Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05

Become an Outdoors Woman April 11 to 13

Story by Bernadette Cahill

Boys have traditionally become outdoorsmen—learning to hunt, shoot, fish and make camp—at their fathers’ sides. This training is a holdover from the historic occupations that men such as noted national hero Daniel Boone were noted for. They headed off to the woods to hunt, fish and trap food for the family—although Boone was also noted for pushing his calling to the limit, staying gone for months and sometimes years at a time.

Women and girls historically stayed at home, so they never got the opportunity to learn the same skills their brothers acquired directly from their fathers. And that’s a situation that has largely been handed down and become a tradition. Many girls and women have been left behind: not only in experiencing the outdoors, but in acquiring knowledge that enables them to enjoy the outdoors, whether just to vacation, to live in the wilderness, or even to survive there.

Once women grow up, it gets harder to learn such skills because finding the people to pass on their learning isn’t built in to everyday life the way it was for boys with their fathers, so a special program that the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission organizes fills that gap.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) is actually an international program in which women can learn those elusive outdoor skills through hands-on experiences. In North Carolina, Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshops are held frequently across the state and offer a variety of outdoor skills, including fishing, hunter safety, target shooting, archery, canoeing, motorboat safety, outdoor cooking, tracking and map and compass use. Registration for the next workshop is taking place now for the weekend of Friday, April 11, through Sunday, April 13.

The Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshop is for women aged 18 or over who want to learn outdoors skills, beginners who want to improve, women who would like to broaden their knowledge and acquire new skills, and women who want to meet kindred spirits.

The three-day event starts Friday afternoon with a choice of seven programs teaching a variety of skills, including basic firearm safety, fishing, outdoor cooking and learning about trees. The workshop offers several of the courses, such as canoeing and fly-fishing, more than once, sometimes building on the skills acquired the first day.

The workshop also includes photography and journal writing sessions, classes about outdoor survival and wildlife tracking, and one up-to-date class that Daniel Boone could never have envisioned. The class is billed as a “high-tech treasure hunt” during which participants will learn the same techniques that wildlife biologists use to track wildlife with radio telemetry equipment and then get the opportunity to try searching for wildlife around the camp.

The workshop takes place at the YMCA Camp Cheerio, located in the northwestern corner of North Carolina near Sparta, about 60 miles from Boone.

The workshop fee is $185 and includes instruction in all sessions, program materials, use of demonstration equipment, all meals, lodging and evening programs. Participation in the workshop is limited to the first 100 registrants.

Registrants will stay in rustic surroundings, will need to bring towels, a sleeping bag and a pillow and be ready for rain, sun and bugs.

Click to www.ncwildlife.org/fs_index_08_education.htm for further information or to register or phone BB Gillen, the BOW Coordinator, at 919-707-0172 or 919-218-3638.

Want To Go?

Dates: Friday, April 11, to Sunday, April 13
Time: Check-in begins Friday at 10:00 a.m.
Location: YMCA Camp Cheerio, Glade Valley, NC
Cost: $185