Mountain Mapaches

The Mountain Mapaches is a group for our students who have learned how to be responsible for themselves in the woods, how to be respectful of nature, and who are ready to learn how to work as a pack.  In this program, students who show a level of independence may earn the instructor’s trust to venture into the woods with less supervision. Students focus on learning to support each other and work together as a small community.  Every semester we have a focus on either a plant/tree class, animal behavior or tracking, sur-thrival, or an elective.  Students learn about these subject areas while spending time in the woods together adventuring and building their confidence.

Your instructor for this class is Lauren Martin.

Thursdays, 3:15p – 5:30p*
4th-6th graders
Cost:  $150-$200 per student
Become a Mountain Mapache! Sign up here.

*Study hall for MLA students will be 3:15p – 4p to allow time for public school and homeschool students to travel to MLA. We will take off up the hill at 4p!  Parents, personal responsibility is a big part of this group, so remind your child to get ready but let them pack their own gear the night before. We will be going outside in the cold weather so please email Jen if you have questions about gear. Each child needs to bring a backpack with a water bottle or camel pack and a nut-free snack with label for each adventure.

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– Questions? Email Mapaches Mentor Lauren Martin at [email protected]

– To enroll your child, click here.

Why are we called the Mountain Mapaches

The Mountain Mapaches afterschool program, like the Mountain Jaguares, is tapping into Aurora Lights’ Ecuadorian roots.  Mapache means raccoon in Spanish.  The students created the name during our Biodiversity Advocates for the Mountains (BAM!) project in the 2014-2015 school year.  During wildlife surveys the students noticed a resident raccoon that would frequent the stream in the woods.