Published: June 8, 2007
The High Sierra Institute at Historic Baker Station is run by the
Yosemite Community College District.
Amy Alonzo/Union Democrat
By MIKE MORRIS
The Union Democrat
An old Caltrans maintenance station now converted into a high-country
college classroom will be the setting for practicing yoga, writing
poetry and studying geology this summer.
Classes at the High Sierra Institute at Historic Baker Station — just
off Highway 108 near Kennedy Meadows — will start for a seventh year
later this month.
The center, at 6,200 feet, is operated by the Yosemite Community College
District and draws its instructors from both Columbia and Modesto junior
colleges. Designed as a live-on campus, most classes are held on
weekends through mid-August.
"It's attractive to people in the Sonora area. But I think it's more
attractive, if not even exotic, to people in the Central Valley and Bay
Area," said Dimitri Keriotis, an English teacher at Modesto Junior
College who is coordinating classes this summer at Baker Station.
Jeff Tolhurst, a geology professor at Columbia College who ran the
institute for the past two summers, said the outdoor classroom is
especially useful at a time when many suffer from what has been dubbed
"nature deficit disorder."
"Kids aren't getting dirty anymore, they're not building forts. Instead,
they're sitting in front of a computer screen, watching TV and getting
fat," he said. "Baker Station is the perfect place to get people back
outdoors and reconnect with nature."
The High Sierra Institute started in 2000 through a partnership between
the college district and the Stanislaus National Forest.
Caltrans finished building what was originally known as the Baker
Highway Maintenance Station in 1930. Fifty years later, the cluster of
nearly a dozen tiny buildings were given to the U.S. Forest Service.
The Forest Service couldn't continue to pay the upkeep so it joined with
YCCD to maintain the station, Keriotis said.
"It's a great story: An old field station on the brink of being
destroyed has now been turned into an educational institute," he said.
In 2000, only one class was offered there: Tolhurst's field biology and
field geology class, taught jointly with recently retired Columbia
College professor Ross Carkeet.
That class is now being taught by Tolhurst and biologist Tom Hofstra.
The course is so popular there's a waiting list to take it.
Hofstra also teaches two wildflower courses: one in July that is a
series of day trips from Baker Station and another in August that
involves backpacking in the Emigrant Wilderness.
This is his third summer at Baker Station.
"It's awesome," Hofstra said. "It's the highlight of the summer for me."
Students also love breathing the fresh mountain air and viewing distant
snow-capped peaks.
"Students just rave about the place," Tolhurst said.
Baker Station's course offerings have grown to include "Nature Poetry
Writing," "Introduction to Backpacking" and "Ripening the Process,"
which pairs "Yoga for Better Health" with "Writing for Personal Enrichment."
Keriotis said there are plans to expand the program in the future with
even more classes — possibly art courses like sketching and watercolor
painting. An MJC professor has even suggested teaching an intensive
Spanish course there.
"He wants to turn (the institute) into this pueblo for a week," Keriotis
said.
Students taking the first class of the season, "Thinking about Nature in
Nature: Philosophy of the Environment," will arrive at the High Sierra
retreat on June 19.
Sonora residents Chris and Lorraine Garnin — the new husband-and-wife
caretakers of Baker Station — will stay there when class is in session,
performing routine tasks like restocking toilet paper and turning on the
electric generator.
"I just love it up there," said Lorraine Garnin, whose son and daughter
took Tolhurst's field geology class at Baker Station. "It's a great way
for kids to get some extra credits in just a weekend or two."
The 2.5-acre complex, which sits below towering granite rocks, can
accommodate 33 people. Nestled among giant cedars and pines, the old
barracks sleep 18. Others prefer to camp.
"People often want to pitch a tent because they want to be outside,"
Keriotis said.
Across the highway is the Middle Fork of the Stanislaus River. Aside
from the nearby rapids, most noise comes from birds chirping or the
occasional car driving by.
"It's definitely a low-budget, rustic experience," Tolhurst said. "We
don't want to be city slickers coming up and expecting catered meals."
A $300,000 Forest Service grant approved five years ago helped spruce up
Baker Station with new roofs, kitchen appliances and some foundation
work. More repairs, like painting peeling buildings and fixing
sidewalks, are in store for the future.
"We don't want to be Club Med," Keriotis said. "We don't want people to
think they're checking into the Hilton. It's very simple and the
buildings reflect that."
