By Martha Craig
Nicole Kennedy was not always a wilderness enthusiast. “My mom took us car camping,” says the Pennsylvania native, “but it wasn’t until I went off to college in the Colorado Rockies that I fell in love with the outdoors.” Now a Wilderness Youth Coordinator for Olympic National Park, 38-year-old Kennedy is on a mission to inspire in the hearts and minds of young, novice backpackers the same passion she first felt in the Rockies and transform them into lifelong advocates for our National Parks.
Kennedy describes her position as a kind of hybrid post, falling somewhere between Youth Programs and Wilderness Information Services, under the aegis of the Park’s Interpretation, Education, Volunteer & Youth Programs. Her position was created, around four years ago, to provide extra support and welcome for nonprofit organizations that are leading backpacking trips for young people in Olympic National Park. These backpacking expeditions range from fairly easy beginner’s trips to technical explorations and encompass as many as 30 different organizations in a given season. In her capacity as Wilderness Youth Coordinator, Kennedy functions as a liaison between the Park and these nonprofit organizations.
One of the organizations Kennedy works with is the Seattle Y. The Y’s BOLD and GOLD program, an alternative to regular summer camps, offers approximately 20 guided backpacking trips per season in Olympic National Park, and throughout the Pacific Northwest, for kids ages 11 to 18. Everyone who spends the night in the park needs a backpacking permit, but organizations need special permits because of the greater impact they pose to the Park. Kennedy meets with these groups and helps them with permitting, making sure the group leader has the proper certifications in order( First Aid, CPR and Food Handlers permits, as well as annual special use certification) and she issues their wilderness permit. ”My goal,” Kennedy says, “is to help people who are guiding kids in the park do a better job and give them the support they need to do that.”
“I try to help reinforce what the group leader is doing,” Kennedy adds. “I also provide any assistance or information they might need to make their trip a good one. For example, I give them updates on the condition of the trail they’ve chosen, let them know if a pit toilet on their route is full, where to find one they can use, and so forth. I provide the kind of practical updated information that will make their trip easier.”
Often the young people Kennedy encounters are embarking on their first adventure in the Park and may find the sight of a uniformed ranger a little intimidating. Kennedy makes sure that their initial experience with a park ranger is a positive one. She talks with the groups about how special Olympic National Park is, with the goal of sparking a sense of stewardship. “I try to help them make the internal connection to the Park that can create an outward change.” Large groups and new backpackers can have challenges when it comes to ‘leaving no trace.’ Kennedy tries to empower them, from the start, with the information to do it right. “Olympic National Park is known for its eco diversity. We want to make sure that a more diverse audience feels welcome in the Park.”
Kennedy took a long and winding path to Olympic National Park. After graduating from the Air Force Academy with a degree in meteorology, she served as a weather officer in both Alaska and Utah, finding herself, once again, in places of spectacular natural beauty. After leaving the Air Force, Kennedy worked as a backpacking guide for a nonprofit in Spokane and made several spring break trips to Olympic National Park. In 2014, she joined the Park staff as a wilderness information assistant, assuming her current position in 2017.
Today Kennedy works as part of a four-person team in the Park’s Volunteer and Youth Programs Office, meeting with backpacking groups each week in Port Angeles, Staircase (near Hoodsport), and Quinault, and helping them to coordinate their itineraries. She is passionate about Olympic National Park. Kennedy loves the creative force of the ocean and storms on the shoreline, the Park’s diversity and ruggedness, the way it’s the close-in view of trees, moss and streams, that’s full of life and wonder. Kennedy has another more personal connection to the Park, as well: her husband proposed to her on the top of Mount Storm King. “The photo of our engagement appeared in the Interior Department email newsletter’s Valentine’s Day edition with the caption ‘Love in the Park’,” she laughs.
What’s it like to have ‘the best job in the world?’ For, Kennedy, it’s the privilege of working outside in proximity to such incredible natural beauty, particularly in the fall, when the air gets crisp and cool, and the berries are ripe. She loves sharing her work environment with the Park’s wild residents. “I really like marmots,” she says. “Ours are endemic to the Park—they’re only on the peninsula. They build little porches and lounge there, occasionally alerting each other with chirps. They like to chill in beautiful places. My kind of animal.” Finally, she loves having the opportunity to convey her passion for the Park and watch it take hold in each new wave of visitors. “It’s incredibly satisfying when people come back from a coastal backpacking adventure and can’t wait to tell me, ‘We saw a whale spout!’ I love that.”