Big Wild Adventures is owned and operated by Howie Wolke and Marilyn Olsen. Contact Us
Howie Wolke & Marilyn OlsenOwners, Guides/Naturalists
Howie Wolke has led over five-hundred multi-day treks since the mid 1970s. He is probably the most experienced backpacking guide in the Western U.S. He has been the subject of various magazine articles and is also a well-known advocate for protecting wilderness. He has written two books on wildland conservation, including Wilderness On the Rocks and the Big Outside (co-authored with Dave Foreman), a historic inventory of America’s remaining wilderness. Also his articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications. As a public speaker, he has addressed college and other groups across the country. Howie has been a part-time instructor of Environmental Studies at Montana State University (Billings campus), where he designed the course “The American Wilderness”. He is also a former President of the national conservation group Wilderness Watch and now serves on the board of directors. Howie also has a particular affinity for wolves and grizzly bears, is an avid hunter, backcountry skier and bird-watcher, and has a B.S. in Conservation and Wildlife Ecology.
Marilyn Olsen has explored wilderness from the Everglades to Alaska, from Africa to the Arizona desert. She is a registered nurse with expertise in wilderness medicine. She is a former trip leader for the University of Montana’s “Wilderness and Civilization” program, and in that capacity led canoe trips on Montana’s wild and scenic upper Missouri River, as well as various backpack treks. An experienced wilderness advocate, Marilyn’s efforts in conservation education for young people are particularly innovative. She also has valuable insights on group dynamics, and her ability to see and explore the often overlooked intimacies of the wilderness environment are unique.
Howie and Marilyn live in southern Montana, in the foothills of the Gallatin Range, just north of Yellowstone National Park.
ALL BIG WILD ADVENTURES GUIDES are experienced professionals. Howie and Marilyn lead many of our trips, but our other guides are equally capable, and will provide our guests with an equally great experience. Unlike some outfits, your guide will not be an inexperienced young person.
Larry CampbellGuide/Naturalist
Larry has guided occasional trips for Big Wild since the mid 1980’s. He grew up in rural Colorado and received a degree in geology from Princeton, where he worked hard to survive culture shock. He is a founder of Southwest Outward Bound and he worked for 10 years as an instructor and course director for Southwest Outward Bound and Colorado Outward Bound. After years of traveling in mountainous pre-industrial cultures, he hand-built a log cabin in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley in an effort to live in comfortable simplicity that might be sustainable without encouraging the reckless pillaging of resources. When he’s not guiding for Big Wild, Larry occasionally works as a mineral exploration geologist, and he also works as a wildland conservationist to “help save the parts”, to paraphrase Aldo Leopold. Being in Wilderness allows Larry to rest his compulsion to help fix abuse wrought by uncontrolled industrial development.
Joshua MahanGuide/Naturalist, Web Tech
Joshua Mahan was immersed in the big wilds at a very early age by his Mom, Marilyn Olsen, and his Step-Dad, Howie Wolke (Big Wild owners). He survived. Josh has a degree in Journalism with a minor in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. When not in the wilds, he is a writer/freelance journalist and manages a whitewater operation in Patagonia. Josh has been a professional whitewater river guide throughout the western states and abroad since the late 1990′s. In 2008 he led an expedition from Wyoming to Arizona down the Green/Colorado Rivers to re-enact John Wesley Powell’s historic journey and to publicize river conservation issues. Josh is also an avid hunter, fly-fisherman and snowboarder. He began working as a Big Wild assistant guide when he was a teen-ager. His vast reservoir of wilderness experience and training compliment his unusual wisdom to create the perfect Big Wild guide.
Matt Morgan HendersonGuide/Naturalist
Matt is a Canadian who left college in 2001 for the call of the wilds. Since then, while not actually becoming a wolf or a bear, he has worked and played in the wilderness from the Yukon to California, mostly exploring the watery wilds of coastal British Columbia via canoe and kayak, and the rugged western Canadian mountains with his backpack. He has managed and guided for a lodge-based outdoors program, and recently has returned to civilization where he is working on a degree in wildlife biology at the University of Montana. When not at school in Missoula or leading trips for Big Wild, Matt does stream monitoring with the Watershed Education Network and volunteers with the Sierra Club. He also finds time to pursue his passion for remote rock climbs and backcountry skiing.
Charles Wolf DrimalGuide/Naturalist
Charles Wolf Drimal first experienced wilderness freedom as a teen in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. Since graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in Environmental Studies, he has spent over a decade as a wilderness educator and guide from the Alaska tundra to the glaciers of Patagonia. Born with strong curiosity about natural history, psychology, meditation, anthropology and the spirit that connects people to place, Wolf has completed graduate degrees in both Environmental Studies and Ecopsychology. Yet he is still a very down-to-Earth fellow! Wolf has co-founded two non-profits focused in conservation and human development. When not guiding in wild deserts and mountains, he works as a public lands conservation advocate in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. He is blessed to call the upper Yellowstone watershed home and lives with his family in Livingston, Montana.
It is no wonder that each year, about half of our clients are
“repeaters” from prior Big Wild trips!
