The Colorado Outdoor Adventure
Guide School with Willie Webb, Jr.
What You’ll Learn at the Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School
 Editor’s Note: The Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School (COAGS), of
Cripple Creek Colorado, is a unique learning environment which includes
indoor classroom instruction and outdoor, hands-on activities that provide
the students with the groundwork needed to attain success in the
outdoor-recreation industry. Although most of the students aspire to become
employed in the outdoors, COAGS welcomes any outdoors enthusiast who wants
to become more comfortable in the wilds to participate in any or all of the
courses.
The Basic Program is the foundation for all students wanting to better their
outdoor skills or those pursuing a career in the great outdoors. The
subjects taught in this basic program are a prerequisite to the three
advanced classes: Pro Guide and Outfitter, Advanced Backcountry Horseman and
Pro Fly Fishing. In late January 2006, COAGS inaugurated a new course, the
Whitetail Pro Guide and Management School. All COAGS courses are two weeks
in length consisting of 120 hours of instruction with classes held Monday
through Friday with weekends free for students to sight-see. The Basic
Program curriculum covers a variety of subjects and opportunities for the
students, including land navigation, wilderness survival, conservation and
standard first aid and CPR. The horsemanship, fly-fishing, photography,
videography, writing and camp-cooking courses open doors to career
opportunities never previously considered by some students. Land navigation
covers map, compass and global positioning system (GPS) skills, preparing
the student with the abilities needed to turn a survival situation into just
an uncomfortable experience. COAGS feels strongly that conservation and
“Leave No Trace” should be a common part of any outdoor person’s vocabulary.
Students use the history and the practices learned at the school to teach
others the importance of the human roles in the destruction, the rebuilding
and the preservation of Mother Nature and her bounty. Too, we all know that
accidents happen in outdoor activities, and being certified in first aid and
CPR can save someone’s life.
 Camp cooking instruction begins every morning with a different team helping
out in the kitchen. Instruction begins with cooking basics and advances to
cooking with emphasis on high-altitude preparations and adjustments. At the
end of the basic instruction, students spend all day learning to cook over
camp fires and coals and with Dutch ovens. The students divide into
different groups and cook different stages of a meal. The horsemanship
classes in the Basic Program explain fundamentals used throughout the
advanced courses. Students learn differences between mules, horses and other
members of the equine family. They’re instructed in COAGS’s system of
catching, grooming, saddling, controlling an animal in the round pen and
trail riding and dismounting in the mountains. A basic knowledge of equine
nutrition, health issues and psychology is also emphasized.
For two subjects, fly fishing and outdoor writing, photography and
videography, COAGS’s brings in outside or guest speakers. The fly-fishing
speaker, Ed Engle, has guided all over North America and speaks at
fly-fishing venues across the United States during the winter months. He
teaches casting, knots, studying hatches and other aspects of the art of fly
fishing. The outdoor writing, photography and videography portion of the
Basic Program is presented by Rocky Mountain Television’s Kathy Matoon and
Andy Lightbody. Students use digital cameras to learn the proper ways to
take pictures for their clients and personal uses, and they’re taught ways
to use the pictures and possibly writing to enhance their personal careers.
The three advanced classes are all two-week programs and have a common
first-week class – Pack Week. During this week, students learn to plan a
pack trip, man-tie loads and lead pack animals. Packing is becoming a lost
art, and COAGS takes tremendous pride in teaching students how to pack on
Decker saddles, sawbucks and riding saddles. They also learn how to tie five
different hitches to secure their packs to the stock. Students actually pack
to the tent camp and spend several nights living in a tent-camp setting,
which gives students hands-on experience of the work and preparation
required to camp in the backcountry. While at tent camp, students are the
guides, cooks and packers, while the instructors become their clients.
Students rotate duties each day they’re in camp so they all have the
opportunity to try the different jobs western outfitters may ask of an
employee. Classes are taught on ways to secure stock in the backcountry,
more tent construction, packing for feed and water and other functions of a
tent camp.
 The second week of the Pro Guide and Outfitter class focuses on hunting.
Students are taught guide/client and guide/outfitter responsibilities. The
staff teaches the proper ways of scoring, field judging, field dressing and
game care of all North American big-game species. Students spend more time
in the saddle with a ride to an amazing view of Pikes National Forest and
then another ride there in the dark early morning in time to see game at
sunrise. Most of the hunting and scouting lectures are on these rides or as
students hike around the outdoor campus. The staff points out elk, mule
deer, bear, turkey and other big-game signs seen during these outings. Other
North American species are covered in class room lectures. The final week,
emphasis is placed on advanced leadership, people skills and starting your
own business. The students learn firearm safety and learn to fire
Thompson/Center Arms muzzleloaders. On their final day of class, students
have a shooting competition and a field-judging practical, followed by their
final exam and graduation.
The students in the Advanced Backcountry Horseman course also participate in
Pack Week. The equine-oriented students spend most of that week in the
saddle or in direct contact with the stock. Students are also instructed on
outfitter, guide and client responsibilities. Students learn round-pen
reasoning, advanced trail riding, how to maneuver over and around obstacles
and opening and closing gates and gaps while mounted. COAGS teaches loading
and unloading stock into and out of a trailer and hauling. Students
administer shots and learn more about equine nutrition and health concerns.
They ride in the cover of darkness both before and after sunset and leaving
the herd. Advanced leadership and starting your own business are also topics
taught in this class. On their last day, students have a practical and
written exam with graduation following.
 Professional Fly Fishing is the final advanced class, and again, students
participate in Pack Week. They’re also instructed in advanced leadership and
starting their own businesses. The fly fishermen’s second weeks are mostly
spent around water. They cover guide/client duties and a fly-fishing basics
refresher course. They study river, small streams and lakes/reservoirs
basics. River basics include reading water, aquatic entomology, wet and dry
flies, streamers, and matching hatches and tactics. Small-stream basics
consist of special casting, different tactics, reading water, attractor
flies, hopper and dropper fishing and terrestrials. Lakes and reservoir
basics focus on reading the lake and its entomology and the types of
structures to look for while fly-fishing. Students learn how to use sinking
and sink-tip fly lines, suspension fishing and fishing from a float tube.
Aspiring fly-fishing guides learn to cast accurately and analyze and correct
basic casting mistakes. Their final exam has two parts: a written exam and
guiding scenario and practical.
The Whitetail Pro Guide and Management School is an infant course to COAGS.
In this course, students learn many of the same basic outdoors’ skills as
the Basic Program; however, this class focuses mainly on the whitetail
industry. Students learn the proper ways of scoring antlers using the Boone
& Crockett system and aging on-the-hoof. Whitetail outfitters spend much
time field judging bucks, so students receive instruction on the correct
ways to score accurately on-the-hoof. The staff also learns about food
plots, herd and quality deer management.
The Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School’s staff is always ready to
answer any questions, so you can call at 1-800-714-4864 or go to COAGS’s
website www.guideschool.com. The website has the new 2007 classes and
contains graduate testimonials, pictures and much more. Remember, if you
have dreams of a career in the outdoors or want to have more confidence in
your wilderness skills, join the Colorado Outdoor Adventure Guide School
where we bring possibility to dreams.
Tomorrow: The COAGS Experience
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