in my body, to move, to play. And sometimes after having conversations in my day that can be a test, can be stressful, really dropping into play is kind of how I disconnect with that.” (7:17 | Stephen Allen) * “That was a conscious choice every day; that was not just this natural way of being. It was a choice that I did my best to make every day—and I certainly didn’t make it every day—just to be really excited about what’s going on and to…see what awesome things they were bringing today and pull all that awesomeness out.” (10:25 | Stephen Allen)  * “Riding a mountain bike or even going through a high ropes course, that look nothing like a therapist’s office, totally different, and yet there’s kind of this overlap of what you can get out of those.” (17:49 | Stephen Allen)  * “In addition to empowering kids to choose these active outdoor lifestyles we also want to empower kids to be able to evaluate and choose appropriate risks in their lives.” (22:13 | Stephen Allen) * “Something I would really try to constantly push myself to be in and challenge my co-instructors to be in is to try to imagine what it would be like to have it be your first time.”  (39:59 | Stephen Allen)   Links Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com [http://www.avid4.com/] Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure [https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure] Email the host:  podcast@avid4.com  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm [http://hivecast.fm]

EP12: Navigating by Head & Heart - A Therapeutic & Outdoor Journey

“The world will only be as small as you let it, until you allow the world to be bigger than you know it,” says Eddie Mockus, licensed psychologist and founder of the Boulder Center for Family and Behavioral Health in Boulder, Colorado. He joins the Avid Adventurer podcast to delve into the power of our thoughts and the importance of managing anxiety while navigating and mitigating risks. Eddie shares how trusting our hearts and bodies as much as our intellect can lead to significant personal growth. He also recounts his own journey of leading with the heart and watching his clients embrace their vulnerabilities and find their rightful place in the world.   In a city like Boulder, often dubbed "the epicenter of the Instagram outdoors," the pressures of conforming to a certain aesthetic or level of athleticism can make some feel out of place. Eddie discusses how he assists young people and their families in realizing that there's no single correct way to enjoy the outdoors and that it's accessible to everyone. This environment also offers valuable lessons in listening, distinguishing between perceived and actual risks, and maintaining competence even in discomfort.   Eddie stresses that the answers lie within us; we simply need to slow down and listen. In today's episode, he also introduces new therapeutic techniques that go beyond Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), teaching us how to accept negative thoughts and act despite them.   Quotes * “Even in these past few years, how big of a deep dive I’ve taken in that direction to really not just practice being a good steward of my thoughts and my actions but really being a good steward of learning my heart and what my heart is telling me and being more heart open and actually allowing things like intuition to guide me, not necessarily being such an academic and using all my logic to guide every move.”(5:15 | Eddie Mockus)  * “Your brain is ultimately in control of a lot of the thoughts that you’ve had. Your past training and programming in life is ultimately in control of the thoughts that you get, but you yourself are actually in more control than you think of what you can focus on.”  (10:17 | Eddie Mockus) * “There’s not a single thing you need to do to be OK. You just are.” (25:57 | Eddie Mockus)  * “When I think of access to the outdoors, what the outdoor community can do or what the outdoor lifestyle can do, it’s a way of just simply connecting with something greater than yourself.” (29:13 | Eddie Mockus)   Links Connect with Eddie Mockus: www.boulderfamilyhealth.com [http://www.boulderfamilyhealth.com] drmockus@boulderfamilyhealth.com [drmockus@boulderfamilyhealth.com] Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com [http://www.avid4.com/] Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure [https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure] Email the host:  podcast@avid4.com    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm [http://hivecast.fm]