BOSS, going home to nature (know more, carry less)

[This post was originally published on the Third Act Maryland website, with the title, "Know More, Carry Less," under its "News" section. This is the first post I've added to this blog that doesn't have a direct connection to running. But, obviously, it's "BOSSian" (!), so I've also added it to the ongoing table of contents in BOSS, the ultimate cross-training, an evolving view.]

“Know more, carry less” is the guiding philosophy of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) in Boulder, Utah (not Colorado), ”rooted in the belief that the wilderness is a powerful teacher, and survival is a means to uncovering one's true potential, developing resilience, and reconnecting with a more natural way of being.”

Recently, I completed a BOSS 28-Day Field Expedition course, the “ultimate BOSS challenge,” with a lineage going back to the original wilderness courses offered by Brigham Young University in the late 1960s. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and it was unforgettably life changing. I learned a lot from the three superb instructors, as well as from the other seven students. And, I had a ton of fun! “Carry less” means I only carried the essentials: a blanket, poncho, and knife; but no tent, sleeping bag, backpack, light, lighter, or other modern equipment, except cameras. No toilet paper, either.

For 28 days, we replicated as much as possible the way of life of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples who had lived in the Four Corners region (heyday between 750 and 1300 CE). We learned many skills, such as lighting a fire with a bow drill, but, more importantly, we learned to live as part of nature, with our days bracketed by the rising and setting of the sun. We were totally disconnected and unplugged from the modern world and, instead, were intimately connected to the natural world.

Beyond the personal reasons for, and benefits from, taking a BOSS course, there is also a societal benefit from what BOSS does. Modern society’s disconnection from nature is a key underlying cause of the world’s most pressing problems, including the climate crisis. Part of the BOSS mission is to help people reconnect with nature—to reclaim their birthright. In the BOSS way of life, nature is home; going out to nature is akin to going home, rather than going to visit it as a resource. As BOSS teaches, “survival is about understanding and living with nature, not against it.”

BOSS courses range across the iconic Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Dixie and Fishlake National Forests, from the depths of desert canyons to the heights of alpine meadows, some of which are above 10,000 ft. in elevation. Majestic, extraordinary, breathtaking scenery abounds. 

Sadly, the Trump administration has recently opened up the Grand Staircase-Escalante and nearby Bears Ears National Monuments to mining, though the threats to both are being challenged in federal court.

Shortly after I returned home from BOSS, still feeling overwhelmed in transitioning back to the front country, came the sad news of the deaths of two wonderfully perceptive observers of and writers about nature: Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry. Both were “BOSSian.” Both had long written about the importance of paying attention, which is an underlying tenet of what BOSS teaches and what students experience. 

Dillard, who recorded her meditations on nature in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, famously wrote, "The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there." Berry, who wrote the landmark book on our disconnection from nature, The Unsettling of America, also famously wrote, in The Unforeseen Wilderness, "The world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children." 

Thus, BOSS students learn not just to “leave no trace,” but also to “leave a positive impact.” BOSS teaches and emphasizes reciprocity, respect, and gratitude for what nature provides, including natural material for this debris shelter.

We arrived at the BOSS course as strangers. We left after 28 days as a close-knit tribe or family.

With the average age of a BOSS student around 33-35, it may be true that a Third Actor in a BOSS course is playing in a young people’s playground. But, it is also true that age is, literally, just a number; and, even at the age of a Third Actor, it is still mostly a matter of training!