Backpacking and Canoeing Staff
Big Wild Adventures is owned and operated by Howie Wolke and
Marilyn Olsen.
Howie Wolke
Howie Wolke has led over five-hundred multi-day treks since the mid
1970s. He is 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 the
Big Outside (co-authored with Dave Foreman), a historic
inventory of America's remaining big wilds. So Howie doesn't
just know wilderness, he literally wrote the book on it! 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, and has a B.S. in Conservation and Wildlife
Ecology.
Marilyn Olsen
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 Campbell
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 Mahan
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 runs the cutting-edge environmental web magazine "Lowbagger.org". Josh has been a professional whitewater river guide for over a decade, guiding multi-day river trips on Idaho’s Salmon River among other places. He has periodically worked for Big Wild as an assistant guide since he was a teen-ager, and in more recent years as a guide. Josh is also an avid hunter, fly-fisherman and snowboarder. Josh’s vast reservoir of wilderness experience and training compliment his unusual wisdom to create the perfect Big Wild guide.
Steve McCoy
Steve McCoy has guided for Big Wild since the mid 1980’s, mostly in and around the wilds of Yellowstone. Steve has lived in Montana for over 30 years, including stints at the western and northeastern ends of Big Sky country. Nowadays, he and his wife, Diane, live in Lewistown, smack dab in the state’s center, where the island mountain ranges and the prairies merge. Steve’s conservation advocacy focuses upon protecting and expanding the wild habitats of this largely overlooked big and wide-open region. Nonetheless, Steve is dutifully employed as a school psychologist, but believe it or not he prefers to spend his time making fine furniture, playing his guitar, hunting and training hunting dogs, and above all else, fly-fishing. Steve’s son Dylan is a University of Montana graduate who now works as a wilderness ranger.
Matt Morgan-Henderson
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.
It is no wonder that over two-thirds of
our clients are
"repeaters" from prior Big Wild trips!
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Scheduled Trips 2010
Below, we've listed our trips by region. Trips listed under Yellowstone Backpacking are also listed under the state in which they occur. You'll find complete information on each trip by clicking on the regional heading above each section.
For a chronological list of our adventures, click here.
| Yellowstone
Backpacking |
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Northern Yellowstone Wildlife and Wildflower
Extravaganza: June 13-18. |
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Yellowstone's
High, Wide & Wild Gallatin Range: July 18-23. |
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Northeast Yellowstone's Wolf Country:
July 26-30. |
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Yellowstone's Remote Corner Through Hike: August 11-20. |
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Southwest Yellowstone's Wild Waterfall
Wonderland: September 12-18. |
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| Montana
Backpacking |
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Northern Yellowstone Wildlife and Wildflower
Extravaganza: June 13-18. |
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Glacier Park's Wild Sister, The Rocky Mountain
Front: July 4-10. |
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Peaks and Lakes of the Rugged Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness: July 12-16. |
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Yellowstone's High, Wide & Wild Gallatin
Range: July 18-23. |
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Montana’s Rooftop—The Mighty Beartooths: August 1-6.
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| Wyoming
Backpacking |
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Jackson Hole’s High Mountain Wildlife Bonanza:
June 21-26. |
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Northeast Yellowstone's Wolf Country:
July 26-30. |
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Grand Tetons Alpine Magic:
July 26-31. |
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Grand Tetons Mellow Alpine Magic:
August 9-13. |
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Yellowstone's Remote Corner
Through Hike: August 11-20. |
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Wind River Range, Along The Great Divide:
August 15-21. |
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Big Vistas of the Wild Absarokas:
August 23-28. |
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Southwest Yellowstone's Wild Waterfall Wonderland:
September 12-18. |
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| Arizona
Backpacking |
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The Grand Canyon,
Rocks of the Ages: October 17-23. |
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| California
Backpacking |
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High Mountains of Death Valley National Park: Spring 2011. |
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| Utah Backpacking |
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Kaleidoscope Rocks Of Canyonlands National Park: April 18-23. |
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Redrock Canyons of
the Wild Escalante:
April 25-May 1. |
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| New
Mexico Backpacking |
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Gila Wilderness, Big Pine Country: Spring 2011. |
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| Alaska
Backpacking |
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, The Biggest
Wild: June 4-11. |
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| Canoe
Trips in Minnesota, Florida, Utah and Montana |
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Watery Wilds of the Living Everglades: Feb 7-14. |
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Canoeing the Upper
Missouri River, Lewis and Clark's Wilderness: May 16-23. |
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Boundary Waters, Late Summer Paradise: Aug 30-Sept 5. |
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Labyrinth Canyon, Red Rocks Of The Green River: Oct 4-9. |
NOTE: Our Death Valley and Gila wilderness trips are offered only in odd numbered years. In even numbered years, our spring backpack trips are the Escalante Canyons and Grand Staircase backcountry areas of southern Utah.
List prices include our complete gear package and there is a $200 discount if you bring your own (see equipment list and/or questionnaire for details). Also, we offer a $200 discount for the second trip in a calendar year. Scheduled trips are for persons ages 16 and over. Exceptions to the age requirement will be made by us on a case-by-case basis.
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