View from Keene Channel Lodge

Alaska 2009 Inside Passages Kayaking Retreats

After a year-long sabbatical in 2008, Inside Passages will resume its popular kayaking meditation retreats in Alaska during the summer of 2009. Trip dates will be:

     July 17-24,  July 27-August 3

The retreats this year will be based out of the Keene Channel Lodge on the Wrangell Narrows, a secluded former sport fishing lodge located fifteen miles south of Petersburg at the junction of Beecher Pass and Duncan Canal. Keene Channel is five miles from the nearest road, with access by boat and float plane. The combination of seclusion and ease of access makes it an ideal launching pad for explorations of the surrounding islands and waterways.

The lodge provides an excellent setting for day and overnight kayak trips in sheltered waters, and offers rustic but comfortable accommodations. Retreats will begin and end at the lodge, and will include a multi-day overnight kayak camping trip during the heart of the retreat. As with past Inside Passages retreats, the opportunity to explore meditation practice in a wilderness setting offers a superb chance to experience presence, both inner and outer, through a variety of contemplative disciplines.

The forests and waters around Keene Channel are home to many species of wildlife, including wolf, black bear and Sitka blacktail deer. The local waters harbor plentiful salmon and halibut, seals, porpoises and Stellar sea lions. The nearby Wrangell Narrows form an important link in the Inside Passage route from Puget Sound to Southeast Alaska.

Your Guides for the 2009 Season

As Head Guide, Kurt Hoelting brings fifteen years experience as a wilderness guide in Alaska. He has led over forty kayaking retreat expeditions in Alaska, and has taught meditation for many years to groups as varied as clergy and rabbis, environmental activists, health care professionals and veterans at the VA Hospital in Seattle.

In 2008, Kurt took a year-long sabbatical, vowing not to get in a car for a full year, or travel more than 100 kilometers from his home in Puget Sound. In an effort to both lower his carbon footprint, and explore his home region, he traveled over 1000 miles on foot, 3000 miles by bicycle, and 400 miles by kayak, all within a 100 km circle drawn around his home. He is currently at work on a book chronicling his experiences.

Kurt will be joined once again in Alaska by Emi Morgan as assistant guide, cook and logistics coordinator. A recent graduate of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Emi has worked as a kayak guide and outdoor educator from Alaska to Costa Rica. She brings an exceptional combination of warmth, enthusiasm and skill to her work.

Emi currently works for the San Juan Initiative, helping to improve shoreline management in San Juan County, WA. She also has a passion for organic agriculture, and works to connect local farmers with local markets and restaurants in the Puget Sound area.

Back by popular demand to join Kurt as co-facilitator on these retreats is Gordon Peerman. Gordon is an Episcopal Priest who teaches meditation at Vanderbilt Law, Medical and Divinity Schools in Nashville, TN. He has for many years taught MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) at hospitals in the Nashville area, and leads a popular Buddhist meditation group in Nashville weekly with his wife Kathy. 

Gordon is the author of Blessed Relief: What Christians Have To Learn From Buddhists About Suffering. 

****************

Trip Cost: $1975, airfare to Petersburg, Alaska not included.

For more information, contact Kurt at insidepa@whidbey.com, or Gordon Peerman at gpeerman@comcast.net