Lodge Events | Bear Mountain Lodge

Learn and hone outdoor skills in the beautiful remote outdoors of Hermosa! We will spend 7 days and 6 nights camping and hiking in the beautiful vistas of SW New Mexico! Our days will be spent in a combination of learning and practicing tangible survival skills while also taking time to breath and connect with other like-minded women and this rich landscape. We won't be backpacking for more than 3 days, and may do a day-hike or two as well. Distances will be 5 miles or less on mild terrain. This is a great introduction to backpacking basics and survival skills!

Our weekend intensive survival course has all the components that you need to feel empowered and confident while you go on your next outdoor adventure. Geared for beginners to experts it introduces core concepts to help you stay calm and make healthy decisions in challenging situations. S'mores and Night Navigation concepts are included.

• Fire building principles and practice

• Signaling and recovery in various environments

• Temperature regulation
• Scouting, basic map and compass, and natural navigation concepts

• Knife use principles and sharpening

• Emergency shelter demonstration and practice

• Beginner Knot craft
• Locating water and disinfection principles
• Food rationing concepts and the edibility test
• Methods to self-calm and think rationally

In this workshop, we’ll begin by reading aloud a short excerpt of writing in process that each writer brings to the group—no more than 2 pages. If you’re not working on anything right now, bring two pages by a writer whose work you admire. We’ll talk in the group about story elements: character (or the speaker if it’s lyric poetry), voice, narrative arc, creating the world of the work, and the tools of craft that bring writing alive. We’ll also talk about the audience for the work and how a writer creates expectations for the reader from the first page in terms of tone and language. We will spend the rest of the time on generative writing exercises, where we will write from very brief prompts (a phrase or a sentence) and share our work aloud. We’ll treat all work as fiction to protect the writer and be able to discuss content freely. As we discuss all work created in the class we will comment on what strikes you or what “pops,” rather than judging the work. We’ll note what images linger and the possibilities for the piece. We aim to make the atmosphere as safe as possible and also to engage the spirit of play and creativity. We’ll work to leave our judgment, our editor inside our head, at the door.

Please bring to the workshop an object that speaks to you that may be used as we write, one writing prompt to share with the others, and either pen and paper or a laptop.

Size limit: 10

Cost $125. Per Person

Lynn’s Bio:

Lynn C. Miller’s 2023 book of short stories, The Lost Archive, was a gold medalist in the Midwest Independent Publishers Awards in 2024. She’s the author of four novels; her third, The Day After Death, was named a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist in lesbian fiction. A new novel, THE SURROGATE, will come out from Wisconsin in Spring 2026. Miller taught performance studies and writing at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was professor of theater and dance, before moving to Albuquerque. She has continued to offer workshops and retreats since leaving higher education. She is co-publisher of Bosque Press and co-hosts the podcast The Unruly Muse. www.lynncmiller.com

EVENTS AT BEAR MOUNTAIN LODGE

Bear Mountain Birding:

Walk, Talk & Brunch

Women's beginner Backpacking & Survival Course - Hermosa, New Mexico

Weekend Survival Course in Caballo, New Mexico

Find Your Story

a writing workshop with fiction writer and playwright Lynn C. Miller

Bear Mountain Lodge

info@bearmountainlodge.com