Note: This is your opportunity to begin friendships with other participants along with meeting your leaders.

Arrive To: Registration and check-in begin at 4pm. We can typically accommodate some early arrivals.

Dinner: Welcome dinner. Food Service at Tilikum: We strive to present our guests with outstanding customer service and top-quality food. We make this possible by preparing our food from scratch, utilizing the freshest local ingredients and herbs picked fresh from our garden. We are happy to accommodate your special dietary needs with advance notice. Meals will include homemade bread, from scratch pastries and desserts, local & freshly roasted coffees along with a variety of menus.

Evening: Program orientation and introductions

Lodging: Tilikum Center for Retreats

Meals Included: Dinner

Note: We immediately travel up to the winter fort for Lewis and Clark's expedition on their arrival at the mouth of the Columbia River. Then climb the Astoria Column to get a birdseye view of the joining of the Columbia with the Pacific Ocean.

Breakfast: In the dining room. Fresh coffee available around 6:30 am. Breakfast typically includes a starch such as honey wheat pancakes or French toast, scrambled eggs, local peppered bacon, fresh seasonal fruit platter, cereal bar* & 100% fruit juice along with coffee, tea and cocoa beverages. *Includes a variety of cold cereals and our famous seven-grain hot cereal.

Morning: Field trip to Fort Clatsop and Astoria, OR. Fort Clatsop was the winter encampment for Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery from December 1805 to March 1806. The visitor center includes the re-created Fort Clatsop as built by the explorers, an interpretive center offering an exhibit hall, gift shop and an orientation film. Experience life in the fort through historical re-enactors.

Lunch: Picnic Lunch, Fort Clatsop

Afternoon: Astoria was the location of the first permanent American Settlement west of the Rockies. A trolley ride along the waterfront lets you see the center of early Astoria. The Astoria Column was erected in 1926 at an elevation of 600 feet atop Coxcomb Hill. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, and was refurbished in 1995. This impressive Oregon Coast historical monument is the only one of its kind in the world! The column displays 14 scenes commemorating important events in the history of Astoria in chronological order. The mural scrolls around the 125-foot-high structure in an upward spiral direction, with the earliest scene at the base of the column. An interior 164-step spiral staircase leads to the top of a viewing platform with spectacular views. Return to Tilikum.

Dinner: In the Tilikum dining room.

Evening: Flora and fauna lake walk followed by video of the building of Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood.

Lodging: Tilikum Center for Retreats

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Fort Vancouver/Pioneer Crafts Overnight in a tent camp with dinner over an open fire.

Note: Why was Fort Vancouver so critical in the settling of the Oregon Territory? Displays and enactments will help you create your opinions of this important conflict between the British and United States. Then create your own games and crafts as children would have done during these early settlement years. End the day with cooking your dinner over an open campfire and sleeping in a rustic tent camp on Tilikum's North Ridge.

Breakfast: In the dining room.

Morning: Travel to Vancouver, WA to explore Fort Vancouver. As the administrative center and principal supply depot of the British Hudson's Bay Company's vast "Columbia Department," Fort Vancouver served as the hub of an extensive fur trading network utilizing two dozen posts, six ships, and about 600 employees during peak seasons, with an extensive geographic range of 700,000 square miles stretching from Russian Alaska to Mexican California, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Hawaiian Islands. Interactive tour includes visiting the blacksmith's shop, exploring the kitchen and living quarters of Hudson Bay Company leaders, and the Warehouse where furs are counted, weighed and bundled for shipment.

Lunch: Picnic lunch at Fort Vancouver.

Afternoon: Return to Tilikum for canoeing, swimming, fishing, visit barn animals.

Dinner: Around the campfire at Tilikum's North Ridge tented camp.

Evening: Setting up your campsite for the night. Pioneer crafts, games and activities including making humdingers and ball toss, learning to play jacks and marbles.

Lodging: Tilikum Center for Retreats

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Columbia River Gorge/Multnomah Falls/Bonneville Dam/Fish Ladders/Sternwheeler Ride

Note: Back-tracking Lewis and Clark we move up the mighty Columbia River Gorge, gaining an greater appreciation of the difficulties experienced by westward bound settlers. Imagine yourself in a dugout canoe as you ply the waters of the Columbia on board a large Sternwheeler vessel. Picture fishing for salmon from remaining native American fishing platforms.

