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Backpacker Campfire

January 2, 2025 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Free
Bring your family and friends to Dayton’s original Backpacker Campfire, featuring adventure, nature and travel programs.
The programs are free and open to the public. All ages are welcome.
The programs are on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm at Cox Arboretum MetroPark, in Dayton, Ohio and last about 90 minutes.
The Dayton Backpacker Campfire is presented in partnership with Five Rivers MetroParks.
Description:
We are excited to share the story of our 5-day guided backpacking trip in this 13.1-million-acre national park and preserve, the largest protected land in the U.S. Our adventure began in Anchorage with a 90 minute turboprop flight to the McCarthy-Kennecott area located in the heart of the national park alongside a confluence of active glaciers. After staying a night in the Kennecott Lodge, we then boarded an even smaller bush plane to fly out to the remote Skolai Valley, landing on a narrow dirt strip barely visible from the air. After unloading and watching the plane fly away, we began our 5 day adventure … just the two of us, our guide Peyton, and heavy packs! We base-camped for 4 nights and took day hikes across rock fields, tundra, and meadows of wildflowers to see stunning vistas like the 26-mile-long Russell Glacier and the Seven Sisters Valley. We saw wildlife on several occasions, including Alaskan brown bears, marmots, and a caribou. Our presentation will include maps, photos, and short video clips, including aerial footage from the planes, walking on a glacier, wildlife in action, and fording cold glacial streams in Crocs. Don’t miss this immersive look at one of our lesser known national treasures!
Biographies: Don and Sue Klosterman are alumni and long-time employees of the University of Dayton. Don’s home there is in the School of Engineering, while Sue spent many years teaching in the Geology Department. They have taken many hiking and backpacking trips over their 34 years of marriage, many of them in the western U.S., as well as hundreds of miles on the Appalachian Trail. This was their second trip to Alaska. Don was coordinator of the Dayton Backpacker Campfire from 2003-2016, and they both were active leaders in BSA for many years. They reside in their long-time Centerville home of 30 years, and they continue to plan new adventures each year.

Venue

Cox Arboretum
6733 Springboro Pike
Dayton, OH 45449 United States
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Phone:
937-434-9005
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