Students learn outdoor skills at NIC
North Idaho College students Trysta Ledgerwood and Hannah Smith arrange coals on a Dutch oven during an Introduction to Outdoor Cooking class on Feb. 23 at NIC’s McLain Hall.
The hands-on learning in North Idaho College’s Outdoor Recreation Leadership program was not affected by frigid temperatures on Feb 23.
Students in the Introduction to Outdoor Cooking class took to a frozen campus parking lot for their day’s assignment – cook a breakfast casserole and biscuits from scratch using coal-fired Dutch ovens and gas-powered camp stoves.
Outdoor Pursuits coordinator and course instructor Jacob Rothrock said the group of 11 students spend each Wednesday this semester cooking without the benefit of an indoor kitchen.
“The syllabus started on day one with how to make good coffee,” Rothrock said. “We went through at least six different methods of how to brew coffee outside.”
The class spends time learning about cooking techniques, tools and recipes outside the traditional indoor kitchen in a program that also has students learning whitewater guiding, backcountry winter skills, and wilderness ethics and interpretation.
Though the Intro to Outdoor Cooking class is only available to students enrolled in the program, Rothrock said there is demand enough to also host one-day community courses in outdoor cooking at least once a semester.
“It’s been wildly popular,” Rothrock said. “Registration has been full with a waiting list every time.”
NIC Outdoor Pursuits scheduled one Dutch oven cooking class that is open to the community through the Workforce Training Center this semester, but Rothrock said registration filled up so quickly for the March 11 class that they decided to schedule more community classes.
Registration is open for a second class from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, March 18 at McLain Hall on NIC’s main campus in Coeur d’Alene. The course is open to the public and costs $55. Registration is open at www.nic.edu/wtc/dutchoven.
Rothrock said a third community class scheduled for June will be available to the public with registration open in mid-March via the WTC registration portal.
The success of the NIC Outdoor Leadership program is making it possible to expand the skills students are taught. Rothrock said the Wednesday cooking crew will also begin to experiment with a new outdoor kitchen tool – a Harvest Right freeze dryer funded by a North Idaho College Foundation grant.
The freeze dryer will allow students to preserve meals so they are compact, light-weight and easy to prepare in the field by adding water and heating if necessary. Rothrock said any leftovers from Wednesday’s session were headed to the freeze dryer to help program staff and students better understand how the machine works and affects food.
“Once we get it dialed in and figure out how it works best, my goal is we’ll be able to make our own food for all the trips we do in a semester with NIC Outdoor Pursuits,” Rothrock said.
Each semester, NIC Outdoor Pursuits, part of NIC’s Student Wellness and Recreation program, holds a number of outdoor adventures for students across campus. This semester’s trips include yurt camping at Silver Mountain, backpacking along the Snake River, whitewater rafting on the Grand Ronde River and surfing on the Oregon Coast.
Outdoor Recreation Leadership student Trysta Ledgerwood spent Wednesday cooking a vegan breakfast casserole in a Dutch oven and said the program makes for a unique college experience.
“For people who don’t like the traditional classroom setting, this is a really awesome program,” Ledgerwood said. “There’s a sense of community to it, which is really nice, and the fact is that jobs like these aren’t going away. In retail, for example, there’s self-checkout now so eventually cashier jobs are going to go away, but outdoor rec jobs are always going to be here.”
The value of spending time outdoors will continue to grow in our increasingly digital society, said Heather Neill, who took a break from her Montessori teaching job to enroll in NIC’s Outdoor Recreation Leadership program.
“Getting kids outside to experience the outdoors and learn new skills not only empowers them and gives them confidence, but also gives them independence and hopefully ignites their fire so they’re interested in doing things like this, because right now in education we’re doing a lot of things in front of the screen,” Neill said.
As for her own continuing education, Neill said she was nervous to enroll in the program but quickly learned that the NIC Outdoor Recreation Leadership program is for anybody and everybody.
“Going into it, I was a little intimidated and wondered if I could keep up with everybody, but anybody who has a passion for the outdoors can do this,” Neill said.
For more information about the Outdoor Recreation Leadership program, contact Paul Chivvis at (208) 676-7169 or paul.chivvis@nic.edu.
For more information about NIC Outdoor Pursuits, contact Outdoor Pursuits coordinator Jacob Rothrock at (208) 769-7809 or Jacob.rothrock@nic.edu.
Click here a full list of Outdoor Pursuits activities available to the public this spring.
NIC student Luke Vogel prepares coals for Dutch ovens during an Introduction to Outdoor Cooking class on Feb. 23 at NIC’s McLain Hall.
Story by Megan Snodgrass mpsnodgrass@nic.edu
Photos by Elli Oba etoba@nic.edu
Posted: Tuesday, March 1, 2022