Breakfast: At the campsite

Morning: Visit to Columbia River Gorge, Crown Point and Multnomah Falls. The Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular river canyon cutting the only sea-level route through the Cascade Mountain Range. It's 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep with the north canyon walls in Washington State and the south canyon walls in Oregon State. The interpretive center at Crown Point's Vista House is located on the western end of the Historic Columbia River Highway. Multnomah Falls is the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the nation. The water of the Falls drops 620 feet from its origin on Larch Mountain.

Lunch: Picnic Lunch at a park along the Columbia River.

Afternoon: Explore Bonneville Dam and fish ladders. Bonneville Lock and Dam consists of several dam structures that together complete a span of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. The dam is located 40 miles east of Portland, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. The primary functions of Bonneville Lock and Dam are electrical power generation and river navigation. The dam was built and is managed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Bonneville Lock and Dam is named for Army Capt. Benjamin Bonneville, an early explorer credited with charting much of the Oregon Trail. Count migrating salmon and other fish through windowed fish ladders. Experience the history of the Columbia River Gorge and learn about the Lewis and Clark Expedition on a cruise aboard the Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler. We board from Marine Park at Cascade Locks, in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Enjoy the riverboat cruises on an authentic triple-deck paddle wheeler, providing 360 degrees of breathtaking vistas. View Native American tribes' legendary platforms where they have fished for centuries.

Dinner: Dinner and overnight in Hood River.

Evening: Relaxation and/or activity options in Hood River including indoor pool at hotel.

Lodging: Comfort Suites

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Travel through the Hood River Valley following the route of the Barlow Trail. Ride theTimberline Magic-Mile chairlift. Be a pioneer at Philip Foster Farm. Overnight in a tent camp with dinner over an open fire.

Note: This is our day to walk in the tracks of the wagon trains coming around the majestic Mt Hood. You will experience life as a farm child on an early settlers farm in the recreated living historic Philip Foster Farm. End the day with cooking your dinner over an open campfire and sleeping in a rustic tent camp on Tilikum's North Ridge.

Breakfast: At your leisure, many choices offered by the hotel.

Morning: Travel to Mt. Hood National Forest. Stand on sections of the Oregon Trail/Barlow Road. See where wagons were lowered down Laurel Hill. Timberline Chairlift Ride on Mt. Hood and Class Discussion. The Barlow Road allowed thousands of Oregon Trail emigrants to travel overland to the Willamette Valley rather than risk floating the dangerous Columbia River. Travelers crossed through Summit Meadow and what is now the village of Government Camp, proceeding west toward the infamous Laurel Hill. The steepest section of the road was the Laurel Hill “Chute,” where wagons skidded down a treacherous grade.

Lunch: Picnic Lunch at Tollgate Park. Tollgate Campground was originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and some historic features, such as rock fireplaces and a reconstructed picnic shelter still remain. The Pioneer Bridle Trail passes through the campground. A replica of the Barlow Trail Tollgate is just east of the campground.

Afternoon: Visit the Philip Foster Farm. Philip Foster, one of Oregon's earliest pioneers, was a leader in the establishment of Oregon. His farm and home in Eagle Creek played an important part in the history of the Barlow Road, which followed the south side of Mt. Hood as an alternative to the treacherous Columbia River route. Either option held great danger: navigate the river's swift currents and rapids, or risk the steep slopes and early winter snows in the mountains. Foster helped fund, build and operate the Barlow Road at various times between 1848 and 1865, guiding thousands of covered wagons into the Willamette Valley. Foster took a 640 acre donation land claim at Eagle Creek in the late 1840's. The Philip Foster place was a welcome sight for pioneers coming down that one last hill into the Willamette Valley and the start of a new life in the new land. Today Philip and Mary Foster's Farm still plays host to thousands. From April through October schoolchildren engage in activities that were part of the daily life of Oregon's earliest settlers. Move up to North Ridge tented camp on the Tilikum property for the night.

Dinner: Help prepare your dinner over a campfire at your camp site.

Evening: Campfire and Pioneer Storytelling. Then sleep overnight in a tent as the early explorers and pioneers did.

Lodging: Tilikum Center for Retreats

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Note: As you say good-bye to your new friends, we trust your interest in history and the settlement of our nation will have only begun.

Breakfast: Final breakfast at the tent camp.

Morning: Return to the Retreat Center for final class session, packing and wrap-up.

Lunch: Lunch available onsite or as "to-go" option for travellers who must leave promptly. Final departure by 12pm.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch