National Outdoor Leadership School - Index

National Outdoor Leadership School - brochure - Index

8
THE
Leader
Q & A
NOLS Alaska directors Don and Donna Ford passed
their love of the outdoors on to their sons, Ryan (22)
and Jeff (17).
NOLS Born & Bred
Q&A with the Ford Family
at NOLS Alaska
BY JOANNE KUNTZ
QDon and Donna, how did you two come together
with NOLS?
ADonna: Way back in 1975, I was teaching school
in Florida but took the opportunity to take a
NOLS course in the Wind Rivers. After my course I
thought, wow, this is how I want to teach. So I called
my principal, quit my job, and looked into how I
could get on the Instructor Course.
Of course, in the meantime, I met Don. In order
to raise money for my IC, I worked at a community
college outdoor program. We got a grant to work with
juvenile delinquents, and not knowing much about that
population, hired a couple of instructors from Outward
Bound to come and work. Don was one of them.
After my IC, I went back to northern Minnesota
because that’s where Don was, and I ended up working
for Outward Bound a little bit. Then, a few instructors
from NOLS came and did an exchange with Outward
Bound and Don was one of the instructors who
got to do the exchange. He did his IC in ’78 and we became
directors of NOLS Mexico in ’79.
QHow long were you the directors in Mexico and
when did your oldest son, Ryan, come on scene?
ADon: We were directors in Mexico from ’79 to ’86.
Donna: Ryan was born in Lander in 1985, so it
was towards the end of our Mexico careers. He spent
his first two years down there, from October to April.
We baked his first birthday cake on a campfire.
Don: And he learned to walk during a re-supply for a
fall semester up in northern Baja.
QWhat were some challenges or goals you had in
incorporating your outdoor lifestyle with having
a small child in Mexico?
ADon: It wasn’t that challenging having him
down there, I don’t think. Our friends in Mex-
ico were all family oriented, so having Ryan was always
a positive thing.
Donna: Crawling and walking were a bit of a challenge
because there was a lot of dirt, so he learned a lot
about Ensolite pads. Kayaking is a great activity if you
have a little one; you can just sit them in your lap and
they’re entertained by the water. The camping was
great. The backpacking and carrying out diapers was
sometimes not as fun.
QWhat was the transition up to Alaska like?
ADon: We started in Alaska in the summer of ’89
and Jeff was born in Anchorage in February of
1991; Ryan was five. Donna wasn’t really working at
that point, and that was one of the advantages of living
at the branch, because she was able to homeschool both
Ryan and Jeff up through the fifth grade. That gave us
a lot of freedom in the winter to do family things.
QWere you able to incorporate both of them pretty
well into the branch life?
ADon: They would meet people, and staff would
take them out and do things like a day canoe trip
or a hike. That part of the incorporation was pretty
active when they were young.
Donna: Ryan was always an observer, so he enjoyed
listening to pack packing classes or rations classes, and
Jeff loved helping in the kitchen and even helped start
the garden cookie project.
QJeff and Ryan, how did the communal living at a
NOLS branch affect your social skills or perspectives
as kids?
AJeff: I felt like I had to be pretty outgoing. I couldn’t
be shy and nervous.
Ryan: I was always really shy growing up, but I think
from a social perspective and looking back on it there was
a lot of it that I enjoyed. I loved how much space I had
growing up as a kid, and all the people all the time in the
summer and then the big switch to no one in the winters.
I liked the spring when everyone was showing up.
QWhat are some of the lessons you learned about
the outdoors and wilderness ethics that you’ve
gotten from your mom and dad and the greater
NOLS community?
Guided fly-fishing in the Wind River Range since 1977
Offering day fly-fishing in the Lander area, as well as extended
trips with backpack, horse, goat, and llama support options.
We are experts in golden trout … and just having fun!
AJeff: I learned all the Leave No Trace principles
and just different ways to go out there.
Ryan: I’ve learned a lot from both my parents and
the NOLS community. A lot of the trips I did when
I was younger were because of my parents, and I
learned a lot of the NOLS stuff, like Leave No Trace,
how to be comfortable in the outdoors, and how to
respect being out there. Recently, I’ve gotten into
more technical endeavors—more technical climbing,
ice climbing, and skiing—and that I learned more
from individual NOLS instructors.
QWhat are some of the ways as parents, Don and
Donna, that you tried to instill in Ryan and Jeff a
wilderness ethic and a value for being outdoors throughout
their lives? Has it affected them in different ways?
ADon: One way was using Leave No Trace practices.
I think that was something they were exposed
to throughout all our camping, and we really
showed them that we valued the wilderness when traveling
in it or even closer to home; LNT has always
been an important part of that. Ryan and Jeff are both
different in terms of how they interact with the outdoors.
Jeff is a cross-country runner and he likes to be
out fishing on our boat, whereas Ryan at this point
does more of expeditioning and he’s an avid skier,
climber, ice climber, and mountain biker.
Donna: Ryan had a group of friends that really enjoyed
the outdoors, whereas Jeff, for whatever reason,
his group of friends aren’t necessarily as outdoorsy. The
whole peer thing is powerful.
QWhat has been your favorite backcountry trip as
a family?
ADonna: Our sea kayaking trip we did from
NOLS Mexico in Coyote down to La Paz is still
one of the foremost ones that we did. Ryan was in seventh
grade and Jeff was in second.
Jeff: Definitely the one we took in Mexico six or seven
years ago. That’s the best place in the world; it’s sunny
and 70 degrees everyday, which is perfect when you’re
from Alaska. I had a great time.
Ryan: My favorite by far was definitely the long
kayaking trip in Baja. It was a longer trip, it was
warm, there was a lot of fishing, and a lot of relaxing
on the beach.
Sweetwater
Fishing Expeditions
George and Paula Hunker
PO Box 524
Lander, WY 82520
307-332-3986
www.sweetwaterfishing.com
george@sweetwaterfishing.com
SWEETWATER
FISHING EXPEDITIONS