5–7 hoursA FULL FIELD OUTING
1–2 hoursA classroom class
14 peopleKEPT SMALL ON PURPOSE
WELCOME
Learning that lasts, out where it happens.
Welcome to The Outdoor Connection with Tracker Rob — a place for an enduring, quality outdoor education and nature connection experience. Either as a field trip or in the classroom, participants learn of natural wonders, outdoor skills, character and leadership building, and adventure exploration.
Students partake in hands-on interactive activities based on nature-connection principles, natural sciences and experiential education, presented in an engaging, stimulating manner that captures and sustains interest. It ensures lasting knowledge and lifetime benefits — as author Richard Louv and countless others have shown, nature makes children (and people) healthier, happier and smarter.
I hope you will take part in these programs and see the extraordinary effect experiential education in the outdoors has — and have your children reap the benefits the outdoors has to offer.
Most importantly, every participant’s physical and emotional safety is a primary concern and diligently upheld, to ensure a positive, rewarding experience.
Tracker RobRobert Remedi · Naturalist guide
A nature-awareness circle in the oak woodland — Santa Monica Mountains.
Four central themes
Choose the way your group learns outdoors.
Every outing or class sits inside one of four themes — and any theme can be customized to your curriculum, group requirements or preferred topics.
Nature Education & Connection
Students learn to know and appreciate the local flora, fauna, and natural and cultural history — and to build a real connection to it. It is a tangible approach to learning: hands-on activity, mentoring theory, natural sciences and interpretation, and investigative curiosity, through which participants take in ecology, diversity, interrelationships, conservation and stewardship along the way.
Ecology · Wildlife · Plants · Native culture
Wilderness & Outdoor Skills
Time and again, feedback points to an enhanced, retained understanding of the natural world after a skills class — an excellent adjunct, and possibly an essential foundation, for teaching about nature, wildlife, plants and native culture. Participants describe feeling empowered and capable, with a real sense of knowledge and awareness outdoors, satisfaction in what they can now do, and a new level of self-assurance. Try an outing, or a series of skills classes, and be amazed at the effect it has.
Fire · Shelter · Tracking · Navigation · Wild edibles
Team-building & Leadership
Ground-based initiatives through to high ropes course challenges, focused on cooperativeness, leadership skills and positive character. Each participant gets real-time feedback on how their own effort contributes to the outcome, so accomplishment is felt individually and as a group. Council then gives everyone a chance to share what happened and carry the lessons into personal, home, school and working life.
Initiatives · Ropes course · Council · Challenges
Specialty Programs
Wildly unique — literally — built around a specific topic of study or an amazing destination, with the journey there part of the program. From a day hike to a night program, astronomy to zoology, cultural programs to adventure trips: a popular way to merge learning goals with California’s splendid natural and cultural heritage.
Night programs · Earth crafts · Kayaking · Camping
Organizing & scheduling
How an outing comes together.
Most participants come through an organized group — someone gathers the families or students, and we design the outings or classes together.
Organize a group
This is how the majority of participants take part. Gather your families or students and we collaborate on outings or classes built to fit your curriculum, chosen topics and preferred park sites across Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Safety, always
Every participant’s physical and emotional safety is a primary concern and diligently upheld — so the day stays positive, rewarding and worth repeating.
Locations
Where the outings happen.
Outings run at park sites across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Further-afield destinations can be arranged for groups willing to drive an hour and a half or more — and if travelling offsite is difficult or prohibitive, many programs can be presented at your school or venue of choice.
Current bookings
This season’s schedule.
As of 7/20/265 bookings listed
More bookings arrive through August. Email to check a date or to add your group to the calendar.
Rates
Payment options.
Cash
$50per participant, per outing
A full field outing, 5–7 hours.
Blue Ridge funds
$60per participant, per outing
Billed through Blue Ridge charter funds.
Weekly classes
$20per participant, per class
Classroom studies once a week, as a series of 4 to 14 weeks.
For children’s programs, accompanying adults attend free and are not counted in the group total. Additional instructors can be arranged for groups larger than 14 — email for a quote on a custom or multi-outing series.
Rob setting up a wild-plant table before a class.
Your instructor
Robert Remedi — Tracker Rob
Naturalist guide, leadership facilitator and outdoor skills instructor
Rob has over 35 years’ experience in the outdoor education field, serving both children and adults. Teaching homeschoolers is a favorite — filling the need for nature time and outdoor education through field outings and classroom learning. He also runs Wilderness Skills School for adults, and continues to upgrade his own knowledge and skills through workshops and classes in outdoor education, ecology and naturalist studies, and wilderness skills.
He has provided programs for Mariposa School for Global Education, Ocean Charter School, Westside Waldorf, Manzanita School, Crossroads School, Pasadena School District, Las Virgenes Unified School District, the National Park Service, California State Parks, Earth Skills, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Wilderness Outdoor Leadership Foundation, The Wilderness Institute and The Sierra Club — plus many other schools, scouts, camps and private organizations.
“My favorite courses involve teaching nature connection, tracking and awareness, wilderness skills, and team-building/leadership. I believe it is vital to the health and well-being of children — and adults — to experience, understand and feel kinship to nature directly and deeply. I sincerely enjoy guiding and inspiring others in this.”
Training & experience from
11 organisations
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Wilderness Awareness School
CyberTracker International
National Outdoor Leadership School
Earth Skills
Outward Bound
The School of Lost Borders
The Wilderness Institute
Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School
Project WILD
Project Learning Tree
From the field
Made, found and followed.
Acorns ground into meal, tracks read in the dust, cordage twisted out of plants, lunch gathered along the way. Nobody watched a demonstration — every one of these came out of a participant’s own hands.
Get in touch
Let’s plan your outing.
Tell me about your group, the ages, the topics you are after and the dates you have in mind — I will help shape an outing or class series that fits.
Organizing a group is the easiest way in — gather a few families or students and we will build the outing around your topics, ages and dates.