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• Cultural Teachings
• Lodge/Hiking Trips
• Backpacking Trips
• Weekend Getaway
• Rafting Expedition
• Plan Your Own Trip
• Corp & Incentive
• Trip Information
• Resources
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Why Choose Kootenay Wilderness Tours?
 
How We Are Different
Alongside our standard adventure and nature activities, such as hiking, backpacking, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking, your visit could include various other enlightening and unique experiences, to encourage us to be stewards and caretakers of the land and better understand our place on Mother Earth:
learning with native elders
wilderness skills training
professional photography
navigation and map reading trainingnature awareness skills
storytellers of legends and native
and mountain life
First Nations craft sessions
singers/musicians
interpretive talks on geology, history, culture, or wildlife
environmental immersion sessions encouraging a closer connection with nature
unique weekend programs, such as yoga and painting retreats, herbal therapy sessions, First Nations crafts and inter-cultural sharing, and Sufi gazing and relationship retreats
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Your Itinerary
All packages begin at our remote meeting/starting point, CrossRiver Wilderness Centre (CWC). Your adventure may consist of daily out-trips, returning to CWC in the evenings, or overnight backpacking trips with tents, depending on your package choice. In many packages, interpretive talks and nature and cultural learning activities are interwoven around the standard outdoor activities in order to complement the activity and enhance your experience of the wilderness as a whole. The itineraries are somewhat flexible, though the packages are designed to build on various themes as the trip unfolds. Furthermore, some itineraries may be more challenging than others, but all offer an element of challenge that can provide various kinds of rewards, from physical, to mental, to emotional, and even spiritual. Your experiences are also organic occurences and some could be very personal in nature. In other words, although we may guide and facilitate programs, nothing is staged, and your experience can rely just as much on what you put into the trip as it does on the itinerary of events.
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Being in the Wilderness
 Both at CWC and at our camp spots in the backcountry, our trips offer guests the unique opportunity to be remote in nature, where they may never see another person. The lodge and cabins of CWC are not on the side of any busy highway or road, nor adjacent to any crowded city or town. Our trails as well are predominantly outside the national parks (though they may get us there by a remote "backdoor" so to speak), and many have been created by us, or were old, over-grown, outfitter trails that we cleaned and re-opened in the early nineties. Very few people ever travel the same trails, and on some of them we have never seen anybody else on the trail, ever. We consider this to be an incredible gift in today’s world, and it is something we honor and protect (see our Environmental Responsibility Policy for more information).
In this environment, however, we are accessible by a gravel road, and we take every precaution possible to make your trip safe, comfortable, and enjoyable. On all our guided trips we bring two-way radios and a satellite phone, and our hiking guides are all trained and certified in backcountry navigation, rescue, and hazard analysis. Even more importantly, however, in keeping with our mission statement, we aim to provide opportunities for all our guests to rediscover nature through this heightened connection to the natural world. The wilderness to us is not something to be feared, but has a potential to empower, rejuvenate, and inspire you at any given moment - and it will. Basic nature awareness skills that we role-model and share on our trips with all guests can significantly add to your experience of the wilderness, and isn't experiencing the wilderness why we are out here in the first place?
Our wilderness out trips consist mainly of hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, canoeing, and rafting. They all offer you unique ways to enjoy the wilderness, and are all safely conducted in remote backcountry environments, where the views are spectacular, the wildlife roams, and the trails sometimes fizzle to nothing. Much of our focus is on balancing personal comfort with amazing natural experiences that you can’t get in the city, or even the busier parts of the Rocky Mountains. While providing some comfort, however, we are also continually aware of being in the wild. A few common experiences that our guests continually enjoy out here are: the sweet smells of the wildflowers in the forest and sub-alpine meadows; the sound of the nearby trickling creek, or screeching Red-Tailed Hawk or Golden Eagle; the breathtaking mountain views all around with the pristine blue alpine lakes beneath; and chance sightings of the abundant wildlife, including bears, deer, elk, wolves, cougars, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and marmots.
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Delicious Home-Cooked Meals
Sleeping and hiking surrounded by fresh mountain air and wilderness can very well provide you with a rest or experience perhaps more fulfilling than you have experienced before - and an appetite to go with it. All of our meals are planned or prepared by our Head Chef, a former owner of a catering company in Calgary, and our assistant and certified nutritionist. Their delicious home-cooked meals may well be one of your fondest memories while here, as many past guests have commented. Furthermore, due to popular demand, many of these meals are currently being collected for a CrossRiver Creations Cookbook, soon to be published. Whenever possible, only wild or organic foods are used in the meals, such as Wild Salmon, Buffalo, or organic chicken, fruit, and vegetables. Our chef is also experienced in preparing vegetarian meals, and catering to specific dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free meals and nut allergies. All meals, whether breakfast, lunch, or dinner, are creative and unique, with a home-cooked mountain flare, and a multi-culturally Canadian spirit.
 For those coffee lovers, the slight aroma of fresh coffee brewing in the main lodge or at our camp spot, will awaken your spirits in the mornings. Tea, hot chocolate, assorted juices, and hot apple cider are also available. Cooking in the backcountry can sometimes be an art, and our guides prepare meals that, in their experience, work best to balance nutrition and taste with the practicality of backpacking. Some of the many popular dishes you can enjoy during your KWT package are: hearty hashbrown casserole with jam buster muffins; egg spinach wraps with hemp hearts; wild rice & mushroom pilaf with mandarin orange salad; tex-mex chicken with a mango and red pepper salsa; a vegetarian supreme mélange with exotic spinach salad; creamy potato corn chowder; many cheerful fresh-fruit platters; and an assortment of scrumptious homemade desserts. Mmmm.
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Interesting Groups and Amazing People
 Each package presents guests with the amazing opportunity to meet people from all backgrounds and from all over the world. People travel from both near and far to take part in our packages, and many have left with new friends from many different countries. Some of the people we have been happy to share our home with hail from all parts of Canada and the USA, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, Belgium, Austria, France, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. This incredible cross-cultural variety adds much to the fabric of our packages and groups, and provides a unique opportunity to learn from each other and grow together within our grounded natural environment. From journalists and conservation workers, to lawyers, business people, teachers, students, full-time parents, children, doctors, artists, musicians, retired grandparents, scientists, travel agents, and aboriginal elders and pipe carriers, many have shared and will share something of themselves with us and we acknowledge them for leaving a part of themselves here with us to feed the land. For more information on our groups, people, and programs see our Social Responsibility Policy.
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