Along ancestral paths shaped by both footstep and paw, we’ll journey into Yosemite’s high country—homeland of the Ahwahneechee and other Miwok Peoples—to encounter the teachings of the Bear. For five days and four nights, an intimate circle (up to eleven participants + four guides) will backpack among glacial basins, alpine meadows, ancient forests, and deep clear lakes, walking with wonder, curiosity, and reverence for the living land.
This retreat invites us to step into the dreamspace where ecology meets myth. Across the Northern Hemisphere, from the cave art of Ice Age Europe to the healing ceremonies of Siberian shamans and the stories of North America’s first peoples, Bear has stood as a keeper of thresholds—guardian of sleep and waking, of death and renewal, of body and spirit. As we move through bear habitat, we will listen for these deep archetypal echoes, tracking shadowing the Bear not only through physical track & sign, but through story, memory, and our own bodies.
We will backpack into the high wild and move camp twice during the journey, allowing us to explore the land more freely and follow bear trails unburdened by our full packs. Each day’s hike will be held in spacious presence, with opportunities for shared mythopoetic inquiry, earth-based contemplative practice, and ecological learning. As we walk and camp in bear country, we will attune ourselves to the rhythms and wisdom of the ursine—the slow, the strong, the inward-turning. We’ll ask: What does Bear teach us about resilience, about protection, about spaces in-between?
Guiding this journey are three primary instructors: master tracker and ecologist Meghan Walla-Murphy, who will invite us into the mysteries and depth of animal tracking and Bear myth; writer and religious scholar Erik Davis, who will offer earthy Zen meditations tuned to inner journeys and outer encounters; and Wildtender co-founder Fletcher Tucker, who will share pan-cultural perspectives on human-Bear kinship. Together, they create a vessel for turning toward the land—and toward Bear, our ancient relative—as our deepest teachers.
Meet your guides
MEGHAN WALLA-MURPHY
Meghan is a wildlife ecologist, masterful tracker, and a gifted instructor of adults and young people. She has spent the past 20 years dedicating herself to the art of wildlife tracking. This dedication has now become the lens through which she moves about the world. Tracking continually teaches Meghan to get out of her own way and observe what is beyond herself. It has also given her the skills to read a landscape, better understand ecology, and apply these skills to conservation and social justice challenges in her work.
Fletcher Tucker
Wildtender Co-Founder Fletcher was raised by the foggy redwood ravines and fragrant chaparral bluffs of the Esselen tribal territory now known as Big Sur, California. Fletcher is a lifelong student of natural history, an ancestral skills practitioner, devotee of trail-craft and minimalist backpacking, an experienced teacher of adults and children, and a multidisciplinary artist.
Fletcher’s inner work includes ongoing exploration in Zen and Taoist practices/philosophy; over a decade of study in the Gestalt lineage of Esalen Institute co-founder Dick Price; and engagement with the Earth-reverent, spiritual practices of his own Celtic and Nordic ancestors.
Fletcher is a NOLS certified Wilderness First Responder.
Erik Davis
Erik Davis, PhD, is an author, award-winning journalist, and teacher based in San Francisco. His wide-ranging work focuses on the intersection of alternative religion, media, and the popular imagination. He is the author, most recently, of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (2019). He also wrote Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010), The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape (2006), a critical volume on Led Zeppelin (2005), and the celebrated cult classic TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (1998).
Davis’s scholarly and popular essays on music, technoculture, drugs, and spirituality have appeared in scores of books, magazines, and journals, and his writing has been translated into a dozen languages. Davis has spoken widely at universities, conferences, retreat centers, and festivals, and has been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, NPR, and the New York Times.
He graduated from Yale University in 1988 and earned his PhD in religious studies at Rice University in 2015. He writes the online publication the Burning Shore (www.burningshore.com). In 2022, he co-founded the Alembic, a Berkeley center for meditation, movement, citizen neuroscience, and visionary culture.
Rachel Goldberger
Rachel Goldberger has called Big Sur home for the past eight years. A devoted creek-jumper and ocean-dipper, she finds daily inspiration in the rhythms of the Big Sur wild and the resilience of the people who live here. Through her work with the Community Association of Big Sur, a local nonprofit, she advocates for community wellbeing, land stewardship, and sustainable tourism. Rachel has a background in marine science, which laid the foundation for her ongoing study of Big Sur’s native plants and their culinary and healing properties. Her home garden and love for cooking inspire a deep sense of connection, both of which she shares through her involvement with the local food pantry, The Big Share.
Rachel is a certified Wilderness First Responder.
Program Registration
Sliding-Scale Tuition
$1,750 – Supported Rate (covers a portion of the cost of your program)
$2,050 – Sustainer Rate (covers the immediate cost of your program, but does not financially support Wildtender in a significant way)
$2,350 – Helper Rate (covers the cost of your program and contributes some financial support for Wildtender)
$2,750 – Benefactor Rate (covers the cost of your program, contributes generously to the financial support of another, and supports Wildtender’s ongoing organizational capacity and stability)
TUITION INCLUDES
four-night / five-day guided wilderness pilgrimage
Instruction in tracking, natural history & ecology, kinship philosophy and practices, wilderness & backpacking essentials, meditation and nature and relational awareness practices
Camp meals and beverages (breakfast & dinner each day)
Shared wilderness & safety supplies (maps, satellite communication device, water filters, cooking supplies, first aid, etc.)
Resource list & preparation packet
Preliminary phone call to address any questions or concerns
Guide fees (for Wilderness First Responder certified guides)
Wilderness permits, including permit to stay night before and after program in “backpackers campground”
Bear canister rentals
TUITION EXCLUDES
Travel to and from the program
Lunches and snacks on the trail
$35 Yosemite National Park entrance pass (paid upon driving in)
Personal backpacking equipment. A full packing list will be supplied upon registration (or upon request), but here are the essential items you will definitely need to buy, borrow or rent: hiking boots & clothing, backpacking backpack, lightweight tent, lightweight sleeping bag (rated 15-20 degrees F or even lower if you are a very cold sleeper), lightweight sleeping pad and headlamp.
Travel insurance is strongly recommended. If this program is canceled due to wildfire/wildfire smoke or other inclement conditions, no refunds or credits will be offered. Please factor $175-$300 into your budget (depending on your age, location and plan), and note that the most comprehensive (“cancel for any reason” benefit) plans that we recommend need to be booked within 20 days of making your deposit. More context and specific recommendations can be found here.
Other Information
Terms & Conditions (including registration and cancellation terms, and program requirements)