Big Creek 2026: An Idaho Wilderness Expedition
One Stone's SUMMIT Outdoor Leadership Program
Some experiences are hard to put into words. The Big Creek Expedition 2026 is one of them — but we're going to try.
This spring, 13 One Stone high school students embarked on one of the most ambitious experiential learning experiences our school has ever offered. What began ten weeks before departure as a social science intensive on the human history of Big Creek ended seven days later with a group of young people who hiked 35 miles through the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness and came home fundamentally changed.
Before the Trail: Human History Through Big Creek
The expedition didn't start at the trailhead. It started in the classroom — or rather, in the One Stone way: deeply, curiously, and with real stakes.
In the ten weeks leading up to departure, students read Maurice Hornocker's Cougars on the Cliff, which opened doors into wildlife biology, big game hunting, and the legislative history of Wilderness and the Frank Church. They researched the arrival of humans in North America and Idaho specifically, learned about the tribes who have inhabited Big Creek since time immemorial, and developed individual research projects on topics ranging from the Sheepeater Campaign, to the life of Wilbur Wiles, to the history of aviation on Big Creek.
Every student became a resident expert on some corner of Big Creek's history and culture — ready to share it with the group once boots hit the trail.
They also practiced backcountry safety and first aid, worked on leadership and teamwork through outdoor challenges, and even had the chance to meet Dr. Maurice Hornocker himself, who visited One Stone to talk with this year's group. By all accounts, the students were completely awed.
Into the Wild: Inspiring Connections with Nature
On May 24th, the group met at One Stone at 4:30am, loaded the van, and drove to Smith Aviation in Cascade. From there, bush planes carried them into the Big Creek airstrip — and just like that, they were in one of the most remote places in the lower 48.
Over the next five days, they covered 35 miles of trail entirely to themselves. No other hikers. No shortcuts. Just wilderness.
The highlights tell the story better than any summary could: significant creek crossings and high water at Big Ramey Creek. Hundreds of ticks. About six morel mushrooms. A wolf spotted at Monumental Creek — close enough to stop everyone in their tracks. Sandhill cranes, bull snakes, mule deer, and bighorn sheep. A frigid swim at Coxey Hole. Rhubarb harvested and cooked at the old Dewey Moore homestead on Acorn Creek. Ancient pictographs in the Big Creek gorge. Waiting out a thunderstorm together in the Big Creek Cave. And through it all — laughter, grit, and a group of students figuring out who they are when the trail gets hard.
Taylor Wilderness Research Station: Off the Grid and Into Wilderness Culture
The expedition ended — and in many ways peaked — at the University of Idaho's Taylor Wilderness Research Station, a fully off-grid outpost deep in the Frank Church that gave students a rare window into what it means to truly live in and with Wilderness.
Students learned about backcountry and off-grid living from the station manager, who gave every student the chance to work with and ride the station's pack horses and mules. There were cat cuddles, dog snuggles, and falling asleep under a sky full of stars. Nobody wanted to leave.
When the bush planes touched down to carry them out of the Frank Church, every student boarded with something they didn't have a week before — a relationship with a wild place, and the knowledge that they belong in it.
What They Carried Home
More than anything, we are proud of who our students became on the trail.
They persisted through discomfort. They communicated through hard moments. They made thoughtful decisions under pressure, shared their knowledge with one another, and showed up for each other in the way that only people who've been through something real together can.
At the end of the expedition, every single student said they were excited to backpack again — and felt more prepared for Wilderness than they had before. Several students who had never backpacked, or who doubted their own abilities, thrived. That might be the thing we're most proud of.
Big Adventures Don't Happen Alone
An expedition like this doesn't come together without a community that believes in young people — and we are so grateful for ours.
A heartfelt thank you to the Selway Bitterroot–Frank Church Foundation and the Idaho Humanities Council for their generous grant support, which made this expedition possible and helped put the right books in students' hands. Thank you to the University of Idaho's Taylor Wilderness Research Station for opening your doors, sharing your world, and giving our students an experience they'll carry for a lifetime. And thank you to Boise Co-op for fueling the trail with lunches and making sure nobody hiked hungry.
Thank you also to our 39 incredible individual donors — many of whom gave for the first time this year — whose generosity went directly toward getting these students into the backcountry.
It takes a village to get 13 students into the wilderness. We are so lucky to have ours.
What's Next
We hope to bring The Big Creek Expedition back again next year — and we're already dreaming bigger. Plans are underway for a fall backpacking trip, an expanded winter yurt trip, and potentially a summer 2027 Wilderness experience for students.
Once you've seen what the wilderness does to a teenager who thought they couldn't do it — you want every student to have that chance.
Stay tuned for more SUMMIT Outdoor Leadership Program News 🐺
