Afternoon: Plan to arrive to the Outdoor Learning Center between 3:30 PM and 5:00 PM.

Dinner: Enjoy a hearty dinner, catered on site by a local establishment specializing in homemade pasta.

Evening: Welcome and orientation with introductions is held in the classroom. Meet your instructors, review the schedule for the week, and spend some time getting to know your fellow participants.

Activity note: Today includes both hiking and canoeing. The shorter duration of each will provide a sense of what the longer trips will be like for each of the remaining days of the week.

Breakfast: Enjoy a nourishing breakfast with the group at a local restaurant.

Morning: On the ground, learn or review basic canoeing techniques, including points of safety. Once comfortable with the basics, head out onto Fall Lake, putting your skills to work. Small group size allows instructors ample time to help participants one-on-one.

Lunch: Enjoy a lunch and comparing notes with your fellow learners.

Afternoon: Learn tree identification, becoming familiar with common northern Minnesota trees. Learn about other indigenous plants. Take a short nature walk in the Superior National Forest, leaving right from our classroom door.

Dinner: Enjoy a hearty dinner with the group at a local restaurant.

Evening: Enjoy an optional evening paddle, some free time, or possibly a regional presenter.

Activity note: Today's hike is over semi-rugged terrain, covering between three and four miles of trail offering some scenic overlooks.

Breakfast: Enjoy breakfast with the group at a local restaurant.

Morning: Leave for three-quarter day hiking field trip on the Secret-Blackstone Hiking Trail. See an area affected by the tremendous windstorm, which swept through the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area and the Superior National Forest on July 4, 1999. Learn about wilderness camping as you walk through a wilderness lakeside campsite.

Lunch: Enjoy a sack lunch on the trail, possibly at one of several scenic overlooks along the trail.

Afternoon: Continue hiking field trip. Total hike for the day is about five miles, over semi-rugged terrain. A lecture on the plants and wildflowers of northeastern Minnesota follows.

Dinner: Choose a restaurant in Ely to enjoy a dinner on your own.

Evening: It's Tuesday Night Live in Ely! Take in one of several performances by local musicians sharing a variety of musical styles. Tuesday is also Farmers Market and a night for shops to be open later, making it a perfect night for exploring the quaint town of Ely.

Activity note: The length of today's paddle is dependent upon the ability of group members, the weather, and what destination is chosen by the group.

Breakfast: Enjoy breakfast with the group at a local restaurant.

Morning: Leave for three-quarter day canoeing field trip in the Superior National Forest, or in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Destination will be selected with input from the group and direction from the instructors.

Lunch: Beach the canoes and eat a lakeside picnic lunch.

Afternoon: Continue canoeing field trip, enjoying more north woods scenery. Upon return to the OLC, participate in a classroom session on North Woods Animals.

Dinner: Enjoy a hearty dinner with the group at a local restaurant.

Evening: Study wolf ecology with someone from the International Wolf Center. Learn about prey, habits, habitats, and eating behavior.

Activity note: This is the most rugged of the two hikes. Depending upon route taken, it will be between four and six miles of hiking over rugged terrain through a variety of habitats, including a rocky, and now dry, lake bed.

Breakfast: Enjoy breakfast with the group at a local restaurant.

Morning: Leave for three-quarter day hiking field trip on the Bass Lake Hiking Trail. Enjoy the variations in scenery and habitat, as you hike this five mile trail which covers some topography that was at one point in time a lake bottom.

Lunch: Eat a picnic lunch in the field. The lunch spot selected may be one of several scenic overlooks, or the rocky ledge by Dry Falls, a not so dry waterfall.

Afternoon: Continue hiking field trip. The terrain of this hiking trail is semi-rugged (a bit more so than the previous hike) and it is helpful to most people to use a walking stick.

Dinner: Enjoy a hearty dinner with the group at a local restaurant.

Evening: Enjoy an evening paddle, possibly in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Area, accessed through Fall Lake.

Activity note: Again, the level of difficulty of the canoe outing is dependent upon the skills of the group's members, weather conditions, and route chosen.

Breakfast: Enjoy your breakfast with the group at a local restaurant.

Morning: Leave for three-quarter day canoeing field trip in the Superior National Forest. Selection of actual destination varies, depending upon input of each program week's group. A popular destination is the Dead River, connecting Burntside Lake and Twin Lakes.

Lunch: Beach the canoes and enjoy a lakeside sack lunch.

Afternoon: Continue canoeing field trip. Upon return to the center, have some time to explore Ely on your own before dinner.

Dinner: Enjoy a hearty dinner at a local restaurant, and with others in the group, recount your adventures of the week.

Evening: Participate in the closing ceremonies around a lakeside campfire. Review what you have learned during the week, share stories, and enjoy the camaraderie with other participants and your instructors on this last night before departure.

Breakfast: Eat a continental breakfast at the Outdoor Learning Center.

Morning: Be checked out of your cabin by 9:00 AM.