Wilderness Detective Training Camp! | June 22-26

Do you like to explore the world outside and adventure on water?? Do you like to use your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, and brain to learn as much as you can about your surroundings? Then you have what it takes to be a Wilderness Detective!

Join naturalist (PSCS friend and substitute facilitator), Miguel Jiménez, for a week of discovery and scientific exploration. Students will meet Miguel at Headquarters (PSCS) and leave from there to go on several exciting adventures: kayaking, tide-pooling, and (moderate) local hikes (think Agua Verde, Sea Hurst Park, Rattlesnake Ridge). Detectives will also spend some time back at Headquarters studying their findings.

The Game

Miguel has adapted a new game, designed to ignite your inner explorer! On each adventure, detectives will collect samples, document specimens, and consider questions they can investigate back at Headquarters, they may even submit their field research. ID guides and search tools will be provided for more extensive Identification. All specimens will be more extensively examined, dissected, pressed, or printed, back at Headquarters.

In the end, participants will be inducted into the Fraternity of Wilderness Detectives (and win sweet prizes)!

Monday-Friday | June 22-26 | 9am-4pm | $450 

  • For students entering grades 6-12.
  • Moderate physical activity, with some car travel.
  • Detectives will need to bring a field notebook, writing utensils, and a camera each day.

Space is limited. Priority will be given to current PSCS students until Friday, February 14 at 3pm. If you are interested, please email Amy right away. Mail or drop off a $150 deposit by Friday, February 14 at 3pm to secure your student's spot.


A native Floridian, Miguel Jiménez, fled his homeland of strip malls and parking lots to explore the snow-capped mountains and evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest. He has spent the last 6 years ping-ponging between his homes in Seattle and Friday Harbor. In Seattle, Miguel spent time managing the Rainier Valley Food Bank (where he worked with PSCS students and staff for several years during our long-running Food Bank Service class), working for the City of Seattle, and gradually making progress on a Master’s degree at Seattle University. In the San Juan Islands, he spends summers leading back-country kayaking tours, multi-day biking adventures, and whale watching trips.

A trained naturalist, Miguel is excited to show how nature exists everywhere around us—you just have to be curious enough to find it!